Yeah, manga are kicking the USAs collective ass, and the companies aren't learning from them.
Instead of relying on hot shit writers and artists, things ought to be done like manga, with a team of writers and artists working out of their own studio, with all the artwork on model, and with an overreaching story arc that comes to a definite conclusion.
with all the artwork on model
What does this mean?
The Earth One stuff sounds interesting.
Like, have a set five year plan. Let your writers do whatever they want for five years, let characters live and die and change and then put an end-stop on that cycle at five years and get everybody geared up for a new cycle.
That's an interesting idea. I feel like that could get confusing too, having to deal with the continual resets. But I guess there are continual resets already, just unanticipated? I do like that some characters have a rich history and long story, even though it's hard to grok all of it happening to one person in comic-book time. I wouldn't want to erase it all. Maybe just...parts. The silly parts. I'm mostly coming from a Daredevil place here, since he's the long-running character I've read the most of.
It's an animation term. Animators are supposed to work from model sheets so that the drawings look consistent.
Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert are bringing us Pirate Batman.
[link]
So, the Dread Pirate Batman, then?
Oh, kickass! I am almost done with the
New Batman Adventures
DVDs, and then I have to figure out how to write a post about the series.
I'm halfway through
Kingdom Come,
and it's not really holding my interest. It seems more like a thought experiment than a comic.
Did anyone else read B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs #4 this week? It may be the first of the Hellboy-setting comics that's ever given me a chill down my spine.