Comic Books and Screenplays

Wayne and I started taking a screenwriting class last Thursday. I think I have found my thing with screenwriting and teleplays. I have never had this much fun writing, so I am going to stick with till I get it right. (Update, I have now begun to get rejection letters from L.A., very exciting!) I have several projects that I am working on and Wayne and I have an Oscar winning screenplay we want to write together; hence the class.

So you go in to class not knowing what to expect when in walks this bundle of excitement and energy named Mitch Hyman. He starts talking 10 minutes before class was to have started and went for 2 hours after that without any lose of enthusiasm for his subject, or lack of interest from the students. When he asked if we wanted a break everyone was said no, keep going. Now at first I was slightly leery because Mitch said the first class would be about writing comic books. In fact Mr. Hyman is well known for his creation, “Bubba the Redneck Werewolf”. What do I know or care about comic books, “aren’t comic books just for superheroes and action stories?” I asked. Long story short, Mitch showed us how writing a comic book has similarities with writing a screenplay. Both are for a visual media, and you have to think about showing the action and not telling it. In fact what is a comic book if not a story board? Very interesting!

At the end of class he gave us a writing exercise to make a comic out a Miss Muffet the nursery rhyme. We could do what ever we wanted with the characters and storyline, so I made Miss Muffet into Detective Missy Muffet, spider hunting cop. I am having so much fun with my story; if I get an A, maybe I’ll post some of it here. If I don’t get an A, I’ll add it to my stack of rejection letters.