CREATING CAMELOT'S FINAL CHAPTER

This month, I’d like to discuss how you, David Michelinie, Ron Lim, and Marvel editor Molly Lazer function as a team in crafting the upcoming Iron Man/Doctor Doom ‘Legacy of Doom’ miniseries. I’ll try to break down the various aspects of the creative process and focus upon each one individually.

And just to clarify: There won’t be any story spoilers. We’re talking procedure only here. The art samples I’m using for illustrative purposes are from IRON MAN: BAD BLOOD because they’re what I have on hand.

Thanks, Bob!
 

1. The pitch. It all begins with an idea. In this case, the conclusion to the Camelot Trilogy. Before you and David approached Marvel with the story, how did the tale first take shape? How did you and David put your heads together to outline the miniseries, and in what form did the Iron Summit take -- phone call? e-mails? At what time of day or night did you communicate? Once you two decided upon the story, who wrote up the pitch to Molly Lazer at Marvel, and how was the pitch presented?

1. Mike, in the case of Iron Man/Doom 3, the actual story was pitched twice. The first time was in 2000, shortly after David and I finished Iron Man: Bad Blood. At that particular time, there was little interest from Marvel and the plot went into the filing cabinet. However, when we were approached by Tom Brevoort last November to return to Marvel, this was one of the storylines that we proposed to put back on the table. Originally, when David and I sat down to do that springboard plot, we approached it the way we've done most of our work over the years.

Initially, we chat on the phone for a while, just to discuss the basic premise and what we'd like to accomplish in the story. Generally speaking, we plot late in the morning into early afternoon, as that is the best time for both of us and our brains have not fully cluttered with the usual nonsense of the day. After that, we set a time for a in-depth plot session and with headphones securely on our heads, we begin the two or so hours of seriously hashing out plot points, choreographing action sequences, and structuring the overall conflict. From that point, David takes his notes or the audio recording of our conversation and puts together a written plot to submit to the editor.

In the old days, David would mail-in or fax the written plot to Marvel. These days, pretty much everything is done via email. In the case of Molly Lazer, she inherited this project, and Iron Man: The End, from Tom Brevoort once he approved the initial pitch.

2. Story approval and post-pitch. Once the concept was green-lighted, how long did that take? Who decided the mini-series would run six issues, and at that point, how detailed of an outline did you have to submit to Molly Lazer? When was the mini-series's publication time line discussed and arrived at?
Does work begin before a contract is signed or afterwards? When does a creative team actually get paid after all issues of a miniseries are published?

2. As far approval goes, that only took a few weeks. In the case of a special project like Iron Man/Doom, Tom, Molly and the rest of the staff have to coordinate with production and editorial in order to fit a stand-alone project into Marvel's schedule. Once a slot is determined, then Marvel gives us the green-light to proceed with the actual creative process.

No one decided that it was six issues because it's only four, Mike. It was their decision as far as the length of the mini-series. It was our task to make our story fit into the space allotted. As I stated in the last response, the initial document we submitted was merely a plot springboard, painting the picture in very broad strokes. It's really a futile gesture to put tons of detail into a story that has not yet been approved, so we give them enough to understand where we want to go with the story.

Most of the time in the comic business, all the parties involved work in good faith, even if there is going to be legal paperwork involved. In the case of this particular mini-series, it's a simple work-for-hire deal, so there's not a lot of wrangling with contracts and such.

As far as payment goes, Marvel works on a simple voucher system. They provide freelancers with a schedule of pay dates and it's up to each individual creator to turn in their work prior to those deadlines. It generally works out to be every two weeks.

3. Writing the mini-series. How do you and David hash out plot points and the flow of action before David actually scripts an issue? How much time thus far have you spent researching any new technology aspects that will appear in the miniseries, both in the present time and from 1989, since the story begins in the present and goes back into the past? As you and David create the story, how much of the process involves visuals... even before the penciler is involved? Once a script is completed by David, do the two of you go over it together for fine-tuning, or does David have the final say? How long does it take for you two fellows to actually complete a working script and how long does it take Molly to approve the script before it's delivered to the penciler? How is the completion schedule for each issue arranged?

