Writing for Comics with Peter David

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The ultimate guide for anyone who wants to write dynamic comics, "Writing For Comics With Peter David" teaches readers how to create comics from start to finish. This essential guide: provides easy-to-understand guidance for beginners, as well as seasoned advice for intermediate comic writers; features the expert instruction of highly successful "Marvel and DC" writer Peter David, whose credits include "Spider-Man", "Wolverine" and the "Hulk"; and includes illustrations throughout from major comic publishers, showing readers the creation process from start to finish. With eye-catching package and superior advice, this book is a must have for anyone who wants to write comics or graphic novels.

Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

The best introductory text out there for comic writing but... August 26, 2006
8 out of 15 found this review helpful

This is the best introductory text out there for comic book writing, but...

1. There are maybe a dozen books on the subject of comic book writing alone to begin with. Maybe half of which would be easy to find. So no matter how great a resource it is, it is a small field to choose from.

2. The book is heavily biased towards mainstream, superhero, comics. The way he writes it, the same things could easily be applied to almost any genre of comic story. But he does assume at least some familiarity with superhero comics most of the time so a few people might be lost at times.

3. He doesn't include very many writing exercises. And the ones he does include are quite vague. If you want a good list of writing exercises check out Fiction Writer's Workshop by Novakovich, use those exercises and write them in comic form.

4. Honestly, for those of you guys who have read a lot of writing books or taken a lot of writing classes, probably a quarter to a third of it will be stuff you already know. Though it is very useful to read it in a form specifically designed to be applicable to comics.

5. He goes in to Joseph Campbell.
Honestly, I think Campbell is about the least useful thing to push on writers, particularly beginning writers. I've written a substantial amount on this subject. My main points are (and please note that this is coming from someone with a substantial background in literature, film and history):

A. He is more useful for studio executives then writers because his criticism is so clear cut and unambiguous that it lacks the ability to strive for deeper meanings and contextual analyses.

B. By looking more at the similarities of roles and meanings then the differences, he fails to see not only the disparate meanings but the potential for paralell evolution.

C. Since he did his work (I believe he died in the late 1980s but his seminal books were like the 50s and 60s), not only has there been a substantial rise in multicultural literature and the study of this in the context of a pluralistic literary canon, but there has also been a substantial amount of writing translated in to English for the first time (mostly non-Western) that Campbell was probably not taking in to account. Since Campbell wrote his books, gender studies, queer studies and ethnic studies have all started and/or became much more substantial critical movements.

D. The applications of Campbell for writers are even more harmful because they are the worst of both worlds in terms of wanting both a desire to make your project unique and attaching it to some kind of "universal" (which, like almost all definitions of universal, comes from a position of privelege and an agenda to maintain a specific canon).

But if you want another opinion, ask any screenwriter or screenwriting teacher.
If you actually want a useful grounding in terms of literary theory and criticism check out Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson or The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism edited by Leitch.
If you are interested in read literary criticism/theory in terms of contextual application to a given work of literature, my two favourite editions are the Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism and the Norton Critical Editions. Both of them have their strengths. The Norton ones are much easier to find, but, make sure to check the copyright date and get a newer version. The older versions tend to be a bit heavy on formalism and dated historical criticism that make them more useful for studying the interpretations of the work then the actual work (for people not interested in that sort of scholarship). The critical essays also tend to be a bit more abstract and scholarly. But the primary source materials do an excellent job of contextualizing the work. The Case Studies line features contemporary theories applied to a given work of literature and are much more accessible. The weakness is that, outside of a university, they're not particularly easy to find.

I am also slightly troubled by the fact that this book does not spend a lot of time trying to push potential comic creators towards trying to find influences outside of comics. This is not a problem unique to David's book however.

All of my issues aside, however, David does an excellent job of combining the theoretical and practical aspects of writing in a way both tailored specifically to the comic book medium and accessible to beginners as well as useful to people with some experience.

I highly recommend this as the introductory text for anyone that is interested in writing for the sequential medium. After you finish this, move on to Alan Moore's Writing for Comics (with regular trips back to David).

This book is well worth owning. And, not just owning, reading. And I figure it will be one of the seminal comic writing books for some time.

3 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected or hoped for August 15, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

To be fair, this is what it's advertised as being: a guide for writing comics. Because it was Peter David, though, I was expecting more.

David is the William Goldman of comics. He is flat out one of the best there is, so I was expecting something akin to Adventures in Screenwriting. What you get is a fairly generic how to book. It's all there, but it's all there in several other books. I wanted wit (there was some), insider stories (there was, I think, one). I wanted some inside dirt on working with artists and editors. Maybe a little on handling bad press and vindictive rivals. In short, I wanted something that only Peter David could give, and I didn't get that. If his But I Digress collection is available, buy that (and to be fair again, David could say that all I wanted was in that collection and it wasn't the purpose of this book to do that. Okay, true, but when I buy a Peter David book, I want a Peter David book. It's about expectations.) If you find any other writing for comics books that are cheaper, go that route. This book reads like it was knocked out in his sleep.

It gets a 3 simply because it does what it sets out to do.

5 out of 5 stars

Lively, bite-sized nuggets October 20, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book, but I had a great time reading it. Although its short sections and chapters made it easy to find a stopping place, its lively presentation and accompanying graphics made it hard for me to put down.

If you want to start writing for comics, this book gives you the basics of theme, conflict, and characterization, as well as the limits of presenting them in a comic book format. Then it continues with practical advice about how to present your work to the industry professionals who would buy it. Finally, if you're just a Peter David fan, you get a bit of insight into his thought processes.

