The Art of Comics Scripting Explored In Panel Two

Future comics writers and those interested in the art of comics writing can look forward to March's release of Panel Two: More Comic Book Scripts by Top Wriiters. This follow-up to the popular Panel One showcases the scripts to nine great comic book stories, giving a rarely-seen glimpse behind the scenes at the way comics are made. With script and plot examples from such luminaries as best-selling author Peter David, Golden Age great Otto Binder, and leading comics theoretician Scott McCloud, readers will be exposed to a wide array of comics writing techniques and styles.

One of the best-received aspects of Panel One was the author commentary accompanying most of the scripts.For Panel Two, we've taken that concept one step further, getting commentary not only by the writers but by the artists who illustrated the scripts as well. This presents an important viewpoint about what works and what doesn't in a script.

Included in Panel Two are:

• Peter David's full script for a SpyBoy one-shot with commentary by artist Pop Mahn.
• A panel-by-panel plot by Mark Evanier
• Gail Simone's script for the start of the Killer Princesses miniseries, with commentary by artist Lea Hernandez
• Scott McCloud's layout script for an issue of Zot! which was rendered by Chuck Austen
• Actors-turned-writers Bill Mumy and Miguel Ferrer provide a rare example of a collaboratively-written story. This example includes not only the original plot to this "Trypto the Acid Dog" story, but also the story layouts by artist Steve Leialoha, and the dialog script based on those layouts, plus commentary by Bill and Steve.
• Sara Ryan's very first comic book story, "Me and Edith Head", brought her an Eisner Award nomination. We have that script with commentary by artist Steve Lieber
• A Fatman: The Human Flying Saucer script by the legendary Otto Binder
• A drawn script for Nexus by Mike Baron with commentary by artist Mark Heike
• Judd Winick provides excerpts of both parts of his unique two-part scripting style from his hilarious Barry Ween, Boy Genius

Panel Two: More Comics Book Scripts by Top Writers is available at better comics shops and top-notch bookstores.