The first of two Splash Page Podcast episodes for this week is live. In this one, Tim and I respond to a certain online 'critic' and his views on decompressed stories. From there, we discuss techniques and critiquing comics in general, what superhero fans expect from their books, and all sorts of other things. Tomorrow's episode will focus on this week's books.
Again, you can listen to the Splash Page Podcast episode 6.1 HERE!
Your Wednesday Sequence 44 | Kyle Baker
3 minutes ago
5 comments:
This episode is really interesting, in that Tim showed himself to be much more comfortable with speaking his points. Particularly after the decompression discussion, Chad almost completely falls silent, and it carries on in that manner until the end:)
Regarding the specific topics of discussion, I agree with the general approach you both agree with, that the comics should be paced comfortably, and tell the story in the best way possible, being a collaborative medium that they are. As for recasting superheroes to behave more realistic and human, I really think that you wouldn't mind it so much if you've spent more time reading indie offerings lately.
My point is that following the innovation of 1980s boom in comics storytelling, the medium has since become very segmented and isolated. You no longer see talents like Bill Sienkiewicz and Frank Miller basically twisting the books backwards to turn them into the stuff they feel much more comfortable doing. It seems that, particularly since Bendis, a much more humongous style has prevailed, and recast superhero comics to once again become a slightly more urban conservative genre that they've always been.
Bluntly, I mean to say, the market has evolved into a place leading you to choose Lewis Trondheim's "Little nothings" blog-diary if you really want to get the slice of the life characterization, or "Batman: the Return of Bruce Wayne", if you want to go with superhero fantasy.
Also, I really oppose Tim's mentioning the term "white power" regarding the latest Blackest night issue :) This is supposed to be a clean podcast!! :)
Hey, wait a minute! Geoff Johns IS writing an allegory about white power crippling the black man. Why has no one written about this yet???
I really don't get the mindset of someone like Stahl. I would love to know what he thinks he is going to accomplish by going everywhere and telling people just how wrong they are about Bendis.
Great show, guys.
Something Chad said really resonated with me, about how he thought his disenchantment with Geoff Johns might come from always wanting something that's at least slightly innovative, inventive, or "different". I feel the same way, not so much about Johns (whom I GENERALLY like) but about a lot of other superhero comics that are recognized as good by most others. To put it simply, if it's just a routine superhero story told in a reliable manner, then you can have an infinite amount of screaming or violence, or resurrections or deaths, and I just won't care. I read hundreds if not thousands of those stories before I learned to drive a car. I've long since passed the point of needing to read another one. If the story doesn't have some subtext, or something interesting and new going on, I don't really care too much.
On that Stahl guy--WOW. I never knew this guy existed, but a google search of his name and "Bendis" will provide me with much entertainment. What's odd is, I usually don't even like Bendis (especially not his Avengers stuff), but the way this Stahl guy goes on...it actually makes me want to read more Bendis to spite him or something. I mean, the examples the guy uses to "prove" how bad Bendis is...they're just not good examples, usually, and the guy's writing style is so dry and his tone is so boring. Maybe this paradoxically does prove that Bendis's decompressed Avengers stuff, for its faults, really is literature that lends itself to the worst academic scrutiny, because the way this guy writes about it reminds me of a couple of the literature professors I had who were extremely boring, lost in their own world, and unable to connect with their audience.
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