I wouldn't recommend this as your only book to understand comics. Scott McCloud and Will Eisner have books that dissect and explain the mechanisms of quality comics. But for its narrower focus of how to create a comic book story, Peter David's work is as good as anything I've seen.

4 out of 5 stars

Good for beginers and old pros! August 18, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The year was 1991. A younger Geek in the City (technically, Geek in the Sticks) was ditching school at the one place where he felt safe in his Geekiness... The local (and only) bookstore, which, I know sounds like such a very sad place for a teenager to play hooky. What can you do? Bookstores are my people's hangout of choice when drama club isn't in session. My (mis)adventures at said bookstore are well documented and remembered every time I return to the dusty, sagebrush-infested steppes of Susanville. Anyway, it was the spring of 1991, and while waiting for 3 o'clock to arrive, I decided to snag some new Star Trek books. Few were catching my eye. I have never been one of those Trekkies that will buy anything with a Warp Nacelle on the cover. However, one book did garner my attention... A Star Trek: The Next Generation giant novel titled Vendetta... By a one Peter David. I bought the book and sat in the corner waiting for school to let out. Little did I know that I was taking my first step into fandom that exists to this day... Peter David instantly hooked me. His knowledge of the Trek universe and the characters within was (and is) perfection. His ability to use dialogue to drive his stories is fantastic. In addition, I say without a bit of hesitation, his writing style has inspired me to become a better writer. Some people follow Aaron Sorkin. Some follow David Mamet. Some follow Tom Stoppard... I follow Peter David.

As such, when he publishes a book on writing for comics... I devour it without hesitation!

The Book - The book itself is jumping with primary colors and practically screams its comic book subject matter, with nary a page passing without some form of balloon or inserts adding an insight. At a 175 perfect bound full color pages, the retail price of $19.95 feels like a fair price. I have paid more for lesser books. For those who may be concerned about the bright colors taking away from the book's readability, fear not, the book designers took care in maintaining a balance between looks and function.

Readability - As I have stated many times in the past, Peter David has a very fun and engaging style of writing. One might even call his style of writing as conversational. Well, perhaps not realistically conversational, which is stilted and stuttering (a fact David points out within this book). Rather, David's writing is how we wish we conversed. It doesn't matter if you are familiar with David's writing or not. His style pulls the reader in; you quickly forget that you are reading, essentially, a "How-To" guide. Reading Writing for Comics feels more akin to a comfortable conversation with a friend over drinks in your favorite watering hole... a friend who just so happens to be a highly successful writer. Doing more than simply telling you what does and does not work within comics, Writing for Comics gives you crystal clear examples ripped from the comic page. In addition to Peter David's own insightful viewpoints, snippets of wisdom from other highly successful comic book writers fill the book. While some of the reproduced comic panels feel a tad like filler, the highly readable nature of Writing for Comics is in no way lessened.

Usability - While by no means an "Idiots Guide" stylebook, Writing for Comics does cover many of the basics within comics. Indeed, it covers many of the basics of drafting fiction as a whole. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It is very easy, especially the longer you write, to forget about the basics of story telling. Forgetting these basics, particularly within the realm of comics can be a dangerous thing. When you charge a reader $2.50 (or more) for 23 pages, you had better hold that reader and hold them well. Again, David doesn't treat his book like a textbook, however, he does delve deeply into what makes a hero and why he or she does what they do, (and, more importantly, how to make their actions believable to the reader). There are many moments within Writing for Comics that I found myself thankfully nodding over simple issues that I had long neglected, an example being the use of well-known myths into modern takes. It is so tempting to create something completely original, you forget that there really isn't anything original. Only the ability to create interesting takes on well-known cultural myths and legends. One small portion of Writing for Comics that I found to be extremely useful was the "Exercises"... Throughout the book are small sections where Peter David challenges you to create (among other things) a believable villain or create heroes based on your friends (without offending said friends). Tasks that I used to do as a wee Geek, but for some reason stopped as I "matured" as a writer.

Filled with excellent insights into the nature of comic book writing and the industry as a whole, Writing for Comics is a must. Anyone who wishes to make a career out of funny books, be it as one who wishes to place their stamp on established characters or go the independent route, Writing for Comics is essential. Filled with personal and humorous stories, Writing for Comics is a fun and informative book that earns a place on my "books I'll keep using' shelf, right next to Stephen King's On Writing, Struck and White's Elements of Style, and Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

I give Writing for Comics with Peter David 4 out of 5 Critical Hits!

4 out of 5 stars

From The Man Who Gave More Dialogue To Hulk- Then Just "Hulk Smash!" July 25, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

The book was an enjoyable read, what can I say! When I first heard of this book from Peter David's web site, I have anticipated reading it ever since. I stopped at my comic book store and bought it, read it, and LIKED it. Not surprising, since I happen to be a reader of his Star Trek novels for like well over a decade now, and I must say it has been a fun ride.
This book does not disappoint. Having read it, I feel he haven't left anything out as far as teaching the reader on how to write comics. And in some ways on writing movies, too. (Sripting differences do apply, though). One time I met Peter at a convention and asked him was he going to write anything new about a character he created for Marvel in Spider-Man's Annuals some years back. He said he wasn't, then he gave me the okay to write a revamping of the character if I wanted to,after I asked him . Having read Peter David's book ---now I know, not just on how to begin and finish writing this comic book, but on how to do it right! Thanks Pater David. And keep those Star Trek novels coming, because my wallet is with you all the way.

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