The Installment Plan

Apr 25, 2012

One of the earliest decisions made regarding THRILLBENT was that it would feature serialized stories. That seemed like a no-brainer; after all, I’ve been writing serial fiction all my adult life. Easy transition, right?

Ha.

When it comes to story installments, all my storytelling rhythms are set to comics’ standard 20-22 pages. Yes, I can write much shorter (or longer) one-off stories–but in my entire career, I’ve never taken up the challenge of serializing a story in bite-size pieces, and the secret to it eluded me until I finished Chapter Three of Insufferable.

 

See, there are several factors that came into play when artist and co-creator Pete Krause and I decided on format and frequency for Insufferable. On the one hand, we want to give you as much story per visit as possible, so we decided weekly was better than daily. Gag strips can do dailies. For adventure strips, I think the reader is less inclined to come back every single day than s/he is to just wait until s/he can read a bunch of unread strips in one sitting, so it’s not “appointment reading”–you don’t train your audience to come back every week at a specific day or time, which seems bad. YMMV, but that’s my belief. So, weekly, not daily.  But how much story per week?

Pete–like most comics illustrators–can do about a page of comics a day, max (or, to put it in Thrillbent language, two screens a day–remember, as a GENERAL rule of thumb, each landscape-format screen of Insufferable equals about a half-page of print comics. GENERALLY). So that limits us to, realistically, no more than eight to ten screens per weekly chapter if we want not to fall behind on deadlines. That’s not a lot of real estate, but it’s enough to get some momentum and, in each chapter, deliver a setup and a payoff, a conflict and a resolution…somehow.  So once we locked on about eight to ten screens a week, depending on where we were in the story, I had to go block scenes and events out to fit.

What a learning experience. Yeah, yeah…I know the giants of Sunday comics strips of yore like Hal Foster and Milton Caniff made it look easy, but for right or wrong, we don’t do comics like that anymore. Still, those two in particular remained my north star and reference point–less in style than in what they were able to accomplish in small spaces.

In time–around the end of Insufferable, chapter three–I accidentally figured out the key to short chapters when I typed the last line, and it’s now advice I give to other creators who are developing for Thrillbent: end each installment by asking a question. Not necessarily a literal question (although that’s how chapter three ended), but just end on whatever beat makes the reader’s next thought a very frantic “Wait, WHAT?”  and their next thought “I NEED TO KNOW!”  Have a character drop an evocative bombshell of information. Let the reader in on the fact that there’s some mystery at play that he hasn’t yet realized.  Have someone do something totally unexpected or make some crazy, unpredictable choice. There are a bunch of ways to go. But end on a question. After all, a question mark looks an awful lot like a hook….

