I am frequently stunned by the number of writers who do not seem to comprehend the simple, basic, unchangeable fact that this is a printed page, not some elastic medium that will expand and contract to fit their needs.

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Last year I recieved a script that had 'Panel 3 - Large frame at the bottom ...' and after that, had the descriptions for the rest of the panels on that page.  There were 7 panels in total.  This also doesn't count for the fact that the first panel was asking for two opposite directions to be featured and would therefore have to be spilt into two seperate pictures.

And there's quite a few writers that are not too aware of how much text to fit on a page.       

I wrote it plot style and Jim Aparo drew a few pages
at one point and he was completely baffled when he was sent the plot.

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That is a quite a surprise. I was sure that after all those years drawing Batman, Aparo wouldn't need any directions at all.

That Jim Aparo story is quite a surprise to me as well.

I would have thought having worked with Marvel guys such as Starlin and Wolfman they would have used the Marvel Method on their Batman work.

Rick,

As I understand it a Marvel style approach is basically the writer coming up with the issues plot from beginning to end and then verbally telling the artist what they want or providing a paragraph or a few written pages that go in to more detail of what should happen in the issue.

The issue is then pencilled, and the penciller is the one who creates the plot page by page on their own.

Full script is the writer breaking down the story in sequence page-by-page, and describing the panel layout, action, characters and even panel angles. The pages also contain all dialogue and captions.

"I found it mind-boggling that a guy who had been in the business as long as he had would have such a tough time drawing from a plot. "

Well, I suppose it takes some getting used to after working full script for so long. But it's very much about what one is comfortable with.

If I may offer a personal observation, I think the fact that Aparo often did everything else after the script was done might be what made it difficult. He was a penciler, a letterer and and inker, so naturally he designed his pages around the text. His pages were always wonderfully designed, especially in the way he integrated the lettering and captions into the artwork.

Asking Aparo to work Marvel Method where the lettering and sound effects are added later seems like asking him to give up one of the strongest aspects of his work. The amount of text he could fit on a page while keeping it dynamic and exciting is astounding. As long as he had the text before he started designing the page.

I honestly think that if one hired a man like Aparo and didn't give him a full script one would lose out on some of the unique qualities he brought to the table. Just like one should always have worked with John Buscema Marvel style.

What I think would make the industry better would be more done in one stories with some underlying plot that might carry over a few issues. That way, a 2 month gap between stories wouldn't be so bad. Though that would be 6 times the work for writers at 1/6th the pay per hour spent writing.