Hey guys, it’s Scott.
Big, big week here at Best Jacket. First and foremost, we have class this week. So, paid subscribers, Comic Writing 101 is happening, it will be at 9:30pm EST tomorrow night. I'm going to do it from my studio. I've been having a little trouble getting Quinn to go down to sleep, so this week I think we'll play it safe and instead of going to 4th World we'll do it a little closer to home. But next month we'll be back in 4th World, it’ll be fun. But the topic this week is scene construction. So, it's one of my favorites. It's all about what makes a great scene. I'm going to break it down and talk about the the three elements that I think every kind of great scene contains whether it's an action scene, whether we're talking about a horror scene, whether we're talking about a scene that opens a story, is in the middle of a story, or at the end. So, we're going to look at a lot of great examples. Tyler is going to put up a post for paid subscribers in the class today that contains links to all of the materials that we'll be looking at, everything from Persepolis to Death Metal to Nightwing to Hawkeye and Saga, a whole bunch of stuff:
So, we're gonna look at a broad spectrum of scenes, both in terms of the kinds of books that we're going to explore and a wide variety of scenes in and of themselves. The function of those scenes will be all over the place. So, we'll look at ones that introduce characters, we'll look at ones that are action sequences, we'll look at ones that are finales, all kinds of stuff. It's gonna be a great time, it's just me, no guest this time. So, it'll be real textual, very much looking at a beat by beat breakdown of all the scenes that we're going to read together.
You can take a look ahead of time if you're a paid subscriber, if you're not a paid subscriber, I know it sounds hokey, but there really isn't a better time to sign up, get an annual membership where you get access to the live streams as well. We just did one and it was a blast. We had a few couple hundred people in there and it was a wild time. We almost went like two hours or so. So, I hope you'll do that. And I'm sorry if you missed out on our founder’s tier. Thank you again to everybody who signed up and packed the seats for the Black Jackett Club. We're gonna have tons of fun with that.
Also, housecleaning. We Have Demons #1 comes out from Dark Horse in just over a month. FOC, the final order day, is a week from this Monday, the 28th of this month. There are tons of good covers. We've got covers by everybody at Best Jackett from Tony Daniel to Tula Lotay and Dan Panosian and Rafael Albuquerque and Jock and Greg Capullo, just everybody. So please, please, please, order now, order early. If it sells out, I'm not sure you'll be able to get it, I'm not sure what what they're doing with second printings anymore because of paper shortages. So, please get ahead of yourself and order it. There’s special backmatter, it's got the script, it's got designs, it's a beautiful-looking book, and yeah, get the cover you want!
Also, on a personal level, Happy Belated Valentine's Day, everybody! I hope you got to celebrate love, whether you have somebody special in your life or your special someone is you. At this point, that's fine, too, I've been there, believe me. Or your special love is comics, right? Always, it always gives back, it's always amazing. But me, I realized this year that I've been married to my wife for 18 years. Crazy, crazy, crazy.
We got married when we were quite young and I remember really distinctly telling her that I'm never gonna make any money and I want to be a comic book artist and writer. And I was working in fiction at the time. We met because she was on a scholarship at Columbia for an MD-PhD. But part of her scholarship was that she worked in another department. It was like a work scholarship. So, she was the assistant to the head of the writing department. And so she was the person that registered you for classes. And I had no idea she was also this, like, brilliant doctor. I thought she was just a brilliant assistant in the department and I kept re-registering for classes constantly to try and talk to her. That was how slick and smooth I was back in my very early twenties. But it eventually worked where we went out with friends to a movie. We saw Gladiator, super romantic, but it was a with a bunch of people and after that I finally managed to ask her out.
And I remember my parents had tickets to the ballet through this subscription service they had, and I had never really been, and so I was like, “do you want to go to the ballet?” And she was like, “yeah,” and she knew everything about it (I didn't know anything about it). And we went, and I remember just embarrassing myself terribly. I was literally at one point going, “do they sing at some point in this?” So, she forgave me for all my faults. But I remember very vividly saying to her as we started to get more serious, “I just want you to know, I love what I do, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to make a big living at it.” And so, one of the great things about our relationship has been that she's always been incredibly supportive. I've tried to be supportive of her with her amazing work as well. But there have been a few points when I’ve really been down and not sure if I was going to make it and she was always a real cheerleader for everything and took some risks with me. So, very, very grateful to have her in my life. I love you, Jeannie.
And I'm going back to work. Some things I read that I loved. It was really fun exploring books for scene structure this month. And I want to say, please go read Persepolis if you have not, it's a masterclass and incredible scene building.
Also, I know this is not an underrated book, because everybody's loving it, but Nightwing by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo is just out of control. I hadn't read every issue, but I read every issue now to catch up. And the brilliant thing about what Tom does is he, with every scene, speaks to what the whole issue is about. It's like a mini version of the whole issue. But each one builds on the last one. We'll look we'll look at some Nightwing when we're in class, also, but it's just fantastic.
Also, Step By Bloody Step by Si Spurrier and Matías Bergara (I hope I pronounced your name right, Matías, I love your work). It's an incredible story that's done totally visually about a young girl who wakes up in the palm of a giant, like a giant knight. Literally, it's fantasy. And there's no dialogue. It's only visuals and it's just a real stunner. It's out from Image one week from tomorrow. So, definitely, definitely check that one out, pre-order if you can.
Also, I know this is again a series that a lot of people are talking about, but I just caught up and it's fantastic—What's The Furthest Place From Here? by the amazing team of Matt Rosenberg and Tyler Boss. It's an incredibly fresh take on an apocalyptic landscape. It's young and it's fun and it's weird and it's heartfelt, and there's a lot of strangeness and space in it. I really enjoy it quite a lot.
So, yeah, check those out. And again, if you're up for it and you want to check out our class, you can sign up for $7 a month ($6.25 if you do the annual plan). Take a look this week, it's gonna be a blast tomorrow night.
Thank you guys again, and on Thursday we'll post the class, but also one fun thing. My parents brought up a portfolio of mine that they found. It’s full of art from when I was a teenager—comic book art, both that I drew and then art that I went to conventions and got from artists who were in artist’s alley at the time and who I asked to draw my characters from my made up comics when I was, like, 14. So, I'm going to show you some of that next free newsletter in a week. And there's some real stunner pieces in there by people, not by me, but I can also walk you through my terrible comic book characters of that time. So, a window into teenage Scott’s brain.
Take care guys!
S
Newsletter #53: Are You Not Entertained?