By Toren Chenault — I recently Kickstarted and edited my first anthology. Dubbed A Cold, Dark Universe, it was a big book, spanning 124 pages of sci-fi excellence, with work from more than 15 creators. There were a lot of firsts for me with this anthology. In edition to organizing and editing it (both firsts), it was my first time working as a writer with an artist on an anthology story. It was also the first major project from my little comics company, Black Hole Comics and Entertainment. So yeah, that’s a lot of firsts, but the first that scared me the most when starting this project was being an editor.

That’s what I want to focus on today in this piece about Kickstarter Comics Tips: how to edit your first anthology.

Kickstarter Comics Tips: How to Edit Your First Anthology

Editing will be the focus of this piece, but first a word about A Cold, Dark Universe itself. The goal of this book is to bring hope to a dark world. It features eight stories, and I want to credit all the wonderful creators who worked on it before we get to my own experience, because they did such a great job.

The stories were written by Nick Couture, Toren Chenault (myself), Gabe Gonzalez, Jarred Luján, Kacey Flynn, Luis Santamarina, Candace Rugg, and Calvin Sanders, and illustrated by Kiana Lynn, Christine Gutierrez, Elizabeth Malette, Kasey Quevedo, Domonick “Pickle” Rocket, and Alec Smith. All of those stories were lettered by Rob Jones, and in addition to myself as an editor, the book was also edited by Sara Harding and Christine Gutierrez. The main cover was done by Joanna Materek and the variant was done by Dave Chisholm. Anyone who missed out on the Kickstarter last October now has the ability to buy a copy of A Cold, Dark Universe (while supplies last) by going to the Black Hole online store.

Now, on to my experiences editing my first anthology.

What Do Comics Editors Do?

The first that scared me the most when starting this project was being an editor. And mainly because I didn’t understand (fully) what editors in comics did. I remember once hearing that editors, across all industries, are just “paid assholes”, so I was a bit nervous starting this whole process. And truthfully, aside from a couple of sites and people, there really is not a ton of info on an editor’s role in comics. There’s certainly not a step by step guide.

It’s kind of an unsung role, too. Editors almost never get cover credit on comics and hardly anyone talks about them as being important to the process of making comics. Editors usually pop up on social media when people are talking about pitching them, not knowing enough of them, or an editor approving a script for “the biggest thing ever in comics.” So again, I had no idea what I was getting into with this project. But editing is something that always intrigued me because of the need for Black editors in comics. And I think need is an understatement. There are hardly any Black editors. And given that they are important in comics, there should be more. I don’t know too many, and I’ve seen my fair share of incompetency when it comes to Black culture as it appears in stories from the Big Two. In that sense, I was eager to edit my first project and be that critical eye for our anthology.

As I noted, this book featured eight stories, and while at the time it didn’t seem like a huge editing load to me, I realized soon I couldn’t do it all by myself. So, I looked out to the beautiful Twitter streets to see if anyone was looking for editing work. Sara Harding ended up being my co-editor on this book, editing three of the stories. Sara has a deep love for comics, and her eye was extremely helpful in this process. So a big shoutout to Sara for all the work she did on this book.

So, that’s my editing journey, in broad strokes. Now I’d like to go into detail about one of the great stories in our book.

The GodsHead by Candace Rugg and Alec Smith

The story I want to focus on is The GodsHead by Candace Rugg and Alec Smith. It’s without a doubt the darkest story in the whole anthology, and it’s one that was the biggest challenge, editing wise. The cool thing about working on this project was that I got to work with friends. Candace and Alec are both good friends I know in real life, so it was easy talking with them about the project and getting them onboard for the anthology. The most difficult part of this was working with people who were new to working on a comic like this, or comics in general, and that includes Candace. This was her first comic script. And it was Alec’s first time creating a comic for publication.

