What's the first page of a superhero monthly book for? It sounds like a trick question, but I'm not trying to be disingenuous. It might be assumed that the opening scene of each new comic would be concerned with three vital functions, namely to entertain, explain and entice. To entertain would be to convince the reader, and particularly the uncommitted buyer, that the comicbook before them is without the slightest doubt well worth their time and money. In that, the first page of a comic should surely be the second swing in a purposeful and skillfully wrought one-two, following up the excitement generated by an eye-catching cover with a more substantial declaration of excellence. This, the first page should be declaring, regardless of where its mood lies on the continuum from misery to exultation, is just the first page of what's surely going to be a really fine comic book indeed. To explain is to inform the reader of the basic terms of what they need to make sense of what's before them; who are they looking at, what's the conflict, what's at stake, where is the action taking place, why should anyone care, and so on? And to entice is, of course, to create a page which structurally coerces the reader into moving swiftly onto the next one with a sense of purpose and anticipation. To achieve that, we'd expect the presence of (1) entertainment and (2) key information to be supplemented by (3) enigmas designed to snare the reader's curiosity matched with an absolutely compelling page-turner of a final panel.
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| It's worth asking what the function of these irregular rectangles are in Mr Oliver's design? Is it the comic-book equivalent of shaky-cam used to make an utterly dull page more interesting simply because the eye can't rest in any logical way upon either the content of the frames - widescreen, widescreen everywhere! - or the progression between them? |
Yet nothing speaks so much of the collapse of the intent to appeal to a broader audience beyond that of a title's committed fan as the strange inertia which marks so many of the first pages to be found in today's comics. There's a great deal of an obviously unintended but crippling complacency and craftlessness in a great many of them, and looking at them, it's hard to tell who they're supposed to be beguiling. In fact, there's a terrible sense that they're not being written to beguile anyone at all. Consider, for example, the first page of Marvel's new "Alpha Flight" title. (Above.) It's very difficult to imagine who thought that such an opening scene could lure and snare anyone beyond Alpha Flight's hardcore of readers. Given that those fans have for many years now proven too thin on the ground to support a regular title, we might be forgiven for assuming that Marvel would be intensely focused on broadening the properties readership. Yet, a scene composed of an angry would-be voter ranting against the receiving of a parking ticket simply can't be considered to be intriguing in any persuasive fashion. After all, there appears to be nothing immediately at stake here for anyone beyond an unpleasant and selfish driver who its impossible to care for. Certainly there's little that's promising at play here when it comes to inspiring the interest and the emotions of the reader. and it surely can't be argued that the end of the scene promises anything of a payoff where the matter of how Mister "I'm-Taking-A-Stand-For-The-People"' and his ticket-shredding act of defiance is concerned. (In fact, he disappears from the narrative completely, leaving nothing but a great big "why was this worth a page?" behind.)Why should we care about this crisis of car-parking, for example, when the issue at stake is so straight-forward and so easily resolved, and when Officer Mackenzie herself, the guardian of order in this scene, is so calm and unconcerned?
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| "Do you see this? Do you see what I'm doing?" Well, no, because (1) you're never actually shown ripping up the ticket, and (b) you're only presented here in silhouette, meaning that's it hard to make sense of anything at all that's going on. It actually takes a great deal of work to establish what's happening here! Does nobody edit comicbooks anymore? This moment is, after all, the most obvious moment of conflict in the whole page and yet it's squashed into a tiny panel showing nothing of the action involved at all. (With apologies for my smudging thumb-print.) |
It's not that a first page has to be super-charged with violence or the imminent specter of the end of the world. Some of the most effectively engrossing opening scenes in the history of the superhero sub-genre have involved anything other than punches being thrown and energy-bolts being flung. Captain America and Bucky in a World War II bomber at the beginning of "The Ultimates", the Batman brooding while the Joker's deadline approaches and a storm gathers in "The Sign Of The Joker", a simple and yet menacing street scene at the beginning of Azarello and Corben's 'Cage'; it's not the presence of action that matters, but the creation of a sense of meaning, of a scenario where the outcomes are various and uncertain and meaningful, and where the reader as a consequence can't help but wonder "what next?".
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| Weird storytelling choices no 1235: Why is Officer Mackenzie shown from below when she's in control in the first frame of this extract and yet from the same angle when the lights go out and she's not? Why are policewoman and citizen's heads sticking out of the panel detailing their confrontation, and yet those heads so painfully cropped by the frame above? What of the environment is actually being shown being shadowed at the page-turner? Wouldn't it have made sense to have the last-but-one panel showing the scene with the lights on, for the sake of contrast with the final frame? Are folks making this all up as they go along? Seriously. |
It's not that this opening sequence in 'Alpha Flight' fails to seed any relevant information as concerns the coming story, but rather that that's all that it does. There is an election running in the background of this tale, for example, and it's obviously one which is vital to the future of the book, but, in the context of the casual reader's first experience of "Alpha Flight" # 0.1, I've no idea who'd be fascinated by the fact of the exterior of a polling station in Canada per se. I'm a Politics graduate myself, but even I can't find too much that's compelling about a line of voters peaceably queuing to undertake their duty as citizens, or a grumpy single example of their number. For a rude and irresponsible driver, and a polite ticket-issuing policewomen, are in this context little but stock characters which express nothing that might grab at the reader's attention by the simple fact of their presence. Nor is it likely that the socio-economic indicator of Canada's unemployment figures, or the fact of its apparent economic crisis, will entice many of the prospective audience for this book to pass this threshold. Instead, the lack of any cleverly constructed drama to drive this scene forward leaves a page cluttered up with plot-points lacking the context to give them any sense of narrative worth. In such a way is any potential enticement to read on effectively neutered before the tale has even begun.
Similarly, a page-turner which consists of the absence of colour from the last frame while a character off-panel asks "Hey! What happened to the lights?" is hardly enticing, especially given that the previous panel inexplicably reduced the two characters in play to silhouettes anyway, meaning that there's little force being carried by a loss of light, since the story was already populated by shadows anyway! As page-turners go, this is quite honestly the least compelling that I can imagine short of that presented in this month's "Justice Society Of America # 51."
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| Her -- name -- was -- JENNIFER! |
The first page of June's issue of the JSA carries even less of emotional weight than that of the curtain opener present in "Alpha Flight" # 0.1, which is as perplexing a truth as it is a depressing one, given that the Society's members are being shown discussing a slain colleague while being gathered around her body. This collapse of the will to Pop, of the responsibility to involve and intrigue and move the reader cannot be irrelevant to the matter of the superhero book's continued decline in the marketplace. If, as here, a comicbook presents characters debating the slaughter of a comrade without any significant emotion apparently informing their discussion, then what is it about the page that was supposed to attract and hold the reader's attention in the first place? What is it that was supposed to inspire the reader to choose this of all the comics on the stands on the basis of this page 1? Whatever that property of attraction was presumed to be, the fact is that the reader's first experience of "Weird Worlds Part 1" is a static four panels showing six nameless superfolk delivering a mass of backstory. Only if the uncommitted consumer is possessed of an extreme curiosity for the arcana of continuity can this page be regarded as entertaining. In addition to the absence of feeling and action, there's little of character on show here, with only Blue Devil's man-of-the-people spiel and "Ri"'s one-word anti-sexist response to him standing as a marker of anything of individuality. As a consequence, it's certainly hard to grasp that the members of the JSA are discussing a fallen, youthful colleague. It's as if they're discussing a plot-device, and indeed, that's exactly what they're doing. This regrettable truth is something which becomes all the more apparent when the reader twigs that everyone in the room already knows everything that's being discussed. They know that Lightning's dead, they know her spirit has survived, and I'm assuming that they grasp that the unnamed superheroine who's "relatively new to the team" has a "healing touch", since it's impossible to believe that new members get to join without their powers being explained to their teammates. In truth, there's no dramatic urgency to this page at all, because there's no reason for the events to even be occurring.
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| 56 words! |
As far as the information being delivered in this sequence is concerned, we are told in the first panel that a character has been killed. We're even told how she was killed, and rather callously too, but the writer never thinks to tell us the dead heroine's name until the third panel, leaving the impression that those who're discussing their fallen colleague care so little for her that she's little more than an object to them. Worse yet, even when she is referred to as "Lightning", the casual reader might be forgiven for wondering why they should care about her death, since no-one even thinks to talk of her in terms of her personal name. There's no mention of "Jennifer", or even of "Ms Pierce", meaning that anyone not already in the loop where "Lightning" is concerned will inevitably struggle to care about this person who no-one thinks of as having a name. We are, it seems, supposed to be fascinated by the comicbook question of whether she's alive or dead, in 'another dimension' or whatever, but we're not expected to need to relate to her as a person. By the same token, it's assumed in the text that we'll be fascinated by superheroes discussing hyper-babble, but not be interested in how they feel about those obviously minor issues concerning mortality and loss.
