DCML Digest Issue 7

[Don Rosa]

> From: "Arie Fachrisal" <cien2 at cbn.net.id>
> That must have been a very famous story since i remember i once read a
> version of that time stopping watch in a manga story,

I wasn't being totally serious when I said that I or anyone "swiped" the
time-stopwatch idea from MacDonald. I had never read or heard of that story
when I first used the idea. A stopwatch that stops time is simply a really
obvious notion. It's what is done with the idea that might differ, and
having subsequently read MacDonald's version I'll wager that it was the most
clever (if only by virtue of the fact that he had more space to develop it).

> From: Mads Jensen <madsj at raptus.dk>
> Subject: Techniques
> I read the article about Don Rosa in the Kentucky Alumni (can be seen
> here: http://duckman.pettho.com/alumni1.jpg ), I have been wondering
> what the advantages about the techniques of drawing backwards to you
> reach halfway, and then draw from the beginning till you reach the
> beginning ?
> Maybe Don Rosa would tell more about this ?

I hope the article said that I *write* the story backwards. I don't *draw*
it backwards. However, once written properly (and by "properly" I mean not
in that modern "Marvel style" of comic writing), it should be just as easy
to draw it backwards or draw random panels (like they film movies) as it is
to draw it in the correct sequence .
The advantages were not explained in the article? But it should be obvious.
I am working with a finite number of pages and I need to have a beginning, a
middle and an ending all in one unit (again, unlike the "Marvel style"). I
need the story to end on that last page in that last panel... and the ending
is the most important point. So if I know that panel, I know the second to
the last panel. And if I know the second to the last panel, I'll know the
third to the last, and so on.
When I get about halfway I jump to the first page because the second most
important part of any story is the beginning, how we are pulled into the
mystery or action with the characters. If you start a $crooge adventure with
the treasure hunt already underway, who cares what's happening?! So I work
panel by panel towards the middle, looking at my previously jotted down list
of needed sequences or story elements.
I "dovetail" the beginning into the ending -- the middle of a story has the
action or humor, and it makes no difference if there are X, X+1 or X-1
number of these scenes. The action is not essential to the story (again,
unlike the "Marvel style" method). So I can add or subtract funny bits or
action scenes in the middle. They are expendable, unlike the logic or meat
of the story. For me, it's exactly like working a jigsaw puzzle... I am
fitting angular pieces together to form a unit that's not too big or too
small. My pieces are always too big for my jigsaw puzzles, but instead of
leaving those pieces out and shortchanging the story/reader, I get out a
pair of scissors and trim the ideas and mash them down into the plot. That
doesn't make an "artistic" story, but it apparently makes an entertaining
story -- and my goal is not art, it's entertainment.
(Digression: To see a demonstration of this, look at the new Egmont issues
with my "Trash or Treasure" story. The other stories in the issue have more
like 7 panels per page. My story had an average of well over 11 panels per
page. That's 60% more! Is that good? Or does it just hurt the eyebulbs?)
Anyway, at that point I already know exactly what ideas need to be conveyed
in each speech balloon or caption, but I have not yet written it word for
word. I then write the dialogue in a normal chronological sequence.
I'm sure I'm not the discoverer of this technique of writing backwards... it
would strike me as the only way a comic book or a short story or any
finite-length fiction can be written.
So just remember, you're dealing with three things here -- the writing of
the story, the writing of the dialogue, and the drawing of the pages.

> From: "KUR" <ggk at wp.pl>
> Actualy in dis episode the Stop-Watch didn't stop the time but
> meak it very slow.

Oops. Then maybe that writer *did* swipe MacDonald's idea. That's too close
to that novelette for comfort.