I don’t say that to embarrass them or anything. Because that was true for a lot of people working on this anthology. To me, that was one of the appeals of this book. Everyone has to start from somewhere; people don’t just magically acquire 10 years of experience. And I think that leads into one of the first lessons I learned editing their story. An editor MUST be the creative team’s biggest cheerleader. That sounds clichéd or corny, but I found that the more enthusiasm I showed for the creators, the more smoothly the process went. But also, an editor MUST let the creators cook. Let them reach the point, creatively, where they are excited with each other’s contributions to the world and story they’re creating. Some creators don’t need much assistance in getting their partners or themselves excited. Jarred Luján and Kasey Quevedo (who worked on our story Interloper) seemed to thrive off each other’s energy instantly, and it was evident from the script. Kacey Flynn and Kiana Lynn are friends in real life, so as an editor, it was an easy choice to put them together. The end result (What Are We Worth?) proved the chemistry they had together. Alec and Candace’s story shows that energy too. They dove head-first into this world and all I did was give them some good old support.

You know, I only recently learned about the magic of page turns in comics. Like, when you’re writing a script and you put your big reveals on the even numbered pages? Yeah, that only recently hit me, and I felt like I had seen God when I discovered it. Subconsciously, I always did it when I wrote scripts, but I just never put 2 and 2 together as a reader. As an editor though, it hit me like a truck. ‘Does everyone else know about this?!’ I asked myself excitedly. Yes, Toren. Everyone in comics understands this.

Anyways there’s an insane page from The GodsHead that deserved a great page turn. So I had to structure the book the right way so people could see Alec’s amazing art. This story (spoilers, I guess) follows a crew of Astronauts who are on a different planet. They’re stranded on this messed up planet by the people in charge. And this guy on the ship named Chambers blows up this massive colony ship right in front of the main characters. It’s a brutal, but beautiful sequence that people deserved to see on a wonderful page turn.

The part of the story where I really got to do some cool editing was towards the ending. This story follows the characters around as they explore this desolate planet. Where the creative team hit a snag was revealing the big twist of the story. This planet was marketed to the crew and everybody else on board the ship, as a brand new, lively planet that was completely different from Earth. But they find out that this planet is the original Earth and they were sent here basically to die by the rich people on their planet, which was the original second Earth. Maybe that sounds a bit confusing. I get it. And that’s why we were struggling on how to put that sequence together. 

Another aspect of this that was difficult was we only had one page to get this done. It had to impactful, make sense, and still fit the elements of the comic we were already making. I ended up coming with a solution that I think helped the story and was a nice touch. The crew finds an old newspaper stand with the news of scientists on Earth discovering this “Bold new planet” which is theirs. Just from hearing this, as a reader it might not register why that’s a big deal. Which is why I made sure the artist drew faces of shock and horror on the crew. It easily conveyed that what they were hearing was not good. Also, I love characters on panel reacting to someone else’s words who’s speaking off panel. So, we did exactly that for this reveal and I think it came out great.

All right, I’m not going to fully spoil the ending of this short story. It wraps up beautifully after that scene and all the credit goes to Alec, Candace, and our letterer, Rob Jones. But if you do buy the book and read their story, I hope those little moments resonate with you on some level. Because honestly, that’s what I feel editing comics is a lot of the time. Just a lot of little moments with creators, other editors, or by yourself, where you challenge each other to make something better. And those little moments add up to a completed piece of art for everyone to enjoy.

‘…learn as much as you can when you study…’

Dave Chisholm did the variant cover for our anthology. I’ve been a fan of Dave’s work for awhile, and it was actually something in his most recent project that came into my head while working on this anthology. Chasin’ the Bird is a story about jazz legend Charlie Parker and it follows his time in California. There’s a really cool moment when Parker is at jazz photographer William Claxton’s house. He’s explaining his process and how he improvises his sets when he plays. He says a really prophetic line in the scene that stuck with me. 

“The important thing is to learn as much as you can when you study—when you practice—and then forget it when you play.”

That’s kind of how I approach editing comics. It feels as if I’m learning everything all over again when I’m listening to creator pitches, doing script reviews, or doing a lettering pass. I’m not though, because I read tons of comics and have a growing knowledge of the industry and editing. ‘Leave your ego at the door’ is one of the takeaways I get from that Parker line. And ‘story first’ is something I know most editors have tattooed on their knuckles (not really, but that’d be cool!). And I think adhering to those two rules really helped me putting together my first anthology.

Buy A Cold, Dark Universe now!

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Toren Chenault is a writer and creator from Lansing, Michigan. He released his debut novel, Mystic Man in 2018. He's the owner and co-founder of Black Hole Comics and Entertainment. Toren has a passion for comics and all forms of storytelling. His influences range from hip-hop to anything science fiction related.