A touch of bleach
Jun. 13th, 2002 12:00 amWhile still not working on my notes...
Glad it was said
A topic that keeps rattling around in my brain. And one I'm kind of two-minded about. On the one hand, writing is so essential. Like Covielle says in one of her posts - badly drawn comics with good writers are infinitely better then the opposite. Although. She uses 'Sandman' as an example, and I would say on the whole that it's less badly drawn and more drawn atypically for comics on the whole. Most of the artists have an out of the mainstream look, scratchy, distorted, realistic in maybe less eye pleasing ways.
There are exceptions to that argument though, at least in my opinion. Warren Ellis, the kingpin of good super hero writing (imo), was the original writer on 'Dv8', and it never balanced out for me. 'Dv8' was created as a contrast title to 'Gen13', the bad kids and the idea was always pretty cool, but it never really took off. The first artist was Humberto Ramos, in the early days when everything he did was oddly proportioned and never worked on any level for me. And so, to me, it ended up being an ugly comic. Stomach turning stories (but in typical good Ellis fashion), plus stomach turning art, made it an unpleasant read.
And it is weird for me, to hear so many artists spill out that they want to have a comic and not really feel that they are considering the writing, the plotting, the *story* essential at all. To me the story is really everything. Even artists that I could go on and on about in sad fan girl babble (these days it's all about David Mack), they're all backed up by solid writing. Mack just happens to be crazy enough to write trippy, clean, pretentious stuff all on his own.
Comics are art *and* words. I don't think that can be stressed enough.
On the other hand, I have my own dreams. I'm sort of an artist and kind of a writer and so yeah, I want to make comics too. Like almost everyone else I know I've got a few ideas that've been kicked around to some degree and a few more that I keep clutched close to my chest and dream about while riding on the bus. Most of the ideas have some elements of the cliche comic genres/stories/themes too. I too have supersoliders and people with exotic powers. I too have fantasy realms, places and people with funny names. Heck, I've even got super heroes, one of which is a complete deliberate Mary-Sue. Yup. I'm totally and completely guilty too.
So I don't really know what the answer is. If you want to make comics, read comics. Read all sorts of comics. Read popular comics and classic comics. Read indie and art house books.
Or not.
But remember, some of us will be reading your words as well as looking at your pictures. We often have little time, little patience and less money. There will always be better artists. So tell a good story too.
Glad it was said
A topic that keeps rattling around in my brain. And one I'm kind of two-minded about. On the one hand, writing is so essential. Like Covielle says in one of her posts - badly drawn comics with good writers are infinitely better then the opposite. Although. She uses 'Sandman' as an example, and I would say on the whole that it's less badly drawn and more drawn atypically for comics on the whole. Most of the artists have an out of the mainstream look, scratchy, distorted, realistic in maybe less eye pleasing ways.
There are exceptions to that argument though, at least in my opinion. Warren Ellis, the kingpin of good super hero writing (imo), was the original writer on 'Dv8', and it never balanced out for me. 'Dv8' was created as a contrast title to 'Gen13', the bad kids and the idea was always pretty cool, but it never really took off. The first artist was Humberto Ramos, in the early days when everything he did was oddly proportioned and never worked on any level for me. And so, to me, it ended up being an ugly comic. Stomach turning stories (but in typical good Ellis fashion), plus stomach turning art, made it an unpleasant read.
And it is weird for me, to hear so many artists spill out that they want to have a comic and not really feel that they are considering the writing, the plotting, the *story* essential at all. To me the story is really everything. Even artists that I could go on and on about in sad fan girl babble (these days it's all about David Mack), they're all backed up by solid writing. Mack just happens to be crazy enough to write trippy, clean, pretentious stuff all on his own.
Comics are art *and* words. I don't think that can be stressed enough.
On the other hand, I have my own dreams. I'm sort of an artist and kind of a writer and so yeah, I want to make comics too. Like almost everyone else I know I've got a few ideas that've been kicked around to some degree and a few more that I keep clutched close to my chest and dream about while riding on the bus. Most of the ideas have some elements of the cliche comic genres/stories/themes too. I too have supersoliders and people with exotic powers. I too have fantasy realms, places and people with funny names. Heck, I've even got super heroes, one of which is a complete deliberate Mary-Sue. Yup. I'm totally and completely guilty too.
So I don't really know what the answer is. If you want to make comics, read comics. Read all sorts of comics. Read popular comics and classic comics. Read indie and art house books.
Or not.
But remember, some of us will be reading your words as well as looking at your pictures. We often have little time, little patience and less money. There will always be better artists. So tell a good story too.
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