3. Again, since we have already created the springboard document, we have a bare-boned skeletal structure to an overall storyline. As writers, we both understand that we have to give the readers some kind of conclusion in each installment of the mini-series. To that end, we set goals to create certain conflicts and resolve them by the end of the issue. As far as hashing things out, a lot of the fun for me is in this process with David. In fact, some of the stuff that we never wind up using would make you laugh your ass off! As you can imagine, we take a few turns to the left and the right from the overall storyline when we get an idea. They don't always work out, but they're generally very entertaining. In the case of Iron Man/Doom, there were several scenes that David and I came up with that we just simply didn't have the space to include in the plot. A couple of them actually broke my heart to abandon, but you only have 22 pages, and you got to make every panel count.

Normally, if David and I were doing the regular series, the technology research would be a more pertinent question. However, in context to our mini-series, the story basically revolves around magical themes, where technology is not a huge factor overall. You will see a variant armor, but it is more mystical in origin than technological.

We are professional comic book writers. Comic books are a visual medium. So, as professionals, it is our JOB to think visually. We understand that no matter how great David words are, without exciting and dynamic visuals, the story could very well fall flat. As you've seen in the preview art in the last few months, dull visuals is not a problem with this particular project, thanks to the enormous talents of Ron Lim.

As far as the fine tuning of the plot, that falls to the man who bears responsibility for the written word -- David Michelinie. And I want to say why. David is one of the most capable wordsmiths I have ever had the pleasure of working with and his plots are not only finely tuned, but incredibly entertaining. David has an uncanny ability to inject his own personality into the plot, and many times laces them with in-jokes and quips meant only for the eyes of the artist. One day, I hope I can talk him into allowing me to actually publish a couple of his plots from our old run on Iron Man. His acerbic wit would make our readers laugh out loud!

Here comes one of Bob's Basic Rules of Thumb: Comics are produced monthly. Therefore, anyone involved in creating a comic book only has a month to get their part done!

4. Penciling and inking. How was Ron Lim hired to pencil the mini-series, did Molly handle all of that? Did you have a backup penciler in mind if Ron was unavailable? Did you ever consider penciling the miniseries yourself? At what point did you and David have a conference call with Ron to discuss the look and feel of the story? As the inker and story co-plotter, how much direction do you give Ron? Did you have a specific inking style or approach in mind to compliment Ron’s pencils? Does David have any say in the production of the artwork?

When will you and Ron create the covers for each individual issue? Are they worked up well in advance of an issue actually being written? How do Ron’s penciled pages get into you hands, via UPS? Is there a backup plan in case the original pages are lost? Photocopies? Do you think CGI inking will eventually replace traditional inking? How and when does the editor get involved with the production of art pages? What is the biggest communications bottleneck among writer, penciler, inker, and editor?

4. Ron got the job because I groveled, pleaded, begged, and whimpered like a giant pussy to get my friend onboard! Ron, David, and I worked together on Metallix at Future Comics and, as far as I was concerned, he was the ONLY guy for the job. Basically, Molly had already a working relationship with the talented Mr. Lim, so it really didn't take a lot of coercing on my part to get him as our penciller. Molly, as you'll read this month in her interview, is just as big of a fan of Ron Lim as I am.

To be honest, I hadn't really given much thought to anyone else drawing the series, other than perhaps John Romita Jr. himself. But, since I knew Johnny's schedule was booked solid for the next year, it would have been futile to even ask. That's not to say I wouldn't do another Iron Man project with him down the road. I know the fans would love it as much as I would! In this particular instance, I did not consider the job of penciller. Because I had other commitments, I felt my strength was in creating the finished look of Iron Man. It's also, for me, the inking process is something that I'm faster at. And time is always a factor.

As you can see from the preview art, Ron draws as complete as any artist working today. I feel my job, as the inker, is to create depth, texture, and a lot of cool metallic effects! As with anybody who pencilled Iron Man, they know what they are getting when they hook up with me as their inker. I have a very specific idea about what Iron Man should look like, and fortunately, Ron draws in the same particular style as I do. Therefore, there have been absolutely no artistic conflicts. As I stated in the interview, if I had had Ron has my penciller, during the second run of Iron Man, I'd probably still be on the book today!

