One More Proposal

And the lesson here for writers is brevity is essential (unless the real lesson is: Willingham sure likes to show off — in this case his hand printing).

I spent a good part of my more than forty years in the industry too poor to afford a computer, or a dedicated word processor, or even a typewriter. Nearly up until the time I began writing Fables, which paid well enough to be able to afford such extravagances, I wrote my proposals, and comic scripts by hand. Once in a great while I shared living space or studio space with someone who did have a computer (which is, for example, how Pantheon skipped being hand-written), but otherwise it was all down to hand, pen, and lined paper.

The trick was writing in a script (block printing in my case) others could read.

Here’s one that Vertigo requested: they asked for a Corinthian one-shot, but ultimately didn’t like it.

One advantage of hand-written comic proposals is it encourages even greater brevity, as this takes actual work. Comic pitches should be only a few pages long (since editors notoriously hate reading). Bringing one in under five pages is a good start towards getting it read.

I have the dubious distinction of being the last freelancer from whom DC would accept handwritten scripts.

After handing in my nearly 100 page hand-printed manuscript for Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of Dream, Shelly Bond finally put her foot down and required I get a computer, like everyone else in the waning 20th century. She even offered to buy it for me, out of her own pocket (because DC didn’t spring for such things), which is one of the things I’ll always treasure about working with her. But by that time I’d received the pretty big (finally get ahead on my meager living expenses) check for the Merv job and was able to afford one on my own.

I was pretty happy with this story idea, but someone in the approval chain didn’t like it, which is the hazard of attempting to toil in borrowed vineyards.