![\"FCBD_Construction_01\"](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FCBD_Construction_01.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nUsing the short story that preceded it as a guide, Barber\u2019s treatment focuses essentially on one page, discussing how the page is transformed from script to finished product through a number of steps.\u00a0 In a nutshell, these are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Creation of a plot\/script<\/li>\n
- Generation of rough thumbnail sketches showing panel configuration and action layout<\/li>\n
- Detailed penciling based on the thumbnails<\/li>\n
- Inking of the penciled page<\/li>\n
- Coloring of the inked page<\/li>\n
- Lettering and captioning<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For the most part, the creation of the plot\/script is not covered.\u00a0 No details are given about how the creator gets started, what points should be covered in the writing, how to pace the panels, or any other details.<\/p>\n
Barber simply provides the bare-bones description of what a plot\/script is and, despite its brevity, this description is actually quite revealing of his point-of-view on the creative process and the writer\u2019s role.\u00a0 Specifically, he says that the script is the writer\u2019s way of describing each and every panel via the panel description, which provides a verbal summary of the image the reader will see, and the dialog, which contains what each character will say (and I suppose what captions, if any, will be used to provide exposition).<\/p>\n
As way of an example, the following page of script is offered to describe a particularly action-packed page in the story.<\/p>\n
![\"FCBD_Construction_script\"](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FCBD_Construction_script.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBarber characterizes the panel description as the writer\u2019s method for telling the artist \u201cwho\u2019s doing what (and sometimes why!).\u201d This terse and seemingly innocent sentence suggests that Barber is endorsing a method that is very much like what Gaiman presented in his \u2018behind the scenes\u2019 look at the creation of Sandman<\/a>.\u00a0 The emphasis is on the writer calling the shots in the story-telling and it is from his mind that the visuals come.\u00a0 The artist\u2019s job is to render the scene for the writer, according to the writer\u2019s conception, with small visual changes either due to aesthetic or to technical details, but with little input on the overall storytelling structure.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, this is a lot to read into a few sentences, but given that this \u2018how-to\u2019 was part of the Marvel Free Comic Book Day offering in 2005, a showcase for Marvel creativity, and that the refined tastes of the modern young reader are more visual now than ever before, I think that it speaks volumes.<\/p>\n
Further evidence of a writer-centric approach can be found in narrative that accompanies the four figures presented in the later pages showing how the writer\u2019s description transitioned from thumbnail sketches (a), to pencils (b), to an inked page (c), and finally to colors and letters (d).<\/p>\n
![\"FCBD_Page_Construction_Stacked\"](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FCBD_Page_Construction_Stacked.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAccording to the text, the thumbnails are produced by the artist and then sent to the editor (in this particular case, Barber) for confirmation that the rendering is following the writer\u2019s plan and leaves ample space for dialog and captions.\u00a0 After the editor gives his approval, the artist produces pencils that mostly match the thumbnails, although a side-by-side comparison of panels 1 and 3, show that the artist has changed the composition from the original conception. However, the artist doesn\u2019t deviate, even in this case, from the panel description originally proposed by the writer.<\/p>\n
Consider panel 1 that has changed most from the original thumbnail.\u00a0 In both compositions, the basic idea is preserved as can be seen by comparing the final panel version directly with the panel description provided by the writer.<\/p>\n
![\"FCBD_Panel1\"](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/FCBD_Panel1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBarber does touch upon a more collaborative component to this work when he discusses panel 1 during the inking step.\u00a0 He says that the action is pretty complex and that to make it clear \u201cwe put our heads together to figure out how to make the panel work.\u201d\u00a0 The result of this collaborative group-think was to omit certain details of Spider-Man\u2019s costume as being obscured by the mid-section of Mr. Fantastic as he begins to turn visible.\u00a0 Again, this input on the story-telling is confined to technical details of the visuals but doesn\u2019t touch the story or plot itself.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s most remarkable about this presentation is the implication that the artist\u2019s job is to render the writer\u2019s concept \u2013 not to embellish or change it.\u00a0 I am sure that embellishment does happen but when and under what circumstances it occurs is not touched upon.\u00a0\u00a0 I must admit that I found this \u201821st<\/sup>-century\u2019 Marvel way surprising after many of the traveler\u2019s tales I have heard at various conventions and Marvel\u2019s own press about the central role of the artist in the storytelling.\u00a0 Perhaps the most well-known example that Marvel has presented about the impact of the artist on the story is famous page 12 from X-Men #57 where Neal Adams as the Beast falling from the roof of a skyscraper.<\/p>\n