gino@sdchema.UUCP (Eugene G. Youngerman) (06/25/84)
I've been following the comments on this with interest.
It's also a question I have been asking myself. Of course, its
all tied up with the question that we all must have been asked
about a million times: "Why are you, an intelligent, mature
XX (fill in a number) year old person still reading comic
books?". You all know the question, it comes form parents,
siblings, lovers, husbands, wives,and even total strangers.
My answer is....Entertainment. And a lot of things are tied
up in that. Comics are pretty, they are short, (in terms of
how long they take to consume), and sometimes they even make me
laugh (or cry). {Manthing 9-10 still make me cry, so did that
recent story in Spiderman with 'The Kid who collected Spiderman'}
Anyway, on to the point (maybe).
Let's examine comics, as compared to other forms of story
telling.
1) Comics are a combination of words and pictures. This in itself
is enough of a difference from regular text books. As a matter
of fact, the only other forms that I can think of like this
are magazines, and movies (TV, and cartoons included).
2) The stories are told with the pictures.
this is a big difference between comics and for example Time
Magazine.
3) Comics are self-paced.
By this, a comic is read at a pace chosen by the reader. With
movies (etc.) the pace is determined by producer (director,
editor, whomever). Of course, a videotape gives the consumer
some measure of control. But its hard to watch a movie backwards,
and I have read many a comic backwards. {Or sideways, thank you
John Byrne and Dave Sim}.
4) Comics have different size picture panels.
This is a big difference from the movies, hwere the size of
the screen is the size of the screen. When a comic artist
wants to make something more important, he can play with
page position, or even just blow up the whole thing to
a full page panel. (Boy, what a horrible sentence. Good thing
I'm a chemist, and not a writer.)
So, what is the conclusion?
Comics are a medium of story-telling. And they are totally unique
in the way they can tell a story. Of course, they are very well
suited to fantasy, superhero and other. But, as has been pointed
out frequently and recently, they can be adapted to other kinds
of STORIES just as well. Is Jon Sable fantasy? Is Cerebus not
Satire? (and not just of comics?) How about all the old western
comics? Or the War stories?
I for one am glad that the creators of comics have now realized this,
(or re-realized it), and are giving us lots of different kinds of
stories. Fantasy, superhero, space-opera, western, everything.
COMICS ARE FOR STORIES
I am
GINO!
ps. The intro to the reprint of the Kree Skrull War stuff had
an interesting editorial, comparing comics to movies, sort of.moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (07/02/84)
Are we all in agreement that Gary Groth is a slug?
Ok, good, I'll get the official announcements mailed this week...
How can such a literary jerk run something as good as "Love & Rockets"?
Just bad luck, I guess...
"...we do our part -- what's your problem?"
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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{cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsrgv}!uw-beaver -- fluke!moriarty
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{microsoft,ssc-vax,telmatic,teltone,uw-vlsi} -/schatz@bambi.UUCP (Bruce R. Schatz) (07/16/84)
as someone who has recently been in France, i can attest that comics are indeed very popular there. however, rather than being superheros in costumes as predominant in the States, they deal with a variety of adventure topics. the story and humor is much more sophisticated as they are meant for adults. and of course, sex and violence are played up quite graphically. so comics are not just for kids!