WELCOME TO WEEK TWO! Amanda and I are navigating this new world of Zestworld and what we can offer daily with our right-hand Patrick Wedge at the wheel. Both of us feel if someone wants to subscribe via the paid subscription level, we better give them their money’s worth. We love that people are signing up for the free newsletter, but our focus is the content on the pay levels and making sure everyone is satisfied. Each week we will be doing more and more and bringing new ideas and content to our followers best we can, but we also encourage everyone to chime in and give us suggestions as well. That all said, thanks for being here and let’s move forward with some updates RED SONJA: Amanda and I have just finished issue 10 of our 10-issue run with the lovely red haired barbarian and the last issue is what we think last issues should always be, a fun conclusion to all the madness we introduced and a wrapping up of loose ends. Remember those books and movies you watched that when the end scene just finished you felt something was missing? Well, with the books we are involved with, we go out of our way to make sure we nail each and every loose end and hit the emotional beats as well in the process to give you a satisfied conclusion. Having Moritat AKA Justin Normal on the art helps this big time. His work on the series evolved with what we were doing during the run and you can see this with every single issue. My constant note to him was that the Barry Winsor Smith and Frank Thorne were our two of my favorite Sonja artists and any way he can somehow work their POV into his work would be awesome. In the end, we want him to do his thing, but as writers talking to artists, reference is extremely important to give an idea of tone and at time envisioned style. Same goes for color. Bad color can make or break a book, but in this case, Justin is coloring his own work and you can always tell when an artist does that, because there is detail in the work that only the person drawing it can get just right. His work on Red Sonja truly owns the title. WRITING PROCESS: On Red Sonja, Amanda and I work together each issue talking out what we want to happen in the issues story over dinners and late nights while we nail pivotal points of the story beats. Same goes for each character’s story arc. Once we are done, I get to work writing the script and it is a full script, establishing where they are, panel descriptions, characters gestures, and dialogue. When this is done, Amanda gives a quick read, and we send it to the editor. Once they accept it, the script goes to Justin, and he gets to work. About 3 weeks later we get a black and white copy and now Amanda gets the original script and the artwork and matches and rewrites the book to match the art better. This process takes her a bit, mainly because Amanda is a detail freak, but in the end the book is always better for it. When Amanda is done with the revised script, we shoot it over to Dynamic Dave Sharpe and he letters it while Justin finishes the color and Dave shoots the script back to Amanda and I and we take another pass on the dialogue while checking everything is in its right place. Once that is done, it is married together at Dynamite comics, and we are on to the next issue. It is involved and as a team we can drive the people around us crazy because we are both detail freaks, but in the end, we want the audience to get a flawless beautiful book for their hard-earned money. COMIC CONVENTIONS: While you are reading this we will have already done our first convention overseas, the Facts con in Belgium. Our next convention will be THE MOTOR CITY COMIC CON May 13-15th and this will be the location of the first LIVE Meet and Greet where people that subscribed to the ALL KNOWING ELITE level will get to be invited to join Amanda and I for a few drinks and a bite to eat in a local bar or restaurant by the convention. If you already joined, you will be notified, but to those on the fence and going to Motor City Comic Con, now is the perfect time to join and get this as one of the cool bonus levels. It’s going to be a blast for sure. Amanda and I are really looking forward to seeing a bunch of you. Don’t worry folks, we will be doing these in other towns as well…more to be announced. SCREENWRITING WITH CRAIG WEEDEN: As an additional feature of our newsletter, we’ll be spotlighting another fabulous creator we work with often, CRAIG WEEDEN. Craig’s biography is rich and diverse and a wealth of knowledge. So often, we’ve asked Craig to pull back the curtain of screenwriting to help you, the reader, gain a bit more knowledge on the subject. Craig plans to draw on his wide-ranging background to provide how-to tips for screenwriters that help, jaded opinions, insights into how language works, and anything else he stumbles across that might help writers in all disciplines achieve their goals. Craig’s bio: Craig Weeden – MA English, MFA Creative Writing – writes solo and with Jimmy Palmiotti. They were recently hired by MiLa Media