WARREN ELLIS, SOBRE A ESCRITA DE QUADRINHOS. DE NOVO.

Embora meu relacionamento recente com a feitura de histórias em quadrinhos esteja sendo, no mínimo, supérfluo, eu ainda costumo prestar atenção nesse assunto.

Na última edição da sua newsletter, Orbital Operations, Warren Ellis decidiu, mais uma vez, falar um pouco sobre seu processo para escrever quadrinhos.

Ele menciona dois pontos, en passant, mas acho que são dois conselhos, se posso dizer assim, muito úteis a quem pretende se aventurar no meio.

O primeiro assunto são pitchs, as propostas que os autores fazem às editoras.

But. There are simple rules to consider. Like this one -- the entire first page is not the useful part of your pitch. 90% of your pitch happens in the first three or four lines. You need to understand that most pitches are shit. The one that has an arresting, crackling opening paragraph is the one that gets read all the way through.

Above the title TREES in the pitch for that book is

What if aliens landed on Earth and just didn’t notice the human race?

That, then the title, then my name and Jason's, then into sketching out the idea.

Once upon a time

there were five crazy people

and they poisoned

the 21st Century.

That's the top of the INJECTION pitch document.

Em seguida, ele fala sobre construir roteiros a partir de anotações brutas, ou melhor, sobre jogar as ideias no papel o quanto antes, e deixar a formatação para depois.

Here's a bit of the rough from INJECTION 8:

FLASHBACK -

INT. A SCHOOLROOM - desks and chairs. VERY YOUNG VIVEK, a teenager, sitting on a chair next to the teacher's desk up front by the blackboard. Snow at the windows on the right of the panel, late winter afternoon. The TEACHER is female, 30s, attractive, dressed in black, somewhat severe, black hair.

Your method of reason is interesting, but flawed.

How? I've been turning the entire structure of the method around in my mind for six months. I see no flaw.

This is because you are unconsciously tainted by scientism, fiction and the arrogance of youth.

I mean, it's a fascinating revamp of inductive detection. But I can show you the flaw if you give me... thirty minutes of your time.

She passes him a large KEY.

Go and lock the door.

I know who's talking. I have an idea of how many panels that will break into. But it's in its raw form, just the information - I can fly through a job like that and then go back and break it down and rewrite it into script. Sometimes it's the best way to get it down, while it's all fresh and happening, without pausing for formatting and pacing and all that. Getting it down is the main thing. The fixing can happen later.

Para se ter uma ideia, o trecho descrito acima, roteirizado e desenhado, ficou assim:

É uma cena onde predominam os diálogos, então a versão formatada não deve ter mudado tanto em relação às notas.

Mesmo assim, é possível observar que todas as informações que importam para essa página estão lá.

Aliás, recomendo fortemente INJECTION. Ellis, Shalvey e Bellaire, todo mês me deixando curioso sobre o que acontecerá na próxima edição.