The V:IP Section

Vantage:Inhouse PROCESS

This is a special look at how the sausage is made...or rather, how the COMICS are made. A lot of work goes into crafting the V:IP experience for our readers. Here's a first hand look at how we do it:

Concept/Outline -- Here we breakdown the beats of the story; how we expect it to unfold and play out. In a lot of ways, this can be the toughest part of the whole process, but it's necessary to getting some STRUCTURE to the story we're trying to tell.

Layouts -- It's important to think VISUALLY for comics, because pictures are the main vehicle for driving the story (pun intended). In order to make sure the narrative even works, we do layouts before writing the script.

Here are the handwritten outline and layouts for The Samaritan #1 "Moving Day"

SCRIPTS

Despite more than a decade of writing award-winning comics, there are STILL times when outside input is paramount to a books success. Luckily, I have a network of skilled storytellers WILLING to tell me when they think I could've done a better job. One such pal, "Jim" gave me some CRITICAL feedback on the first issue of Never Too Late, the sequel to acclaimed one-shot, The Trouble w/Love. The only problem: his advice came AFTER I already had the whole book completed! What's a small-press creator to do? My solution was to shuffle the order of a few scenes, for more dramatic punch! I didn't alter the script and you can compare it to the finished product in your collection.