WALKING THROUGH GALACTICA WITH GREG PAK

[MattBrady]

by Greg Pak

When the fine folks here Newsarama and Dynamite asked if I’d be willing to do a DVD-style commentary for Battlestar Galactica #1, little did they realize they’d awakened a monster. I love talking about writing and making comics — analyzing my own process and learning about other creators’ strategies play a big role in my ongoing effort to grow as a writer. And I’ve always found that the more specific the talk is, the more helpful it can be. So read on for page-by-page (and sometimes panel-by-panel) thoughts on the practical creative decisions that went into writing and producing Battlestar Galactica #1.

Please note — the following contains many, many SPOILERS!

Page One

One of the nice things about comics is that a writer has several chances to get it right — at the script stage, at the ballooning stage, and one last time during the proofing. In this case, I realized at the ballooning stage that the locator/identifier captions on this page were necessary — they’re redundant for anyone picking up the book immediately after reading Battlestar Galactica #0, but for new readers or for folks who may have read #0 months ago, they’re critical, particularly since a number of our characters go by multiple names.

Regarding the layout, the first page of a comic book needs to pop — life’s too short for most people to keep reading unless they’re thrilled in the first instant, which is one reason so many comics open with gorgeous, dramatic splash pages. But here we’re dealing with three different locations — a common situation when you’re telling stories about characters dispersed across a fleet of ships. To set up the scene traditionally might require as many as six panels in order to show each character and the exterior of each character’s ship. Add two more panels for the next plot point, and we end up with eight panels on Page One. Not ideal. The solution? A big, layered splash filling three quarters of the page with the heads of the main characters superimposed alongside their ships.

Pages Two and Three

In the original script, Pages Two and Three were reversed — we went directly from Page One into Kara’s montage-like memory scenes. But at the ballooning stage, I realized that a jump like that might be too much for new readers who don’t yet know what’s going on. Switching the pages let us get in a bit more exposition earlier, which lets new readers get the most out of the big montage page when it comes later.

The image of Kara and Zak making love was inspired directly by the flashback scenes from the television show. Nigel Raynor, the penciler, and David Curiel and Captain Moreno, the colorists, did a great job with this. In particular, I like that they used different color palettes for the lovemaking splash image and the smaller inset flashback images. If everything had been colored the same way, it would be too hard to appreciate the different layers of the page properly.




Page Four

I love that Nigel remembered to keep drawing the smoke in the backgrounds. I’m a big believer in stuff in the air, in both comics and movies. Every John Woo movie has ridiculous amounts of stuff in the air — dust, debris, feathers, flour — anything that can swirl gorgeously in slow motion. The same thing works nicely in comics — it gives a feeling of density, atmosphere, and movement. Similarly, there are some nice coloring effects in Adama’s C.I.C. -- the lights have a nice glow around them, which gives a sense of a bit of haze in the air.




Page Five

Another nice coloring effect — the colors in Panel One, which shows Lee in his Viper, are cooler and more washed out than the colors of Adama in Panel Two. It’s one of those subtle details that helps us immediately understand that these are separate locations. It can be a bit of a taboo to cut from one location to another on the same page of a comic. But the logistics of Battlestar Galactica require those kinds of cuts — it’s nice to have colorists helping make those transitions clear. (Check out Battlestar Galactica #0 for more great examples of this coloring strategy.)

In a different comic book, I’d probably have given the explosion in the last panel a nice, socky, comic book sound effect. But the Battlestar Galactica television show works hard to stay as true as possible to scientific realities — you wouldn’t hear an explosion in outer space, so we let the image carry the scene. (For that matter, it’s debatable how much fire and smoke you’d actually see in space, but, hey, we had to show something!)




Page Six

Again, more stuff in the air. I dig the flying shells in the second panel. I also like Nigel’s choice of silhouetting the Cylons as they get shot in the third panel. It’s consistent with the lighting of the scene and it’s just nice to have different ways of looking at things. Throughout the book, Nigel does a great job of finding different angles within a scene.

