My Issue with Most Modern Comics

 

No, Zeb Wells, good is indeed something you are. God, what a stupid panel. See how dumb that is? Just, the whole panel? I love JRJR's art and even I have to admit this just poorly drawn. I feel bad for the inker, 'cause man did he have his work cut out for him or what???

Yes, she's dying, as opposed to something else that historically was compared with death.

Beyond just how bad the above panel (and the book it comes from) is, it sums up my issue with the modern "style" of comics. Comic books, sequential art, are about reincorporation: each new image, paired with its text, is put atop the old images and text, and your brain combines these images into a narrative, because narrative is one of the central functions of the human being. This isn't the same as animation, although it's a related excercise. Text is layered together with these images to allow you to fill in the gaps that the pictures didn't address, like dialogue. Because of this, comics are extremely difficult to pull off, and not, I REPEAT NOT LIKE MOVIES. The same rules for shots that you use for movies do not apply to comics, and never did.

So that above panel? That's nonsense. It's a transitioning shot showing Kamala dying. Here's the rest of the page so you can see:

This is not a good page. These seven panels would actually make a much better splash page... okay the dialogue would actually have to be good too. Which this isn't. But even so, none of these moments really add anything to the story. It's one moment, and if you're going for gigantic impact you splash it all over the page. If you were going to actually go for a good story flow without it being a splash page you could do this instead:

Those two two panels are instead one larger panel of Kamala momentarily panicking, with the whole "something's wrong", with Peter freaking out in an inset panel. You then have the same panel set up for the second row, with even the left panel being mostly the same, except Peter's calming down.... but the right panel is a close up on Peter's hand encircling Kamala's hand. The bottom row could actually stay pretty similar... but JRJR would actually need to try. He can draft a hell of a lot better than what that page shows.

Now, you can argue "But Nathan, c'mon, this is a bad page. "And yes it is, but it's pretty emblematic of my issue with most modern comics: the images don't really add much to each other. There isn't really a narrative. Don't believe me?

This one section is actually really long, and it's masterfully done. Each panel in all of these pages adds new information, shows Spidey's resolve slowly overcoming the rapidly disintegrating world around him. If you want to do slow, this is how you do it. Peter's claim that he has the strenght of many men is deliberately contrasted against the heavy machinery. You then move in to place more emphasis on his resolve to unlock his potential. You then jump to him trembling and then the next panel actually shows less trembling because he's getting ready. You then get a panel where he doubts he can do it... and then he starts to do it, come hell or a flood. Each of these panels is a new piece of information for the reader to fold into his narrative.

He then addresses the fact that he's about to drown... which makes him doubt again, but only for a moment and then he starts to stand up. And up.

AND UP.

Part of the reason why this works is how immaculately words and pictures are piled on each other. Nothing is wasted. There is no stray image or word. It all builds on each other. My issue with modern comics isn't that they want to do slower storytelling, but that so few books are actually written like frickin' comics, but like movies and TV.

It's things like that abortion of a page that make me want to write comics. Probably not a good enough reason, but I'm over here, looking over my supply list, folks. It's coming. 

Fuck this horseshit I'm back.