David is always consulted as far as the artwork goes. To quote my former mentor, Wally Wood, "All artists are slaves to the story." In my book, this is David's vision that we're executing, and we owe it to him to create the world that he called for. It's not for us to re-interpret what his intent was. Instead, it is our duty to carry out the writer's intent.

As far as the covers go, I had a dream a few weeks back about that very topic. The next morning, I wrote Ron and told him of my idea. Getting Ron excited is a pretty easy task, generally speaking. But in this case, he really got excited about the idea that I had literally dreamt up. This week, we worked out some cover sketches and submitted them to Molly for her approval. Hopefully, by next month's updates, you'll get a chance to see the actual layouts for the four issues!

Generally speaking, you have to have a plot in order to create a cover that will depict scenes from that issue. These days, a lot of the covers are strictly pin-ups and can be plugged into any particular issue. In the case of Iron Man/Doom, we're going a bit old-school with cover content. Since all four issues have been plotted, I have a pretty good idea of what to depict on each individual book.

Ron emails me scans of his pencils prior to shipping them to me via Fed-Ex. Once they're here, I make xeroxes and ship those off to David, so he can begin writing and make balloon placements on those copies.

Another Bob's Basic Rules of Thumb: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ship pages without making copies! Something will always go wrong. Ron's pages are no sooner out of the Fed-Ex box when they head directly to my in-studio xerox machine. Accidents happen. I once lost a page of JRJR's art on I-95 when the wind whipped it out of the front seat of my car, it stuck to the grill of a T-Bird heading toward Baltimore and was never seen again!

As far as CGI inking goes, I hope not. What can I say? I'm an old-school kind of guy and I spent most of my career honing my inking skills. There's still something to be said for getting your fingers dirty.

Once I send in the scans of the finished art, the editor will march those through post-production, getting them lettered by computer and colored in the same manner. To be honest, once they leave my hands, I really have very little input until the book is ready to ship for printing. Fortunately, we were able to get Moose Baumann as our colorist on Iron Man/Doom. Moose worked with us on Metallix and I have every faith that we'll get a premiere color job from him.

To answer your question about what is the biggest communications bottleneck: Generally speaking, it's the editor. Fortunately, in the case of Molly Lazer, we have someone who stays on top of the game and keeps the lines of communication open. That, unfortunately, is not always the case in the comics business.

5. Applying the story to the penciled pages. Does David begin adding his words to the art pages after they’re inked or before? Does he do a panel-by-panel breakdown of the text, or does he trust the letterer to put the word balloons and sound effects in the right places? In general, how long does it take David to complete this process for an entire issue? 

In IRON MAN: BAD BLOOD, the lettering wasn’t added to the actual art pages. It’s all done to the scanned art pages, right? Back in your Future Comics days, lettering WAS added to the actual art pages. Why was that?

5.  I send xeroxes of the pencils, once I receive them from Ron, to David to use as his guideline for creating the script. David will write the dialogue and captions and place those on the xerox copies provided for him. Once that's accomplished, he will send in his script, along with the balloon placements, to Molly, for her to begin the process of lettering. These days, it doesn't really matter if the pages are inked or not, because most of the post-production is done by computer. All sound effects and balloons are indicated prior to him turning in the pages.

As I've stated previously, these books are published monthly. So time is always of the essence. Although I'm not really sure David's exact speed, for me, it usually takes about a week to ten days to write a complete issue.

I'm very particular about lettering and coloring. Part of the reason that the Future Comics were lettered on the boards was strictly a preference on my part. Call it old-school, but I just don't feel like it looks like comic pages until I see the balloons on them. Also, proofreading the final product is a lot easier when the balloons are on the original art. It adds a step in the process where the artist and writer can check for errors before the final product is turned in. While computer lettering is highly efficient, it is more prone to errors by eliminating that middle step.

Thanks Mike,