h1

This Week in Panels: Week 202

August 4th, 2013 Posted by | Tags: , , , , , , ,

It’s a week of endings. Grant Morrison finishes up his lengthy work with Batman by showing that, “Batman and Robin will never die!” is in actuality a form of Hell. The Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man team-up ends after its 12th issue, meaning that the Dr. Wily/Dr. Eggman bromance is gone for good. Then we got the last issue of the latest What If.

Guys, you know me. You know that I’ve read every single issue of What If. I know all of them from the great to the terrible. I can honestly say that of the 200+ entries of that series, What If: Avengers vs. X-Men is the absolute worst one. Yes, even worse than What If the Avengers Lost the Evolutionary War? At least that story was able to be bad in one issue.

I’m helped out by Gaijin Dan, Was Taters, Space Jawa, Jody and Matlock. Let the games begin.

Animal Man Annual #2
Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman

Batman ’66 #5
Jeff Parker and Ty Templeton

Batman Annual #2
Scott Snyder, Marguerite Bennett and Wes Craig

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

The Ongoing Conversation About The Perception of Artists in Comics

August 1st, 2013 Posted by | Tags: , , ,

There’s a conversation going on in comics right now that I think is very interesting. It’s about the role, responsibilities, and perception of the artist—mostly pencillers/inkers, but colorists and letterers as well—in the comics industry. It’s wide-ranging, and I thought it would be beneficial to gather most of the posts to date in one place, both for any journalists who are thinking about writing about it and other people who are curious, but don’t know where to start. A lot of these posts are responses to or build off other conversations.

I don’t have everything. Twitter’s a big part of the conversation, as is tumblr, but it’s impossible to stay on top of everything, especially as more voices start talking. This is just the beginning. If you see a link I haven’t posted, drop a comment below.

Declan Shalvey, comics artist, answers a tumblr question about comics reviews before talking a bit about how reviewers talk about art.

Andy Khouri, writer about comics, explored Brian Stelfreeze’s work on Day Men, and what that may mean for comics artists in general. He talks about how we credit artists, how we credit writers, and how basic logistics often forces artists into complicated situations.

Dennis Culver, artist, rounded up a few tweets he made on the subject of critics, artists, and comics. It spins from how critics do their job to why artists should be considered co-authors/storytellers, and why talking about art is vital.

I wrote about Andy and Dennis’s posts, quoting Dennis’s in its entirety, and added my own thoughts on how we appreciate artists in comics from the perspective of a fan and critic.

Amy Reeder, artist, responds to and builds on my post and talks about what drives her to buy comics, and talks about the greater trend of undervaluing artists.

Amy Reeder & Brandon Montclare, collaborators, discuss their experience at San Diego Comic-con 2013 and also the role of the artist in production.

Sarah Horrocks, artist, talks about her frustrations with certain aspects of the comics industry, springboarding off this Steven Grant essay at CBR.

Nolan T Jones, writer, takes issue with a few of Horrocks’s points and speaks from the perspective of a writer on the subject.

Sloane Leong, artist, talks about comics industry logistics by way of a Pacific Rim graphic novel, and talks about why the assembly line method of making comics actually hurts the artform.

Amy Reeder & Brandon Montclare, collaborators, talk specifically about the role of artists in comics, with plenty of frank talk from writer Montclare and artist Reeder on their expectations and frustrations.

Podcaster Pat Loika gathers artists Gabriel Hardman, Reilly Brown, Declan Shalvey, and Nick Pitarra to talk about the subject du jour in a conversation that’s as pointed as it is funny.

Dennis Culver, artist, gathers more tweets, this time discussing the economics of being a comics artist and the relationship between writers and artists.

Costa Koutsoutis, writer, replies to Dennis Culver’s recent post about economics and discusses the effort writers put forth in creating scripts.

Leia Weathington, writer, talks about her position when it comes to working with artists and honor. Weathington’s response was sparked by a tweet conversation that I believe begins here before fracturing all over the place. This was packaged into Storify from Weathington’s tweets by Erika Moen, an artist.

Declan Shalvey, comics artist, discusses working as an artist in the comics industry.


Additions:
Michael May, writer about comics, builds off a statement from Declan Shalvey and talks about why reviewers need to talk more about art.

Sloane Leong, artist, discusses the differences in responsibility between writers and artists and looks at the various options creators have for deals.

Paul Allor, writer, talks about writers and artists from the POV of a working & aspiring writer, in addition to talking about the ways writers view working with and paying artists.

Paul Allor, writer, talks about the unique aspects of comics collaboration and explores ideas about the way credit is divvied up or displayed.

Bryan Hitch, artist, talks to Kiel Phegley at CBR about working on corporate comics and feeling underappreciated, despite his history with the company and position in the industry.