But then, it's not just Jennifer Pierce who goes unnamed on this page; everyone else does too, and there's no hope for the reader, such as myself, who has no idea where "Monument Point" is either.
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| Bigger panel, but less words; still, 48 words isn't bad for cramming. |
The creation of this sense of alienation from this first page of JSA # 51 is only intensified by the decision to overload the last two panels of the page with so much dialogue that the reader inevitably struggles to process it. The tiny, penultimate frame is crammed with 56 words, while the fourth runs it close with a further 48. It's inevitably both hard work and dull work trying to process information dumped in this careless fashion, and that's especially so when there's no emotional imperative operating to motivate the reader in the first place.These are comicbook cut-outs talking about comicbook matters in comicbook voices. Who beyond the most loyal adherent to the cult of the costumed hero could possibly care?
The snares placed in the page carry little force too, again because the entertainment is so thin and the information so partial and so decoupled from character. Even the page-turner is bafflingly constructed. There's not a hint of urgency there in the slightest. "Ri has a healing touch. I've seen what she can do. It's impressive." declares Dr Midnight, in what's a statement unmarked by doubt. As such, his are words which inspires no curiosity. In fact, Midnight is so sure about Ri's abilities that the reader can have no doubt at all that Jennifer's body will be healed and all plot-complications resolved for the best. Instead of making the reader feel that turning the page is a priority, here turning the page is an optional extra if the will to do so can be found, if there's nothing better to do.
Finally, there's at least something more pressing at stake beyond manifestos, parking tickets and the continuity of the cape'n'chest-insignia brigade on the splash page of "Legion Of Super-Heroes" # 13. Rather than the inconvenience of the lights going out or backstory chit-chat about souls and bodies and other dimensions, here we're shown Element Lad from behind jumping out of the way of a punch. Yet, for all there's at least a convincing sense of jeopardy here, in entertainment terms, the first page of "False Hopes" is incredibly thin. In relies at first on the casual reader being interested in the largely unadorned business of two superpeople hitting each other, and even those obsessively interested in hyper-violence would surely note that the tiny figures on show carry little of personality or power. Even the more experienced of Legion followers will surely need a more informing shot than this to inspire any significant degree of concern for Jan Arrah as he faces off against Immortus. We can't even see Element Lad's face, and his body language doesn't at this distance seem to be that of anything other than a competent costumed bloke in a fight. In fact, the composition of the page focuses our attention not so much upon the people before us, but upon what the text declares is "1 000 Mirror Lake on the Planet Colu". To the reader who knows nothing of what that is, or why it matters, all that's before them is a profoundly dull and technically unconvincing depiction of slabs of green glass radiating out in irregular circles from what appears to be a metal coffee-table from some kitsch nightmare of an easy-listening past. It's a terribly demanding task to set an artist, to create an impressive and moving splash page from such an uninvolving example of sci-fi architecture. Of all of the Legion's past illustrators, there are few beyond Forte, Gibbons, Sherman and, at his very best, Giffen, who might be capable of achieving the unlikely goal of making lime-green mirrors and a single tower utterly involving on their own terms. As such, it seems a task that had best not been commissioned at all in the first place, for the matter of the fate of "1 000 Mirror Lake" is hardly a fiercely-motivating reason to sign up for the story's remaining 19 pages.
Still, at least we do know where we are - a planet - and what's happening - a fight with things being broken - and who the two characters on stage are. There's even a little blurb about the Legion itself at the left-hand bottom of the page to lend the slightest of hands to the neophyte. Beyond that, there's nothing of emotion or character on show. As for enigmas, the 1 000 mirror lake and its destruction seems too visually dull and textually empty of meaning for this reader to care a whit about it being knocked about, and I can see nothing about the page which suggests any single reason beyond the question of who wins a standard-issue knockabout to make me want to read any further.
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| Whyever should the 1 000 mirror lake matter? What should it make us be feeling, and thinking, and why is it there? |
Yes, it's worth saying again that "Alpha Flight" # 0.1, the first issue in a new series starring a perpetually unsuccessful franchise, opened with a scene in which a largely-unidentified major player in the series didn't get involved in any measure of conflict, and triggered nothing but good for herself by doing so!
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| Next month; a superhero! But what if the simple fact of a superhero fighting someone else wasn't enough in itself to sell a book? What if there was something else that might be placed in an advert to attract a wider audience, and what if that something could make the reader think, or feel, or even, perhaps, both? |
To be continued, with a questioning look at - it had to happen sometime - at Gail Simone's Secret Six and and a positive tip-of-the-head to an aspect of Geoff Johns Flashpoint too. No, really. I have no friends and I don't mind playing on my own.
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And why does it even need saying that Jennifer's soul survived after she died? If you believe in souls at all, that's how it works. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any arguments on this one, although I do have a few additional thoughts.
ReplyDeleteFor the Alpha Flight page, there is no reason for the panels to have odd shapes. Rectangular panels are like the word “said”. They’re barely a step above punctuation, and they can’t be overused because they are almost invisible to readers. That invisibility means the readers don't get bored with them, because they don’t really notice them in the first place. Non-rectangular panel shapes should be reserved for times when the situation is chaotic, and the creator wants to make the reading experience slightly harder to follow in order to emphasize the chaos.
On a similar note, characters bursting out of a panel increase the energy of the action in the panel. That was not a page that needed bursting energy.
You already covered the camera angels and silhouettes, but I just want to say you are completely correct on their odd usage as well. In addition, introducing a character right at the beginning that won’t show up in the story again really is terrible. The start of the story should have been moved a point where some mixture of recurring characters were interacting.
In addition to your points on the JSA page, I would have made some changes. The images in the first and second panels should have been flopped: her death while in action in the past with captioned conversation from the now, followed up by her friends standing over her corpse while they prepared to resurrect her. The infodump could have definitely been cleaned up in the process. I don’t have a quick solution to replace the contrived conflict or the terrible page-turner panel though.
My favorite bit on the Legion page is Immortus’s speech bubble. Legionnaires? What Legionnaires? I only see one other person there, buddy.
As a nuts and bolts guy, I enjoyed this one Colin. Thank you.
'Only if the uncommitted consumer is possessed of an extreme curiosity for the arcana of continuity can this page be regarded as entertaining.'
ReplyDeleteMy ears are burning :-)
Seriously, what I glean from the Alpha Flight page (having not read the rest of it) isn't quite as bad as you suggest. I infer that Anne Mackenzie hasn't got the world's most easy or interesting job, and that she tries not to let this get to her. In other words, she's at a time in her life where she's serene and unassuming, but (I would imagine) all of that's about to change when the plot kicks in.
In other words, I interpret the relevance of page as being primarily to do with her character, rather than the specifics of the person and the situation she's dealing with. I've no idea how accurate that is, and you might be right that it's not the best way to open a comic, but there you go. At least there isn't any Galactus drool in sight.
What I glean from the JSA page is that Green Lantern's new outfit is hysterical, down to the adorable little lantern handle behind his head. Way to rob an elder statesman of the DCU of his dignity – at least we've had the best part of a century to get used to the Golden Age Flash's ARP warden helmet (they should get Bill Pertwee to play him in a movie).
Otherwise yeah, you're right. The JSA page is flat, and as you say, there's no in-story logic to them telling each other what they already know. It's always been the case that a lot of comic book dialogue has suffered from this flaw, but it's mitigated if the information being divulged is either intrinsically interesting or delivered in a lively way, neither of which is the case here.
The LSH page is positively thrilling compared to the other two! But yeah, I can picture in my mind's eye a 'classic' rendering of the same scene – Element Lad flying out through the air at us, torso foremost and limbs and head splayed backwards, motion lines connecting him to Immortus delivering the blow in the background, and the 1,000 Mirror Lake providing a striking setting behind Immortus. Maybe even have Element Lad thinking something along the lines of 'I knew this was a bad idea' to entice the reader into reading further – oh wait, we don't do thought balloons anymore do we?
Alex S
Hello Garnet:- it's a very good point. After all, we know that the existence of a soul is a FACT in the DCU. Whole armies of super-villains fought over Nekron's get-out-of-Hell-free card in Secret Six ...
ReplyDeleteHello Patrick:- thank you for your generous words. They are appreciated.
ReplyDelete“Rectangular panels are … barely a step above punctuation, and they can’t be overused because they are almost invisible to readers.”
I agree that this is how they’ve become through, as you say, overuse. Yet the widescreen panel serves the same purpose as panoramic frame in the mainstream of art; it creates a sense of power because of the broad mass of action constrained in a relatively rectangle. It’s insane that the panoramic frame has become a multi-purpose option, because it guts the form of its purpose while obscuring the existence of other panels whose function are similarly being obscured.
“That invisibility means the readers don't get bored with them, because they don’t really notice them in the first place. Non-rectangular panel shapes should be reserved for times when the situation is chaotic, and the creator wants to make the reading experience slightly harder to follow in order to emphasize the chaos.”
Absolutely. The problem with the loss of traditional storytelling knowledge is that a page becomes a unit whose design becomes a matter of pattern rather than purpose. Design becomes a question of whatever bright idea was in the front of the artist’s head rather than what works. It’s the equivalent of not even knowing that there IS such a thing as playing in tune and it’s SO commonplace.
”On a similar note, characters bursting out of a panel increase the energy of the action in the panel. That was not a page that needed bursting energy.”
Again, I do agree, and I add that of you want to add such energy there’s no point in cropping the heads involved with the bottom of the panel above. Doing so is nothing more than a statement that you don’t know that comics has its own extant grammar, and that while evolution and revolution is always welcome, messy around for its own sake isn’t because it destroys sense.
”The start of the story should have been moved a point where some mixture of recurring characters were interacting.”
I do worry. We all worry about the things we enjoy when they seem to enter a period when craft appears to be being lost. This really has to be the point at which editors quietly and gently say “Are you SURE?”
”In addition to your points on the JSA page, I would have made some changes. The images in the first and second panels should have been flopped: her death while in action in the past with captioned conversation from the now, followed up by her friends standing over her corpse while they prepared to resurrect her. The infodump could have definitely been cleaned up in the process. I don’t have a quick solution to replace the contrived conflict or the terrible page-turner panel though.”
The amount of page-space given over to that static first panel might have been reduced too, so that the words-heavy panels could’ve been divided up and the dialogue shared around. ANYTHING but what’s there. I agree with your suggestion, just as I agree – sigh – that the page turner is a poor piece of work. And again, the question just is how can good and able creators be so slack?
”My favorite bit on the Legion page is Immortus’s speech bubble. Legionnaires? What Legionnaires? I only see one other person there, buddy.”
I missed it! Good call, Mr P!
”As a nuts and bolts guy, I enjoyed this one Colin. Thank you.”
Thank you, Patrick. I very much enjoyed your thoughts, and hope that the day is treating you kindly :)
Hello Alex:- a-ha! A considerable disagreement! Sir, you are a rotter and I do think that the AF first page is a stinker. It’s dull, poorly written, terribly designed and executed ….. BUT APART FROM THAT!!!! :)
ReplyDelete“I infer that Anne Mackenzie hasn't got the world's most easy or interesting job, and that she tries not to let this get to her. In other words, she's at a time in her life where she's serene and unassuming, but (I would imagine) all of that's about to change when the plot kicks in.”
I suppose that I might ask where you would start a new issue of such a perpetually unsuccessful series. By which I mean, is this a first page to interest the uncommitted reader. Looking at the scene via your interpretation, I’d suggest that that’s hardly the issue to be starting out on, and surely even if it had to be, it could’ve been more entertainingly done than here?
I don’t mean to sound anything other playful. Horses for courses and all that, as I hope has always been the rule here. Still, if I was rebooting a book, I wouldn’t have that plot-point down as the purpose underlying my first page.
”At least there isn't any Galactus drool in sight.”
AND YOU KEEP DOING THAT!!! Yes, you’re right, it’s important to keep a sense of perspective here. Seriously, there is no Galactus drool in sight. And so I ought to credit that the page isn’t an entire collapse of meaning, but rather of ambition and purpose. (That sounds arch. I didn’t mean it to.) But the fact that I feel that, book to plug or not, there’s not much petrol in the tank left where comics are concerned is the presence of these books all in the same four week period, including the Might Galactus-Drool # 1. If the industry really has such strange norms and values of craft now, then I’ve nought to offer the debate even in a minor-blogger way. The debate will have passed me, left me the equivalent of a C C Beck bemoaning the Marvel Revolution, although Mr Beck was a great cartoonist and I’m very much not. .
”What I glean from the JSA page is that Green Lantern's new outfit is hysterical, down to the adorable little lantern handle behind his head.”
It’s incompetence! It’s not a question of taste. It’s a man in a fancy dress costume hoping his neighbor will turn up to the masked ball in an original Red Tornado outfit.
cont
Cont;
ReplyDelete“Way to rob an elder statesman of the DCU of his dignity – at least we've had the best part of a century to get used to the Golden Age Flash's ARP warden helmet (they should get Bill Pertwee to play him in a movie).”
Bill Pertwee as the Flash. Oh, that’s not fair. And yet, far better than the humourless politician that we’re being presented with these days.
” It's always been the case that a lot of comic book dialogue has suffered from this flaw, but it's mitigated if the information being divulged is either intrinsically interesting or delivered in a lively way, neither of which is the case here.”
Well, if it has to happen, the least they can, as you imply, is make it fun! Dance, dance, dance. Or at least Pop, Pop, Pop!
”The LSH page is positively thrilling compared to the other two!”
Yes. But it’s also something of a turkey too, isn’t it? 70+ years of the superhero genre and that’s the best that folks can come up with? It’s not that every splash page should be better than everything that’s gone before. It’s just that all that history should at least frame everyday expectations, especially when it comes to the fact that it’s the emotional meaning of a scene that counts, and there’s hardly any emotion beyond TARZAN KILL on show.
“But yeah, I can picture in my mind's eye a 'classic' rendering of the same scene”
Great idea, summoned up the spirit of Kirby for me. But I did laugh thinking that by “classic” you meant “joyously entertaining”.
“oh wait, we don't do thought balloons anymore do we?”
No, we don’t. In punk rock, the simplification of options did lead in the best material to a quickly-passing pulse of high-energy rock’n’roll. In the case, the pruning of narrative options has lead to a collapse of meaning and entertainment. I can see why art forms would choose to narrow the technical options being used in order to attain specific ends. But I can’t understand abandoning the same options, creating a fetish around their exclusion and then forgetting they ever existed.
That’s crazy talk!
Alpha Flight 0.1 shouldn't exist. Not just the first page, the entire comic. The idea of "point one" issues is to provide a jumping-on point to new readers, seperate from the regular issue numbering. I'm sure you'd make the argument that every issue should ideally be a decent jumping-on point, but the best point to start reading a comic is undoubtedly its #1 issue. #0.1 here is technically the first issue of the series, and in the collection it'll likely be the first chapter, but it's not allowed to actually start the story because most people will be jumping on only at issue #1. So it's 22 pages of filler, essentially, and in that context it's no surprise that the first page doesn't have anything to grab you with.
ReplyDeleteHere, by comparison, is the first page of issue #1, the proper first chapter of the story:
http://goodcomicbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AlphaFlight_1_Preview1.jpg
I don't know from this page what's going on exactly, but I'm certainly intrigued enough to find out.
Hello Mory:- I'd certainly agree that the page you pointed me towards was stronger than the first page of 0.5. Still, whether it's seen as a stand-alone or a part of a series, it's still a comic put out there by a company hoping to encourage consumers to buy it. The problems become even more remarkable when the fact that it IS designed to be a stepping-on point is considered. I would have thought that such an enterprise would have been exceptionally important, and even more so given the series on its way. And so, I can't agree with you that the comic is inevitably filler and should be treated that way. It appears before the new series, it's designed as a primer and an introductory story; it's actually a comic which is supposedly designed to be for everyone, so I think it should stand to be interrogated according to that.
ReplyDeleteBut the first page of the new book IS more interesting. A little thin, perhaps, but far more immediate and entertaining. Thank you for the link.
ps: "I'm sure you'd make the argument that every issue should ideally be a decent jumping-on point ... "; well, yes, I would, wouldn't I? :) And if I might be mischievous, if the "the best point to start reading a comic is undoubtedly its #1 issue", then what of Mighty Thor # 1?
I'm only kidding, but it does raise the issue of where the reader CAN safely try to jump onto a series, if neither 0.5 or 1 issues are to be trusted.
I can live with the setup on that first page of the real Alpha Flight 1, but that kid better be reunited with her mom by the end of the issue. Even then, I'm guessing none of these people will have a major part in the issue. It's not impossible to tell a satisfying story from that start, but that's a heck of a hole to put yourself in for a 22 page story.
ReplyDeleteColin, I didn't mean widescreen or panoramic when I said rectangle. I meant four sides with right angles with no reference to the length of the sides. You know, 90% of comic panels.
Aside from less odd panels and shadow-happy art, what Alpha Flight needs is thought balloons. Because the art shows us an utterly calm and serene police officer, which isn't very interesting, but thought balloons - or even narrative captions - could show us how bored or ANGRY Anne is about putting up with all this. Then we're on her side and can empathise with her.
ReplyDeleteBut I still wouldn't make that page 1. Maybe page 2, after showing Anne as a superheroine (I assume she's the same person as Snowbird) so we get a sense of a comedown.
- Charles RB
Thanks for your response to my last comment. I hope you don't mind me responding back over here, particularly as my response only consisted of deferring to your wisdom regarding, well, your own blog.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway... how the heck did you choose these three comics? I seem to remember that there used to be explanations, but now... well, I would be interested in your methodology, let's say.
