Handsome brooding vampire guy has to swoop in all sensitive mouth and overhanging forehead. How 'bout leaving some scraps for the homely-looking fellows who don't turn evil when they get some?

Doyle ,'Life of the Party'


Buffista Movies 3: Panned and Scanned  

A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


Sean K - Jul 12, 2004 2:36:11 pm PDT #256 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

I'm with Beverly and Robin.

We're gonna have to start excommunicating people, aren't we?


Consuela - Jul 12, 2004 2:42:07 pm PDT #257 of 10001
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

t sits with Beverly and Robin

t sticks tongue out at Sean


P.M. Marc - Jul 12, 2004 2:44:08 pm PDT #258 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

Won't somebody think of the comics-impaired? Would a text version be so difficult to do?

For a lot of them, yeah, because in a perfect world the whole of text + art is much greater than the sum of the parts. So, while you *could* do a text-only version of, say, Batgirl Year One, you'd miss the incredible sense of movement and nostalgia in the pencils, the vivid beauty of the colors, and all the visual nods to that which will, timeframe-wise, come later.

There *are* novelizations of some big storylines out there. In the Batverse, Knightfall and No Man's Land have been done as novels (the latter is good, and I haven't read the former).

The art interferes with the story, for me. I can't assimilate the implied movement, figure out which dialog balloon in a given panel should be read first, assimilate a visage change...all stuff schoolchildren do with alacrity.

If your library has a copy, check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which can really help with that sort of thing. And keep in mind that the art is the story, at least in part.


Beverly - Jul 12, 2004 2:45:32 pm PDT #259 of 10001
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

I don't know what the barrier is, but for example, comics art never elicits an emotion from me the way words can do. Traditional art, yes. The work of illustrators like Wyeth and Rackham and even Rockwell? Yes. But comics art...doesn't. It leaves me completely unmoved.

I did, however, buy a copy of the McKean tarot, and I find it much more penetrable than the comics.

My mind is a place where there is no linear path, I fear.

eta: Thanks, Plei. I'll look for a copy. I'm definitely feeling impaired in many discussions lately.


Narrator - Jul 12, 2004 2:48:28 pm PDT #260 of 10001
The evil is this way?

I am in a third corner. I liked "Fray." However, most comics bore me, although I have liked some of the movies based on them (such as the original "Batman", the original "Superman" and both "Spider-Man" films).


P.M. Marc - Jul 12, 2004 2:49:33 pm PDT #261 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

I don't know what the barrier is, but for example, comics art never elicits an emotion from me the way words can do. Traditional art, yes. The work of illustrators like Wyeth and Rackham and even Rockwell? Yes. But comics art...doesn't. It leaves me completely unmoved.

What all have you tried?

There are so many different styles now, some Pow! ZAP! BANG!!!, others (Michael Lark, and the best of Zircher's pencils) that evoke a sort of gritty, noir feel, where you can almost taste the sweat and dirt of the job.


Beverly - Jul 12, 2004 2:55:36 pm PDT #262 of 10001
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

What all have you tried?

Well, because there's been so much buzz, I went to the bookstore and just picked up a handful, went and sat down and tried to get into one after the other. The pow-zap-zang ones actually repel me. Oh please.

The dark, gritty, noir ones I thought might have a chance, but they just seem all surface and no depth. Overdone. (Batman. Forgive me. And Sandman.)

See, I know I'm not reading them "right." I know I must be missing something, because people whose spicy brains I respect really love this genre, so there has to be something more there than I'm seeing.

I'ma look up McCloud and see if he can give me the key, or whatever to turn my brain that quarter-turn.


DXMachina - Jul 12, 2004 3:01:05 pm PDT #263 of 10001
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.

(BF's uncle is a famous comics guy who runs a school for illustrators in NJ, plus we just know and hang with a bunch of comics folk)

Huh. That's pretty cool. (Pretty sure I know who the uncle is.)


P.M. Marc - Jul 12, 2004 3:07:44 pm PDT #264 of 10001
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear

I'ma look up McCloud and see if he can give me the key, or whatever to turn my brain that quarter-turn.

He might.

As a warning, he does the book in comic format, but it works really well if you can make it the whole way through: scanning it won't help.


Polter-Cow - Jul 12, 2004 3:43:35 pm PDT #265 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

It's odd that you're so focused on the art, Beverly, because I love comics and for me, art is one of the last things I care about. It is the text that draws me in: the dialogue, story, characterization, ideas. I do like the art, mind you (have you seen any David Mack? Christ), but I know I'm not catching all the nuances. Plei and ita talk about inkers and pencilers and colorists, but I can hardly tell the difference from one issue to the next if you change them on me (though there was this one time I thought the art in Fables was weird and I checked and sure enough, the artist was different). And I read titles of all different styles. My point is don't let the art hold you back. And if you're going to give it a try, join us in the comics thread and we'll help you out.