Full Circle: The Return of Doctor Solar by Chris Warner

Follow Dark Horse Comics:

Full Circle: The Return of Doctor Solar by Chris Warner

06/29/2010 3:33pm

With the release of Doctor Solar #1 just a few weeks away, Dark Horse Editor Chris Warner gives us the rundown on Solar, Magnus, Turok and Jim Shooter's triumphant return to comics!

Been a strange year or so, full-circlewise. When I broke into comics about a thousand years ago, my first editor was Carl Potts at Marvel Comics, and my first job was drawing Alien Legion, which Carl created. I’m now Carl’s editor, editing omnibus collections of the series, including the very same Legion stuff I drew, and I’m Carl’s editor on an upcoming new Alien Legion series. The Editor in Chief at Marvel when I worked there was Jim Shooter, and now I’m Jim’s editor on the re-launches of Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; Magnus, Robot Fighter, and Turok, Son of Stone. Pretty weird, but oddly gratifying, considering that Carl and Jim taught me so much about comics storytelling, which was a near obsession with them. Still is.

Now, when I use the term storytelling, I’m not just talking about the mechanics of crafting a story—plot, theme, character—but particularly how you translate the written word of the script through a series of images that takes the reader on a journey. Do it right, and the reader forgets you’re there and becomes immersed in the experience; do it wrong, and the reader misses important details, makes wrong turns, and realizes he or she is just sitting in a chair holding a printed pamphlet. Visual storytelling is, at its best, invisible. The goal is to remove the obstacles that break the story’s spell. Fill a pothole, and no one will notice it.

One of the first things that Jim would do for artists when they joined his crew was give them his “Fifty-Cent Storytelling Lecture.” Comics cost fifty cents when I broke in, but Jim’s succinct lesson, which took maybe thirty minutes, was priceless. Jim would take you through an old issue of Strange Tales, featuring a Human Torch story drawn by Jack Kirby. Kirby was one of my comics-art icons, an artist whose visual power remains unmatched, but I’d never had his work broken down in terms of how he told a story, how he set up scenes, how he made clear visual transitions, how he always gave the reader enough information so that filling in the gaps between panels was easily, effortlessly performed in the reader’s imagination. I’d read so many Kirby books and never noticed this—which, of course, is the entire point. No potholes, just smooth road. That half hour pulled back a curtain for me, and I’ve been vastly more interested in the art of storytelling than of the artifice of “pretty pictures” ever since. Don’t get me wrong, I love beautiful drawing, but without the foundations of visual storytelling, gorgeous art really is just decoration. Attractive, but uninvolving, at arm’s length.

As Jim’s editor, I get the chance to see his philosophy at work in script form. I’ve never seen story blueprints so precise, so specific, so well-referenced, with such designed clarity. And it’s not as though Jim is creating such a complex architecture that the artist is reduced to merely pounding nails and painting drywall. In fact, Jim is doing the artist a favor—making sure he or she is aware of the necessary, pointing out the holes in the road, helping the artist keep the reader’s ride unimpeded.

At the inaugural C2E2 comics convention in Chicago in April, Jim and I had the chance to sit down and talk shop, something I really enjoy, and this was about as good as it gets. Jim's depth of storytelling knowledge is just ridiculous. At this point, I know a little something too, but I owe a good chunk of that to Jim’s lesson, and the lesson continues with every one of his scripts. Of course, now the lessons are more like three dollars fifty, but luckily there’s no inflation on priceless. Hopefully, when you read Solar, or Magnus, or Turok, your three fifty will feel amplified by the lifetime of commitment to storytelling in its pages. We’ll try to give you a smooth ride.

—Chris Warner

Chris Warner has worked for Dark Horse Comics since the very beginning. Legend says that he cannot be killed by conventional methods, but if you can behead him, you gain all of his worldly knowledge.

Follow-Up To

Blast from the Past Follow Friday Contest!

One lucky fans has the chance to win a special blast-from-the-past prize...
12-10-2010

Dark Horse Comics

Full Circle: The Return of Doctor Solar by Chris Warner

Tags

Recent Posts

Related Posts

Follow-Up To

Archive

Services

Sites

Company

Contact & News

Dark Horse Comics

Full Circle: The Return of Doctor Solar by Chris Warner

Related Articles

Blast from the Past Follow Friday Contest!

Tags

Subscribe

Recent Posts

Related Posts

Follow-Up To

Archive

Services

Sites

Company

Contact & News