Hello Patrick:- my apologies for getting the wrong end of the stick. I'm trying to learn the absolute basics of the theory of art, because I know NOTHING, and I'm at the kneejerk stage of learning. PANORAMA! SPECIFIC RATIO, SPECIFIC PURPOSE. I'm getting Pedant's Flu.
ReplyDeleteI agree that that kid had better make it out alive, or that the death has a specific and powerful meaning. Still, I suspect Marinna will be around to fight back the waters. I hope unfortunate associations with Japan will have been put into place too.
I also love the idea of a 'real' and an 'unreal' first issue. In such a way does fan madness await ... :)
Hello Charles:- Snowbird does indeed arrive from the form of Officer AM, so this first page does serve as set-up. But it is the form in which it does so that worries me, and indeed you from your point about thought balloons, which is a FINE one. Even narrative captions would've helped, to add some tension and character to the piece. There is a problem with the lack of storytelling options in the rest of the comic too. It's a shame, because you can see the writers fighting to tell a taut and entertaining story, but everything is so limited to the surface aspects of the tale that it's a hard job to pull off.
ReplyDeleteHello Carl:- I do very much know that you've got a thousand thousand more important things to do than ask questions of me, but I hope that if you're tempted to at any point in the future, that you will. Your question about why I picked these comics up is a telling one; it's the sort of thing I always used to do, because I wanted to have a chat with anyone who happened to drop in as I would with friends down the pub or wherever. Yet just that one question shows me that I've got somewhat self-conscious about what I write, perhaps because I've responded to useful criticism in the worong way. So, I picked those comics because I had no interest in them. I was worried that I was making judgements based on the narrowest of prejudices, and that I ought to just pick a few titles up randomly.
ReplyDeleteI'll writing about Deadpool today, and Deadpool has never been to my taste in the slightest. I think it's very much worth mentioning that considering what I'm going to say :)
My best to you, Carl.
First of all, Happy Anniversary! I have been catching up on your last few posts, and feel sorry I missed that one, but I hope it was wonderful.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, I look forward to reading the next Alan Davis post because I have a lot to say about his art and how much I've always liked it.
Third of all, Deadpool is very much a character I don't care about. I guess he's funny? Maybe? I liked the Joe Kelly issues, and Gail Simone's are supposed to be good, but Spider-Man crossed with the Punisher has never been a character that compelled me to buy a comic.
Now to the post at hand (I'll read the Secret Six post next, but I figure this one's close enough): Wow, those pages are awful. I actually like quiet openings leading to cool splash pages (see: JLA #1, several issues of Sandman, more than one of Peter David's Hulks), but the Alpha Flight page made my eyes glaze over. The Legion page was utterly generic despite the fantastic elements. The JSA page reminded me why I dropped that title years ago.
I will say, however, that you can do the not-really-issue-1 first issue. CrossGen released enjoyable "Prequel" issues of Sojourn, Crux, Brath, and the Negation (and maybe a couple others) that revealed most of the backstory without the main characters appearing. Ultimate Spider-Man didn't begin with a bang but got me interested in Ultimate Peter Parker. Most of Thunderbolts #1 was uninspired super-hero action until the twist at the end undermined the whole story (well-played, Busiek & Bagley). They're uncommon, but set-up issues that aren't 100% essential are possible.
As always, I wish you and yours a splendid day, and look forward to reading your response.
- Mike Loughlin
Hello Mike:- thank you for your kind best wishes. It's very much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteOn Alan Davis and that piece about his art; I'm lettin that marinate just a touch because quite frankly I'm nervous about the whole business! When I'm nervous I tend to stockpile material and I just know that that needs to be as simple and straight-forward as possible. No BS, no pretension. That's actually rather scary!
I was considering using a few examples of quiet and yet very succesful first pages and JLA # 1 was one of those I had ready to scan. That scene of Washington and the President didn't even have the big seven present, but it did its job, didn't it? Sometimes when I'm walking the dog, I invent the contents for a line of books about comicbook skills. The one about first pages of monthly books does NOT contain any of the three examples discussed above.
I am completely ignorant where the Crossgen books are concerned, but considering the talent at hand on those books, I'm not at all surprised that they started well in the manner you describe. Ultimate Spider-Man # 1 is TEXTBOOK where the matter of starting quietly and yet snaring the reader is concerned. And Thunderbolts - which eventually disappeared off my radar because of the 'uninspired superhero action' you mention - was at least competent on the first page, setting up a last page reveal which remains one of THE great closing moments in any superhero book.
You've inspired me to go back and plan a piece on great quiet first pages. That would be fun for me to do. After all, there's several in Watchmen alone.
I hope the world's being kind to you, Mike. My best to you.
And so, Thinking About Comics has delivered unto me a purchasing ethos. "If the pages don't pop you just gotta stop." Mainly, because, it's always been my feeling that comics only really work when the alchemy between words (or lack thereof) and art is flowing, productive, and SERVING each other. Too often comics spend pages and pages at cross purposes overwhelming simple transitions with bombastic imagery and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteThank you, once again, my friend.
Also, based on this preview, the art team of Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin is moving on up to a penthouse apartment in my comics buying hierarchy. Mark Waid, I want to buy a Daredevil comic again.
http://www.ifanboy.com/content/articles/PREVIEW__Daredevil__1_by_Mark_Waid__Paolo_Rivera___Marcos_Martin
Hello Smitty: "If the pages don't pop you just gotta stop." - I would buy that lapel badge AND the t-shirt, I really would.
ReplyDeleteReading your words just reminded me why I am worried about the fact that so much of today's product is lacking in craft. If the audience has been whittled down until only the hardcore remains, then pretty much anything can be shifted onto the shelves. And there IS so much there which common sense would define as being not good enough. (Not Pop enough :))Folks should just put back books with dull and repetitive content. But you'll search far and wide to find reviews on the net. for example, which don't laud the examples here as being anything other than FANTASTIC with JUST A FEW TINY PROBLEMS. It's as if everything's fine and better than fine. Yet .... is that so? Is everything splendid and m'self just a malcontent?
Either I've lost my marbles or the Emperor's new clothes are still as beguiling as they're quite non-existent.
THANK YOU for that link. The artwork is indeed beautiful. The shot of DD balanced so perfectly on page 1 actually strikes me as being one of the best I've ever seen of the character, and I do mean ever. Not so sure about the story so far - I think the Spot strikes me as being very much a grade Z character - but 'not sure' doesn't mean 'pah'; it just means that I'll make my mind up when I buy the issue.
Oh, yes. Your link guaranteed a purchase of DD # 1. My thanks to you, Mr S!
Yeah, I'll have to agree to disagree to disagree with you about the Alpha Flight page. I don't think it's great, but nor do I think it's as egregiously bad as you think it is. Which isn't to deny your argument that even if my interpretation were taken as a given, this is neither the best execution of what I thought the page was trying to do, nor the most advisable way to revive Alpha Flight.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't (and still don't) look at that page and go 'ugh', it would take a few subsequent pages rubbing me up the wrong way to do that. So it's the Rotter's Club for me, I'm afraid.
I was, however, interested to read Siskoid arguing at http://siskoid.blogspot.com/2011/05/alpha-flight-01-canadian-perspective.html that this comic tries to be grounded in a relatively realistic version of Canada, but gets little details jarringly wrong.
Alex S
Hello Alex:- No Rotter's Club will welcome a bloke who isn't a Rotter, unless they're TRULY rotters of course. And I'll nip back again and re-read the Alpha Flight page again in the light of your stance. I will say that it's obvious to me that I've not expressed my take on the page nearly well enough. I don't look at the page and say 'ugh', but I am alienated by a lack of craft - the absence of jeopardy, the design elements which don't feed the narrative. (That penultimate panel is surely a real duffer.)And yet, it's REALLY good for me to just realise - it can't happen too often - that even a common sense of a page's weaknesses doesn't necessarily inspire the same judgement of its worth. Thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteNo, you can only hang out with the Rotter's Club if you want to.
I followed the link. That was a fascinating post. I do find those points of cultural confusion fascinating. How odd that the writers or the editorial staff didn't, er, just ask a few folks who'd know?
You know, I wouldn't have thought less of the creators of the new Alpha Flight if they'd taken the easy way out when it comes to real-world detail, and set a story in 'the wilderness'. After all, the X-Men spent a while back in the 80s with their base of operations in 'the outback' in Australia, and only recently has this location been specified as Maynards Plains (and the Marvel universe feels slightly smaller for it). Or alternatively, give these comics to creators who know about and are dying to tell meaningful stories about Canada, Australia, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf you remain keen on seeing how successfully today's #1 issues welcome new readers, then in light of today's news about DC, you're going to have a lot of work on your hands come September...
