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FORCE 5 Published monthly by DC Comics Inc., 666 ~itth Avenue , New York, NY 10
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in MUSICAL CARDS .
NAME : ~~ _____________________________
Print

______________ STATE ZIP:_ _ __

AGE : DATE OF BIRTH :_ ____________
PARENTS' SIGNATURE :

Hi! name is ewell .
Okay, I know my moniker is
unfamiliar to you, right now . Pretty
soon, however, it will be gracing the
pages of NEW TALENT SHOWCASE.
There's been a lot of publicity about
this project, but no one has thouS/ht to
ask any of us ("us" being the
aforementioned NEW TALENT) 01 our
experiences. I thought it might be
informative and encouraging for
other aspiring comic prolessionals to
learn a bit about the inner workings
and machinations of being
published.
I asked Dick, and he gave me
permission to tell you about the
phone booth hidden within the
confines of 666 Filth Avenue into
which an ordinary, mild.mannered
woman can enter and emerge
seconds later as .... ...... .
SUPERWRITERIIIIIII
Well, so that's not nactly what
happens. Sometimes my imagination
gets a little carried away. I am a
·writer, after all . But I'm not mild·
mannered, and I don't wear glasses,
either.
How doe. it happen? I can only tell
you 01 my own experience, and of the
things I have been taught.
About a year ago, a note was made
of the hunt for new faces at DC right
on this page. I had written some
articles for magazines, starting a nice
collection of reject .lips. There were
also a pile 01 stories I had written,
mostly lor myself, Bitting and
collecting duat in one 01 my desk
drawers. (What did I do for a liVing? I
was a registered nuree.) But I had
never written for any fanzines, nor
had considered comics as a viable
alternative for shOWing off any talent
I might possess.
But I was at a crossroads in my life.
NurSing had paled on me, even
though the money was good ... and I
had vowed never to become the gruff,
bitter type, feeling trapped in a job
that calls for so much. A nurse means
caring. I had what 'h aa been
termed as "post·divorce ayndrome" ,
throwing myself into a variety f
activities.
So it was a combination of these
factors, plus curiosity, that made me
sit down, compile a character and
storyline, and send it ofJ 10 Sal
Amend ola, he being the NEW
TALENT COORDINATOR. Poor guy .
His desk has never looked the same.
Among the hundreds of manila
envelopes he plowed through was
mine.
. First there was some preliminary
correspondence. Just enough 10 get
my hopes up. Of course, I knew better
Ihan to count my chickens before
they hatched, but who cared? There
was a chancel
Aboul six weeks later, I found
myself sitting in Karen Berger's offi ce.
(She being the editor of the
SHOWCASE book). With typical New
Yorker aplomb, I was very matter.of.
fact as we sat and discussed a bit of
my personal history, writing
experience, story· line and plot
possibilities. Right, Karen? I even
managed to shake Len Wein 's hand
with jpst the right amount of
nonchalance when he interrupted our
discussion, and Karen introduced me .
Uh, Karen, don't look at ma like that.
Well, never mind her; folks . I really
was the height of Big Apple
sophistication.
Then I was sent home with stacks of
material on comic writing . Actually, I
Iloated home . Why, I even got stuck
in the Holland Tunnel fo r an hour
and a half, and couldn't care less. 11
you've never gotten stuck in the
Holland Tunnel.. .. How many 01 you
have ever read Dante's Inferno?
That's the idea. But I actually
welcomed the traffic. Gave me a
chance to think about what had
transpired earlier.
Once I got home, J laid everything
out in Iront of me. This included
guidelines, old plot synopses and
.cripts, a couple of old House of
Mystery's, and note. I had taken
during my di.cus.ion with Karen . I
didn' t get to work right away .
But the next day, I tackled my
typewriter with great fervor. There are
many ways of writing a comic, but I
was doing a full script. This entails
ali directions, panel breakdown s,
sound effects, captions, and dialogue .
Before one can graduate to other
forms, a writer must learn to visualize
the spread of the page. Thia includes
under standing panel placement, the
amo unt of action can be
contained in a single panel, caption
and balloon placement, and the
amount of words per pimel.
The comic book is a visual medium .
For the writer, this means learning to
have an artist's eye. A course in
journalism is helpful, too, since the
words themselves must be kept to a
o minimum. Yet, the story mu.t be
well~paced and cohesive, neither
artwork nor printed word dominating
They must work togeth.e r.
This is aU part of the basics. Many
writers prefer to always work with a
full script, feeling that it helps them in
planning and seeing the story in
mind's eye. I find myself in that
fraternity. I don't know if I'U ever
"g raduate" to descriptive page
breakdowns. (Or maybe I'm just
starting to feel comlortable with what
I already know ... we' ll .ee.)
It took a while, but I finally finished
my first script. 11 took numero visits to
Karen, lots of re·writes, learning, and
unlearning'. But when ' I fir.t saw the
pencils of JENESIS done by Mark
Beachum, it was something hard to
describe. Sort of akin to the feeling I
had when I gave birth to my
daughter . Creativity person ified .
Amazing!
Since then, I've written three more
stories . Has it come easier with each
passing one? Yes and no. I
und erstand the mechanici better. My
dialogue is becoming more polished,
my pacing more professional. But, I
still make mistakes . And that's the
hard part, at least for me . I find
myself pushing harder all the time,
getting angry for not being
SUPERWRITER. I expect more of
myself with each visit to Karen. Of
course, she does, too . Sometime., the
h arshest criticism can come from
inside.
Are there common factors with us?
Ta lent? Sure, I suppose. Still, there
are othel things, some more
important. Determination to succeed.
Maturity to handle criticism. Ability
to fall on your face, get up, dust
yourself off, and keep going.
Knowing that other. know more than
you'do. Accepting that. Wanting to
learn. Tim ing . Luck . Discipline.
Finally, kudos must go to Dick
Giordano, Sal Amendola, and Karen
Berger. To Dick, for being the gu iding
light behind the drive to directly
introduce and instill fresh faces into
the industry. To Sal, for having the
patience to listen as we have all cried
on his shoulder. at one time or
another. And to Karen, lor having the
guts to take on a bunch of amateurs,
and trying to turn us into pros.
Do I have any personal tips? Well, I
shouldn't, but....ift through your
record stack. Take out any John
Williams score. Put on your
headphones. Sit down in front 01 your
typewriter. And write!
Excuse me. Have to go put the other
side of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
on .
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 !
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.Matchbox is the lrodemorlc of the Matchbox group of companies and is the subject of extensive
tradem'ork registrations. (Morco registroda) © 1983 Matchbox Internotional, ltd. All rights reserved: