Emma Newman writes short stories, novels and novellas in multiple speculative fiction genres. She is a professional audiobook narrator, and a Hugo Award winning podcaster. Her current podcasts are ‘Imagining Tomorrow’ and ‘Tea and Sanctuary’. www.enewman.co.uk
The Script
Comic script - this is exactly what happened to my son in the small hours of this morning. I only saw the messages when I woke up, and he told me what happened once he was awake. It made me laugh, and I immediately thought it might make a fun comic and Beanie agreed!
A young man (if you want to base him loosely on my son, he’s 16 years old, tall, short brown hair, blue eyes) is about to leave his room but spots a huge spider on wall next to the door (it is on the wall that the door would rest against when open and the dressing gown hanging on the back of the door would brush against where the spider is) .
He is terrified of spiders, so he can’t open the door. It’s the small hours of the morning.
He leaps onto his bed on the other side of the room, a bookcase blocking the line of sight between him and the spider and tries to phone his Mum who is sleeping in her room across the landing, and message her on WhatsApp, but her phone is on ‘Do not disturb’ so there’s no answer.
Panicking, he phones friends until one finally picks up - ‘Help! There’s a huge spider in my room!’
Friend: What colour is it?
Beanie: Black? Brown? I dunno! It was BIG
Friend: You’re okay, I don’t think they can climb.
Beanie: IT’S ON MY WALL! (throughout the rest of this exchange the friend also now freaking out is just making Bean panic even more!)
Friend: Oh, that one can climb then! Just dash out the door!
Beanie: It’s by the door, I can’t get out!
Friend: IT’S IN YOUR ROOM?!
Beanie: Yes, I told you this!
He peeps round the bookcase. The spider is gone!
Beanie: It’s gone!
Friend: THAT MEANS IT COULD BE ANYWHERE!
Beanie’s eyes flick to all the posters it could be hiding behind, and all the clothes and stuff on his floor it could now be lurking under.
Beanie: YOU ARE NOT HELPING!
He hangs up and hides in the duvet. If you think that a final shot on the spider’s hiding place would be a good ending, do add that in, but happy to end it on Beanie hiding.
Artists Notes
One of the goals of the project was to try and work with as many writers as possible, and so I told every writer "Don't worry - I'll take any format of script" - there are sort of comic script standards, and attempts have been made in the past to really hammer them in, but for the most part every writer I work with works a little different anyway. That said, this script required a lot of thinking about to get the most out of the story (you can argue amongst yourself whether that's what I did).
Firstly there's a sort of action limit in comics, every action will usually require one panel - character opens door, walks through door, locks door? that's three panels. I felt like, on this script, there was too much going on to fit in the super limited single page I had, plus some of the action I wanted to build it up a bit more, so I knew I'd be putting a bunch of panels towards the getting ready to go out (because build up build up build up build up PUNCHLINE!) I also knew I wanted the dialogue interaction to have that ratatatat rapid delivery, which meant I'd get a single panel for that set of dialogue. This meant brutalising the story a little, cutting out the contacting of his mum and going straight to the friend. I also wanted a little end note on the spider - I thought that would be fun, a happy little chappy. (remove the last spider panel and the page feels like it's not quite finished - it's a figurative and literal full stop)
The manga shading effect/speedlines came after I'd drawn it and realise it would work better with a little bit of manga (tonally too, fits a teen), and the coloured lettering was because I needed someway to quickly distinguish the two sets of dialogue (I decided to eschew clip studio's balloon lettering tools a) because it would take ages to get exactly how I want it and b) because I thought I could add more character to it that way. The background of the room is pretty much a direct tracing of my teenage son's bedroom (which is so quintessentially teenager it looks like a set from a modern John Hughes teen comedy). (And it's all my son's work, he's done that all without parental help)
Anyway. This was finished the day before publication, but I think it turned out ok.
Oh, and because I drew it, and then slathered lettering all over it, here's the page without dialogue...
Thomas (my 12 year old son, who’s currently working on inking episode 2 of Servant 72) has introduced my to Junji Ito, and his brand of short story existential dread, and it’s really opened my noggin up to writing little short horror type stories.
From my notebook the idea was “Astronaut Frozen in Place on Moon – can’t move becomes part of moonscape”
Then I sat and wrote it out, basically writing out almost exactly he dialogue you see here, but with no panel descriptions, though I largely knew what they would look like.
Here’s the full script:
"Last Man on the Moon" [They left me here] The suit will keep me alive, maybe even for years but I can't move. We thought we knew everything about the moon. Here in teh darkest place deep in the South Pole-Aiken crater things are here. I can see them. The cew think I'm dead but I'm not. Just immobile. At least here I can see the stars. Until Sunrise/ Without the visor I'll see it once. Then nothing.
I’d probably futzed around with it forever (initially I posted it to twitter, and I’ve since tweaked some lettering, and redrawn the first face…)
Anyway, I’ve got a few more of these ideas scribbled in a notebook, as long as I can keep them managably small, I see no reason I can’t get them done.
A bunch of these, then I’ll tackle something much longer …
I’ve started obsessing over my studio shelf space.
Generally I’m a pretty lazy collector, I’ve books going way back to the dawn of my interests in comics (specifically copies of The Dark Knight Returns), books that I bought to read on holiday, and then I’ve started amassing hardbacks.
To give you some idea of the nonsense on my selves – I don’t have a first volume of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I bought the individual issues), my second volume is a paperback, as is the Black Dossier (which doesn’t seem to have a volume number, but comes – I believe – between 2 and 3, Volume 3 (Century) I think I had one issue of the miniseries, and then I picked up volume 5 as a hardback.