Alex S
As a Canadian, I read this page as being wrong in the way you notice mostly because it cares much more about convincing me of its good faith, than it does about anything else. And that it then gets things so deleriously wrong almost makes me think those slanty panels are really there to let me know that the writer knows how wrong it all is. If you were to Google "FLQ" and "just watch me" I think you'd see that a sign like that, with that particular slogan on it, in English, in Montreal, would really only be missing an actual swastika to take it over the edge into hate speech...and probably wouldn't even need the extra push. That the man Ol' Stereotypical Anne is confronting there is using American-style rhetoric of the Tea Party variety is pretty chilling too...nobody talks like that here, and certainly nobody talks like that in Montreal, so either the whole thing is incredibly tone-deaf or it is actually meant to give it all the scent of American nightmare.
ReplyDeleteI personally think it'd be a bit tone-deaf anyway, in that case...but self-knowing or not, either way it seems to me like a comic whose first page is supposed to hit me squarely, even if it ends up practically guaranteed to miss you completely because of that.
Hello Alex:- I think you're right. Either stay out of the way of specifics if the circumstances of a work schedule or the demands of a take demand it, or get it right. But don't do neither, because it shows. Me, I'm with you about giving the commission to those who know or want to know. (Moore knew little of the deep South when he started Swampy, he but he did his research of fact and fiction.)
ReplyDeleteOn 52 new comics and a NEW DC. Well, I retain my faith that any such potentially pyrrhic victory - lots of attention, long-term problems - could be pulled off if the craft was there as well as the grand intentions. My fear is that the big ideas will be matched with rush'n'hype, but you know, it could be the best thing since sliced white bread, so powder will be being kept respectfully dry on TooBusyThinking.
For the while, anyway :)
Hello plok:- I’m so glad you’ve popped over, because the issues you raise really are ones which I wanted to write about. As you’ll know from Trout In The Milk, it’s hard sometimes to keep a piece focused on its spine, and here it was the storytelling rather than the political/cultural content, so I thought I’d return to the whole idea of both Canada and fascism in the future.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thank you for expressing how awkward the faux-Tea Party dialogue was. I thought that that couldn’t possibly be Canadian in either its form or content, and I’m pleased to see that my untutored suspicions had some validity. (If it is trying to draw on the far-right of America’s politics to discuss Canada, well, why bother. Though my knowledge of your nation is sadly limited, I certainly know enough to know that there are distinct and fierce political fault-lines in Canada which make any importation of concerns from other nations quite unnecessary.)
In addition to that sense of an unintended cultural imperialism, - :) – I was also concerned with the whole use of fascism in the comic. Fascism was my major at University and I’ve remained fascinated and appalled by it in the decades since. Of all the forms of politics which I most distrust and fear, fascism is the most dangerous, in that it can mask itself even in the modern era just as it did in the period between the wars. I don’t think that a facile use of the term does any good, and this was such a poor start that it’s hard to think optimistically about what’s to come. If I were to identify a figure to open a debate about fascism in a comic, it wouldn’t be an obvious fool arguing about a parking ticket. But then, I’d not impose such an unlikely outcome on Canada either, even in a comicbook context, without a great deal of care and scene-setting.
And I agree with you that it seemed like a comic written by creators who meant well, but who had a picture of the wrong targets to be aiming at. It was sincere, but it didn’t seem to know how to express that sincerity. Perhaps a chat or two with good folks such as yourself might have helped a touch, because – call this an extreme point of view – I’d suspect that a comic about Canada will probably need Canadian readers to keep it in the marketplace.
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that having Tea Party dialogue associated with a right-wing Canadian party does click into a deep-seated Canadian anxiety about sovereignty -- the Americans already don't understand that we're different from them, and in Canada the thought "it can't happen here" is centred on us having some numinous Canadian something that keeps us saner than our southern cousins...some say it's politeness, but that might be an overly-polite term for what it is! Nonetheless, there is Ol' Anne acting it out.
But the bull-in-a-china-shop guy spouting weird crap about being a "patriot" (especially in a part of the country where the only term you really want there is "federalist") while inexplicably insisting on his right to park in front of a fire hydrant, and the party that doesn't know where it's campaigning nor how incredibly offensive it's being...right or wrong, intended or unintended, "American infection" is just what it says. Tone-deafness, Ben! It's the one thing we feared!
So I'll allow as how it's a bit interesting, anyway. Actually the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets...and the less likely I think it is that anyone actually meant for it to be that way. That page goes pretty meta pretty fast, Colin!
American culture's always the enemy alien, when it's bad...because in our cultural environment its bad parts would be so much worse, you see? Canada couldn't support a Tea Party, but if somehow it could then we would never survive its excesses! Seeing as how being too different to be the same is really our one trick anyway.
Well...that, and there are lots of bushes and trees to hide behind.
See how it hits a little odd!
(also, heh heh...yes, sometimes the through-lines get a bit tangled, eh?)
Hmm, and not to be a pest...but...
ReplyDelete...So here is an obvious "Canadian reading" of that page: Ol' Miss Stereotype isn't just a polite young Mountie with McKenzie for a last name (dunno why a Mountie's giving parking tickets in Montreal, but oh well) but a whole other kind of stereotype too: "Snowbird", a spirit of Canada, a mythological figure who can't survive outside her home, who sickens when it sickens...etc. etc. So of course it's her who encounters the political sickness of the Unity Party first...
Except in the Canadian reading that sickness is American cultural imperialism itself, in the form of wrong words, wrong semiotics, etc. etc. So...
Yeah, pretty meta.
Well, I think I've presumed on your patience enough for one day, Colin! Big hockey game tonight, gotta go rest up...just had to complete that thought!
Hello Plok:- "“The interesting thing is that having Tea Party dialogue associated with a right-wing Canadian party does click into a deep-seated Canadian anxiety about sovereignty -- the Americans already don't understand that we're different from them, and in Canada the thought "it can't happen here" is centred on us having some numinous Canadian something that keeps us saner than our southern cousins...some say it's politeness, but that might be an overly-polite term for what it is! Nonetheless, there is Ol' Anne acting it out.”
ReplyDeleteI do find it remarkable that Canada is often viewed overseas as being a country characterised by cultural calm and an almost Sunday afternoon sense of permanency and stability. Yet I've always been told by Canadians that Canada is constantly debating its own internal character while fighting to maintain itself against the hegemony threatened by its great southern neighbour. Being Canadian has therefore always seemed to me to involve a great deal more compromise and imagination than being English or Australian, for example, although I believe that that’s far more so for some groups than others.
By which I mean WHAT A GREAT COUNTRY TO PUT A MU SUPERHERO COMIC INTO! Difference and similarity all in one package, a great chance to see America from the outside, if the focus of AF has to be America at all, as well as all the unique qualities of a quite distinct culture.
And yet, the American superhero book just will not travel. Americans in space solving galactic wars. Americans on earth representing the universe’s greatest hopes. There’s a great deal in this lack of curiosity in other cultures which helps the process of the superhero book being drained of its vitality.
I couldn’t cope on any level with the version of Alpha Flight that involved Americans and Aliens popping over the border to slum it while Civil War was underway/ I thought it was incredibly insensitive, although I know that we’re ‘only’ talking superhero politics here. Bump off Canada’s heroes as a lead-in to another Avengers victory and then export a Cap-a-like to represent Canada. There’s something wrong there. And much of that is exactly what you’re discussing, OF COURSE, namely that it’s America that most threatens Canada’s identity rather than any Canadian Nazism.
”American culture's always the enemy alien, when it's bad...because in our cultural environment its bad parts would be so much worse, you see? Canada couldn't support a Tea Party, but if somehow it could then we would never survive its excesses! Seeing as how being too different to be the same is really our one trick anyway.”
Yes, but to have one trick which forces everyone watching to have their own version of how it works is an incredible achievement. And it’s a trick which it seems to me carries the hope of avoiding the very worst of political polarisation, although God knows human beings can make a hell out of everywhere. America worries me because it carries the myth of a unified nation and a godly purpose. That carries with it the sense that everyone should be the same and should behave, and every 30 or 40 years or so, America undergoes a great wave of conservatism. Now Canada has its own conservatism at the moment, I know, but – and you’d know and I wouldn’t – it strikes me that that an awareness of difference is as good an inoculation against black-shirtism as any.
”Well...that, and there are lots of bushes and trees to hide behind.”
I might need them sent here. I hope in thinking aloud I’m not saying anything insensitive;
cont;
Cont;
ReplyDelete“...So here is an obvious "Canadian reading" of that page: Ol' Miss Stereotype isn't just a polite young Mountie with McKenzie for a last name (dunno why a Mountie's giving parking tickets in Montreal, but oh well) but a whole other kind of stereotype too: "Snowbird", a spirit of Canada, a mythological figure who can't survive outside her home, who sickens when it sickens...etc. etc. So of course it's her who encounters the political sickness of the Unity Party first...”
