Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell

Commentary follows.

I don't really like splash pages.  When you're as miserly as I am with page space, the idea of giving up an entire page to a single image is just unthinkable.  I only wrote one deliberate splash page in all of MURDER MOON (at the end of Chapter 3).  But that didn't stop Luis from putting together pages that contained everything in a single panel and having things work beautifully.  I didn't call these out, so pages like the above (and at the end of chapter 4, where he broke out some beautiful ones) were all his doing.

Containing everything in the darkened woods makes the isolation more palpable, makes the loneliness stronger (which also makes for an interesting contrast between this page and the end of Chapter 5 of MURDER MOON--though I used a different technique to enforce it there.)  Collins' choice to protect Father Abbot instead of unloading his own guilt comes to serve as a defining character moment, served up with Luis' blacks and moonlight.

This whole sequence is probably the most successful in all of chapter 1 of MURDER MOON.  Which really shouldn't come as any surprise since we were all learning along the way (mostly me, but Luis, too--and you can see that over the course of the entire book, and even into the pages I've seen that he's done for THE THIRSTY).  And if you're not still learning,not still improving, then you gotta wonder why you're doing what you're doing.

Okay, there's getting paid.  I won't argue the practical utility of getting paid.

But even s0, like Mike Choi wisely said at the "How to Break into Marvel" panel "You're never as good as you think you are."  To which I'll add, that if you're not going to work at it, you'll never get there.

STRANGEWAYS: THE THIRSTY will return in the first week of September to its normal MWF schedule, with bonus features in lieu of pages on Fridays.  Meanwhile, I've got to make sure the kids get adjusted to school starting again and I try to figure out how I can get everything done around a kindergarden timetable.  Wish me luck.  I'll be back a couple times before the story starts up again, just not as frequently as usual.

Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.

Another of my favorite pages.  You know the drill.

And you all thought the wolf had gone, didn't you?  Look closely in panel 5.  And there's *two* of them now?  Aw geez, is life ever not fair.

Instead of baring his soul to Abbot, Collins backs down, unable or unwilling to deal with what he's carrying around.  And then life intrudes, as it so often does.  Could be that the wolf is back.  Could be nothing.  Could be, like I said, that there's a pair of wolves stalking him now.  We don't know.  Collins doesn't know.  And all of that uncertainty doesn't prevent Collins from acting.  He's standing ready, perhaps afraid, but not backing down from his task of keeping Abbot alive long enough for help to arrive.

That last panel gets me every time.  I liked it so much, it ended up on the banner art that I run at shows, as well as the back of the book itself, to give folks a taste of what's to come.  I don't know what it is, but to be able to conjure up entire worlds out of black ink scratchings on paper, that's the real magic of comic art.  Sometimes, as a writer, I feel like I'm just along for the ride, particularly in the face of auteur theories of comics criticism, in that only writer/artists matter.  Needless to say, this makes writers like me (who can't draw their way out of a paper bag) a little nervous.  Maybe we're really not needed.  Maybe we're just in the way.  Maybe those Image guys were right all along.

But then I'm reminded that it all starts with words on paper.  And while Luis wasn't dictated directions completely, he didn't come up with the story on his own either.

Still, I couldn't do anything like panel 6 if my life depended on it.  Collins is sweating in spite of the cool, but his resolve is solid.  He's not backing down.  He's not going to abandon Abbot.  He's going to gut that wolf with a calvary saber if he has to.

Let's see how this all turns out on Monday, won't we?

Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell.

Find out why after the jump.

Panel 4.  That's why.

There's a lot of emotion, sadness, resignation, but not so much so that Collins is simply giving up.  In fact, if I were any kind of comics writer, I'd move that speech balloon to the following panel and let it sit all by itself and let the art do the heavy lifting.  This, as a writer coming from prose, is not always an easy thing to do.  It's the same reason why a lot of writers over-dialogue their screenplays (not to mention that actors like to speak lines, 'cause the dialogue can do more of the work) instead of just letting the silent moments do the work.

And I'm far from the biggest fan of silent panels.  Often they're used to say THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MOMENT, and not always subtly so.  You can argue about the subtlety of the above, and I'll happily admit that I'm still learning this stuff.

I mean, the rest of the page is solid.  I like the use of symmetry in panels one and four, or rather asymmetry.  Again, if I had it to do over, I'd push panels five and six to the next page and let things breathe a bit more.  This isn't an easy thing to do, either.  I mean, sure it is, but when you're looking at twenty-two pages in a chapter, each one of them has to support its own weight or you'll run out of room to actually tell the story.  Or you have to tell it differently, cutting out anything that isn't the most absolutely essential story point.  That takes a lot of discipline, which I don't always have.  It also takes the awareness of the work that only comes out of experience.  This is why you have to write comics to learn how to write them.  Anything else you've written simply won't prepare you for the mechanics at work in sequential art.  So when those editors tell you that you need to write comics to learn to write comics, they're not just blowing smoke.

Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell

Commentary after the jump.

At least it wasn't Clint Eastwood.  I mean, Clint's as badass as they come, but Mitchum gets completely passed over when it comes to modelling western heroes.  Granted, Clint was the guy that broke the mold (well, Leone was, but Clint was the actor most clearly associated with it) so that's probably why he sticks in people's minds.

If'n you want to know the truth, I'd have cast Burt Lancaster in the role of Collins.  He could do that haunted thing.  Mitchum might be too forceful for what I had in mind, but I'd not have complained given a time machine and an opportunity to cast him.

So, here we have Collins not only confessing his former life as a soldier, but that he didn't trade on it, given the opportunity.  This seems to me to be a pretty defining character trait.  Well, that and the fact that maybe he's not just unwilling to trade on it, but that he doesn't want people to know about it.  Maybe something bad happened back during the War.  Maybe.

Huh.  I used "sure" about three too many times in that dialogue in the second row there.  I really should learn to proofread.

But other than that, the dialogue does pretty well.  You'd be surprised how many expressions I didn't actually make up.  I've had a number of people compliment me on the realistic nature of the dialogue (some of them wisely say "effective") 'cause it's about as accurate as Shakespeare's was.  My guess is that if I took the effort to do 100% accurate to the period dialogue, it'd be 1) not particularly readable and 2) not much fun.  I'm not a cultural anthropologist or historian.  I do however, listen to how people talk (sure, I do) and know that there's a lot of shortcuts going on in language, particularly when spoken, and that people sometimes like to make up interesting phrases to spice things up.

In short, don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.  There's a number of western slang sites out there, and I've perused them, but I don't study them religiously.  I don't pepper every phrase with era-appropriate language.  I do try to keep the dialogue readable, however, and I do try to spice it with some authenticity (or at least something that sounds authentic) from time to time to anchor things in the period.  I'm pretty sure that there's more linguistic anachronisms than not.  I'm okay with that.

You'd think, that lookng at most of the page, that Luis doesn't really do facial expressions.  Aside from the closeup in the first panel, the faces are minimal, sketchy.  And it serves the art decently, but when you hit that last panel, with the tight zoom in on Collins, and the detailed expression in the firelight, you really get it then.  Abstract gets contrasted with concrete, making the concrete that much stronger when you finally get to it.  Don't be afraid to mix up your style on the page to make a point or to make it stronger.  This isn't something that you necessarily think out beforehand, but can present itself as the page is being made up.  I certainly didn't call it out in explicit detail in the script, but it does work very effectively when you actually read it.

Okay, time for back-to-school shopping for the kids.  Did I mention that I can't wait for the kids to get back to school?  Four whole hours by myself to work every day?  I don't know that I've worked four hours in a single sitting since June.

Back on Wednesday.

Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell

Commentary after the jump.

I have to say, I really liked how this last sequence played out.  Probably not enough *happened* for a lot of people's tastes, but we get a real sense of the backstory of the characters, Collins in particular, and how they relate to one another.  A lot of that is done through the art.  Pay attention to the expressions that Luis chooses and how he draws them.  I've said it before.  I'm not really concerned if the artists I work with are the most conventional and beautiful draftsmen (or women, since at least two of the artists I've hired on for THE LAND WILL KNOW--aka STRANGEWAYS 3-- are of the distaff persuasion), but that they can get the characters on the page.  And you do that by rendering recognizable emotions, not just action.  Don't get me wrong, action is good and fine, but it's not the whole enchilada.

We start off with a far shot, showing the isolation of the scene, even though there's a cheery fire burning.  But we all know that when you light the scene with a campfire, you get a lot of shifting shadows that can play tricks on your eyes as easily as they can light the way.  Web's wounded, but mobile.  Collins is shaken, but holding together and Father Abbot is is pretty haggard shape.  The wolf could be right out there, just no way of knowing.  This is far from secure.

A little more backstory sneaks in, but by way of conversation, not raw exposition.  Webster knows the Sheriff of Silver Branch.  Collins is an ex-Union officer, but keeps that well hidden.  Neither of them is sure what they've just come up against or how to stop it should it show up again.  All of these are critical story points that you can't simply walk up and say out loud.  They have to come out in interactions between the characters, not by way of lecturing.  If I learned anything useful from the Robert McKee STORY book and seminar, it's that you use "exposition as ammunition".  If characters have backstory or history, have them use it in their confrontations or interactions so you can introduce it seamlessly.  Sometimes that works easily and sometimes it's like pulling teeth.  You're never going to get every nuance out, so don't try.  Worry about what's important to the characters and have them express it.

