ANT-MAN'S AMAZING FANTASY part two



Part Two of Six

What I’m doing in this week’s blogs is bringing you a page-by-page
look at an Ant-Man story I wrote for The Amazing Spider-Man Annual
#24 [Marvel; 1990].  I’ll be showing you my index card breakdowns
for the story, my plot, my script, and my placement of the script
copy on reduced photocopies of Steve Ditko’s pencils for the tale.
This story is © 1990 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and is being
presented here for educational purposes.

Above is the published first page of the story.  Here is the index
card breakdown for that page:

In case my tiny printing on this scan is difficult to read clearly,
here’s what I wrote:

PAGE ONE

Full-page splash. Symbolic shot of Scarlet Beetle ordering legion
of mind-controlled humans (including super-heroes like Iron Man,
Punisher, and Wolverine.
My plot started out with this note to Ditko:

Hi, Steve. I’ve got to tell you that working on this little story
with you is a real thrill for me.  I’ve designed it like the five-
page snap ending stories you used to do in the monster comics of
the 1960s. I’m going to script it in a style as close to those
stories as possible without going overboard.  Since we are limited
to five pages, I’ll need lots of room for captions and balloons on
these pages.  I’ve tried to plan the visuals accordingly.

You’ll need reference on:

ANT-MAN (the new Scott Lang version);

IRON MAN, THE PUNISHER, and WOLVERINE (who appear only in the
splash panel as mind-controlled slaves of the villain);

DOCTOR PYM (Hank Pym; the original Ant-Man); and,

THE SCARLET BEETLE. I’ll save everybody time by copying this
villain’s only two appearances and sending them along.  This is an
incredibly obscure villain.

If you have any questions on this plot, feel free to call me.  I
work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., which is when I put my little boy to
bed.  Call any time within those hours.

Here we go...

PAGE ONE: Full-page splash. The title will go at the top of the
page with a burst (STARRING ANT-MAN or something) under it and to
the left.  There’ll be another burst/caption in the lower right
corner.  The scene is a symbolic shot of a huge Scarlet Beetle
ordering a horde of brain-controlled humans (including Iron Man,
the Punisher, and Wolverine) to attack a worried Ant-Man.  Ant-Man
has raised his arms to ward off the blows sure to come when this
horde reaches him.  Credits will run along the bottom of the page.

With apologies for the quality of the scan, here’s Ditko’s pencils
and my copy placements:

And here’s the script for that page:

Come back tomorrow for page two.

© 2011 Tony Isabella