Mapping the Story

As I continue to work through this series, the most common questions I get asked relate to how it actually gets written: Is the story already written out? or more specifically - Do I start with a general idea, specific script, or any planning at all before I start drawing each page?

Since I'm working from a story told to me over the course of an evening at a local bar, I had an oral narrative to work from. However, given that it was a drunken conversation, and the source (no offence, Carl) wasn't the most coherent or thorough storyteller, I was left with little more than a basic framework of plot points and loosely defined characters. From there I created the first volume, "Lost Southern Cross", one page at a time - relying on an organic process to let the story unfold as I saw each page emerge before me. This allowed me to gauge the success or failure of visual and written elements as I went along, rather than commit myself to a direction that might not do justice to Carl's Story.

As I proceeded through the second volume, "Shadow Play," it was clear that I needed to script out the story in a more organized manner to ensure continuity, and that process has become more diligent as I completed the third volume, "The Protégé," and now find myself working through the fourth.

Even with the increased planning and scripting, my approach has been to allow for as much organic development in the story as possible. I've found that leaving space for each page to develop independently and impact the direction of the next page - and rest of the narrative- has served Carl's Story well.

While I'm confident in this approach for this project, my advice for anyone thinking about creating a graphic novel is to thoroughly script out your story first. By that I mean write it out panel by panel, with descriptions or sketches of the action in each so you can monitor balance between text and image, and also keep an eye on overall pace. Art and text serve different purposes in a graphic novel and should compliment each other in service of the story, not fight each other for the reader's attention.


Progress To Date On Book 4 - I've scripted and inked 13 pages so far (2 today). I'm not sure exactly how long this installment will be, but I'm assuming 50-70 pages as that has been the norm for the previous volumes.

sneak peak - Carl and Jeff enjoying a night out, Suzie keeping a caring eye on Charlie, and a mysterious stranger taking in the music. *Bonus points if you can guess the band that's playing.

The evolution of a drunken bar tale into a five volume graphic novel series

Me and Carl, November 2009

In 2009, while at at my local bar, I found myself sitting next to Carl. He was another regular, but rarely spoke to anyone except the staff, and usually just to order another drink. He was an old, broken down, surly bastard whom everyone was content to leave alone. However, this was a slow night; not many people around to chat with, so I decided to break the ice and ask Carl, "So, what's your story?" I'm not sure if he was trying to scare me off with the tale he began to tell, or if he'd just simply been waiting for someone to ask, but either way - he shared a story so unique and unbelievable that I promised to turn it into a graphic novel for the world to enjoy. With the first three volumes now completed, I'm left with the final two to finish his story. As I work to finish the last two installments, I'll use this blog to post progress and insights into the evolution of this project. Check back often to track the development and ultimate completion of "Carl's Story."