Collins might not like bragging about his past in the Union Army, but here he's making a point that he can take care of himself and it makes more sense for him to stay back and protect Father Abbot.  It works in the context of the scene, and gives the readers a look into how he works.  There's a bit more of that in the coming pages, and I happen to think that it worked out pretty darn well.

But then I'm biased.

See you all on Monday.

Art by Luis Guragna. Written by Matt Maxwell

Commentary after the jump.

I really love the last panel on this one, not unlike the last panel on page, what was it, 14?  Good reaction shot on Collins, good expression.  While before, he was determined and ready to face anything, in this one we see him horrified at what the Wolf has done to the passengers that had been under his protection.  At least until he wandered off and tried to save Webster.

I don't really love the quick fix on panel 3.  If I hadn't printed too many of these in the first place, I'd have a new run and fix little stuff like that.  But then I'd try to fix all the little things that were wrong with the book in the first place.  Then I'd never write another thing again.  I'd constantly be polishing the old stuff, even when I'd ended up just rubbing it down to nothing.  You've got to be able to let some of this stuff go.  Though it's tougher when you end up revisiting it.  I'd like to think that I've become a better writer.  There's times that I feel that the guys at Estudio Haus did all the heavy lifting and made the script into something readable (in truth, it was a joint effort, but still, it's easy to diminish your own contributions at times.)

But then I'm sure that Luis would pick apart the things that he sees wrong as well.  He's pretty driven.  Just wish he lived closer by so that I could tap him on the shoulder instead of relying on email.

So, back to the page at hand.  Still a lot needing to be conveyed.  Collins has whacked the Wolf on the head with his shotgun and somehow turned him around.  What's up with that?  He unloaded the shotgun at point blank range but didn't drive it off, and yet, this has given the Wolf pause.

Then there's the matter of the passengers in the coach.   He's compelled to see this through even when Webster presents the purely rational or pragmatic angle that whatever was in there with the Wolf isn't going to be more than hamburger.  There's not a lot of reason to argue that point.

But sometimes the coldly rational isn't the only way to go.

Back on Friday to see who made it out of that wreckage alive.

Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.

Commentary after the jump.

Even on an action-oriented page, I can still make the artists draw five panels.  If I had a brain in my head, I could spread this out over two pages and maybe get a slice of the original art sales as well.  I know, I was just being a naive first-time writer and trying to get the story on the page.  But that and stupid determination will get you far.

And I'll admit here that it doesn't resemble cowboys and werewolves so much as it's a scene out of THE HOWLING, only not as well-lit.  That's still my yardstick for a scary werewolf movie and is the one I keep coming back to.  Yeah, THE HOWLING was as much tongue-in-cheek (thanks, Joe Dante) as it was a "serious" horror movie.  And nobody tries for serious as hard as I do.  Someday I'll learn to relax.  Maybe.

Funny, the new thing is "Hey, Hollywood is just catching up to comics now, isn't that great?"  But when I was writing MURDER MOON, I was just trying to nail the basics of storytelling and get something on the page that the artists could make sense of.  Hell, there's days when I'd settle for the most boring six-panel page layout of mine to make a lick of sense and have any reader be able to pick up and have it work.  Sure, I want comics to deliver stuff that I can't see anywhere else, but I also want to be able to wrest a story out of it all, y'know?

This leads back to writing fight/action scenes and how it's tougher than it might appear.  And it's also why my directions for such are pretty minimal at best.  I wanted to make sure that 1) Collins shoots the wolf, 2) It apparently has no affect, 3) Webster has to get bit by the wolf, 4) Collins smashes the butt of his shotgun on the critter's head, having no time to reload.  All that stuff got on the page.  I don't care much *how* it got on the page.  And yes, for my personal taste, Luis could have made this page less fussy, with larger shapes dominating the action.  But this is collaboration.  If I want to be a panel fascist, then I get to draw my own material (and all of you should thank your lucky stars that I learned to let go on that point.)

See you all Wednesday.

Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.

My, Grandma.  What big OH MY GOD!

Commentary follows.

See, if I was a comic writer who knew what he was doing, I'd do the reveal of the wolf on a page turn.  Instead, I put it at the bottom of a page, on a large area where your eye is naturally going to gravitate towards in comparison to the smaller panels.  This is something you learn on your second project.  Well, that and learning to let the story to have an extra page here and there.

If this was a manga series, I could have built in several pages of tension to this moment, instead of just one or two.  But when you're trying to move a story along in a 22-page comic and you're paying the artists by the page, sometimes reality eclipses what you'd like to pull off artistically.  As it stands, I still think MURDER MOON #1 (or what it would have been) is pretty lightweight in terms of the amount of story it tells.  But then I grew up reading bronze age comics that have the density of a white dwarf star on the verge of becoming a black hole.  Go ahead, try to skim one of those.  It'll still take you twenty minutes.