Character-wise, I like the notion that Zak’s a good shot. We’re playing up the notion from the television show that he wasn’t cut out to be a pilot. But we’re introducing the idea that Zak has his own set of skills, his own identity that we’re getting to know a bit about…

For the latest on Greg Pak’s comics and films, visit www.pakbuzz.com

Newsarama Note: Dynamite Entertainment has informed Newsarama that Battlestar Galactica #1 is sold out at Dynamite. Dynamite is currently evaluating the market to determine if it will go back to print on the issue.

[OM]

...Yo Matty! The link from the main page goes to Wacker's 52 5.2 Questions thread.

[thinks]

...Yeah, you're right. Must be a Cylon logic bomb attack.

UPDATE: Ok, the link's fixed now. Matty must have plugged Boomer into the system :P

[OM]

Originally Posted by Greg Pak

Character-wise, I like the notion that Zak’s a good shot. We’re playing up the notion from the television show that he wasn’t cut out to be a pilot. But we’re introducing the idea that Zak has his own set of skills, his own identity that we’re getting to know a bit about…

...This concept has been raised on some of the BG message boards since the Pilot. The way Zak and the circumstances of his demise are presented, the average viewer - read: Joe Punchclock, Ethyl Soapsjunkie, Hipster Treehugger and Johnny Slacker - are left with the complete impression that Zak was simply a worthless pudnocker who didn't have anything closely resembling the Right Stuff.

...The counter-argument - one that fans have rather unsuccessfully tried to get Ron Moore to at least explore the possibility of - is that while Zak wasn't cut out to be an Aviator, who's to say that his military skills didn't lie elsewhere? Pak writes him as an excellent shot. Suppose that Zak's skills were far better suited as a ground pounder? While his 3D spatial skills - required for combat flying in space - sucked big green daggit dicks, his ability with regards to strategy and tactics on the battlefield could have been more than superior.

...Moore likes to use the series as an allegory on humanity. In the triad of Adama, Tigh and Apollo, he mirrored the relationship between Cap. Rock Torrey, Cdr Paul Eddington, and Ens Jere Torrey in the movie In Harm's Way. To apply the same sort of allegorical to this situation, Zak's relationship to Adama would have not been one where you had the career military officer embarassed by the fact that his son was too much of a wuss to follow in his footsteps, but that Zak, regardless of the fact that he excelled at it, committed the more heious crime of joining a rival branch of the service. In real life, I've personally seen this happen, usually when the parent is in the Army and the kid joins the Navy(*), or the parent is any other branch of the service, and the kid *enlists* as a Marine. Eventually, the parent comes to realize that the only thing that matters is that the kid served his country, and served it well, using their talents to the best of their abilities. But in between there's a lot of angst and pathos, and although killing Zak was an integral part of the triangle between Adama, Starbuck and Apollo, it did close off another angle of conflict within the Adama family.

...On a side note: Greg, if you're reading this, be advised that I don't buy too many titles these days, considering that comics are simply too godsdamned overpriced. I've made an exception for your series, however, as it appears you've actually got a grasp on how the characters work, and have a clue that the art has to look worthy of the story. To be honest, while I got a kick out of Liefeld's OS version, and had some appreciation for the Realm Press effort - even if the dips'hits couldn't hold their company together long enough to get the Tech Manual to print - until your version came along the only other comic adaptation of Battlestar Galactica that fully, accurately captured the feel of the characters and their settings was Walt Simonson's run on the Marvel OS comic.

Bottom Line: I've got faith in you on this one, Greg. Don't let us down!


(*) The only *real* service to join, but that's beside the point here...:-)

[Mr. Kayak]

as a huge BSG fan i really wanted to give this series a try, but i just can't stand its art, let's say it really isn't my cup of tea. sorry!

