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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Manifestos? We don't need no stinkin' manisfetos!
You feel those pre-SDCC jitters coming on? If you’ve got a three hour drive staring at you like I do you might. I suppose I’m a bit reflective on this night and have something of a follow up to last night’s post.
In the comments section Johnny B. points out the feeling of anticipation in sequential storytelling is what makes sequential storytelling so fun to read (this because I admitted to giving up some titles because sequential storytelling an the feeling of anticipation wasn’t doing it for me). This made me wonder what it was that brought me back to comics and the rest of the arts.
The nearest I can come up to is finding an artist or artists realize their respective personal vision. This comes from my hypothesis that human communication, specifically the communication of ideas, is what makes life worth living. Lately I’ve been judging whether a comic works for me based on how much I felt the artists’ communicating to me their vision for their creation.
That might sound a bit abstract so let me take a recently published comic that I reviewed for CBG as an example (the review should be up soon). I feel Darwyn Cooke’s issue of Solo was so grand because you got the sense that he was indulging in everything he’s passionate about in art and in a way that is still entertaining and fun to read. It helps to be into the style of commercial illustration he is. I’m the kind of guy who looks through old issues of Playboy and finds myself more impressed with the cartoons, articles and all around atmosphere before the models (not that I mind those pictorials, it’s just hard for me to judge them with any objectivity ;) ) so you can be sure that I was ready to get into the same feel as Cooke.
I love reading a book and being impressed that someone made me think a different way or look at things a different way because they just honestly (or sometimes dishonestly, when it comes to art it’s hard to tell) got across some kind of theses. That thesis could be family relations leading to anti-social behavior (Jimmy Corrigan), violence being the currency of the 20th Century (From Hell) or that the old-time humor was the best-time humor (Fred the Clown). The best thing is that while those were what I got out of those books maybe you got something different. Maybe I’ll get something different out of those books when I read them again. Well thanks to this here internet we can communicate those ideas about ideas! I think that’s a wonderful thing and it’s what keeping me interest in comics more than following a storyline, which is what I was more into years ago.
Of course I’m into other stuff. I love the Lee/Kirby/Sinnott Fantastic Four because of the overwhelming imagination on display. There ain’t too much below the surface but when you have Kirby giving us “The Inhumans Break Free!” I’m not complaining. When I enjoyed Justice League #200 it was because it was “shut-your-brain-off” fun (something Zen about that). I don’t think that’s healthy in large doses but we can all certainly all use a break now and again.
The technical aspects of comics are also cool to dwell on. The other wonderful thing about the issues of Fantastic Four I like is because, well, Jack Kirby drew them! Seeing how he flawlessly puts together an adventure/sci-fi comic is worthy of a lot of attention. I’m not much of a cartoonist myself but I do think it is fun to think about linework and composition. I think we could all have more attention paid to the artwork when we find reviews of comics.
So what is that, “The Brill Manifesto?” No way, that would be stupid. I’m just telling you where I’m coming from right now. It might change in a year or in two weeks. That’s something else I look forward to.
Don’t worry; I’ll be audio blogging from Comic-KAAAAAAAAAAAHN! So let me just leave you with this thought:
Wouldn’t it be way better if instead of Johnny Depp they got Michael Ian Black to play Willy Wonka? I think so but that’s me.
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