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Post by fanboystranger on Apr 22, 2015 20:20:58 GMT -5
Another of my favorite breaking the fourth wall moments comes from Shade, the Changing Man, a series that frequently played with metatextual themes. This one involves Miles Laimling, a resident at the Hotel Shade who claims to be working on The Great American Novel, but just can't get it right... because he's a terrible writer, not that you'd get it from his attitude.
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Anyway, after annoying the living crap out of everyone by asking them extremely personal questions about their lives, what motivates them, etc, the residents of the Hotel Shade start realizing that their lives are becoming whatever garbage Laimling writes. The previously blocked Laimling can't stop writing now, and his work is influencing events, probably due to the madness... or maybe something else. It's also making him miserable, or perhaps it's because he's miserable that his writing is making everyone else suffer. He agrees to move on from Hotel Shade and start enjoying life more on its own terms, not as grist for his writing.
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Then he tells us that "Miles Laimling" is an anagram he uses as a pseudonym. We never get his actual name, but it isn't hard to figure out that it stands for "Smile Milligan", Pete giving himself some advice not to take everything so seriously... or at least having a laugh at himself and his reputation for being one of the great intellectual comics writers.
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Post by fanboystranger on Apr 22, 2015 20:26:02 GMT -5
Another favorite of mine is Steve Gerber's final issue of Man-Thing where he basically tells us that writing all the social horror of the series was making him miserable. (Chris Claremont would try a similiar stunt during his M-T run, but it fell flat on its face.)
I remember when I saw the Claremont Man-Thing on the stands it struck me as a cynical attempt to sell it as more of what Gerber had given us on the series. But what Gerber had done was very unique and personal to him, not something you can package and formulise. And to expect Claremont of all writers to be able to emulate what Gerber had done was ridiculous. I enjoyed X-Men and Iron Fist and Marvel team-Up as much as anyone else, but he was never that kind of writer. This was one of several things that turned me away from Marvel at the time. Sometimes being cynically commercial will cost you readers, though I suppose never as many as you gain. Yeah, the Claremont Man-Thing was really not good. (To be honest, I don't know what was worse-- his M-T or his concurrent Dr Strange run.) When he tried to pull that Gerber move, it seemed so forced and desperate. I guess the bar he depicted himself in got some free publicity, though. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Apr 22, 2015 20:42:03 GMT -5
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Another one I really liked was from Michael Moorcock's Multiverse. Moorcock, of course, is known for his metatextual games, especially since the "Second Ether Trilogy", which Multiverse is closely related to. I included the above scan to give an idea of what Moorcock's role in the series is. This is not my favorite part, however. At a certain point in the story, Moorcock is challenged to play the Game of Time, and he needs a partner. Moorcock mentions that there's only one person in the multiverse who is worthy to play on his side, and that man's name is Walt Simonson. Simonson enters the book to start playing the game, and starts dressing himself in a set of overly elaborate Simonson-style armor, which is presented in such a nonchalant manner like it was the most normal thing in the world to do. It cracked me up so hard. I don't know if that was Mike's or Walt's idea, but it was such a perfect moment of levity in truly cosmic and philosophical series. I wish I could find a scan of those pages. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Apr 22, 2015 20:49:07 GMT -5
I remember when I saw the Claremont Man-Thing on the stands it struck me as a cynical attempt to sell it as more of what Gerber had given us on the series. But what Gerber had done was very unique and personal to him, not something you can package and formulise. And to expect Claremont of all writers to be able to emulate what Gerber had done was ridiculous. I enjoyed X-Men and Iron Fist and Marvel team-Up as much as anyone else, but he was never that kind of writer. If you're talking about the 1979 Man-Thing, I remember Michael Fleisher writing the first few issues, with Jim Mooney art. I rather liked Fleisher's take on the muck-monster. His abrupt departure has a story, but I don't recall the details, except that Claremont was called in to take over.
I agree he's not a good fit for the character, but he acquits himself semi-honorably, sacrificing not only his own life, but also those of his co-workers in an unflattering fashion in the last issue, #11.
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Post by dupersuper on Apr 22, 2015 22:36:50 GMT -5
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Post by berkley on Apr 23, 2015 19:22:44 GMT -5
I remember when I saw the Claremont Man-Thing on the stands it struck me as a cynical attempt to sell it as more of what Gerber had given us on the series. But what Gerber had done was very unique and personal to him, not something you can package and formulise. And to expect Claremont of all writers to be able to emulate what Gerber had done was ridiculous. I enjoyed X-Men and Iron Fist and Marvel team-Up as much as anyone else, but he was never that kind of writer. If you're talking about the 1979 Man-Thing, I remember Michael Fleisher writing the first few issues, with Jim Mooney art. I rather liked Fleisher's take on the muck-monster. His abrupt departure has a story, but I don't recall the details, except that Claremont was called in to take over.
I agree he's not a good fit for the character, but he acquits himself semi-honorably, sacrificing not only his own life, but also those of his co-workers in an unflattering fashion in the last issue, #11.
Interesting mirror image of the trajectory the writing on DC's Swamp Thing took, from Len Wein to Alan Moore, while Marvel's Man-Thing went from Steve Gerber to Chris Claremont. Claremont probably would have done better writing his usual style rather than trying to re-create Gerber's. I forgot he'd done Doctor Strange or maybe I had already stopped paying attention by that point. |
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Post by numberthirty on May 14, 2015 19:16:43 GMT -5
A very interesting example of this is the final issue of Automatic Kafka. In the issue, the creative team meet Kafka and explain that the title is being canceled and why. At the close of the issue, they talk Kafka into letting them erase him from existence so that future creators cannot do something dumb with him.
The entire issue has moments where the team are clearly addressing the reader.
If you search "Automatic Kafka" in Google and check for the "Scan-Daily" result, you can see most of the issue.
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Post by DubipR on May 15, 2015 13:29:08 GMT -5
I thought it was fun the first few times Byrne did it in She-Hulk, but by issue 3, it felt like he was doing it on every page. I love Byrne's She-Hulk breaking the fourth wall...
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2015 13:37:49 GMT -5
A classic: Bruno Premiani and Murray Boltinoff speak to the readers, urging them to buy Doom Patrol 121 or else.... (John Broome gets all beatniky on the left.)  |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2015 13:39:50 GMT -5
Here's the splash page of DP 121. I can still remember how gripping this issue was from start to finish.  |
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Post by MDG on May 15, 2015 14:23:23 GMT -5
(John Broome gets all beatniky on the left.) I was looking for that Broome panel when this thread started. (I always get the feeling that in the post-code era, comic industry people were divided into "beatniks" and "suits.") |
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Post by Prince Hal on May 15, 2015 15:10:16 GMT -5
I remember being so surprised that Broome looked like that. I guess i just assumed that the writers and artists looked like everybody's dad. (kinda like Boltinoff and Premiani.)
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Post by Rob Allen on May 15, 2015 17:35:10 GMT -5
There are a few scenes in Promethea that seem at first to be breaking the fourth wall, but they work just as well inside the story.
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