Writing Comics 101, part 1: This week, Josh Jabcuga gets the chance to interview the seasoned comics pro responsible for the superb Danny Fingeroth's WriteNow! magazine.
February 17, 2005
According to the official bio:
“DANNY FINGEROTH was the longtime editorial director of Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man line. He consulted on the first Spider-Man movie and on the 1990s Spider-Man Fox Kids Network animated series. He has written hundreds of published comics stories and developed characters and stories for animation. He is the author of Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society (Continuum), and puts out Write Now! Magazine, the premier publication about writing for comics, graphic novels and animation, through TwoMorrows Publishing. Fingeroth also teaches Writing for Comics and Graphic Novels and moderates seminars with Graphic Novel creators at New York University and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, including NPR's All Things Considered and E! Entertainment Television, commenting on comics and on popular culture in general. His op-ed commentaries have appeared in The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun.”
Josh Jabcuga, Moviepoopshoot.com:
You were an editor at Marvel for the Spider-Man line during a very successful run. People toss around the word “legend” too loosely, but you really worked with some true examples of legends, people like Stan Lee and John Romita. What are some of your fondest memories of working at Marvel, and what did you learn from the experience?
Danny Fingeroth, legendary editor, writer extraordinaire, college professor, and all around nice guy:
It’s hard to pick out specific moments. What I’ll always admire about the “legends” is how generally open and giving these people with incredible responsibilities and workloads—and accomplishments—are to people they’ve just met and certainly have no need to impress. Whether taking the time to talk about art or story, or writing a note to congratulate you on a project you were involved with, it’s pretty impressive and helps explain why, besides awesome talent, these folks are legends.
Josh Jabcuga:
You’ve written tales for some iconic characters, Spider-Man, Superman, the Fantastic Four, just to name a few. Do you think all the great stories have been told by this point, at least for these characters who have been around forever…and are writers simply putting new spins on old tales? I mean, we've all heard that old saying that there's only so many combinations in storytelling, but doesn't it seem like there's a bit of desperation and rehash going on...from what I've read on our site, according to the Professor Scott Tipton, Gwen Stacy has been the latest victim of maybe going to the wishing well one too many times. What's your take?
Danny Fingeroth:
Just when you think a character has been exhausted, someone comes along with a new take on it that catches everybody by surprise and injects that character with new life. It happens all the time, but you can never predict it. Miller’s Daredevil, McFarlane’s Spider-Man, Wein-Claremont-Cockrum-Byrne’s X-Men. Currently, I think Bendis and Bagley’s take on Spidey in Ultimate Spider-Man has been showing for a good long while that there’re new and fresh things to be done with even a character who’s been around as long as he has. Of course, along the way to re-energizing characters there are bound to be missteps. You can pick out your own examples, I’m sure.
Josh Jabcuga:
When I had just graduated from high school, I visited a comics studio, one that would eventually fall victim to the boom and crash of the 90s, and the editor gave me some advice for a career in comics writing: “Stay away from journalism classes, kid. They will suck all creativity out of you.” I’m not so sure about that now. Some of the best writers, actually, one of my favorites, Chuck Palahniuk, a fiction writer, has a degree in journalism. Do you have an opinion on a journalism versus a non-journalism background, and do you think the ultimate would be to have a firm grasp on both?
Danny Fingeroth:
While I’ve written op-eds for newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun, and write my share of non-fiction (this seems like a good place to plug my book Superman On the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society, published by Continuum), I’m not an expert on journalism schools. From what I’ve observed, people with journalistic backgrounds know how to write concisely and exactly and are good with deadlines. A lot of highly-regarded novelists come from journalism backgrounds. In comics, I know that that’s Denny O’Neil’s background, and it serves him well. So, yes, having a firm grasp on the skills and discipline of journalism so as to apply them to fiction writing would seem to be the best of both worlds.
Josh Jabcuga:
Long term success seems pretty rare in the industry. Now that I’m an adult and have many years under my belt as a comic book enthusiast, one of the things I’ve noticed is the challenge of maintaining any sense of relevance or longevity in the business. Some of the “It” writers and artists that I remember idolizing when I was a kid or a teenager seem to have all but vanished off the face of the planet. My first question is, why is that? Do comic book readers constantly want a new flavor of the month, or is it something the industry imposes upon itself, or do artists and writers just burn out and vanish into the thin air?