I do like how the first four panels are very much shape-driven and not overly-rendered, but when you look at the last panel, you get a lot of detail and texture.  Maybe too much for the instant that panel takes place in, but that's okay.  Sometimes little things like the hairiness of the hand that's grabbing you is what sticks in your brain.  And lookit those fingernails.  It's a safe bet that he's never cleaned them.  Ever.

By the by, this was the last page of the ashcan version of the Strangeways preview that I circulated for awhile before the book itself came out.  I kinda wanted to leave folks hanging, wanting more by the time the first issue (and then finally the trade) came out.  Lucky you, however, you'll get another couple weeks of pages.

Next week, people.

Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.

See, if this was a movie, they'd be playing the creepy music, ramping it up long and slow, so that you couldn't remember exactly when you started hearing it.

Commentary after the jump.

I love how this page starts out with everything being fine, even Webster making jokes at the expense of Mr. Chilton's courage.  Then Luis puts in that beautiful reaction shot that says it all, close in enough that the expressions of worry are unmistakable.  Following that is the shot from within the coach, and if you've ever watched a monster movie in your entire life, then that's all you need to know about how bad things are going to get.

And hey, wasn't that hole smaller earlier on?  It's like something kinda opened it up some.  Or maybe that's just your imagination.  Moonlight does funny things to your eyes.  Or maybe it makes you see things clearly, and maybe the situation was pretty scary all along.

Luis really did a great job with atmosphere on the page.  I could strip the dialogue right out of this and follow what's going on just fine.  Though I'm pleased to say that it adds to things, like with Webster trying to crack wise and then try and explain what's going on.  But that's kinda the point.  If your dialogue is just reiterating what's going on in the image, then maybe it doesn't need to be there at all, or at the very least it needs to be re-examined.  Of course, I love to break all kinds of my own sweeping rules, such as you should never have a conversation run longer than two pages (I'm about to letter one that runs for three).  Maybe it's just better to be cognizant of the fact that you are indeed going long on this scene and maybe you should really make it pay off to have it worth everyone's while.

You know, the rest of that page could be pretty terrible (which it isn't) and still, that last image would anchor the whole thing quite nicely. Look at it more closely, though and it's really the first time you see Collins' face clearly on the page, the rest of it being in shadow.  If you scan the page from top to bottom, you get a nice press-in effect, like the camera closing in on things.  In fact, you could almost read it as two columns top to bottom and still have things play out clearly.  Not really the intention when I wrote the page, but sometimes (quite often, really) the artists come up with ways to surprise you, even when you're the guy who wrote the script in the first place.  Which is half the fun of writing these things, seeing how your collaborators take your script and really run with it.  I couldn't ever pull off the absolute and total command of the page/panel that Alan Moore does, for instance.  I dunno, maybe in the future.  But even then, shouldn't there be room for accidents and innovations?

Back on Friday.

Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.

Commentary after the jump.

Collins isn't sure of what he's seen, Webster seems pretty certain after a moment of thought.  All the same, he was sure it wasn't all that friendly.  Guess the wolf stuck around to check out his handiwork.

By the by, "Crow Bait" is the name of the first chapter.  You don't get that unless you're reading the actual book, sorry.  But once you hear the phrase, it's pretty clear what it means.  Western idioms were pretty pragmatic like that, though sometimes they had their moments of poetry, rough-hewn as it might be.  The language in MURDER MOON is as fake as any western dialect you're going to hear.  But I tried to make it flow decently and tried to make it sound unique, downplaying the 'pardners' and 'varmints' and other Gabby Hayes-isms.  I've been told by people whose opinions I trust that the dialogue is the best thing about the book.

Which kinda makes me wonder about what the worst thing is.  I try not to dwell on that.

Yes, I named the horse "Joss."  I didn't think of any other famous Joss's that would mind.  If so, I apologize in advance.

As for the rest of it, perhaps a touch obvious.  There's some restating what's going on in the panel, but sometimes a little reinforcement isn't a bad thing.  At least I didn't have Webster pointing into the night and screaming IT'S DARK.  But by the same token, there's a lot of dialogue here.  One of these days I'll get the balance right.

As for me?  I'm writing this while preparing for SDCC, and you'll read it as I make my way back.  I still don't know how I'm getting there.  The drive sounds relaxing, oddly.  But would take a long time.  Well, hopefully I'll decide before it's too late.

EDIT to add that I completely panicked about whether or not I'd actually posted this and had to check from the gate at the airport to make sure that I hadn't spaced out totally.  I guess I'm relieved that I didn't.

Secondarily, belated congratulations to our host site, CBR and Jonah Weiland on their Eisner win for best comics-related publication.  Well-deserved and likely the closest this writer will ever come to that particular stage.  Take a bow and don't forget to remember the moment from time to time, Jonah.