I like the brighter, shinier, happier comic-book material on a personal level, but I also think the best stories are told where you just don't know from page to page or moment to moment when the sucker-punches are coming.
Mark WaidComics are expensive. Donโt make me resent the money I spend buying yours. Every single moment in your script must either move the story along or demonstrate something important about the characters โ preferably both โ and every panel that does neither is a sloppy waste of space.
Mark WaidIn the long run, the quality of your work is all that matters. That is your only resumรฉ. Be professional. Make sure your editor or publisher can always reach you. Do what's asked of you if your conscience can bear it. But know that, five years from now, as fans or prospective employers are looking over your published pages, no one will care that this story sucks because the publisher moved the deadline up or because the editor made you work an android cow into the story. All they will care about is what they see in front of them, and they will hold you responsible for it, no one else.
Mark WaidWhen you give me something that I love, then I spend a long time drilling down on it and figuring out what it is I love about it.
Mark WaidArtists are not helper monkeys; theyโre not in it to visualize 'your' story, because it stopped being 'your' story the moment you engaged in a collaborative medium. From here on in, itโs also the artistโs story, and if youโre working with an illustrator whoโs any good at all, you as a writer have to tamp down any control-freak tendencies you suffer under and relax into the process.
Mark Waid