TEASER LAYOUTS
I love a good teaser. A sharp opening can create a sense of the world being built around you, introduce you to characters you’ve never met and draw you into a story you didn’t realize you were dying to know. So many of my favorite stories (Lost and Breaking Bad being just two examples) have teasers that grab you by the collar and never let go. DELUGE has just the kind of teaser.
The first six pages of DELUGE introduce readers to Bisanne, our main character, as she discovers a shipping container floating on the World Sea. Like any good teaser, these pages will reveal who Bisanne is through her actions as she tries to find out what’s inside the shipping container. At the same time, the teaser will also introduce us to Bisanne’s home on the World Sea, the Sirocco, as well as laying the ground work for the overall mystery that will drive the story of DELUGE’s first six issue arc.
DELUGE is my first comic book. When I was getting started on the project a few years ago, I searched the internet for examples of comic script formats, but I discovered that, unlike in feature films and television, there is no set format. All that matters is the artists are able to understand the story the writer is trying to get across on the page. I tried to find a format that was both ‘writerly’ and conveyed all of the information the artists would need. These layouts of Sam’s are basic sketches to convey panel size and to determine the blocking of characters on each page. If changes need to be made to blocking on the pages, this is the best stage to do it since the images are so basic and easily refined.
Sam did a fantastic job translating my script into images. For comparison, the script pages for the teaser are presented with Sam’s layouts. All photographs in the script belong to their respective copyright holders.
On page two, I wanted to get a since of the Sirocco, Bisanne’s home on the world sea. The idea was to present the ship in a wide panel to get a sense of her size, while also showing details in smaller panels. I love reference photos and incorporated them into my script to use as visual references for the ideas I was trying to get across. You’ll see an image of a sailboat on page two of my script that I thought could represent the angle we’d use to introduce the Sirocco, but in her layout, Sam found a much more dynamic - and better! - angle.
Since DELUGE is my first scrip, I’ve been learning a lot about how action is laid out on the page. When writing scripts for television and film, the goal is to use the fewest words to get across the greatest meaning. In comic books, as I’ve discovered, this is doubly so. Every panel, caption and dialogue bubble must be carefully considered in order to get across the most story in a static image. Page three of DELUGE is a fine example of this. I had to get Bisanne from the Sirocco to the shipping container where she would break open the one of the double doors, while also setting up a symbol on the side of the shipping container that will play into the greater story of DELUGE’s first arc.
I adore ‘splash pages’ in comics - giant single or double pages that often freeze a moment in time to give the reader an overview of what’s happening - and I knew I wanted a double splash page in the teaser for DELUGE. I wanted to show a cross section of the shipping container as Bisanne moved deeper and deeper into the precarious structure and found a mysterious object floating at the back.
The teaser for DELUGE ends on a slight cliffhanger as all of the shelving and crates come crashing down on Bisanne when the shipping container shifts and begins to fill with water. But of course Bisanne barely makes it out alive and the story of DELUGE is off and running!
I hope you liked this look at how DELUGE is starting to come to life on the page and there’s a lot more to come! Keep an eye here and on my Twitter and Instagram accounts for more updates on DELUGE. Also, make sure to follow Sam Beck on Twitter, Instagram and at her website! Thanks for dropping by! Talk again soon!