  • Oct 17, 2012
    You know, there's a big, BIG clue hanging in the air about who's behind all this villainy...it's been hanging for months now...and NO ONE has picked up on it.  I'm hesitant to say more because it may give the whole thing away, but something Nocturnus did very early on should have raised at least... more
  • Oct 10, 2012
    Up and running-please to leave any comments, thoughts or observations below.  Pete and Nolan both knocked themselves out this week especially. Me, I'm leaving for the New York Comicon in 15 minutes and will be in Artist's Alley at booth H-18 ? stop by and say hello if you're there, and be among the... more
  • Sep 26, 2012
    Almost have the Thrillbent site back up as promised.  We were hacked HARD, says Lori-tons of images deleted, it's just a mess, and everyone (including our new hosting service) is doing Herculean work to get it all put back together, but in the meantime, we're not gonna leave you hanging for your... more
  • Sep 19, 2012
    Okay!  New Thrillbent server locked in, construction almost complete, loading it up with one or two NEW free weekly series in ADDITION to Insufferable-plan to launch next week, will keep you all posted.  Thanks for your boundless patience!  In the meantime, so you can get your fix, here are direct... more
  • Sep 12, 2012
    We appreciate your patience.  The Thrillbent site is being moved to a different, far more secure server this week now that we've been Hacker Bait three times, so there's no on-line reading until it's up again-but in the meantime, you can still get your direct-download fix of this week's installment... more
  • Sep 05, 2012
    Up now and free to read at Thrillbent.  Thanks to writer Tom Peyer for suggesting this week's one sweet moment of father/son bonding. It's a nice sentiment.
  • Aug 29, 2012
    Up and available to read right now at Thrillbent! Various threads are beginning to weave into a giant tapestry of crime and danger, and by the end of this installment, you may be able to suss out some of the Master Plan. We're thick into Act Two.
  • Aug 22, 2012
    Thrillbent got hacked, so we're down for a bit while we do maintenance. However, lest we deny you your weekly fix, here are direct-download links to this week's Insufferable installment: PDF, CBZ
  • Aug 22, 2012
    Up on Thrillbent right now.  I have to admit, I really do have mixed feelings about Galahad, and my opinion of him changes from week to week. In some ways, I'm still trying to figure him out; I thought I knew him and what makes him tick, and then he quite literally starts saying things that I... more
  • Aug 08, 2012
    And we're live with this week's installment. Who IS after Nocturnus and Galahad? Who knows this much about them? How do we get Troy Peteri to letter so much each week for so little money?
  • Aug 01, 2012
    What a friend we have in Twitter. Hope you like the pop-up captions technique, because we use it to what I believe is strong effect in this installment. And, yes, most of those @TheRealGalahad followers are real. They're fans of the series, and this is far from the last time we'll be incorporating... more
  • Jul 25, 2012
    And we lurch into what is roughly Act Two of our little dramedy, though don't hold us tightly to that-right now, the team and I are having great fun following these characters down some unexpectedly windy roads, so much so that we're in no rush to get to Act Three.  Nor am I positively sure that... more
  • Jul 04, 2012
    I know Ed Brubaker's disappointed. He thought it would be funnier than this. But we're way, way off the map. That's what doing an adventure/crime story as a weekly serial creates-an awful lot of chances to turn and swerve and, in general, fling the original map out the window and just drive.
  • Jun 27, 2012
    Up now. If you think you understand the dynamic we're establishing between Nocturnus and Galahad...fooled you.
  • Jun 20, 2012
    -and, see? Didn't I warn you that there would be dark to balance the light? It was Pete's idea to cram Nocturnus into a sidecar, by the way. Really good. I love how uncomfortable Pete makes him look. Also, reminder to self-we need to sit down soon and catalogue exactly what that Battle Staff can... more
  • Jun 12, 2012
    Thrillbent has been up about six weeks. Several Forum members, fellow webcomics creators and Twitterers have asked about some of the site stats, so FWIW, here’s what we’ve seen.  This will be dull for most of you but spellbinding to data nerds like myself, trust me. On average, visitors spend 3... more
  • May 23, 2012
    Insufferable Week Four is now up at Thrillbent.  Check it out, tell your friends.  By now, it should be becoming obvious that one of the creative decisions Peter Krause and I made about the series is a veritable gift to our letterer, Troy Peteri–because we didn’t want either Nocturnus or Galahad to... more
  • May 01, 2012
    THRILLBENT IS LIVE! How do you engage this brave new world of comics?!   Go to http://www.thrillbent.com/ Click on the title you want to read. Turn the pages with your arrow keys.  Just like pages.  Left and right.* Done. … Well, that was anticlimactic. ******************************* Which is, of... more
  • May 01, 2012
    THRILLBENT is live as of noon EST today–meaning now! And, on a personal note, it couldn’t have been done without the support of my family (Christy, Grace and Rob) and certainly not without Lori Matsumoto riding herd on everyone and everything. And John Rogers pushing me off the cliff. Thanks to all... more
  • Apr 26, 2012
    And now, after all of yesterday’s analysis of how you can make chapters work in eight to ten screens, you’ll find on May 1 that you have every right to say to me, “So then how come the first chapter of Insufferable clocks in at 23 screens?” This is why, and it’s a reflection of my long-held... more
  • Apr 25, 2012
    One of the earliest decisions made regarding THRILLBENT was that it would feature serialized stories. That seemed like a no-brainer; after all, I’ve been writing serial fiction all my adult life. Easy transition, right? Ha. When it comes to story installments, all my storytelling rhythms are set to... more
  • Apr 17, 2012
    Thanks to my lovely better half Christina, here’s the audio from the C2E2 announcement of Thrillbent.  It’s an hour-eight, so it may take a bazillion years to download, but it’s worth it just to hear Peter Krause’s dulcet tones. Thrillbent at C2E2!
  • Feb 24, 2009