As readers know if they've been reading our reviews or if they checked out the first part of our "Best of 2004," there is much love for Demo at the house of Fourth Rail. Twelve single issues, loosely connected by theme and more tightly connected by a single creative team, almost every one of which was a terrific done-in-one comic-book story. So I came in interested in seeing the "behind the scenes" of Demo that would be presented in this scriptbook, especially since Public Domain, the similar book for Channel Zero, had been such a great volume. Demo: The Twelve Original Scripts isn't really that much like Public Domain, though, nor is it really a "behind the scenes" type of thing, what with only a dozen illustrations from Cloonan and no commentary or anything like that from Wood. Instead, what it is is exactly what the name promises, twelve scripts that eventually became Demo #1-12. As it happens, this is still pretty damned interesting.
The first thing that becomes clear in reading this Demo script book is just how tight a working relationship that Wood and Cloonan must have had. The script format used here is a looser, more free-flowing style than a lot of the scripts I've seen, expressing the story in more general terms rather than laying out specific panel and page breakdowns. Anyone who has read Demo knows that this trust on Wood's part paid off as Cloonan not only got what he was aiming for with each script but added in a lot of elements on her own that weren't present in the script from the get-go. The Demo scripts are an entertaining read on their own, but they're even more fascinating if read alongside the issues so that the reader can see the changes that came along as the book was created, whether it's a notably different cover (as with the iconic cover of Demo #4) or the power that comes through in words and pictures that can't come through in just words (Emmy, from issue #2, comes to life very much because of Cloonan's artwork and not just Wood's powerful story).
While the Demo script book doesn't ever have both creators speaking directly to the reader as a lot of "behind the scenes" books do, there is a conversation to be found in these pages. It's a conversation between Wood and Cloonan, as they figure out what they want each issue to be. We're mostly hearing only one side of the conversation, the side presented by Wood, but we can get a glimpse of Cloonan's response in her sketches for each new chapter, not to mention a fuller look at her side in the actual issues of Demo as published. Wood's conversational script style makes the Demo scripts as readable and entertaining as the issues themselves, although the emotional intensity isn't always there without Cloonan's artwork. However, some of the story turns, such as the finale of Emmy's tale or the build-up of a twist ending between Sean and Samantha Hurley, are clearer in prose than they were in sequential art.
Script books are not something that every comics fan, or even most comic fans, are going to be interested in. However, that could be said of Demo as well, and I suspect there's a pretty big crossover between those interested in a creator-driven project like Demo and something that looks a little more closely at their creative process like the Demo script book. For my part, I've seen a handful of scripts from a variety of creators, and I'm always interested in seeing more of this "behind the curtain" type stuff.
Honestly, I was hoping for something a little more in-depth than what we got here, which is a pretty barebones presentation of scripts. Production sketches, commentary on the stories by the creators, maybe even some discarded ideas or a discussion about how the whole thing came out now that it's over. Really, though, that kind of thing was present in each issue of Demo, so maybe there wasn't anything more to say in the script book. At any rate, though this is short on those kinds of extras, it's a solid package, well put together graphically as all the AIT/Planet Lar graphic novels are, and a must-buy for comics process wonks, not to mention anyone who loved Demo in the first place. 8/10
