Editor’s Note: It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s New Comic Book Day and another edition of Amazing Journey!
The Amazing Journey column will touch on a comics-related topic, such as writing the first issue of a series, what it’s like to run a comic book store, working with artists, and how writing comics is different from writing prose.
Amazing Journey back issues
True believers unite (#1) | My comics origin story (#2) | Comic event series (#3) | The comics of Kickstarter (#4) | Single issues or trades? (#5) | From prose to comics (#6) | Adapting a celebrated fantasy series into a comic (#7) | Charting a career in comics (#8) | Comic book spoilers (#9) | Lessons from Kieron Gillen’s masterclass (#10) | Comics marketing 101 (#11) Designing memorable characters (#12)
As I hinted last week, I was on the cusp of finishing the first draft of my first issue script, and I am happy to report that I have done so!
Calling it a “first” draft is a bit of a misnomer, as I’ve already iterated through the script multiple times and think it is almost ready to go off to my artist. For now though, I am waiting for feedback from a friend and also letting the completed plot marinate in my head for a bit.
I had been struggling with one particular aspect of the script (which I’ll touch on in my first issue advice feature coming next month), and thought I had found the story solution. But since sending off the script for feedback, one problem became apparent, but thankfully, one that can (hopefully) be fixed with some dialogue revisions.
If this all sounds way too abstract, don’t worry, I will do a breakdown of the change once the issue is out and you have read it.
Now that the scripting is moving on to the next stage of revisions, I can start brainstorming main cover and variant cover ideas!
Right now, this is my cover plan:
Cover A: something that evokes the story (either a splash of characters with some story elements in the background, or maybe an action cover)
Cover B: an homage (to what, you will have to wait and see, but I think you will like it)
Cover C: a pin-up of the main character
Cover D (maybe): action cover if I don’t use that for cover A
Once the covers are revealed closer to the Kickstarter, expect a behind-the-scenes look at how each were created.
Besides covers, I also need a logo for the series, a letterbox design, and some design elements that will be interspersed through the issue.
And while that’s going on, I need to start outlining issue 2 and figure out some fun stretch goal ideas for the Kickstarter campaign. Sounds like I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s work I am looking forward to!
That brings me to the Question of the Week and your third chance to enter the August giveaway. To enter, simply leave a comment with your answer to any of the Questions of the Week from any August Amazing Journey post.
What’s one of your recent favorite covers (standard or variant)? And, if you feel like wracking your brain, what’s your favorite comic cover of all time?
What I’m reading this week / Variant Watch
After a light week last week, today is a bit of an onslaught (no pun intended because as far as I know, Onslaught is not featured in any of this week’s X-books), with new Fall of X books, the end of a soon-to-be classic series, and the start of an awesome looking miniseries!
Daredevil #14: In reality, this final issue is actually issue 50 when you combine it with the first two-thirds of the story that were numbered in the previous volume. Anyway, we’ve reached the end of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s amazing run with the Man Without Fear. If you haven’t read any of these issues, I suggest you remedy that immediately. Variant note: the cover above is drawn by none other than Mr. Zdarsky himself.
Dark X-Men #1: Who doesn’t love the Goblin Queen,Maddie Pryor and her ridiculously uncomfortable and impractical outfits? With the Fall of X in full swing now following the Hellfire Gala, it’s up to Ms. Pryor to take the reigns of a new team of X-Men operating out of the Limbo embassy in New York City.
The Cull # 1: This miniseries from
and Mattia De Iulis about five friends who set off to shoot a short film on a forbidden rock near their home the summer before they all go their separate ways is one of my most anticipated of the year. And with pages like the below, I think you will agree. (Check out a larger version on Kelly’s Substack here).Variant cover artist shout-out: I’ve been following Nicoletta Baldari’s artwork and covers for a few months (a lot of them are released digitally via the Veve app), but this week, she has a variant on Marvel’s Voices: X-Men #1 and I recently received her awesome Across the Spider-verse variant:
What are you picking up this week?