O'Neil explains three-act story structure and examines subplots, characterization, and methods for developing drama and suspense. He then applies these concepts to comics' specific forms: graphic novels, miniseries, maxiseries, and the rare megaseries (such as Batman: No Man's Land, a year-long ueber-narrative played out across five comics titles). As in good comics, words and images work together in this book. Every idea is illustrated by panels or pages from great moments in DC Comics lore. Especially illuminating are the script excerpts that come paired with the comic book pages they describe.

Strangely, the book ignores the visual side of comics writing. Modern comics scripts specify shots, angles, and blocking in movie-director fashion, but that craft is never addressed. (DC has a good opportunity here for a second volume.) However, what this book sets out to teach--storytelling--it does quite well. Aspiring comics writers won't just learn theory, they'll be empowered, because O'Neil provides a framework for crafting new tales. --J.B. Peck

What's in the guide specifically for comics writing? Well, the answer to one beginner's question - "What format do I use?" is: "There's no one right way." The answer to another beginner's question: "Do I write out the whole script, panel by panel, balloon by balloon, before the artist gets it, or do I just write a plot outline for the artist, then script the captions and balloons after the penciller is finished?" is: "There's no one right way."

Mr. O'Neil repeats "There's no one right way" about 53 more times, just in case you can't read.

The only thing interesting and worthwhile here is "the Levitz Paradigm" a way to organize plots and subplots across different issues or even across titles. But as O'Neil notes, nobody gets a chance to do anything like that at DC unless they have already been working there for many years.

O'Neil has been writing comics a long time. He must know what he's doing. Maybe he can't articulate it. Maybe he doesn't want to release the REAL secrets and foster competition.

I just don't know.


A solid introduction, but it leaves you wanting much more   January 2, 2003
 25 out of 27 found this review helpful

"The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics" is author by Dennis O'Neil, who wrote some of the classic Green Lantern and Batman stories (usually drawn by Neal Adams). In this volume O'Neil covers the various methods of writing scripts, procedures for developing a story structure, creating well-rounded characters, and more. Although most of what is covered in here is basic to all forms of writing, O'Neil does keep the focus on how these key concepts apply to the writing of comic books. The book is divided into two parts, with an appendix:

Part One: (1) What are Comics? is answered in terms of a comprehensive vocabulary of comic book terms such as speech balloon, story arc, and inker; (2) A Full-Script Versus Plot-First compares the latter, which is the Marvel method developed by Stan Lee, with the former, the traditional approach for writing film and television scripts, with the strengths and weaknesses of each; (3) Story Structure provides a listing of the basic kinds of structure used in comics, including a detailed look at different examples of "The Hook"; (4) Creating Drama looks at the importance of keeping the action going and offers a key distinction between suspense and surprise; (5) Subplots presents the advantages and inherent dangers of subplotting; (6) Characterization spends as much time talking about dialogue and humor as well as about the hero and other characters; and (7) Script Preparation is about the physical act of writing and producing something that can be turned over to an artist (assuming, for the sake of argument, you are not going to do the whole comic book yourself in the spirit of Dave Sims, the early years).

Part Two starts by covering the rules for different types of comic book stories: (1) Miniseries give you a title with a predetermined number of issues, usually between three and six; (2) Graphic Novels are, for want of a better definition, long fictional narratives (sidestepping graphic novel miniseries like "The Dark Knight Returns"); (3) Maxiseries are essentially longer miniseries, like "The Watchmen" or "Crisis on Infinite Earths"; and (4) Ongoing Series, which are the staple of DC Comics and include titles like "Action Comics" and "Batman" that have been published continuously for over 60 years. Basically the same general rules are applied to all of these forms, with a different balance of consideration. The rest of this unit looks at (5) Story Arcs as ways of doing a miniseries in an ongoing series; (6) The Levitz Paradigm for tracking plots and characters over the course of multiple issues; (7) Megaseries, which is O'Neil's newly coined term for stories that cut across multiple titles for the same characters, such as Batman's "No Man's Land"; (8) Adaptations, which in this case applies not to turning great works of literature into comic books but rather adapting Batman movies back into the comic books that inspired them; (9) Continuity, or rather three types of continuity; and (10) Denouement, which is O'Neil's final pat on the back to his readers.

