As promised here's more of Marv Wolfman and Barbara Kesel from MegaCon 2005. Marv and Barbara simply took questions from the audience. I will give you some of the better questions (so these are NOT all of the questions that were asked, only some of the better ones). As I have done in the past, if the words are in brackets, I am paraphrasing what the person said, while where I write, I am recreating what I heard and wrote down from them. Please see two articles ago for introductions for Barbara Kesel and Marv Wolfman.
Question - What about commercial awareness versus artistic integrity.
Barbara - If you put a price tag on your work, don't bloody talk to me about [artistic integrity]. We don't have a job tomorrow if what we write today doesn't sell.
Marv - I don't take quite that strong a stand. If you are writing a Spider-Man story, unless you {write the book, draw the art, do the ink, color and publish the book), by concept you are working as a team. [Unless you are] Frank Miller with Sin City. The group think - don't ignore it. If you do something [you want it to] sell. Have enough awareness that you think the way they do. Aim for mass market. You have to do what you believe in, but you are always working for someone else. If not, [you can self publish and] have a lot of comics in the garage.
Question - what do you offer people to bring them back issue after issue?
Marv - [Make] characters that are interesting for people.
Barbara - Three things; share the pain, share the joy, and have an unanswered question. Like a soap opera. It's all about evocation [of a] character. Plot will intrigue people; character will bring them back again and again.
Marv - Theme is what the story is about. Plot is how you choose to tell that theme. In "Star Wars" [the story of] Luke could have been told in a dozen different genres.
Question - How do you keep the plot in individual issues?
Barbara - As I have said before, [ask yourself] what is the picture of the individual story?
Marv - Each issue is complete unto itself.
Barbara - View it as stages in a journey and what [the characters] are doing along the way.
Question - When you have a plot, character and story, how do you know when it's done?
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