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Post by MDG on Feb 22, 2024 10:14:37 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 21, 2024 11:53:02 GMT -5
I don't find myself caring too much about the state of the comic book industry, especially the monthly series. If there were no more new Daredevil or FF or Thor or whatever comics that would be fine with me: I haven't read them in years and don't feel much curiosity as to what's being done with those characters now. As long as comics in some form are being created I'll hope to find the occasional new book that I'm interested in, like Kate Beaton's Ducks last year, or the latest effort by creators whose work I usually like, e.g. Daniel Clowes, the Hernandezes, Marini, etc. This is pretty much where I am--there's a lot of stuff out there and a lot of the best stuff isn't "disposable"--I know I'll want to read Monica and Three Rocks again pretty soon. In addition, I still need to backfill a lot of the Los Bros material I missed in the 90s-00s when I was out of comics. And there's so much that's available through the library (physical and electronically) that budget isn't a big deal, and I can just pick up books that I would've hesitated about before. Some I liked (Powell's Hillbilly, Black Root) some disappointing (Love everlasting, Ducks). But I'm glad I read them to at least know what's going on.
I think the last "big two universe" things I read were She-Hulk and the Human Target mini where he hands around with Ice--probably some of the most beautiful art I've ever seen in comics. But sometimes I would like to be that 12-year-old kid and be able to casually pick up that latest issue of Spider-Man just to see what's going on.
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Post by MDG on Feb 21, 2024 10:20:47 GMT -5
Is that a Simonson cover ? Yup!
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 17:16:56 GMT -5
I picked up the Monster Masterworks book from the late '80s for a good price off of eBay last week. This collects a load of those old, weird monster tales that were published in late '50s or early '60s in comics like Amazing Fantasy, Tales to Astonish, and Strange Tales. The majority of the stories in this volume were produced by the team of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Dick Ayers, though there are a few Steve Ditko drawn stories in here too. It's a fun book, but whoever colored the cover (I can't believe it was Simonson himself) just made everything look like mud. And someone chose the worst possible typeface to do the names over that roof.
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 17:12:32 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 17:09:41 GMT -5
How many 12 year olds are just starting to buy comics in 2024? The variants are harmless. Just don’t buy them. Why would a 12 year old WANT to start buying comics in 2024? 5 bucks for a pamphlet full of ads with an incomplete story and 30 bogus confusing covers to choose from? There is NOTHING to draw a kid into this terrible, inaccessible hobby. Some folks--me included--have been saying things like this--with the appropriate change in price--since the late 80s.
It does suck, though, that a kid can't go into a comic shop and ask for the latest "Batman" or "Superman" or "Hulk" and always get a satisfying story that meets their expectations.
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 13:27:10 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 9:27:42 GMT -5
chaykinstevens--yeah, those Severin covers are hard to beat.
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 9:24:56 GMT -5
I've been meaning to go back to Bone--I read some random issues as they came out and thought it was very well done.
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Post by MDG on Feb 20, 2024 9:20:57 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 19, 2024 10:10:28 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 18, 2024 9:22:41 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 17, 2024 13:50:46 GMT -5
Jury's still out, but will try.
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Post by MDG on Feb 17, 2024 10:39:42 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Feb 17, 2024 10:34:19 GMT -5
... At these studios, you had a whole assembly line of people producing comic book stories, with writers, artists, letterers, colorists, etc. Some artists did their own work and some did main figures and others did background characters and details. Different studios used different organization, with some having the writers produce full scripts, then the artists illustrating them, while others produced basic plots and then added dialogue afterwards, which was the method that became synonymous at Marvel. The plot method was favored by those who were churning out the stuff, as a writer could whip off quick plots faster than typing full scripts. ... I read an interview with Jack Binder where he talked about a studio having a rubber stamp on the back with eight tasks: script, layout, pencil main figures, pencil background figures, pencil backgrounds, ink figures, ink backgrounds, letters. Pages were passed around the room, and artists would put their initials next to what they did on the page. Each item earned them $1, and the studio essentially paid $8 / page.
Another way of developing stories was Harvey Kurtzman's where he started by laying them out visually before "writing" them. I'm pretty sure this example shows his first pass and Elder (or Severin/Elder) worked from a tighter version, probably with the dialog on it.
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