Comics, by their very nature, are a collaborative medium. Writers and artists work together to shape a comic, both in terms of character and world-building. Colorists, inkers, and letterers flesh it out. Editors offer feedback. In short, you have to be willing to work with others if you want to make a career as a comic creator work. That was the point of a panel titled, appropriately enough, “Collaboration in Comics.” In attendance were writers Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly (Outsiders, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek) and Tini Howard (Excalibur, Catwoman).
Moderator Jazzlyn Stone asked the trio who their least favorite character from Marvel or DC was. Howard picked Havok, saying that it stemmed from losing at X-Men: Mutant Academy 2. Lanzing picked Aquaman, while Kelly picked Barry Allen’s Flash. “I’m more of a Wally West guy,” he confessed. Lanzing then brought up the irony that he and Kelly had written Aquaman and Flash in the Voidsong miniseries; this led Howard to throw out her own hilarious pitch for a Havok miniseries.
Reflecting on her first comics work, Howard said that she entered a contest for Top Cow (publishers of Witchblade and The Darkness). She pointed out that there was an element of luck to her career, as well as other creators. “I got a really rare, really lucky situation.” Kelly said that he had been working with Lanzing for close to 15 years; they met in college, bought comics, and yelled at each other while eating pizza, “not caring about the resale value of those comics.” Lanzing also pointed out the difference in their styles; he writes more character-focused, while Kelly focuses on action.
All three creators stressed the importance of working with an artist. “Listen to what they want,” Kelly advised. Lanzing had a great example of this, citing their work with Carmen Carnero on Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.
The duo asked her, “What do you want to do with Cap?” Carnero had two requests: she wanted to draw Steve Rogers out of his suit more often, and she also wanted to draw Cap on a motorcycle after doing a single issue of Gotham City Garage with Lanzing & Kelly. For Howard, she likes to put her artists’ names in the script to make it feel more personal.
One artist the trio had great regard for was Marcus To. Howard worked with him during her stint on Excalibur while he illustrated Lanzing & Kelly’s Joyride and is currently working on the latest arc of their Star Trek book. “We all share custody of Marcus,” Howard quipped; she also said that To had great facial expressions. “I can say Betsy Braddock’s in a bad mood and he knows how to draw it”. Lanzing recalled first working with To when he and Kelly were co-writing Hacktivist, as his editor literally pulled him out of a Game of Thrones-themed party to show him To’s work.
They also talked about the ups and downs of collaboration. “There is no format!” Lanzing said when talking about how to write comic scripts. “It’s a conversation with your artist,” Kelly added. Howard pointed out that collaboration means compromise.
“You have to trust that you can’t control everything,” she said. But collaboration can also be a source of strength – when writing Catwoman, Howard reached out to her editor for help constructing a storyline. Another hurdle is rights, not to mention the pay scale. “The timescale is not the same. The pay scale can’t be the same,” Lanzing said when comparing artists to writers.
Ultimately, Lanzing, Kelly, and Howard said they loved working with others – and making friends with other creators. Howard especially stressed how working with other creators helps her; on walks with her husband, she’ll toss out story ideas and then listen to his input – and vice versa. She also taught Gerard Way how to use Pinterest while writing for DC’s Young Animal imprint. “Don’t forget: you aren’t creating in a vacuum,” she told the audience.
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