The Appendix has Mark Evanier's thoughts on "Writing Humor Comics," and a list of suggestions for the Comic Book Writer's Library. Overall, the book is much more descriptive than anything else, which ends up being both its strength and its weakness. Still, O'Neil does try to crystallize his thoughts into specific rules whenever possible. If anything, O'Neil is guilty of trying to cover too much and sacrificing, to some degree, depth for breadth. Throughout "The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics" the best examples are when O'Neil can go into detail (especially if it is regards to a comic we have actually read). The book is illustrated with examples from comics throughout DC's history, but the best examples are rough or finished pages paired up with the pages written up for the artist by the writer. This is where we get our best sense of how comic books are written and produced in the real world.

The companion volume to this work, "The DC Comics Guide to Pencilling Comics," is written by Klaus Janson. There is actually a minimum of overlap between these two volumes, which offer a complimentary approach to the creation of comic books. These two DC volumes are worthy additions to the limited library that every aspiring comic book writer/artist should own, which would include Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art" and "Graphic Storytelling," Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" and "Reinventing Comics," and even John Buscema's "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way."


Great for basic knowledge   July 16, 2001
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

First off, I'd like to do the mini-review for those with limited attention spans: "Buy This Book".

Following is a list of why I think you should buy this book:

1) Although it's about comic books, in my opinion, many of the lessons Dennis O'Neil teaches in this book are valuable for writing in general, especially the point he makes about never letting the reader get bored.

2) It's doesn't cost a arm and a leg.

3) It's well written. O'Neil's style is very fluid and natural, sometimes funny, and always very clear on the lessons he wants to teach.

4) It's full of examples. Almost every page in the book has an example from a comic book or script that clarifies and illustrates O'Neil's points. Half the fun in this book is reading the examples.

5) It's short. 120 pages long, and about half the book is examples.

Reasons you might want to not buy this book:

1) It's pretty basic. It rehashes a lot of material experienced writers may have already learned.

2) It doesn't hold your hand. O'Neil doesn't tell you a single method and have you go through it step by step. The book is very general, and is meant to enhance your existing writing abilities, rather than give you a single recipe. ;-)


Not What I expected   October 3, 2003
 12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Although the book covers the various methods (2) of writing scripts, procedures for developing a story structure and creating well-rounded characters. It is not thorough enough to help the reader make solid decisions. Basically, this book gets you off to a good start. However, you will need to suppliment this book with more material that goes in depth. For ex: When the book discuss the methods of writing scripts, it does not introduce a method at all. Instead, the book shows 2 examples of previously written scripts. Thus, introducing the reader to the idea of writing a script, but you'll need to get a book that goes deeper into script writing to be successful. Overall, it was good reading and introduces the basics.


Very helpful, but I did expect more.   July 23, 2001
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

When I saw this book, I thought it would be a great way to pick up some tips ... and it was, but not as many as I had hoped for. It's great for beginners, but for anyone who has been at this a while (like myself), it seems pretty dumbed down. Another bad thing is that I expected a book and I got what looks like a trade paperback comic. It's fun to read, but I just think there is more to be said. This book focuses more on format & structure than content. And even at that, O'Neil (an outstanding writer) spends half his time saying how there are more than one ways to do anything, and this way may not be the right way for you. HOWEVER, I was able to get a few useful tips and pointers from its 128 pages. Personally I feel that if you can get JUST ONE useful tip from it, then it's worth the .... And I did get several, so I'm happy with it. But don't look for writing tips on how to make compelling characters (there is a breif bit about it, but not much). This book is more about style and format. But at the end of the day, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to write comics. Format & structure are very important. As I said, if you can get just one tip from it, you've got your money's worth!