Over on the fine Comic Book Resources site Laura Sneddon is posting up on her experiences on the University of Dundee’s post-graduate course in comics studies which we’ve mentioned here before (and indeed defended strongly on Twitter when a very ignorant, ill-informed Scottish MP attacked it groundlessly). And as part of her reporting on her experiences on the course Laura is also reporting on last weekend’s Dundee Comics Day, which boasted guests like John Wagner, Paul Gravett, Cam Kennedy, Frank Quitely and more. Laura also covers a talk from one of the great figures of Brit comics, the redoubtable John Wagner, who gave out a lot of advice for comics writers:
(John Wagner at the Dundee Comic Day, image by Jonathan Mayo, pic borrowed from CBR)
“The most important lesson I’ve learned is [to] work with good artists,” Wagner said, pointing to a Dredd image illustrated by Brian Bolland. Wagner claimed to be somewhat of a lazy writer, but he sounded more like a great collaborator: “I like to leave a lot of room for the artist to use his own imagination, his own vision, because I don’t actually think very visually myself. I think in terms of plot developments, dialogue. I have little conversations in my head, but if you ask me, even now, how many links Dredd has on his badge chain or what’s on his left shoulder, I couldn’t tell you.”
(thanks to Matt B for the link)
November 3rd, 2011 at 2:59 pm
So gutted I missed this. John Wagner talking about writing…
I’m kicking myself.