You see, that’s WHY folks need to study and talk when they discuss other cultures. Even local adaptions of broader social groups can be characterised by qualities significant and passing which the outsider just doesn’t get. I always admired Paul Cornell, for example, for seeking out and discussing Faiza Hussain with Muslim women in England, making the effort to ensuring that he was catching something other than a surface reading both of what’s real and what’s respectful.
”Except in the Canadian reading that sickness is American cultural imperialism itself, in the form of wrong words, wrong semiotics, etc. etc. So...”
Britain has largely succumbed to American culture. What we have now is at best fusions of our own traditions with the great global generalisation of the American media. I’m torn on this, mind you. American pop culture in the Sixties was a godsend, such a kick up the %&*! of British society. Yet its only when the distinctive features of even an exhausted and conservative culture disappear that the positive qualities associated with them become obvious. And I wish we had the debate which I seem to often register from Canadian sources, an awareness that there is a debate to be had about the whole issue of culture and identity. I live in a Britain where almost 1 in 6 citizens are recorded as having a distinct ethnic identity, and there’s very little but denial that there’s a need for an internal debate of what being British should mean, let alone a focus on how best to respond to the hegemony of American media. (Much of which I adore, of course, starting with comics and sci-fi and music and – oh – most of my own sense of identity!)
”Well, I think I've presumed on your patience enough for one day, Colin! Big hockey game tonight, gotta go rest up...just had to complete that thought!”
Well, I’ve tea and cricket for m’self! No, really, I have. The Cricket 20/20 season opens tonight,. 8pm, can’t miss it!
My best to you, sir. I do hope in my ignorance I’ve not walked that line that separates ‘well-meaning’ from “%”!*”.
Not at all! In fact I'm tempted to stay up later and blather on more, now!
ReplyDeleteI won't, though. Hmm, well maybe just a little...just to say that whatever invasion of "American culture" your country or mine has been subject to, one thing I try to remember is that America itself suffered this first...
...And that Snowbird is, you know, not exactly the world's most sensitive attempt to appropriate Native mythic motifs for a commercial purpose. So naturally, inevitably, she's a fake in that sense...
...Which paradoxically makes her an unusually representative figure! So, hah: I often wonder what the Kiwis and the Scots buy, for their part...one half so precious as the stuff they etc. etc. What impresses me about every country I know anything about at all is how people negotiate all the different kinds of cultural lies that fill up their environments, make distinctions between the little white ones and the big black ones...that stuff is spread a little too wide, perhaps, for even the biggest Wal-Mart's footprint to cover it up completely...
But, I guess: fortunately we will always have the weather. And at least we know that stuff's real.
Stimulating stuff, Colin! If I didn't need the shut-eye, God knows how much I'd be tempted to rattle on!
(huh, keep getting word verifications like "pants" and "hystere", I think I should probably take that as a sign...)
Hello plok:- Cultural imperialism was one of the topics which I ended up having to study anew, if that's not too strong a word, in order to teach something of it in the last few years of my teaching. I found myself fascinated by how the whole question had become reformulated in the time between my first studying it and then returning to it. In the 80s, it was to a large degree concerned with the idea of great monolithic cultures rolling over identities which were helpless before the inevitable tidal wave of - most typically - American values. Of course there were a mass of dissenting voices declaring that things are far less sure and absolute than that, but the grand narratives predominated. By the time I came back to it, well, those busy lil'academics had thrown everything into the air and everything seemed alot more believable and interesting. I enjoy reading and teaching of situations where local culture had appropriated American forms and made them into something of their own; Malaysian heavy metal sub-cultures becoming adapted into serving as pseudo-family forms for cultures where large numbers of young people were suddenly experiencing urbanisation and an isolation from the extended and local networks of their youth. And in a strange but important way, it strikes me that if Canada can maintain a dialogue with itself about the degree to which homogenity - either internally or externally arrived at - predominates, then there's hope for something other than Wal-Mart everywhere, given that cultural powerhouse just next door.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, it's the same case with those areas which have most taken to the Tea Party movement. From my reading, local circumstances and traditions modified the far right agenda from the off, and the very existence of a far right so disconnected from much of the American media culture indicates that homogenity is far harder to attain than we often fear. Though my politics are very much not that of the various agendas associated with the Tea Party, its very existence is in some ways evidence of diversity rather than conformity.
In the end, I'm always heartened by how folks can make a deliberate attempt to create a culture of their own. Scotland - my homeland - is such a vibrant example, constantly reinventing itself so as to maintain a distinct identity from the English, the cultural imperialists par excellence! Inventing and subverting the meaning of historical practices, inventing new national ceremonies,and now, apparently, inventing a form of separatism that's actually gaining ground. As with Canada and the US, the English find it hard to grasp that the Scots as a whole have a different idea of what the relationship between the state, the community and the individual is.
Well, what does this have with comics? Partly, your comments illuminated how daft it is to assume that other cultures are the same as one's own, but just that tiny bit different. And partly it illuminates how fantastic is the opportunity for adding both colour and content to the somewhat drained-out narratives of the superhero book. I note that Gail Simone, for example, both loves travel and tends to build her experiences into the stories she writes. We need more, and it'd be grand to see that happening in Alpha Flight.
Lovely to talk to you, plok. I hope your rest was splendidly refreshing.
It was just okay.
ReplyDeleteColin, I am not seeing an e-mail link around here? So I'm attempting to send you a private message via comment-thread. Though there's nothing in here that needs to be private, of course -- so put it up if you want! But here's the thing: I recently came into temporary possession of all the DVDs of Gerry Anderson's UFO series, and I've been watching them for the first time since they were broadcast to me as a child. Andrew's FAR TOO YOUNG, of course, to see that show as anything but an SF Stonehenge...
But you remember it from the original broadcast days too, don't you?
So I'm coming up on "Interview Month" on Trout...would love to have a back-and-forth with you about Ed Straker, Sky One, the Moongirls, etc...
Etc. etc.
Would you be up for that?
(creezus, this time the verification's "exessiv"!)
(oh why do I bother)
Hello plok:- I'd love to! I have the DVDs myself, though for the life of me I'm not sure where! A few hours search will sort that out. Anyway, I fear I know the series backwards, because I remember not just the original broasdcast, as you rightly nailed, but the endless days waiting for the first episode to air. For my sins, I even have some very yellowed copies of the novels, though those I've not read in 40 years. Drop a comment here with your e-mail and I'll be straight in touch.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like the above removed, let me know then :)
Well Colin, when you chimed in on the SBG, you should have pointed me here! Coming into it late, but I think I can still contribute (great blog, by the way!).
ReplyDeleteFirst on the matter of that first page: I largely agree with you, and I also stubbed my toe on the irrelevent panel structure. I didn't mention it because I chose to examine how Canada was portrayed rather than the artistic merits of the issue. But case in point, this introductory story does make some mistakes. I didn't remember, for example, that Anne Mackenzie was Snowbird's alter ego, and on the moment Anne returns later in the story, it took me a second reading to realize that was her. One panel, Anne Mackenzie returns, the next, shifting animal forms attack the villain. It just didn't read to me as if Anne was that polymorph. So unclear art is definitely a problem here.
I'm glad you mentioned Paul Cornell, because I was thinking of him throughout. As much as I enjoy Van Lente's work elsewhere, he's not from here, so his (and the artist's) rendering are necessarily second-hand, may dip into folk knowledge or even risk portraying Canada as a generic "other" country. A parallel USA. Cornell on Captain Britain or Kinght & Squire makes sense in a way than Pak and Van Lente on Canada just doesn't. "Tone deaf" is right on the money, and I can hardly fault the creative team for it. How could they understand what it means to be Canadian? Heck, even within Canada, there are incredible misunderstandings. Being part of a minority (a French speaker outside Quebec), I often find that the majority English speakers as well as Quebec's majority French speakers simply do not understand where the other ethnic group is coming from. 9/10ths of Canada doesn't understand why Quebec wants to leave the Confederation, Anglophones don't understand what the big deal is with bilingualism, etc.
As to why there isn't a (visible) Tea Party here, it's mostly because the Right is in power. Who would they rail against? Here in New Brunswick, while the Liberals were in power, we first saw the rise of an anti-bilingualism party (the COR) that was a thinly disguised anti-Francophone party, a party that disappeared when the Tories took power in the province. More recently, the Libs came back (but Canadian Liberals these days are as conservative as the Tories, especially at the provincial level, and yet) fanning the flames of an anti-Francophone group called the Anglo Society. Nominally interested in promoting Anglo-New Brunswicker culture (nothing wrong with that), they do so by holding rallies where they wipe their bums with the Acadian (Francophone) flag and protest bilingualism with outrageously racist (ethnicist?) slogans. These are small and only get media time because they are extremists and laughably misinformed, but that's my impression of the Tea Party as well.