[The_Adventurer]

The art is fine. The guy gets the dirty desperation of the fleet down pat, his ship and set designs rock. The only thing is his faces can get a little wonky. But that's not a game breaker because of all the characters stay recognizable

People who complain about the art...what exactly is wrong? Because it certainly doesn't suck.

[Mr. Kayak]

Originally Posted by The_Adventurer

People who complain about the art...what exactly is wrong? Because it certainly doesn't suck.

as i said, it's not like i think the artist suck, i just don't like his style. i think it lacks a bit of personality, it's staggering from a cartoonish mood (it reminds me a bit of todd nauck) to a photo-realistic ambition. besides, inking is too heavy for me, as are the colours. i would have liked it more if they had used less colours, just like in the tv show. anyway, i repeat, that's just a matter of personal tastes!

[Punchy]

I thought this was pretty good.

Now I need my Season 2 dvd so I know what the series is like at this point, because for me, Adama's only just been shot and stuff.

Also, the comic needs more Baltar.

[The_Adventurer]

Baltar's a tool, frak him.


And yeah, you need to get Season 2, asap. Luckly nothing truely major has been spoiled for you in this comic yet. Though how Sharon is in the brig, is a bit round about.

[Batitude]

Originally Posted by Punchy

I thought this was pretty good.

Now I need my Season 2 dvd so I know what the series is like at this point, because for me, Adama's only just been shot and stuff.

Also, the comic needs more Baltar.

Actually Season 2 was split up into 2.0 and 2.5 DVD's You'll want to watch them both. The new season starts in October.

[The_Adventurer]

In the Uk there is only one Season 2 BSG release.

[Razak]

Originally Posted by OM

...This concept has been raised on some of the BG message boards since the Pilot. The way Zak and the circumstances of his demise are presented, the average viewer - read: Joe Punchclock, Ethyl Soapsjunkie, Hipster Treehugger and Johnny Slacker - are left with the complete impression that Zak was simply a worthless pudnocker who didn't have anything closely resembling the Right Stuff.

...The counter-argument - one that fans have rather unsuccessfully tried to get Ron Moore to at least explore the possibility of - is that while Zak wasn't cut out to be an Aviator, who's to say that his military skills didn't lie elsewhere? Pak writes him as an excellent shot. Suppose that Zak's skills were far better suited as a ground pounder? While his 3D spatial skills - required for combat flying in space - sucked big green daggit dicks, his ability with regards to strategy and tactics on the battlefield could have been more than superior.

...Moore likes to use the series as an allegory on humanity. In the triad of Adama, Tigh and Apollo, he mirrored the relationship between Cap. Rock Torrey, Cdr Paul Eddington, and Ens Jere Torrey in the movie In Harm's Way. To apply the same sort of allegorical to this situation, Zak's relationship to Adama would have not been one where you had the career military officer embarassed by the fact that his son was too much of a wuss to follow in his footsteps, but that Zak, regardless of the fact that he excelled at it, committed the more heious crime of joining a rival branch of the service. In real life, I've personally seen this happen, usually when the parent is in the Army and the kid joins the Navy(*), or the parent is any other branch of the service, and the kid *enlists* as a Marine. Eventually, the parent comes to realize that the only thing that matters is that the kid served his country, and served it well, using their talents to the best of their abilities. But in between there's a lot of angst and pathos, and although killing Zak was an integral part of the triangle between Adama, Starbuck and Apollo, it did close off another angle of conflict within the Adama family.

...On a side note: Greg, if you're reading this, be advised that I don't buy too many titles these days, considering that comics are simply too godsdamned overpriced. I've made an exception for your series, however, as it appears you've actually got a grasp on how the characters work, and have a clue that the art has to look worthy of the story. To be honest, while I got a kick out of Liefeld's OS version, and had some appreciation for the Realm Press effort - even if the dips'hits couldn't hold their company together long enough to get the Tech Manual to print - until your version came along the only other comic adaptation of Battlestar Galactica that fully, accurately captured the feel of the characters and their settings was Walt Simonson's run on the Marvel OS comic.