Danny Fingeroth:
Comics can be a little like the pop music industry. What’s new is sometimes automatically seen as being better—which is sort of ridiculous, especially when it seems pretty obvious that life experience can only add depth to a creative person’s skills and insights. When sales are weak, there are twin pulls on a comics publisher: stay with a few established superstars in hopes their fanbase will stick around, and/or find the “new, hot” talents who will supposedly infuse the work with some indefinable “excitement” and bring new readers in. This leaves a whole raft of talented, highly competent people in the middle who become forgotten, despite being as—or more—skilled than they ever were. Naturally, these folks go off and do other things. All creative fields are highly competitive, so there’re always a hundred people who want any given slot and an editor can have his or her pick of who to hire. (Of course, there’re a hundred people who want that editor’s job, too…)
Josh Jabcuga:
OK, back to you, specifically, the things that influenced you. Artistically speaking, who are some of your influences, in or out of comics – I’m talking any medium, and any genre.
Danny Fingeroth:
In comics, Lee and Kirby always have to be the big influences. They pretty much created the modern superhero comics industry by introducing more realistic elements than comics had ever had in them before. Eisner, Pekar, the Weisinger Superman books, the Schwartz-edited Flash and Green Lantern were all influences. Outside of comics, big influences would have to be Orson Welles, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, and the big guns of 1950s film noir. I’m a sucker for great comedy, too. Off the top of my head, I always get a big kick out of the Marx Brothers and The Simpsons. Rodney Dangerfield’s stand-up comedy was always a hoot. The work of novelists like Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and Raymond Chandler—maybe the first time those three names were ever used in the same sentence—were important to me. And I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan.
Josh Jabcuga:
There are several things you’ve mentioned in your magazine that always seem to pop up. First off, the matter of treating every issue like it’s a reader’s first comic book. Where do you stand with that?
Danny Fingeroth:
I think everybody agrees on that in principle. It’s in the application of the principle where people diverge. Nobody wants to alienate new readers by failing to explain things each time out, but between the intention and the execution there can be a big gap. And when the industry seems geared to the trade paperback collection, it’s easy to let things like story recaps and character and setting intros go by the boards. But as long as you’re publishing single issues of a comics, I think there’s a need to explain what went before, who these people you’re reading about are, etc. That, of course, is not to say it should be done badly. That’s where craft comes in. There are ways to impart information without hitting people over the head with it. They do it every week on TV shows like Lost and 24.
Josh Jabcuga:
And where do you stand on the whole monthly comics versus graphic novel debate?
Danny Fingeroth:
It’s not a debate. They’re both viable formats. I think it’s fun to have a monthly episode of your favorite character to look forward to. On the other hand, a long read that you can lose yourself in for an hour or more is appealing, too.
Josh Jabcuga:
You also seemed concerned, naturally, about bringing in new readers, a younger audience, who will help in keeping the medium alive. Am I wrong in stating that you believe comics aren’t doing enough to attract the new, younger demographic? And what are some of your suggestions for doing this?
Danny Fingeroth:
Comics seem to have abandoned kids as a viable audience. So much of what is published caters to the adult reader, even superhero stories. It’s not even that the companies are unwilling to make kid-friendly comics. They’re constantly trying to get them back. The problem is getting kids to want comics—and then getting comics into places where kids go to buy stuff! The manga explosion may prove to be part of the answer. Manga are read by actual children of both sexes! The key is getting kids to think comics—both the medium and the content—are cool. And while kids and teens do have videogames and a thousand cable channels, I think something we can’t foresee will come along that will combine a kid-appealing concept with the unique qualities of the comics format and be the thing that gets kids into comics again. It’s unlikely to come out of a corporate meeting. It’ll probably come from someone you’ve never heard of working up in their attic. But it will happen. You read it here.
Join us next week, for the conclusion of our interview with Mr. Danny Fingeroth!
LINKS:
Link to Superman on the Couch webpage:
http://www.continuumbooks.com/(z543ga4522pfhezysukdb455)/BookDetail.aspx?BookID=9786
Link to NYU site:
http://www.scps.nyu.edu/
Link to Write Now! webpage:
http://www.twomorrows.com/writenow/index.html
Praise for the writing of Josh Jabcuga, who pens Squib Central, published every Thursday, exclusively at www.moviepoopshoot.com:
“Josh Jabcuga can take the 26 measly letters of our crude alphabet and capture the bi-polar soul of all that is classically yet disturbingly American. Then, when his typewriter is left to cool, he can turn right around…completely ready to trounce any drunk punk that’s got me backed into a corner.” –The Colonel J.D. Wilkes of The Legendary Shack*Shakers.
Press kits, promos, items for consideration to be reviewed in Squib Central should be sent to:
Josh Jabcuga
3910 Sharondale Dr.
Hamburg, NY 14075
E-MAIL THE AUTHOR |
ARCHIVES
