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Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: fonda lee, marvel, sword master
Award-Winning Fantasy Author Fonda Lee Joins Marvel's Sword Master
Marvel is bringing another author from the world of prose fiction to comics. Award-winning writer Fonda Lee will join Marvel's Sword Master starting with October's Sword Master #4, the publisher revealed on their website Friday.
In an interview, Lee described the difference in writing for comics vs. prose.
Coming into comics as a novelist, there were a few big differences to get used to. I'm accustomed to working on a novel for a year or more by myself. I control the entire storyline and all the characters, and I know how the story begins and ends. With comics, the writers might have an overall idea of where the story is going, but it's developing month-by-month in rapid cycles and going to print within weeks. And I'm playing in someone else's sandbox, so to speak, when it comes to the world and the characters, so we have to keep an eye over our shoulder on what's happened, happening, or going to happen elsewhere in that story world.
I also had to adjust to the fact that in comics, most of my words aren't intended for the final reader. They're meant for the artist (in this case, the fantastic Ario Anindito), who will use those words to bring the story to life on the page. So I'm not agonizing over choice of adjectives or construction of a sentence the way I am in a novel; instead I'm learning to focus on visual snapshots and explaining the story in a script that will be useful and inspiring to Ario.
In short, comics is a far more rapid, free-flowing, collaborative creative environment. That presents challenges as well as fantastic opportunities. There's a sense of "we're all making this up together as we go along" energy that is both mildly terrifying as well as very energizing and freeing, and it's a nice counterpoint to the way I work on novels. Fortunately, I had about as painless an entry into comics writing as I could get because I'm co-writing with the immensely experienced and talented Greg Pak. It's really been an absolutely ideal way to come in.
You can read the full interview at Marvel.com.
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