The Comic Book Discussion Thread

[number8]

Most of it is by assignment. You can ask for someone you've worked with before, of course, if you're Grant fucking Morrison, but then you have to take into account the artist's contracts, scheduling, etc.

[Sven]

Most of it is by assignment.

That seems like it shouldn't be the case, but I suppose if you want to get things done, you need to be rigid about things. I suppose in a way, it's a lot like old film studios, with house directors/cameramen/etc. Great product made as a result of following codes and doing things "the right way". Interesting.

[number8]

That seems like it shouldn't be the case, but I suppose if you want to get things done, you need to be rigid about things.

Exactly. They need a Captain America, Batman, Action Comics, etc every month, on schedule. If an artist can't hack it, then they need to have a fill-in artist come in for a couple of issues. Or they're replaced if the artist has other commitments.

It's more lenient with creator-owned or talent-driven books, obviously.

[EyesWideOpen]

Exactly. They need a Captain America, Batman, Action Comics, etc every month, on schedule. If an artist can't hack it, then they need to have a fill-in artist come in for a couple of issues. Or they're replaced if the artist has other commitments.

It's more lenient with creator-owned or talent-driven books, obviously.

Also it's a lot different with artists because 99% of artists can only handle 1 ongoing book at a time where as an accomplished writer can handle 4-6.

[number8]

Unless you're a hack. Like Mark Bagley.

[EyesWideOpen]

Unless you're a hack. Like Mark Bagley.

Hack or not, I'll take Mark Bagley's artwork over Steve Dillon's any day of the week.

[number8]

They both have the exact same problem, but you choose the lazier artist? :sad:

[Acapelli]

what's wrong with bagley or dillon?

i prefer dillon, but i'm not repelled by bagley's art and sometimes kinda like it

i guess because they draw everyone the same?

[number8]

Yeah, they both have about 3-4 faces in their bag of tricks. I don't think either's art is particularly terrible, in fact I'm a huge Dillon fan. The guy is one of the best in the biz for composition and narrative.

Bagley is capable of some good stuff, too. What makes him a hack is that he whores himself out to a lot of books and it shows in his work. Anything other than close-ups of faces always look rushed, and you get these weird faceless deformed figures in his wide shots.

[EyesWideOpen]

Yeah, they both have about 3-4 faces in their bag of tricks. I don't think either's art is particularly terrible, in fact I'm a huge Dillon fan. The guy is one of the best in the biz for composition and narrative.

Bagley is capable of some good stuff, too. What makes him a hack is that he whores himself out to a lot of books and it shows in his work. Anything other than close-ups of faces always look rushed, and you get these weird faceless deformed figures in his wide shots.

What does Bagley whore himself out on? He did 100+ issues of Ult. Spider-Man, then after that he left and did the bi-weekly Trinity series and now he's doing Justice League.

[number8]

Oops, yeah, sorry, I totally phrased that wrong. I don't know why I said that; I think I rationalized his sloppy work as a result of being too busy. That kind of makes it worse if he wasn't doing multiple books at once.

I guess I was thinking of Trinity, being a weekly series, took its toll on him, which is where he really rushed it. The art on that book was just terrible. But I also thought he really burnt out on USM. I mean, he pretty much drew the same things over and over again for 9 years, and most of them people doing Bendis-talk!

[EyesWideOpen]

Anybody read Geoff John's run on Teen Titans? I've always wanted to read it but never had. I managed to get the whole run for $30 shipped.

[BuffaloWilder]

Going back to Sven's mention of The Man Who Laughs a few pages back - yeah, I can agree with that, for the most part. In terms of plot, it's nothing very new or interesting, and it's basically a by-the-numbers procedural that's redeemed purely by Brubaker's flair and Mahnke's artwork. The motivation for the Joker is astoundingly silly, as well - for a character like the Joker, and especially when he's being written by Brubaker, who's one of those writers who really sees him as that archetypal kind of Trickster characters that Nolan and co. put up on screen, the fact that it's all just a really, really basic revenge scheme is just so, so underwhelming. It feels like a story that was dictated by bullet-points.

