Writing for Comics with Peter David

David, Peter. Writing for Comics with Peter David. Cincinnati, OH: Impact, 2006.

Peter David brings his more than two decades of experience as a comics writer, including a well known stint as a writer of The Incredible Hulk, to bear on the subject of writing for comics. David’s book is mainly a guide to writers who want to break into comics, but it’s also written to appeal to comics fans who want a better understanding of their favorite medium.

To some degree, good writing is good writing, so much of the advice David provides could be useful to fiction writers in general. Conflict, character, setting, plot and pacing are things all fiction writers must handle. David draws on examples from other media, especially movies, to illustrate his points.

Even so, comics have there own conventions, traditions and techniques. David deals with some of the unique elements of comics directly such as script style, speech balloons, continuity and writing instructions for artists. Mostly, relevant techniques are dealt with as they arise in discussing writing for comics.

The main audience of the book is writers, so it deals with art, editing and other elements of comics from the standpoint of the writer’s place. All writers need to understand the craft of writing; comics writers also need to understand the craft of making comics since he not only writes a story, but also a script that gives shape to the final product, often page-by-page and frame-by-frame.



David’s advice can be taken more as guidelines as rules. One of his repeated points is to do what works. Even in his own writing, he adapts his script style and level of detail according to the story he is telling, the artist he is working with and the expectations of his editor.

Even though David doesn’t lay out one way, he does show the better ways and the danger zones. Someone wanting to write for comics will find a lot to help him do it well and possibly break into the tight market (including advice from a Marvel editor on pitching a story and detailed script guidelines from Dark Horse).

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card