New year. New Projects. And a little on how I work.
Happy New Year and welcome back to Burnt Barn Business!
It’s been a little while since the last newsletter as I’ve mostly been in the process of finishing off things you all already knew about and getting started on things I couldn’t really share much about yet.
But I have been pretty busy in the world of comics (and in the other parts of my life but who cares about all that!).
I attended Madrid Comic Con back in November, which was great fun. I got to hang out with a bunch of my Spanish comics friends and also make some new ones. Getting to spend time chatting with the likes of Tom Taylor, Jessica Chen, James Tynion and David Lafuente among others was brilliant and I continue to be amazed at how nice everyone is. Case in point, I ended up alone with the legendary Eduardo Risso in a comic-themed restaurant we all had dinner in. After some chat in Spanish about his holidays and how he likes Spain we got chatting projects and the kind of comics we love and then at the end he clapped me on the back and said, “Welcome to comics”.
I could have cried.
After that, it was off to ThoughtBubble and catching up with all the wonderful creators I know back in the UK (plus a little Spanish flavour from David Aja). I was tabling at ThoughtBubble and it was really nice having people coming up who have backed the Kickstarters or bought comics from me the year before telling me how much they enjoyed the books. The internet is great, but hearing face to face that someone liked your work is always nice.
Speaking of work I currently have many irons in the fire. In fact, the fire is more irons than fire at this point as I continue to pile additional things onto my plate like my father at Christmas dinner (no control that man).
Shaky and I are looking at setting up a new project together in between Weird Work stories, which is exciting. I’m also continuing to work on Mugshots with Chris and have projects taking shape with Carlos Lopez, Robert Ahmad and another wonderful artist I’ve collaborated with a bunch without ever actually doing a story together.
Some chat about process…
The way I normally like to work on a comic project is to get the whole thing written in advance before the artist starts work on any of the sequentials. This means I can see the whole story and spot any areas that need improving or weaknesses in the character arcs etc. and do some rewrites to get it all in tip-top shape before anything gets drawn.
I did this for Frank At Home On The Farm, the first Mugshots, and Quarantine. For Weird Work I had a very clear idea for the prologue and a solid outline for the rest of the story, so I gave Shaky the opening section and then went to work completing the rest of the script. This was very useful on that series as it has a pretty tightly plotted mystery and it meant I could really make sure it all stacked up before Shaky started work on the main bulk of the story.
However, having so many different projects on the go at once with my various talented collaborators needing script pages to work on and editors wanting to see concrete examples of what we’re proposing, I’m having to work differently. I just don’t have the time to write full scripts for everything in motion right now.
(A little sneak peek of a page from the new book I’m working on with Carlos Lopez)
Instead, I’m jumping around between projects, which is fun as it keeps things fresh, but it does trigger some form OCD I have about liking to have something finished before moving on to the next job. I’m hoping, however, that it will give the writing a freshness as I have to make some decisions as I arrive at them.
I always have a plan, but without fully fleshed-out page-by-page outlines I find myself ditching characters I realise are unnecessary and just serve to overstuff the story as well as adding or rearranging scenes where it’s clear the transition I had planned isn’t quite right. In a way, writing like this really puts you in the mind of your characters as you’re always thinking, “What would they do here? How would they react?”. The risk is that you’ll get to the end and spot a huge plot hole and have to rework the middle section of the story or something drastic like that! Either way, it’s good to push yourself to try new ways of working. For one project I’ve even done the unthinkable and written a scene from the second act of the story to pass on to the artist as my first piece of scripting on the book. Crazy!
Whatever happens, if you’re a fan of my writing it is looking like you’ll have a lot to checkout this year across all kinds of genres with a spectacular set of artists.
If you’re not a fan, I hope you still enjoy ‘hate reading’ this newsletter!
I look forward to keeping you all up to date with everything as the pieces click into place.
Also, if you happen to have missed any of the Kickstarters over the past few years I have not opened up a store where you can buy most of what I’ve put out, which you can find here
https://burntbarncomics.bigcartel.com
That’s all for now.
I’ll be back soon with more Burnt Barn Business.
Till then, stay safe out there.
Jordan