This week unearthed some interesting possibilities in regards to working with comics. I interviewed with Kaplan (yes, the test prep company), and discovered that they actually have a brand new line of sat-vocabulary prep manga and comic books, which are really just straightforward comic books with sidebars explaining advanced vocabulary. Right now they only have a couple, but they've recently signed deals for a few licensed properties, including World of Warcraft and DC Comics' Justice League. They seemed extremely excited when i told them my own experiences dealing in comics. I haven't gotten it yet, but it just goes to show that there are a lot of unexpected paths for getting to the same goal.
In other news, I reread Fables: Animal Farm. In some ways I like this volume better than the first, as the overarching backstory finally begins to be hinted at, and there are a ton of inspired touches to a fairly straightforward guerilla coup story. The pigs as the revolutionary leaders was brillian, two direct literary references in one blow.
However, I do feel the story suffers in comparison to the first one as a result of a much more one-dimensional set of villains. Goldilocks is a psycho, and those helping her like Shere Khan never move past base villainy. Jack and Rose Red were much better fleshed out, to the point where Jack even carried his own series, something a simple nut like Goldilocks could never do. Hers was a case where I felt the idea (Goldilocks slept with Baby Bear and became an insane echoterrorist lashing out against the specism in Fable society) never transferred organcially to the page in a way that had emotional reasonance with me.
The transition from Medina to Willingham was seamless, and if I hadn't read it I would never have picked up on the shift in artists. Interestingly, neither of their work on other titles look anything like each other, which means one or both of them totally sublimated their favored style for the sake of continuity in appearance. Very hard to do, and an indicator of an artist with a fair degree of technical ability. Liefeld, for instance, could never take on another style like that, when he draws something you always know it (generally by the grossly mishapen anatomy and lack of hands, but thats a rant for another day).
Monday, November 12, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Fables
After feeling that the art in Ex Machina lacked emotion and personality, it was a joy just to look at James Jean's incredible cover art for Fables. His drawing of the various Fables, in and around a NYC subway car, wasn't just technically excellent, it has real character and emotion behind it. The Beast looks both monstrous and all-too human, Prince Charming both perfectly handsome and perfectly loathsome, Bigby Wolf looks gritty and grizzled, etc. Ex Machina felt like looking at photographs, James Jean's covers feel like looking at real life, ironic considering his fantastic subject matter. I'm not sure anyone else could have gotten that perfect a blend of whimsy and realism, ideal for the comic itself.
The interior art is more than adequate, but felt like something of a letdown after the gorgeous covers. The pencilwork is tight, detailed, and the coloring subdued in the manner of comics like Gotham Central or certain issues of Daredevil- which fits, since those comics strive for "realistic" takes on fantastic subject matter, as does Fables. A more stylized approach just wouldn't have conveyed the same sense of these magical characters being stuck firmly in a world where they didn't belong.
Speaking of those characters, Willingham's knack for unorthodox takes on classic characters that nevertheless read like realistic extrapolations of what we know from traditional fairytales is extraordinary. For instance, lots of stories feature a Prince Charming who is handsome, charming and marries the princess as the end. Willingham's inspired interpretation was that they are all the same Prince Charming, and therefore in addition to being handsome and all that, he must be a tremendous womanizer. Similarly, for all that the Jack the Giant Killer stories cast him as the hero due to his victim being a giant, its pretty easy to read them as a case of lying, breaking and entering, theft and possibly murder for the sake og money and glory. Hence, Jack is an immoral glory hound. Willingham never does what you expect with the characters, but he also never offers up an interpretation that would directly contradict the known fairytales.
As great as Fables is, it does suffer some in my eyes for attempting to do many of the same things that Neil Gaiman's Sandman did. In Sandman, every story ever told is true, to a greater or lesser degree, and whether that truth impacts realities is determined by the perception of the individual. Gods, monsters and everything else only really exist insofar as people believe them, so defunct Gods like Bast are now near-powerless shells of their former self (Gaiman also deals with the idea of belief informing power/existence in American Gods). Characters exist in a sort of sub-reality within our own world, rarely affecting everyday people in obvious ways, yet their origins go back to worlds beyond our own woven from the very dreamstuff of mankind. Its not exactly fables, Gaiman never limits himself to fairy tales and indeed primarily plays with myths/Gods and famous literary or historical figures, but he plays by similar rules. Given that Gaiman's Sandman almost singlehandedly popularized the Vertigo imprint of which Fables is now one of the flagship titles, comparisons are inevitable. Fables is neither as big as Sandman, nor as ambitious, nor as groundbreaking. To anyone who has yet to read Sandman, I heartily recommend they do so at once.
Which isn't to say Fables isn't a blast. The plots, whether murder mysteries, political intrigue, or epic mystical war, are in of themselves pretty ordinary, but continuously redeemed by Willingham's aforementioned ability to just do really innovative stuff with the characters he plays with. And not in an artifical way either. The Big Bad wolf as noir style detective sounds good on paper, but could easily be botched by a writer with less talent. Instead, he feels deeply human, almost reminescent of Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes character.
The interior art is more than adequate, but felt like something of a letdown after the gorgeous covers. The pencilwork is tight, detailed, and the coloring subdued in the manner of comics like Gotham Central or certain issues of Daredevil- which fits, since those comics strive for "realistic" takes on fantastic subject matter, as does Fables. A more stylized approach just wouldn't have conveyed the same sense of these magical characters being stuck firmly in a world where they didn't belong.
Speaking of those characters, Willingham's knack for unorthodox takes on classic characters that nevertheless read like realistic extrapolations of what we know from traditional fairytales is extraordinary. For instance, lots of stories feature a Prince Charming who is handsome, charming and marries the princess as the end. Willingham's inspired interpretation was that they are all the same Prince Charming, and therefore in addition to being handsome and all that, he must be a tremendous womanizer. Similarly, for all that the Jack the Giant Killer stories cast him as the hero due to his victim being a giant, its pretty easy to read them as a case of lying, breaking and entering, theft and possibly murder for the sake og money and glory. Hence, Jack is an immoral glory hound. Willingham never does what you expect with the characters, but he also never offers up an interpretation that would directly contradict the known fairytales.
As great as Fables is, it does suffer some in my eyes for attempting to do many of the same things that Neil Gaiman's Sandman did. In Sandman, every story ever told is true, to a greater or lesser degree, and whether that truth impacts realities is determined by the perception of the individual. Gods, monsters and everything else only really exist insofar as people believe them, so defunct Gods like Bast are now near-powerless shells of their former self (Gaiman also deals with the idea of belief informing power/existence in American Gods). Characters exist in a sort of sub-reality within our own world, rarely affecting everyday people in obvious ways, yet their origins go back to worlds beyond our own woven from the very dreamstuff of mankind. Its not exactly fables, Gaiman never limits himself to fairy tales and indeed primarily plays with myths/Gods and famous literary or historical figures, but he plays by similar rules. Given that Gaiman's Sandman almost singlehandedly popularized the Vertigo imprint of which Fables is now one of the flagship titles, comparisons are inevitable. Fables is neither as big as Sandman, nor as ambitious, nor as groundbreaking. To anyone who has yet to read Sandman, I heartily recommend they do so at once.
Which isn't to say Fables isn't a blast. The plots, whether murder mysteries, political intrigue, or epic mystical war, are in of themselves pretty ordinary, but continuously redeemed by Willingham's aforementioned ability to just do really innovative stuff with the characters he plays with. And not in an artifical way either. The Big Bad wolf as noir style detective sounds good on paper, but could easily be botched by a writer with less talent. Instead, he feels deeply human, almost reminescent of Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes character.
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