Pat Barrett, artist, talks about the New Yorker improperly crediting a drawing of Iron Man and (briefly) their history with comics.

Shea Hennum, writer about comics, looks at the idea of visual consistency, particularly in terms of Prophet, a comic with a fistful of artists on regular duty.

Val Staples, colorist, speaks to Steve Morris at The Beat about life as a colorist, including details on how long books take and vacations when freelance.

Brigid Alverson at Robot 6 takes a close look at writer Jeremy Holt’s comments on Twitter about pay & artists, and the large comments section discusses journalistic standards, paying in comics, and personal experiences.

The Beat (no specific byline) talks about writers paying artists and the varying responsibilities of each creator in the comics-creating process.

Antony Johnston, writer, talks about the debate in general terms and the specifics of making comics, including advice for how to do better as a reader and creator.

Amy Reeder, artist, on what artists actually do with a writer’s script, and the varying difficulties both sides have in getting work.

David Fairbanks, writer about comics, on the idea of cheapening your art by working for free, and collaborative partnerships.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

We Care About Journalism

July 31st, 2013 Posted by | Tags: ,

Joe Lynch directed this sweet-ass short film called Truth in Journalism. In a fake documentary in the style of Man Bites Dog, a trio of filmmakers follow around disgraced newspaper reporter Eddie Brock. Obsessed with showing his side of the story and what he’s all about, Eddie appears to be a little unhinged, low on scruples, lower on compassion and he’s definitely hiding some kind of secret. Eddie’s played by True Blood star Ryan Kwanten.

Definitely watch it past the credits.

He’s just a smidge too scummy in parts for my taste as an Eddie Brock fanboy, but it’s still a damn fine little movie.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

Moodbuilder, Worldbuilder: Tite Kubo & Chapter Pages

July 30th, 2013 Posted by | Tags: ,

I liked Tite Kubo’s Bleach a whole lot until I suddenly didn’t. Y’all know how that goes. You get into it, you give it a lot of rope to hang itself, then you get comfortable, then you let it coast a little bit, and then you realize you’ve just read 38 volumes of a comic and haven’t liked anything about these stupid Arrancars but every one of the last ten or so volumes have had exactly one REALLY GOOD chapter or scene near the end, just good enough to convince you to pick up the next volume and—enough. And then I ended up with a Weekly Shonen Jump subscription and now I get it for basically free. Life! I recommend it, though. If you like this kinda story, Bleach is the real deal for a good while.

Two things I never stopped enjoying about Bleach, though, are Kubo’s way of rendering fashionable clothes and the chapter pages. The fashion’s got obvious appeal, but it’s a bit harder to explain the appeal of the chapter pages. That sounds a little stupid to even type, mainly because the short version is “Kubo has a great sense of fashion, design, wonder, and that shows on his chapter pages, especially as the series goes on and he becomes more daring and creative with the layouts and art.” That makes sense, and I imagine you’d agree if you saw a few of them. Luckily, I happen own a lot of Bleach and I picked twelve of them that I like from the first few volumes of the series, plus the first three so you can see how soon Kubo started doing interesting things.

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 01

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 02tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 03tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 04

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 05tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 06

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 08tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 09

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 10tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 11

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 12tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 13

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 14tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 15

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 07

“Violate the Dead” is surely the result of some kind of confusion. Bleach isn’t really that type of series…

But you can see the appeal of these, I think, particularly if you’re into this kind of story. These early chapter pages are cool, but par for the course for series like this. There are cool costumes, interesting What Ifs, some good humor (I especially like numbers seven and twenty-six), and they’re honestly just very strong images. They work.

Part of the reason why they work is Kubo’s choice of titles. There’s some musical-sounding phrases like “Binda Blinda,” which is cool, and straightforward titles like “The Gate of the End,” which is also cool. Kubo does most of his chapter titles in English, and I’m always pleasantly surprised by both the poetry and quality of the titles. I love Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece and Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond more than most comics, but they don’t have memorable chapter titles. Bleach does.

Once chapter nine hits, Kubo gets a lot more inventive, playful, and melancholy with the titles. The titles for 1-8 aren’t bad, but they aren’t full of potential like “Wasted but Wanted” or “6/17 op. 2 Doesn’t Smile Much Anymore” or “Paradise is Nowhere”/”Paradise is Now Here.” There’s a playfulness or sense of foreboding in some of these, and that carries through to the stories, too. A good title is legendary. “Valley Forge, Valley Forge.” “This Man… This Monster!” “Lonely Place of Dying.” “Tommy’s Heroes.” “First Shot, Last Call.” “Days of Future Past.” “How to Murder the Earth.” “A Game of You.” “Rake at the Gates of Hell.” “The Death Wish of Terrible Turpin.” “The Great Cow Race.” “Anything Done for the First Time Creates a Demon.” (I asked friends for some memorable names so this list wasn’t just my own, and now we are off at the races naming great titles, even the ones with so-so stories. Could do a post on those alone, easy. Comics!)

