Philly Comic Con: Writing and Editing in Comics with Swierczynski & Edmondson

Hey Infinites. I got another panel I wanted to breakdown for you from the Philadelphia Comic Con aka Wizard World Philly. This time, we swing over to the writer side of things as I go in Sunday afternoon to the Writing and Editing in Comics Panel featuring Nathan Edmondson and Duane Swierczynski.

  As I and a friend entered the panel room, we noticed children in cosplay slowly making their way out the door. A man with blond hair and a hat on came up to me and my friend as asked us what room this was. I had said Room B when he said, "Thanks. I'm in the right room." Low and behold, it was Nathan Edmondson.

   I smiled at that and took my seat. Taking out my notebook, like I did in previous panels, I looked around when Swierczynski walked in the room with a book bag, taking a seat next to Edmondson on stage. After the children cosplayers left (some of them had some really great costumes), the panel began.

   Swierczynski started first, going over his start in comics with Cable and Iron Fist, mentioning his current comic book series, Birds of Prey for DC, the recently debuted Godzilla for IDW and the upcoming July release of the new Bloodshot ongoing.  He went on to describe that he goes his start writing crime novels and that when he broke into comics, he started by just pitching.

   "Make no mistake. I didn't just get a contract to write comics. If you are a good storyteller, you start out not by getting the contract but by pitching," stated Swierczynski.

    Swierczynski went on to stated about his love for comics growing up and his writing with crime noir novels. After he plugged his current work again, Edmondson took over.

  "I wasn't a big comic fan growing up," Edmondson reminisced. He went on stated that he started by writing stories even thought that was not what he was going to college for,earning a degree in art history. His love for comics ignited thanks to a particularly legendary artist. "I was living in . . .Georgia; living down the road from Tony Harris."

   Talking with Harris lead to Edmondson breaking in to comics yet admitted that his art history degree makes him picky when it comes to the artist but Edmondson gives off the sentiment why he loves comics. "It is the last great bastion of art where artist get paid."

Swierczynski added his love for comics by stating, "It's like Christmas everyday."

Edmondson continued stating that his writing, he always felt, was good but always could be better. He revealed that he is like that cause of his father, who is a scholarly writer. Edmondson's father, as the writer told, would always look at his stuff and say it was good but never overly compliment; which pushed the writer to get better and better. He described how he wrote Olympus and more to the point where he is currently writing The Activity and working on an upcoming Marvel project.

  After that, Swierczynski talked about the difference between writing novels and writing comics. "In novels, there are no limits. In comics, you have this limited space. In novels, it was just actions and people . In comics, it made me write descriptions of everything."

   After going on about how he needed to describe pictures and the script format for comics, Swierczynski talked about how he goes over his over all plots and storylines." I like to write myself into a corner so it lights     a fire on my backside." Going on that he doesn't plot everything but rather picks a starting point and a destination.

 Edmondson continued that with a glowing example as to how he sets up his stories. "It's like driving from here to LA. I know where the story starts. I know where the story will end up but I don't know all the beats. I don't know what's gonna happen along the way. I may have a flat tire. I might have to drive through rain and snow.  . . all these things will affect the story and while originally, I was gonna go to LA; I might have changed my mind and go to Scacramento. It depends on what happens in the story and the characters."

  When asked about how to break in the business and how to do so, Swierczynski advised to get a mentor while Edmondson gave some interesting device. "Do creator owned stuff to be published by someone else, NOT self-published. That is one of the biggest issues with people wanting to break in the business. Self-publishing . . . does not count."

After a few more stories and answered questions, the writers thanked all for attending. It was a really good panel with some very eye opening information. Still, a great way to learn something new on a Sunday afternoon.