During Thursday's Comic-Con International in San Diego, I sat in on a pretty interesting panel comprised of some of the most talented and successful screenwriters, comic book writers and producers working in the business today. The panel was called Adapting Comics for the Screen and the list of people offering opinions and insight were the perfect group to be asking about this topic.

On the panel were Mark Verheiden, Kevin Feige, Mark Fergus, Don Payne and the legendary Stan "The Man" Lee who even at his age, was just as sharp, funny and charming as he could be and shows no signs of slowing down. As a writer myself, I was particularly interested in this panel of experts and how they have taken comics and translated them for the big screen.

First off each of the panel was introduced by moderator Jeff Goldsmith of Creative Screenwriting magazine and as he read the list of the assembled people's credits, films like Iron Man, Children of Men, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Battlestar Galactica and most of the major characters of the Marvel Universe, I grew even more interested to hear what these very accomplished men had to say.



Goldsmith started off with a "breaking in" question for Stan who, in true self-deprecating fashion, downplayed his role as a writer. "First off, I feel like a phony being here. These guys are great screenwriters. I'm just a guy who created a few cockamamie comic books." According to Stan, his "breaking in" happened when he answered an add from a publishing company looking for someone to work in the comic book department.

He didn't really want to work in comics at the time but he took the job and started writing the "filler" in the comics, which was two pages of prose so that the comic could be considered a "magazine" and get cheaper postage. Then, while he was doing that he decided to slip in a real comic book story and, according to Stan, " they must not have noticed and let it slip through and it got published." That's how he got started writing comic books. The rest, as they say, is history.

Other people on the panel had similar stories of following you dreams, not giving up and eventually, someone will let you do what you really want to do and you might even end up getting paid for it. Of course, these stories are great and its nice to hear them but for the most part, it doesn't really work that way. Most people don't make it and still struggle -- possibly forever. Its sad but that's the reality of it in many cases. That said, its these stories of success that inspire people to keep going. For that, they are of definite value.

Some of the other question asked ranged from Stan Lee's feelings when he first created the Iron Man character. As Goldman said "He was a counter-culture guy, millionaire industrialist selling weapons. He was an alcoholic. How did you come up with that idea?"

Stan Lee answered that he must have been "drunk with power" so he decided to create a character who "makes weapons and represents everything people hated at the time." "He's a millionaire industrialist and people hated the military industrial complex," Lee continued, "he has a bad heart and they said you can't have a character with a bad heart and all those other reasons why not. In the end, it just goes to prove that if people tell you not to do it, do it."

Then Goldsmith wanted to know about people's work habits and how they manage to handle all the demands of their various jobs. "It gets a bit insane," said Payne, "like when I was writing my script I was also on The Simpson's over 40 hours a week. So basically you don't sleep, you ignore you're wife and children, you don't go to the bathroom." Given that schedule, did he ever have a case of writer's block? "There's no time for that. If you stop, you die. And I wanted to live."

Next, Goldsmith asked Fergus about writing the Iron Man movie. " We had the luxury of not having to make every major decision. We had a road-map from the comics and we really appreciated it. Jon Favreau was also a great resource for that roadmap and for the decision making. Knowing the agenda was good for us without having to search around for it." He was also asked about the plot. "The context of the original Iron Man fits pretty well with where we're at in our country. Its unfortunately pretty timeless and something that resonates with people today."

The moderator also wanted to know if Tony Stark's alcoholism would factor into the movie. For that info, he turned to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. "That's an important part of Tony Stark but not something we're going to address in this movie. When there's a reason to address it in a future film, we will. Really, that's something that didn't happen in the comics until later so there's no reason it has to be in the first film." Goldsmith also wanted to know if the casting of Robert Downey, Jr. was influenced at all by his past troubles.

"Obviously, we were aware of Robert's past but that didn't really factor into it. We just wanted the best actor for the job," said Feige. So, Tony Stark does not have a problem with the booze in the move, at least not yet. Although, I did see the Iron Man trailer and I can tell you for sure that the character is in capable hands with Robert Downey, Jr. From the first moment on screen, he is Tony Stark.

Some of the other questions asked were whether Feige ever has trouble working with writers. He doesn't. Although, according to Feige: "Actors are another issue." Also, Verheiden was asked how he deals with Visual Effects when writing scripts. "I write them all out," said Verheiden. "I nver leave a blank spot. I write out everything, even fights. As an example, I did a film called 'Timecop' and when I wrote that I wrote out all the martial arts sequences. Even the leg splits. And Jean-Claude Van Damme did them. I'm not sure what would have happened if I didn't write them."



Finally, Payne was asked about the look of Galactus in the latest Fantastic Four movie. In essence, why was he a cloud instead of the way he looks in the comics? Watching him respond was pretty interesting in that it was fairly obvious it wasn't written that way in his script. Although, in true Hollywood fashion, he managed to dance around the issue a bit without assigning blame.

"First off ,I want to say I definitely didn't write it as a cloud," began Payne, " He is not a cloud. But maybe we haven't seen everything yet. We've had other films where things were hidden like Close Encounters. there was a big spaceship in that cloud. Maybe if we get a chance we'll be able to bring you the real Galactus."

Lastly, there was a question about what villain may be in the upcoming Iron Man movie. Screenwriter Mark Fergus took this one. "I think the big thing, and this is not a cop-out, is to say the story is really about a man versus himself. The origin story is about a guy dealing with himself and all the aspects of his life." "The villains of these stories are always so well drawn and that's great because the strength of a hero is only as good as the villains against him."

Feige agreed: "With these two movies, Iron Man and The Hulk, its almost entirely about the hero and his struggle. The way you choose a villain, frankly, is to put the biggest obstacle possible in the hero's way. That obstacle causes the hero to stand tall and do what's necessary no matter what happens to him. That's a hero."