Come to think of it, no one's done a really great "first encounter with the Joker" story in the comics, have they? Lovers and Madmen was alright, if ungodly ugly to look at - but, every story that mines and explores the real possiblities behind the relationship between these two sees them as already long established. Azzarello's Joker, The Killing Joke, Sam Keith's Secrets and even Going Sane among others - there's a real heft to these, but a lot of it is drawn from the long back-and-forth that these characters have had, beforehand. It's a pity, because there's a lot of interesting potential for a Year One-esque type of story that sees the Joker as truly an anomaly in Gotham, and the effects that he would have, all around - the "new class of criminal" thing, to an extent, but expanded upon.

Oh, well. Maybe one day. Maybe in this new Earth-One series of books, now that I think about it.

[ledfloyd]

continuing the great comic book binge of 2010:

palookaville the early autobiographical stories are rather lame. it's a good life if you don't weaken is markedly better, but the book really hits it's stride during the clyde fans bit. i can't wait to read the rest of it as it's released.

wimbledon green a lot of fun, though nothing too groundbreaking.

city of glass i put off reading this for so long because i kind of feel like the novella is perfect as is. it is, but mazzucchelli grants the adaptation enough visual flair to make it work on it's own. not too shabby.

asterios polyp it's really really good, and has it's flashes of brilliance, but i was kind of expecting more after mazzucchelli had spent 15 years writing it. at times it comes off as a bit too philosophy 101.

boulevard of broken dreams sometimes i think deitch, not crumb, is the true genius of underground comics. books like this do nothing to dissuade that notion.

palestine hands down one of the top 5 or 10 comics i've ever read. also, the most informative thing i've ever read/seen on the palestinian's situation. that might speak more to my ignorance than sacco's brilliance, but he does wonderful things with placing text and perspective to make what is essentially him walking around talking to people a rather kinetic experience. i put sacco off for so long cause the material doesn't sound terribly exciting (i know, i know...) but now i'm very excited to check out the rest of his oeuvre.

[number8]

Awesome sale!

[ledfloyd]

Awesome sale!

awesomer sale!

[Sven]

I don't think it has been mentioned much, if at all, but I'm pretty convinced that Joe the Barbarian, especially after today's issue, will end up a major work. It is at the very least an incredible showcase for Murphy, both as a sketcher (his tableaux are the best) and as a sequential narrator. With the first issue, where he maps out the house, I am reminded of the structure of Snake Eyes, where the film is basically a deconstruction of its opening supershot. The autumnal color scheme complements the story's gravity, giving even the more brainless moments a heavier, evocative mood. Morrison's writing is never cliched, which is actually quite an accomplishment considering the story's classical formula.

Really cool miniseries. Deciding to do issues was a bad idea. I'm way too damn impatient.

[Acapelli]

this week's issue of the unwritten was book of the week for me. but overall this week was great:

joe the barbarian
astonishing spider-man/wolverine
morning glories
mystery society
dc universe legacies

[number8]

:sad:

I'm so behind on The Unwritten.

[monolith94]

Does manga go in this thread too? Cause I just read volume 1 of Tezuka's Black Jack and it was awesome.

[Grouchy]

Does manga go in this thread too? Cause I just read volume 1 of Tezuka's Black Jack and it was awesome.

There is a manga thread. And yeah, Black Jack rocks.

[Sven]

I accidentally picked up the seventh Swamp Think TPB a while ago. It is Veitch as both writer and pencil man. His attempts to ape Moore's florid prose is a little embarrassing, but the artwork is still tip top and despite inheriting one of the most conceptually difficult characters in all of comics, his work so far is pretty up to the task.

[Grouchy]

I accidentally picked up the seventh Swamp Think TPB a while ago. It is Veitch as both writer and pencil man. His attempts to ape Moore's florid prose is a little embarrassing, but the artwork is still tip top and despite inheriting one of the most conceptually difficult characters in all of comics, his work so far is pretty up to the task.

I love the issue that's about the Aleph.

[Sven]

I love the issue that's about the Aleph.

That's a great one. My first thought: "Ho, shit! Metron!" I think my personal favorite was the blue planet chapter, though I also really dug the one from the perspective of the sentient planet that is briefly visited by Swamp Thing. I guess I like a) the really gargantuan, cosmic stuff and b) the one-offs that are more like tone poems than stories.

Okay, so I have no idea if its reputation is good or bad, but the comic book store guy seems to really like it; only three issues in, I'm ready to plunge tons of cash into obtaining Planetary.

[number8]

Planetary is my favorite work from Ellis.