Here’s a few more chapter pages, but from volumes 34-38, and then later still in the series, from middle/late 2012 through middle 2013 Weekly Shonen Jump.

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 16tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 17

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 18tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 19

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 25tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 26

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 27tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 28

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 29tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 30

The first thing to notice is that the covers in a pin-up style have gotten better. Kubo’s a pretty talented artist, and it’s cool to see the leaps in quality that he made over the years. The characters feel rounder, his storytelling choices are more confident, and there’s a sense that Kubo wants to push the limit of the chapter page.

It’s not obvious here, because these chapter pages are stripped almost entirely of context, outside of a loose chronological progression (the negative numbers are flashback chapters). You don’t know where the pages fall in the chapter, what the story’s about, or anything like that. But what makes so many of these chapter pages so great is that Kubo treats them as a cold open rather than anything dedicated to purely saying “This is chapter three hundred and eight-six of Bleach, a comic series by Tite Kubo.”

The chapter pages hit at the end of scenes, on the last page of the chapter, two pages before the chapter, and pretty much anywhere, including occasionally the first page. Instead of using them like American comics use recap/credit pages, Kubo uses them as just another storytelling device. It’s like watching a tense scene in Breaking Bad and feeling yourself surprised by the fact that you unconsciously exhaled as soon as that music twanged up, or feeling that split-second of dead air before Justified‘s theme kicks in.

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 20tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 22

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 23tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 24

It’s a mood-building breather, and it’s something that is rare in my comics-reading experience. Story titles are often included in comics often as a matter of fact, something to sit atop the credits and define the arc. It’s cool when they’re worked into the art, but they never actually feel like part of the story. They’re just an accessory, if that metaphor makes sense. But when the chapter pages, and titles, are used like this, it really, really adds to the story.

I can see how people would think it’s wasteful, since comics only get a few pages. But Kubo is spending one or two pages telling several pages worth of mood. It helps. It’s an enhancement.

tite kubo - bleach chapter pages - 21

I read a lot of comic books. Part of what keeps me coming back to the comic book as a format, be it stapled or glued or digital-only, is seeing fresh things like this, things no other medium could really do properly. I like to be surprised and entertained, and even when Bleach is busy disappointing me, I know that Kubo’s got something up his sleeve that makes checking in on Bleach worth it, almost every single time. Weekly Shonen Jump makes that easy, of course, but even when I was binging and not particularly enjoying it, this held true.

You can get Bleach and Weekly Shonen Jump on your tablet or computer monitor of your choice. Five bucks a volume makes it easy to dive in, and honestly, the early stuff is really good, and there’s flashes of great moments throughout. But when the quality of the writing declines, the art stays strong and gets stronger. The chapter pages are just one manifestation of that.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

Wrestling with Reality

July 30th, 2013 Posted by | Tags: ,

The other day, E! started airing Total Divas, a new reality show depicting the lives of the female WWE roster. I mean, considering they’re only allowed three minutes per match on any given show, they might as well get their own showcase somewhere. This show is just the latest in a lengthy relationship between wrestling and reality TV, creating an Inception-style look at what’s real through a show that is just as fake. We’ve already had Tough Enough and Hogan Knows Best while reality shows have introduced us to the likes of the Miz and David Otunga.

Friends of mine Bob and Vinny started discussing all the other future wrestling-based reality shows we might one day see. Soon I got involved, as did other buddies Marc, John and Jesse. As a complete waste of time, here’s our list of 50 Reality Shows to Expand the WWE Universe:

The Amazing Harley Race
America’s Nexus Top Model
Ass Men
Ax and Smash Plus Eight
Big Steiner Brother
The Biggest Jobber
Brother of Love
Celebrity Fit Finlay Club
Chops
CM Punk’d
Dog the Hunter Hearst Helmsley
The Evan Bournes
Extreme Championship Makeover
Fatu Nightmares
Freakzillas
The GI Bro Schmo Show
The Iron Man Matchelor
The Jersey Triad Shore
Johnny B. Badd Girls’ Club
Junkyard Dog Whisperer
Kid Kash Cab
Kitchen Snapmares
Legion of Room Raiders
Mankind vs. Food
Master Chefs of the Powerbomb
Miami Inkface
Mr. America’s Got Talent
Mizbusters
The Mr. Kennedy Experiment
MTV’s Word Life: I’m a Master of Thugganomics
The Next Food Network Starrcade
Project Greenmist
The Real Horsemen of New Jersey
The Real World’s Strongest Man
Ryback Road Rules
Sunny Boo Boo
Super Crazy Nanny
Survivor: The Series
Teen M.O.M.
Todd Grishams in Tiaras
Total Kama Island
The Ultimate Warrior
Undercover Boss Man
Uso Think You Can Dance
White Castle of Fear Factor
Who Wants to be a Superhero in Training?
Who Wants to Marry a Million Dollar Man?
Wife-Edged Swap
The X-Factor

And that’s my limit of puns for the day.

