Notes on “On Writing for Comics”
“Back in 1988, Kurt Busiek was putting together what he called Ad Astra, an anthology of original science fiction stories in comic book format set in a shared universe in which humanity was beginning its spread beyond the planet Earth. It would later see life as Open Space. Because he wanted this project to really work as SF, Kurt wanted to bring in SF authors to do true SF. Most of those authors had never worked in comics, and Kurt wrote ‘On Writing for Comics’ as a tutorial to help ease the transition from the pure prose of written SF to the largely visual world of comics. Some caveats: The memo largely covers script format, but contains some advice on how to think in comic book terms. Much of its text is specifically oriented towards Ad Astra. There are, obviously, none of the promised enclosures. Nonetheless, the memo offers significant content for would-be comics writers.”