to develop Jimmy’s graphic novel QUEEN CRAB into a TV series. Their graphic novel KILLING TIME IN AMERICA was published by PaperFilms. Two others are due out in 2022. Solo, Craig’s wrote the action thriller DARK RED for Leigh Simons Productions, then Leigh hired him to write a documentary. Craig’s crime thriller DIAMOND PAYBACK was optioned to Emmett Furla Oasis Films. Over a hundred of Craig’s poems, stories, and articles have appeared in such places as The Southern Poetry Review, New Orleans Review, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and Tennis. He’s also written program manuals for an investment software company. After serving in the Navy, Craig’s “day job” for many years was residential contracting. He lives in Clearwater, FL, with his wife, Victoria, an attorney, and the bossy dog they rescued, Robbie. Another Link in the Chain Hello! Welcome to the inaugural issue of “Screenwriting with Craig.” In this column, I’ll provide a deep-dive look into the art of screenwriting, commentary on related arts, insights on how language works, and even a bit of philosophy that might clarify how your work fits into the artistic world. My target audience here is both young and veteran screenwriters. By young I’m referring to how long you’ve been writing screenplays, not chronological age. Since I’m assuming most of the readers of this column will tend toward the younger end of the spectrum, I’ll initially focus on building your story so you can get your screenplay up and running. Then I’ll move on to the more esoteric stuff. However, as a veteran screenwriter (and workshop instructor), I’ve found revisiting the basics to be inspirational and energizing. I’ve also found that sometimes, as you gain more experience and your writing skills evolve, you’re able to get more out of the basics, or any how-to text you’ve read previously. The “great truths” seem to make more sense. If your goal with screenwriting is to achieve any amount of success, you’ll ultimately have to put in the hours to learn your art. And yes, writing is an art. You need to take it seriously. You need to understand what you’re trying to do under the words. Poet Miller Williams once asked me, “Why are you telling me this?” Stan Lee said, “Every story should have a meaning.” Hmm. Once you’ve figured out what your story means, you’ve got to write it in way that attracts producers, i.e., money. Great stories are the heart blood of Hollywood. Alfred Hitchcock said, “To make a great film, you need three things – the script, the script and the script.” I’d like to amend that to say, “To get any film made, you need a great script, money, and a boatload of luck.” The inciting incident that gets most of us into writing screenplays is seeing a film that’s so amazingly moving you become obsessed with writing a story that evokes a similar intensity of emotions. Or you see a film that sucks so bad you say, “Damn it! Even I can do better than that.” Either way, it isn’t long before you’re sitting in a coffee shop, staring at your laptop… Which is something storytellers have been doing since caveman days, sitting around a campfire, staring at the dancing flames… What was the purpose of their stories? First and foremost, the tales provided entertainment. But they also taught lessons about survival, culture, heroes… As did Homer’s epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, which were written in the late 8th or early 7th century BC…. As did the Viking sagas from about a thousand years ago… As did the international poetry and plays that predated the printing press (about 1436), and the poetry, plays, and novels that followed… As did the renowned porch front storytellers in the American south… As you might be doing right now, sitting in that coffee shop, staring at your laptop… My point is, here in 2022, you are part of long continuum of storytellers. You are another link in the chain. An important link. Don’t let anything stop you from telling your story. Write on! -- Here are a few resources: Free screenwriting software -- Celtx and WriterDuet. Others available online. Final Draft is the “industry standard,” but it costs. Student rates available. Assuming you’re working alone, not in a writing program: Save the Cat – Blake Snyder Writing for Emotional Impact – Karl Iglesias Dr. Format Tells All (4th edition) – Dave Trottier Merriam-Webster’s Guide to Punctuation and Style UNLEASH YOUR INNER DIRECTOR Craig also recently had an incredible article published going over more tips and hints on screenwriting. You can find that here: https://pipelineartists.com/unleash-your-inner-director-writing-graphic-novels-vs-screenplays/ That's it for this week folks. We hope that you are enjoying the content we're working hard at providing you! This has been a blast for us. If you continue to be interested in this and more, be sure to check out our website store for signed books, digital downloads, original artwork and so much more. Head on over to www.paperfilms.com and check out some amazing items!