Wasn’t a problem before now, I’ve probably read them all digitally on comixology or just sort of missed them. But now, having replaced two bookshelves that were waist high with a single tall shelf, I’ve started putting things on that shelve and noticing the weird gaps.
Locke and Key Hardbacks volumes 1,2,3 and 5 no volume 4. NO VOLUME 4. Idiot.
The previous shelf was behind things so I never saw any of it, I’d allowed clutter to come front and centre, covering it, and I had a mobile artstation unit sitting in front (I figured I could move it, so what harm, it turns out A LOT OF HARM. A LOT)
Anyway anyway, have started going mad like a windows 95 computer defragging a particualrly egregious hard disk, moving books here there and over there.
My main problem is I want to stack things where I can put my hand on them, but equally, I really want the ones I love to be constantly at eye level – so I’ve set up an Alan Moore shelf (got your usual V for Vendetta, Captain Britain, Watchmen, Futureshocks, League etc). But, of course, I’ve got gaps in things like Swamp Thing (not only gaps but I literally haven’t read a lot of it!)
So, past the Moore stuff there’s a Frank Miller/David Muzzachelli collection (small but nice). I’m totally missing Electra Assassin though (yes, it’s Bill S. not David M.)
Suddenly I’m noticing gaps. About three years ago my wife and I agreed that we’d pretty much got all the things, and the last thing I needed was more books I wasn’t likely to read (and worse, I’d already spent a Christmas or two asking for books that, idiotically, I’d forgotten I already had) here’s one such exchange, almost word-for-word:
Annette “What do you want for christmas” Me “Well, I’m largely ok, but I wouldn’t mind Alex Toth: Genius Illustrated“ Annette “I think you have that.” Me “Ho, no, I have the OTHER two books – but not that one” Annette “No, I’m pretty sure I got that for you last year” Me “No, I think I’d know if I had that book – it is flipping massive. I’d’ve spotted that on my shelves! HOHOHO!” Annette “…” goes into my room … comes back out brandishing a large object Annette “You mean this book?” Me (sheepishly) “…yes…”
Anyway, crises averted on that occasion, but at least three other times I’ve asked for, and received, gifts that I already had. And so, self imposed book exile began. No more buying.
I bought and read digital, that was fine.
But now… but now… I can see my books again. It’s weird, it’s like suddenly you have your own library (I mean I don’t profess to have anywhere near the books of Sean Phillips who appears to have opened a branch of forbidden planet in his studio but it’s more than average)
That said, there’s plenty of books in there that I enjoyed reading but am unfussed about keeping. I nopped out of the Walking Dead (started reading it when I had young kids and found I just couldn’t put up with the constant peril) so I have volumes 1-5 and volume 8 (where the flip are 6 & 7??) I have various sandman, but I can borrow sandman from the library as digital files to read, so that’ll do. I have invincible volumes 1-3 & 6 (sigh) and suspect I might wanna buy that in massive compendium form. I have about four versions of Hellboy Seed of Destruction (as well as most of it digitally) so I should gut that a bit.
Anyway, it’s taken me decades, but I think this is finally becoming the studio I’ve always wanted…
Thomas, age 12, has been putting every wannabe writer/artist to shame (including me, his dad) by sitting himself down and just writing and drawing his own comics. This is his latest – Servant 72. I won’t spoil it, but inside you’ll meet a nice friendly robot servant with a fixed rictus grin who – unbeknown to him – has been the happy-to-serve slave of a vicious intergalactic warlord.
Here for you to enjoy, please leave a comment, Thomas loves comments!
*(Yes, I know, it should be “Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty”, but then the title would make NO sense in context of the post)
Ok, here we go – this is a tech post, in which I report what my current tech setup looks like, dull as dishwater to most, but I lived and breathed tech stuff for years, so I LOVE IT!
Thomas (age 12) has written and drawn a complete graphic novel called “FLY” – he’s done it all on the ipad, using the apple pencil and an app called “Comic Draw” (a kind of comic studio for kids – you can script in it, pencil, ink and colour and then letter the entire thing in this one program)
Here’s the complete work in two parts:
Part 1
Finn is a teenager who works at a trash job in a trashy home but little did he know his life would take a turn for the worst when a speeding car runs him over and he ends up in hell. Since he didn’t live a good life he was turned into his least favourite animal, a fly and since he didn’t go into the brain crusher he still has all his memories of being a human! Can Finn convince his friend that it’s really him and can they find a way out of this mess?!
When Finn died and was turned into a fly his life changed for the worst. Desperate to turn back he get transported to the afterlife. Can Finn fly past Satan’s anger or will Finn get caught in his web!?
There are three things I wanted to do – one I wanted to see how much story I could pack in to a one page story, I’ve been thinking about stories about love and unrequited love (specifically the deep gothic love stories, Dracula/Mina Harker, Conor MacCloud and Heather…) and I had a new brush from frenden I hadn’t used yet that I thought would be fun.
Having done the folklore stories, I knew I could tell a tale in that space, but could I come up with one of my own?
I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going with it, initially it was just going to be an old man visiting the grave of his wife, then it occurred to me I could give a bit of a twist – visiting the grave of his first love. Hard to know where poignancy ends and creepiness begins though, but that’s ok, a story this short you can read what you want in to it – did he live a decent life, got married, have kids, all the while that first love was just a part of him, or did he lament the loss for the entirety of his life? we’ll never know.
I’ve uploaded a high res tiff file in case you fancy colouring it – and if you do, drop a note in the comments, I’d love to see it!
All artists have their weaknesses, they follow them around from year to year, tripping them up in ways that they’ve tripped them up since they were formative little artlettes doodling in their maths books.
Generally I can’t watch tv when I do layouts or pencils, but I can when I ink, and so, here’s a list of some of the things I’ve been watching this week:
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