The Comics How To... ORIGINS - THE BOB: NON-UNION PSYCHIC SCREENPLAY

All the elements that I feel necessary are in place to start writing a story. But first, I want to give a name to the main character. I chose Robert Holbreck. Holbreck is totally made up. Robert is a common formal name that I will reduce to plain old Bob. Bob is short and sweet, plus, it will pop up first in an alphabetical search.

Next, I wanted a title for this project. I knew for sure that I wanted BOB in the title for alphabetical and search purposes. I didn’t think too hard on this; I kept it simple — BOB: NON-UNION PSYCHIC. It’s not so much a title as it is a statement. Going back to the through-line/main plot, the theme, I wanted the title to reflect the idea that an individual can still make their way in the world without having to be accepted to any kind of organization. So, I’m not knocking unions, I want to get that straight right now. The title could’ve easily been BOB: INDEPENDENT PSYCHIC or the like, but I wanted to make sure the title reflected the content of the story accurately.

I have mentioned that BOB: NON-UNION PSYCHIC started as a feature film screenplay. I was not going to wait for any establishment to produce the project, so that meant I had to find an economically feasible way to get this story out to the masses. I wasn“t sure how I was going to do it until I reconnected with an old writing partner, Adam Volle.

Adam and I collaborated on a screenplay adapted from an awesome short story he wrote many years ago. At the time we were working on the script, one of Adams short stories was published in a comic compilation. I felt he was the real deal and I wanted to work with him. The screenplay we worked on got on the table at a few places and in the hands of a few reputable producers and agents, but no dice. Since nothing came of the project, we ended up going our separate ways.

Many years later I had an idea about the screenplay we had wrote, so I tracked Adam down and told him that I had submitted the screenplay to publishers, but found out there was no real market for publishing screenplays. Adam had a better idea; why not turn it into a graphic novel? Great idea, but I felt that the story was not commercial enough. I had something that was, though. I pitched him BOB: NON-UNION PSYCHIC and he was interested, so I sent him the screenplay. After he read it, he agreed to work on an adaptation for a one-shot comic book script.

Now, let me just explain a little bit about Adam — he is to comic books as I am to cinema — he knows his shit. I was in good hands because as the saying goes, “I know a guy.” And the guy I knew helped me get it done.

The major battle had already been fought, and that was writing the story. I had already finished the screenplay and now it was just about condensing a meaty 112-page screenplay down to a 30-page comic book. We wanted the story to be an introduction the world of this renegade psychic, professional hairstylist and nothing more at this point. A number zero (#0).

As a screenplay writer I’m used to a certain structure and format. Now, I“m not going to discuss the screenplay writing process, but I will touch briefly on my study resources. I thoroughly studied two books relating to screenplay writing, The Screen-Writers Handbook by Constance Nash and Virginia Oakey and Making a Good Script Great 1st Edition by Linda Seger. I skimmed Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting and a few others, but my best education was finding and reading screenplays.

I found the best way to organize a comic book script was to follow a screenwriting process. Basically, I loosely followed a 30-minute episodic television series structure, which is a condensed version of a full-length feature screenplay. I felt this format best fit the comic book feel and pace.

Having established the technical aspects of what the road map to the finished project would be, I felt comfortable with progressing forward.

It“s time to write this comic book!

For more information about the BOB: NON-UNION PSYCHIC world, visit the Warehouse 9 Productions site HERE