Panel One: Comic Book Scripts by Top Writers

Rating:
Summary: mediocre
Review: I'm an artist and i bought this book for script ideas to help me practice. This book is a good idea but a bad follow through. The only problem is I wish that they'd used better comic books as examples. I've never heard of over half of the comics in this book (A man called AX?)but if you don't care about that then it's alright.

Rating:
Summary: Why didn't some body think of this sooner?
Review: It seems like such an obvious good idea.
It's a wonderful glimpse into the creative process.

Just received it last night, and I'm already half through it. I haven't done that since I was eleven and got Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Not that this book has any similarity to that one. This is not a how to book. Its a more intimate, than any instructional book. Its a similar difference in experience to watching a biography to reading someones private correspondence. The presentation adds to the feeling as well.

Better than seeing pencils, better than watching a demo, or hearing someone try to explain the creative process. You actually see it and are part of it because this is what the artist sees, while he is in the process.

As a comic book fan for years and creative hopeful (which I believe is a large part of the intended audience), I hope this is first in a long line.
Great job, thanks Mr. Gertler.

Rating:
Summary: Why didn't some body think of this sooner?
Review: One thing that's bugged me in my various efforts at writing a comic book script is that no reference I checked seemed to agree as to what format is right. As this book explains, that's because there IS no "right" or "wrong" format, just different ways to do it.

Every script in this volume shows you something. Gaiman's reads like a personal note to the artist, Wolfman shows how plot-first can work, McDuffie shows you how to work in a recap, Kevin Smith shows a more movie-script style of writing and Kurt Busiek's entry... heck, when I read the original comic book I thought it was one of the greatest comic book stories I ever read, but the script for "The Nearness of You" just made it all the more powerful.

If you want to try to write comics, you could do a lot worse than picking up this book.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT FOR THE ASPIRING COMIC WRITER!
Review: This is a great text that takes you through the creative process of several unique writing styles. The variety of script and drawings from a host of authors, really made this book encouraging to the aspiring comic writer. I'm looking forward to getting Panel Two when it comes out.