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

This Week in Panels: Week 201

July 29th, 2013 Posted by | Tags: , , , ,

You said it, Spidey. But Sunday is Sunday, so let’s get to it.

My crew this week includes Gaijin Dan, Matlock and Space Jawa. I don’t have anything else to really add to this white noise of an intro, so here. The theme to Pacific Rim. Listen to it as you skim the rest… or as you hit a monster in the face with a battleship. Either way.

With that out of the way, panels away!

All-Star Western #22 (Matlock’s pick)
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Moritat

All-Star Western #22 (Gavin’s pick)
Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti and Moritat

Aquaman #22
Geoff Johns and Paul Pelletier

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

This Character in Panels (3 of 3)

July 26th, 2013 Posted by | Tags:

All right. Yesterday we stopped right at Nick Fury. Also, that Kieron Gillen guy showed up in the comments and that’s rad as all get out! Let’s continue to the end.

Ninjette
Chosen by: Mr Wind Up Bird
Empowered #4
Adam Warren

Nova
Chosen by: SilverSupernova
Nova #2
Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Sean Chen

Orion
Chosen by: Brobe
New Gods #9
Jack Kirby

Phobos
Chosen by: Gavin
Secret Warriors #8
Jonathan Hickman and Alessandro Vitti

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

This Character in Panels (2 of 3)

July 25th, 2013 Posted by | Tags:

Yesterday, we made it to G. Let’s continue from there and hit N.

Glory
Chosen by: Darth Nat
Glory #27
Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell

Gorilla Man
Chosen by: Gavin
Agents of Atlas #1
Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk

Green Goblin
Chosen by: prezbuluskey
Thunderbolts #120
Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato Jr.

Groot
Chosen by: Space Jawa
Guardians of the Galaxy #8
Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Brad Walker

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

This Character in Panels (1 of 3)

July 24th, 2013 Posted by | Tags: ,

The other day, my regular series This Week in Panels hit the glorious Week 200. In preparation, I asked for assistance in putting together this special article This Character in Panels. Well, you guys didn’t disappoint. I got a shitload of entries from all around. It was overwhelming in the sense that a job I thought would take just a couple hours instead took me until today. Also, because of the many images involved, I’ve decided to split this into three parts, posting one a day.

The basic idea is to showcase one panel of a character’s history that best sums them up. It might be serious. It might be funny. It might not even have them in the panel at all! I got a lot of stuff from readers and people at the Something Awful forum and even had to ignore a bunch of entries because either they gave me splash pages (which I never use for these) or the complete lack of issue information.

Hell, I wanted to use that infamous, “PUNISHMENT DAY!” panel of Punisher 2099, but I have no idea which issue it’s from, so I passed. Regardless, thanks to everyone who helped out.

Oh, and I’m not listing the volume information for any of these. I have enough headaches as is.

Let’s start it off from A to G.

Alana and Marko
Chosen by: Gavin
Saga #10
Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Animal Man
Chosen by: LtKenFrankenstein
Animal Man #26
Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog

Ant-Man (Eric O’Grady)
Chosen by: Gavin
Thunderbolts #131
Andy Diggle and Roberto Delatorre

Aquaman
Chosen by: Gavin
Aquaman #1
Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

h1

This Week in Panels: WEEK 200!

July 22nd, 2013 Posted by | Tags: , , , , , ,

Yikes! I never thought this would ever last this long. Started as an exercise in keeping me on some kind of deadline, This Week in Panels has been going strong for the last two hundo weeks. The idea is simple. Take the new comics me and my calvary have read over the week and chop them down until there’s one panel that best sums up the issue. It’s fun and people seem to like it, which is why it’s lasted so long.

My crew this time includes Gaijin Dan, Space Jawa, Matlock and Jody. Buddy Dickeye tried to toss me a panel for Avengers, but it kind of doesn’t work.

Yeah, Space Knights (sans Rom, the only one anyone cares about). Those are cool and all, but they have barely anything to do with anything. They’re in there for one panel and are never referenced. Still, I posted it here anyway because I didn’t want my first panel for ThWiP 200 to be whatever the hell that nightmare is in Animal Man.

No, seriously. What the fuck is this thing?!

Animal Man #22
Jeff Lemire, Steve Pugh and Francis Portela

Avengers #16
Jonathan Hickman, Nick Spencer and Stefano Caselli

Batman ’66 #3 (Gavin’s pick)
Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case

Read the rest of this entry »

Post to Twitter Post to Facebook Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon