Mark wrote:
> Kevin,
>
> Are there other graphic novels and/or comic books
that you do think
> would hold up as prose pieces? Which? Can't imagine
many of my
> favorite Batman comics holding up as prose pieces,
for instance.
I think I tried to answer this in a previous post (I've got a
new computer -- stuff keeps bouncing back because I keep
forgetting to ramafram my frigulition tidbit or
something).
I love comics too, and when the story and pictures mesh and
reinforce each other, it can be a powerful and effective
narrative medium. But I don't think they mesh particularly
well in SIN CITY.
There's hardly any story to reinforce, no there there -- just
a lot of bleating and chest-pounding and over-boiled cliches
with no emotional hook, the graphic wing of the neo-nah
movement. I'm getting tired of "artistes" trying to justify
and excuse weak, self- indulgent and often just sloppy
storytelling by playing the "parody" card.
Or is it "satire" this week?
Anyway, I just wish Miller had spent as much time on those
stories as he apparently did filling in all those pages with
black ink.
Or Rodriguez spent on getting the look of the rain in the
film just right.
SIN CITY is less a tribute to the genre than a visually
stunning but empty sneer.
> Your whole "judging comics without the visuals"
theory smacks of the
> "rock lyrics can/should be poetry" argument. No,
rock lyrics were not
> meant to be heard without the music partly drowning
them out (and the
> most poetic lyrics usually read like pompous high
school lit class
> whining on their own). And visuals were supposed to
carry a stripped
> down story in comics and films. Just look at the
best film
> adaptations.
> Almost without exception, they strip down the novels
they are based
> on.
> Isn't that what you just praised Gone Baby Gone for?
They are
> different
> media with different requirements. Yes, Sin City
stripped it down to a
> skeleton, but that's what I enjoyed about
it.
Well, at least we both agree there's not much meat left on
dem SIN CITY bones.
Thing is, I like my comics to have both great story AND
pictures, just like I want my rock'n'roll to have both great
music AND lyrics.
For me, the pretty pictures of SIN CITY failed to compensate
for its ultimate shallowness and lack of soul. Or even
wit.
And John wrote:
> Lapham (who did SILVERFISH, a recent crime comic
which I thought
> would make a swell prose novel) is a terrific
writer, but a very
> mediocre graphic artist
Mediocre? Nah... he's just got a clean, straightforward style
that serves the story. Sort of like Terry Beatty, another
artist who doesn't get his props, who did Ms. Tree with Max
Allan Collins.
Their work is reminiscent of a sort of fifties-style
black-and-white advertising/comic strip style, a sort of
no-nonsense, unflinching hard-boiled clarity that has no need
of lots of visual chicanery to carry the story. It's the
cartoon equivalent of Hammett's prose: taut and terse.
Bold, clean-cut lines, an almost retro simplicity about it
that builds upon the story without interfering with it.
Artists whose work constantly draws you out of the story are
usually trying too hard. Or trying to over-compensatie for a
weak story.
Isn't that what Elmore Leonard was saying -- that the writer
should be invisible. Comic illustrators should be the same
way -- their work should pull you along, make you keep
flipping pages -- not make you stop constantly to ooh and
aah.
But you're right -- Lapham is a terrific writer. There are
some great crime comic writers out there (Ed Brubaker, Chuck
Dixon when he wants to be, Max Allan Collins, the 100 BULLETS
guy) but STRAY BULLETS is possibly the best (and certainly
the most ambitious) crime comic currently being published in
North America. It's sorta like THE WIRE, but even more
wide-ranging.
Assuming it's still being published... now that SILVERFISH is
done, let's hope Lapham will be heading back to the STRAY
BULLETS drawing board very soon.
Kevin
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