ome folks like comics. Some folks love comics. But to a certain subspecies of comic-book fan, there is no greater fate than breaking into the industry and becoming part of the unique creative process that goes into the making of this unique American art form. The ambition is so widespread that creators and publishers spend a unseemly percentage of their public appearance time answering the same hopeful questions from fans hungry to proceed to the next stage.
With Countdown to Wednesday (a reference to the weekday new comic books appear in specialty stores), Top Cow Publishing has assembled a number of writers, artists, editors, letterers, colorists and production folk to talk about what goes into a successful submission. There's also attention paid to self-publishing and the mechanics of distribution.
The format is a series of talking heads, categorized by topic, with pop-up captions designed to look like the blocks of narration in a comic book. The writers, who go first, are the most inclined to wax rhapsodic about their personal visions of story. The artists, colorists and letterers tend to give more concrete information. Among them, artist Mark Silvestri is most effective, deglamorizing the act of creation by explaining how comic-book artists have to draw every day, and not just when they're feeling inspired; much of his job, he says, consists of knowing when to be satisfied with each panel, even if it's less than brilliantly rendered, so he can go on to the next one.
When titans go on and on about their work
Countdown to Wednesday is no fannish romp, but probably more than most people want to know about breaking into the business and what to expect if they get there. Viewers who like the art form, but have no interest in joining the industry, will most likely bail out before its 110 minutes are up; viewers who watch the entire thing, and its extras, can be claimed to have already proved their heart is in the right place.
Which is not to say that there aren't entertaining moments. The creators, including writers Mark Waid and Paul Dini, display a great deal of enthusiasm for their work. The pop-up text provides some amusing moments as well; there's one memorable moment when a sober, pontificating Stan Lee strings together several words beginning with the same letter, and a pop-up comments, accurately enough, that alliteration has always been one of his trademarks.
Stan Lee provides another sobering moment in the form of his passionate public service announcement for ACTOR, an organization designed to help comic-book creators of the past who have fallen on bad financial times. The rest of the DVD is about breaking into the business; this announcement is a vivid reminder that it's not always an easy path to riches. When another extra is a look at what goes into becoming an unpaid intern, it becomes doubly clear that those who enter the industry do so out of sheer love for the work.
Other extras include a visit to a Top Cow production meeting, a look at some Top Cow art with audio commentary, and DVD-ROM resources.