Allow me, Siskoid:
ReplyDeleteFolks, the history of the Acadians is well worth looking up. An astonishing bunch, they are.
Hello Siskoid:- thank you for the kind words. You're very welcome here, regardless of when the chat kicked off here: it's still continuing!
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point about AM and her alter-ego in the book. It's a comic that's so concerned with moving fast and not over-burdening its readers with background that it ends up both over and under-informing the audience. Under-informing, as you explain. Over-informing in the sense of all that piffle about fascism and parking tickets!
I'm not sure how to express this without seeming overly-sincere - :) - but I found your discussion of difference and debate in Canada to be fascinating. When you stated that those unfamiliar with Canada might struggle with accurately and productively representing it, you did make me wonder what research the creators undertook. Ultimately, that has to be an editorial responsibility, to take an interest in such matters and to encourage, if not insist, that creators do find out what's going on in the nations they’re claiming to be writing about.
Your words, and those of plok, have also brought home to me how the very nature of Alpha Flight sets a tremendous challenge to any writer, in that the narrative is concerned with an entire nation, and a nation which, as you so well express, is hardly one that can be generalised about in a standard-issue comicbook way. Yet again, there are a string of bloggers and readers from Canada who might have been approached for pointers, feedback and so on. Just talking in these comments to yourself and plok has brought home to me how challenging a task Alpha Flight is in a way which, although I grasped the principle, I barely understood in any depth.
Your mention of Mr Cornell made me wonder whether his take on Alpha Flight would be as optimistic and inclusive as his vision of Britain has been. He's taken some stick for that, but I find his lack of knowing cynicism invigorating. Even though I don't agree with all aspects of his positive thinking, I am pleased to see a coherent and positive expression of cultural politics out there. He has a position, he's considered and researched it; well, I think that's splendid in itself, and I wish I could step into an alt-reality and see his Alpha Flight, just as I'd like to see an anti-Federalist take on the same concept.
But the Anglo Society? Well, I'm off to research that one! My interest in fascism immediately wants to see how close to ill-ideals that crowd cluster around.
Fascinating to hear from you, Mr S. Thank you for helping me realise how very much more there is for me to grasp before I can even start learning about Canada's politics. And, where others might mean such in a sarcastic manner, I hasten to say that as a Politics graduate and teacher, I mean nothing except the most literal and positive of readings of that sentence! My best to you.
Hello plok: and I'm going to read about them too!
ReplyDeleteAn e-mail will be winging it's way in the v. near future, sir. Do let me know if nothing arrives in the next 30 minutes or so. My provider does make a slight habit of losing mail.
Mind, I'd be hard-pressed to properly portray folks from British Columbia, so it's no easy task. There's the real reason Marvel comics almost all take place in New York (where the editors do) and DC's in fictional cities.
ReplyDeleteObviously, I can't gauge Cornell's Britain against anything other than the UK seen through UK media (Doctor Who, Spooks, Spaced, Being Human, etc. I'm a big fan of Brit-TV), but I think his idealistic take in MI-13 is tonally relevant. Why? Because superheroic fiction, on some level, should be about our better selves. Heroic icons are examples of courage, strength and good-heartedness. So idealized cross-cultural relationships are not only acceptable, but to be embraced.
Acadian history often starts and ends with the Great Deportation of 1755, but of course, there's a lot more to it. Hope it proves an interesting avenue of research for you.
Hello Siskoid:- It is of course an impossible business to represent any group of people, let alone a nation as diverse as Canada. yet I can't help that a touch more engagement, a sprinkling of genuine cultural difference, could provide a few sparks to make superhero books more alive and interesting. I'm so keen to read about anything but a bland version of the everyday.
ReplyDeleteI've got no problem at all with anyone's politics being presented in comics as long as it's not happening because of carelessness. If someone wants to presents a Nazi book, then fine, though I won't be sponsering it. What worries me are the comics which present agendas which are to a degree sexist, racist or whatever and no-one realises. In that light, I find Paul Cornell's control of his agenda refreshing; he says what he means, he's not trying to present other people's views or avoid politics at all. Bless him. As for your point about 'better selves'; hear, hear. I've rattled on in this blog that my take on the superhero book is that it's a debate about what the state does and doesn't, will and won't, do in a democratic state. In that sense, every issue is a discussion, intentionally or not, about what the state and what the individual does, and where the lines between the two lie. I suspect that that's why the likes of the Punisher and Wolverine became popular as the economy collapsed and society began to shift in openly radical ways in the seventies ..... but that really is another blog.
1755, The Great Deportation. Right. I'll just finish a piece about Daredevil and San Francisco in the Seventies and then I'll be digging into Acadian history :) My thanks.
It certainly doesn't hurt that Paul is such a nice man.
ReplyDeleteAs for his superheroes-in-Britain work, it genuinely reads like it doesn't take place in Yet-another-American-cityTM. Alpha Flight's Canada kinda does though.
Hello Mr S:- absolutely. Mind you, having a 'home' writer doesn't always work. There were elements of Grant Morrison Batman and Robin visit to Britain which really didn't ring true at all.
ReplyDeleteBut then, as you said, it's not an easy business at all ...
Which is part of why I prefer the DC Universe to Marvel's. The fictional cities are iconic rather than real, so portraying them correctly is more a matter of getting their genre, tone and "iconicity" right.
ReplyDeleteIf Alpha Flight took place in Maple City, for example, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.
Hello Siskoid:- Now, that's a brilliant way of nailing and closing the debate! Maple City!
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you love the job of designing the DCU's Maple City? That would surely be fun :)
Very nice commentary, cuts to the heart of the publishers' "search for new readers" with world shattering reboots and why these aspirations break down at the most fundamental level on the very first page. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDC has very very few Canadian heroes, and none of any repute. There's Plastique among the villains, at least.
ReplyDeleteI'd love the assignment, but we'd have to create quite a few characters to live there.
Hello Kevin:- Thank you for those generous words. I do have exactly the belief that you describe, that great comics begin with a carefully wrought script and a well-crafted series of page designs. And I retain my belief that after all the "world shattering reboots" and their like are followed through with, the succesful books will still be marked by a conspicious respect for the craft of storytelling.
ReplyDeleteThe Alpha Flight one has one more piece of interest that applies to fans only (so this doesn't contradict your critique at all) - the two words: 'Anne McKenzie'. Long-time readers will recognise Snowbird's little-used secret identity.
ReplyDeleteOther reviews I've read of the _whole_ issue say it is very good at drawing in new readers. So, if you get past the first page, it should be good.
The JSA shows another problem I'm having with modern comics; don't these people turn on a light when they enter a room?
Hello Siskoid:- do I have a vague memory of Plastique being a seperatist terrorist? Or has my memory of past comicbook events become contaminated by our conversation :)
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of creating and filling a super-people eco-sphere for the DCU's Canada sounds like rather a splendid and quite impossible task. A resitable challenge, no doubt, but not surely an unbeguiling one?
Hello le-messor:- You're right, of course, and, being an old Alpha Flight who can remember both their first X-Men appearances and the Byrne series debuting, I recognised the name right away :)
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly good things about the interior of AF 0.5. There's a laudable determination to engage with issues of ethnicity and sexuality, there's an intent to introduce most members of the cast, the story is fast moving, and much of the story and art are charactertised by a genuine energy. My piece was focused on the craft involved in first pages, but it wasn't intended as the final word on any of the books. Having said that, the - in-my-opinion - problems with craft do reappear through the AF story. But in the end, I hope the pieces here always read like the opening statement in an unfinished and friendly debate rather than any awful sermon from the mount of fan-ness.
But I'm glad that we certainly agree on the idea that dark rooms for their own sake aren't by their very existence fascinating :)
Yes, Plastique started out as an FLQ agent (Front de Libération du Québec), though a late bloomer. By the time she appeared, the FLQ was 10 years beyond its day. But that's fine. In comics, a supervillain (or superhero - it's a question of methods) might very well take up that cause. Many Quebeckers certainly believe in it enough.
ReplyDeleteHello Siskoid:- I was wondering, should you pass this way out on the periphery of the blogosphere again, whether you know of a relatively cheap popular history of modern Canada for the idiot outsider?
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't know that I do. Wikipedia's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canada looks fairly detailed (with links to longer articles for each period), but a good book? I'll ask some History majors I know.
ReplyDeleteAnd when you say "modern Canada", what do you mean exactly? Compared to Europe, North American countries' entire history could be considered "modern". ;-)
Cripes, I'm staying well out of that request!
ReplyDeleteLike asking a Russian for a history of Russia, Colin. The matter is still very much up in the air.
Hello Siskoid:- "modern Canada" is a phrase which meant sense in my head, but it's not very good on the page, is it? By 'modern', I meant post-1867 and the establishment of the federal dominion.