Bottom Line: I've got faith in you on this one, Greg. Don't let us down!


(*) The only *real* service to join, but that's beside the point here...:-)

That.. is some damn good gospel right there, imo. Agreed on all points.

Ya got praise from King Curmudgeon himself, Greg.. Don't frak it up now.

[nathanln]

I thought the first issue read alright, but the art was a mess. The storytelling was confusing, the backgrounds weak and the cartoony faces were uninspired. It was hard to buy the characters when I had to strain to figure out who was who. It's a shame that the dialog and plot might have worked if not hurt so much by weak art. When publishing most of these licensed books, you should go for a pretty realistic art style so it looks like the actors and reads like an additional episode of the show. Bryan Hitch would be idea, but artists like Jerome Moore, Gordon Purcell and Andrew Currie would be strong and I don't think are under exclusives.

[The_Adventurer]

I absolutely loath "photo realism" and making comic characters "look like the actors" it doesn't work. Not in the long run. And the stiff lifeless drawings of Bryan Hitch would turn me off the title faster then your could say Daggit.

I never once got a single character confuses, I thought the backgrounds and ship designs were excellent, and the coloring scheme mimicked the bleakness of the show perfectly.

[OM]

Originally Posted by Razak

Ya got praise from King Curmudgeon himself, Greg.. Don't frak it up now.

...Careful. To quote Old Ego Trip from ~1987 on rec.arts.comics back when that usenet NG was still just the core group, "anything OM likes *has* to be suspect.

Yeah, well, I suspect this series is going to do quite well, so nyah.

[deathmasterj]

Originally Posted by The_Adventurer

In the Uk there is only one Season 2 BSG release.

and it's worth the money for sure

[OM]

...Ok, I just read issues #0 and #1 back-to-back, and I've got a few comments:

1) WRT the art complaints: Kids, those of you who have a problem with the artwork obviously need your eyes checked. Nigel's managed to capture the essence of the characters without trying to trace and/or xerox photos of the actual actor's faces(*). If anything negative can be said about the art, its that frackin' Turner cover on #01. #6 is *NOT* that damned anorexic!

2) On the other hand, I might be biased. Nigel's rendition of Roslin I happen to personally appreciate because she no longer looks exactly like the actress who plays her on the show. And as some of you long-time Newsarama members may recall, Mary McDonnell and my previous Ex look so much alike that it still hurts sometimes to see her on that show...

3) Plot-wise, everything's actually moving on at a reasonable pace that's not plodding, although it's obvious that it's structured for the trades. Probably a 4-issue arc, with the #0 issue and the usual behind-the-scenes filler to flesh out the $19.99 price tag to justify the shelf space at Barnes & Ignobles.

4) One small complaint: Did Nigel get the size of the CIC plot table wrong? Looks a little small to me...

5) One anal-retentive complaint: Ok, Greg, did anyone proofread the Lettercol? "Barttlestar Galactica?" Lemme guess - you're planning a Simpsons crossover or something?

...Overall, the book looks to be getting off to a good, solid start. A lot better than the last time a BG book got launched while the series was on the air. That last time, they let Ernie Colon do the art on the OS Pilot adaptation, and not only did it look as if he'd just half-assed barfed on the page and sent it in, the art style was so Harvey that you almost expected to find Casper or Richie Rich lurking in the background...

Bottom Line: Go buy this book, kids. The damn thing was actually, honestly worth the hard-earned $3 I spent. Not often these days you can say that about -any- comic, what with everything on the market pricegouged 3-4 times what they're really worth...

(*) Nicola Cuti used this trick back when he did the [Space: 1999] B&W magazine in 1975. It was rather obvious, annoyingly lame, and above all else cheap. Nic was a far better artist than to stoop to that scam, dammit...