I am currently writing for the Looney Tunes comic book at DC. This comic features the classic Warner Brothers cartoon characters, Daffy, Bugs, Porky, and the gang. I’m going to take you through some of the creative process of writing a Looney Tunes story to demonstrate the narrative technique outlined in previous posts.
My wonderfully talented and generous editor, (A little editorial flattery never hurts!), JOAN HILTY and I have been working together for a few years now. I begin by asking which characters Joan needs stories about. Since I’m fond of all of the WB characters, I’m happy no matter how Joan replies. After getting this feedback I write out four or five PREMISE lines for Joan to choose from.
Here is the premise line I sent in for a recent Daffy Duck story: (All rights reserved WB)
DAFFY DUNK (6-8 pages) Featuring Daffy Duck
Daffy learns how much dough basketball stars make from salaries and endorsements. Greed kicks in and he decides to become a basketball star. He recruits one of the other WB characters to coach him. I’d prefer it be Foghorn, ‘cause he’s bigger, but it could be Bugs, Elmer, or Sylvester. (Or even Tweety, smaller is funny too!) The coaching process allows for a string of sight gags as the inept Daffy gets stuffed in the hoop and slammed into the walls by Strug, a giant basketball sparring partner. Daffy gets more and more bandaged up and eventually gives up his dream of endorsement deals. But, at the end, his HMO makes him a spokesman for their medical services.
As you can see, the whole narrative, begining, middle and end is represented here. We’ll break it down in the next post, but if you want to read the published story, it appeared in issue 135of Looney Tunes, wonderfully drawn by Leo Batic and Horacio Ottolini.
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