Have you ever tried your hand at scripting a graphic novel, adapting a film/TV property into a graphic novel (or vice versa)? If so, I'd be keen to compare notes. I'm trying my hand at graphic novels. In my teens, I skipped the scripting stage, illustrating the panels first, and filling in the captions and dialogue afterward; these days, I prefer to collaborate with illustrators. Writing for the screen has helped in some ways - "Show, don't tell" is even more the rule of thumb, when you have just a single frame to sell a bit of business. The format is almost the same: camera angles, loose scene descriptions providing plenty of room for your illustrators to improvise, and again, catchy but brief dialogue. I'm intrigued by how many Hollywood properties have extended their runs in comic book form; Buffy's vampire-slaying continued in a new "Season" of comic-book stories - I think Joss Whedon may have even contributed to that - and J. Michael Straczynski left his televised space station, Babylon 5, to write unrelated books for several comic-book publishers.
Screenwriting : Writing comic book scripts by Eric Gilmartin
Writing comic book scripts
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I've done it a number of ways as a freelance writer/artist, different format each time. There is no one way to do it so you can shape your process to your project and collaborators. In some ways comics and cinema are opposites despite the similarities. Consider how a conversation would play in both forms. Frozen moments vs. continuous action. There are a surprising number of films made from GN that many are not aware of, like Ghost World and Road to Perdition.
Here's my issue 1 script for Sweets if you want to I check it out. http://kodychamberlain.com/uploads/fun/Sweets_Issue01_KodyChamberlain.pdf
Unlike film, comic scripts are done in a variety of formats. The two most common are the traditional PLAY (aka screenplay/teleplay) format. In this format, every new action is drawn as a new panel, and dialog below action is placed in balloons in that panel. My script above is an example of this. The other popular format is everything FLUSH LEFT. See Mark Waid's script here for comparison. http://markwaid.com/digital/writing-for-digital-part-one/ Both formats are common, and there are many variations besides these two. I strongly prefer to write in the PLAY format, and I prefer to draw from that format as well because it gives me a far better idea of the balloon size I need to leave open when drawing the panels. Essentially, the dialog text is in a similar column size to the average comic balloon. The FLUSH LEFT format makes it a little harder to calculate because the dialog is in a long string across the page. Still, most artists and publishers are fine with either.
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Thanks for your input, friends. Sorry I took so long to post my appreciation, but I've been away from the site for a spell. I'll check out that script ASAP! (-: