Should More Comic Book Writers Write Comic Book Movies?

[Detective Conan]

This is a topic that’s been in my head for a bit of a while, but I was wondering what you folks think of comic book writers being more involved in the scripting for comic book scripts? We’ve had some precedent of comic book writers writing comic book films - look no further than Daniel Clowes co-writing the script for the Ghostworld and also we’ve seen Geoff Johns co-write the first two WW films but do you think this should be the standard or no? I can see an argument against this because comics and movies are totally different mediums and just because you’re good at writing for one medium doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good doing it for another medium. What’s your take?

 

[MarvelFan]

I always curious with what Christopher Yost's Thor 3 original script and treatment really looks like before Taika Waititi jumps in and change the direction of the movie.

 

[Sithborg]

It is one of those things that doesn't have one answer. Because, much like the difference between movie and television, comic writing is a whole another world than script writing.Some are good at it. As much as it pains me, Whedon's Astonishing run was pretty good. And there are those that won't be good at it. (looking at you Guggenheim)

 

[MarvelFan]

It is one of those things that doesn't have one answer. Because, much like the difference between movie and television, comic writing is a whole another world than script writing.Some are good at it. As much as it pains me, Whedon's Astonishing run was pretty good. And there are those that won't be good at it. (looking at you Guggenheim)

I thought that the only good thing from Joss' Astonishing X-Men was John Cassaday's art.
For the story...I prefer Kieron Gillen, Ed Brubaker, Craig Kyle/Christopher Yost combo, or Matt Fraction's writing over Joss in terms of X-Men.

 

[Babillygunn]

Great question. I think that it depends on the writer. Jeph Loeb obviously did well with the Daredevil series on Netflix. (He also did the classic Teen Wolf with Michael J Fox. Not sure if that’s a plus or not, but I’d say it was.)

And if you have never seen the animated Death of Superman movie, I think that it is still my favorite film adaptation of Superman and it was written by Peter Tomasi.

I also would love to see Tom King write a movie, because his books have a cinematic feel to them.

So I think it is something that should happen more often.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

No. Two entirely different mediums. Keep them separate.

 

[BobJM]

And if you have never seen the animated Death of Superman movie, I think that it is still my favorite film adaptation of Superman and it was written by Peter Tomasi.

J.M. DeMatteis wrote a couple of the DC animated movies too, including Red Son. And Winnick adapted his own work for Under the Red Hood (and probably improved by streamlining the narrative). Love when they get comic writers to work on those movies. Still can’t believe Marvel isn’t doing these…

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Well one might argue that movie storyboards and comics are somewhat similar.

 

[Babillygunn]

Well one might argue that movie storyboards and comics are somewhat similar.

Comics writers actually are more scriptwriters than anything. The actual writing is very similar.

 

[Joe Von Zombie]

As someone who's studied both in college, there's not too much different in terms of formatting. Final Draft, the industry standard software supports both formats natively. They're both incredibly similar.

 

[moviedoors]

As someone who's studied both in college, there's not too much different in terms of formatting. Final Draft, the industry standard software supports both formats natively. They're both incredibly similar.

The software is similar, but this is just from what I've seen, but it looks like comic scripts are way more granular than movie scripts. The comic ones I've seen all are broken down panel by panel. I've never seen a movie script that literally broke down every single set-up on the page.

Granted I've read about 1000 times more movie scripts than I have comic scripts.

 

[Herofan]

I would like to see J. M. DeMatteis at least co-write a superhero film, he's not perfect, he's got some excesses but he has really good instincts both for characters and story and I think he would particularly understand and respect and do well with the differences between comics and film.

He may be controversial/more derided now but I think Jeph Loeb did quite well with both comics and television scripts and think he should have at least to more change to now contribute to/co-write a major script.