ReplyDeleteI'm by chance reading something of the early stages of the opening up of what would become Canada in Brogan's History Of The USA at the moment. It's that which made me think that a popular history of the last 150 years or so would be a good idea for me, but that I'd only trust the recommendation of folks such as yourself and plok!
Hello plok:- well, yes! It's actually that matter of an ongoing debate that made me curious, and it's your good self and Siskoid who sparked my curiosity. We Brits tend to see the history and present-day existence of Canada as a straight-forward process; Wolfe at Quebec, lots of fur trapping and cod fishing, loyal service in two world wars, independence and happy ever after! Which I hope it's obvious I never swallowed, but which even as a framework to disagree with is as absurd and insultingly unhelpful as can be.
ReplyDeleteHence my curiosity. Should a good read and POV come to mind, do consider letting me know! :)
Hello Colin,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I understood what you meant - and within a 'first pages only' framework, I think your critique is completely valid.
Glad to hear you're a fan from way back! :)
Dark rooms are not only not fascinating, but over-over done.
P.S. Also, I like Marvin Gaye.
Hello le-messor:- I am a fan from the very beginning actually, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to mention it, as it's easy to give the impression that I'm sniffy about superhero books when the truth is exactly the opposite.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, I DID mention two weeks spent listening almost exclusively to the sublime Mr Gaye recently. You're obviously a human being of considerable discrimination :) The Splendid Wife and I were eating an evening meal just the other day while the soundtrack to "Trouble Man" played. Some things never age and always sound wonderful.
I was going by your blog title. I was listening to 'Too Busy Thinking About My Baby' just the other day.
ReplyDeleteHello le-messor:- ah, serendipity. I must have been thinking of the Marvin song when I named the blog, but I wasn't conscious of it.
ReplyDeleteBut then that sublime music is so much part of m'life that I wouldn't think about it. It's just part of how I think.
A good catch!
Hi all, and to Colin our gracious host.
ReplyDeleteTo my mind, Alpha Flight is a US fictional view of Canada, just like any Hollywood/US TV portrayal of the world. I read comics like AF, and I know they are not about the 'real' Canada. AF is about a fictional Canada, and a Marvel Universe Canada, which makes it two steps away from reality really.
Superb handling of the 'Marvel Universe Canada' would make AF merely an enjoyable comic if one can sufficiently suspend one's disbelief; overcoming the constraints of US' fictions of Canada would make for the brillant comic that Colin and Siskoid and myself would like to see...perhap it would put AF up somewhere near Cornell's Captain Britain (Cornell and Pak do both have an enjoyable and light touch to their writing that restores some of the wonder and exuberance to superhero stories).
Engaging some of the points here in the comments section, the UK in US mainstream superhero comics has three styles that I can identify:
1/ US fictions of the UK, such as Claremont's Excaliber, Wolfman's Tomb of Dracula;
2/UK engagment with superheroes, such as Moore's Captain Britain or Marvelman or Cornell's Captain Britain,
3/ "the UK-centered Comics Universe" (TM)style (anyone who has read a lot of 60s/70s/80s UK weeklies will recognise that UK comics have their own distinct universe - albeit one never codified as such) that such titles as Edginton's the Estabishment, Cornell's Knight and Squire, along with Morrison's Zenith and parts of his Batman seem to draw upon.
As an aside, that leads to me wonder, if UK weeklies still existed, would we perhaps be sitting here talking about the Fleetway Universe (TM) and the DC Thomson Universe (TM)instead? :-)
Back to Canada, AF and such like seem to represent purely the #1 school of writing I describe. It would be nice to see #2, and if there is a #3.
Onto your question about books about Canada, if I may be somewhat presumptious, may I recommend Canadian writer/essayist/philosopher John Ralston Saul's book "Reflections of a Siamese Twin"? JRS wrote it to explain Canada to Canadians and also had the aim of showing that Canada is more than just a "not-US" or a "second-rate US". JRS is my favourite essayist/thinker as he also wrote the absolutely brillant "Voltaire's Bastards" which is my favourite book ever, and which make a point of re-reading once at least year.
Anyhow, I hope your weekend is still treating you all well, (its a three day weekend here in NZ to celebrate Her Majesty QEII's birthday) and thanks for the thought-provoking debate.
kiwijohn
Hello KJ:- well, congratulations on your extra day of the weekend. Wherever one may stand on the question of the monarchy, an extra day of the weekend is an extra day of the weekend :) Splendid.
ReplyDeleteYour words made me wonder what US superhero books have been successful where non-US citizens and overseas locations are concerned & only US creators involved. I mean that not as any cuss, but just as an expression of genuine curiosity. I have to admit, I'm completely at a loss there, though I know I must be suffering from a weary mind at the end of a long summer day. There must be a host of examples, but I just can't think of them. I enjoyed the first year of Alpha Flight, but I doubt very much it said anything about Canada.
I appreciated your typology. Two thoughts come to mind. Firstly, it reminded me that there really have been some excellent books about Brit superheroes by Brit creators in US books. Capt Britain under Moore and Davis being my favourite. Secondly, the fact that although there was for many of us the sense that Brit weeklies inhabited the same universe, only Morrison and Yeowell's Zenith Book 3 ever produced a Brit-universe that I could believe in.
The very thought of the Brit weeklies continuing is enough to spark a sense of mental unease. It's a fascinating idea, but just imagine how much of history would have to be different in order for that apparently simple fact of history to be changed. Any counter-factual history trying to account for Captain Hurricane and Robot Archie still being in the newsagents would have to produce an incredibly complex explanation! A new British Empire based on Westminster-controlled fusion power? It'd take something incredible, that's for sure, which makes me somewhat sad, because it raises just how impossible it was for the Brit adventure book to survive as a breed. Ah, well, lost continents and all that ...
The books you recommend by John Ralston Saul have been entered into my wish lists. It might make you smile to know that new copies of ROAST are going new for £44 at Amazon.co.uk. I think tomorrow will find me going for the vastly cheaper second hand copies :) Thank you for the recommendations, and for the enthusiasm which you obvious feel for the man's work, which makes me very curious to get stuck into what he's written. Gawd bless you, sir.
Saul is good, but I also like Douglas Coupland's Souvenir of Canada (1 and 2) for this, although the recommendation goes out more to Canadian and American readers because it builds awareness of the differences between the two neihbours IN the two neighbours (or neighbors, depending on which side of the line you're on). I'm not really comparing to Saul's academic work - it's done in mostly pictures, with short essays, but both books touched me immensely in the same way music by the Rheostatics does. There's a Canadianness to them I love.
ReplyDeleteAs for Alpha Flight, I'm probably going to go back and look at the Byrne issues and see just how they compare in terms of portrayal (on my blog of course, not here). But to take off on kiwijohn's point, I would embrace a comic that created an ICONIC Canada (which perhaps Byrne's was), but after that single issue, Pak and Van Lente haven't yet created that for me. Their Canada for now stands as a collection of familar place names. It's almost only Canada because there are a couple of Canadian flag-clad heroes flying around.
But I like both writers, so they hopefully can pick things up in future issues. (Van Lente in particular has done a good job of creating international villains that are a complete HOOT, playing on the iconic nature of whatever country and spoofing it. I wouldn't mind that take on Canada.)
Hello Siskoid:- I really am to take these recommendations and find a very long and warm English summer afternoon to enjoy these books. (If I've my wits about me, I hope to learn a thing or twelve two.) I rather like the idea of Mr Copland's book, because that differentiation between Canada and America is a business that's clearly relevant to the business of reading these wonderful and yet often rather confused comic books.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your look at Alpha Flight at Geekery. In fact, as soon as you've time to do that, you're guaranteed a visit from hereabouts.
There's of course been no time for Mr Pak and Mr Van Lente to create their own Maple City, or Maple-ada indeed. I'm certainly not pre-judging where they're going with the book, and would absolutely welcome a representation of the MU beyond America and Britain which felt both respectful and enjoyable. I'll certainly be picking up the first few issues in the AF run.
Good news! Alpha Flight #1 was actually MUCH better. Both in its depiction of Canada AND as a superhero comic.
ReplyDeleteEvidence on space.
Hello Siskoid:- that is good to hear. I've got a copy lying beside my chair waiting for an appropriate moment to read it. I look forward to being able to say "huzzah!" for Alpha Flight :)
ReplyDeleteA newspaper editor I know just wrote an editorial that may add to the discussion we were having here, about linguistic duality in New Brunswick. I might be up your alley. Link here.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's incredibly kind, Siskoid. I'm two paragraphs into Mr Ricard's "What do anglophones want?" and I'm fascinated. Should you bump into him and you think it'd be appropriate, you might say a bloke over in England found his piece very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mr S. You are an egg of the highest order :)
I'm glad you found it of interest, and if I do see Mr. Ricard, I will indeed pass the message on.
ReplyDeleteMr S, I really did. And for all that we hear about the net being a viper's pit of folks being horrid to each other, your generosity here reminds me that I've most often found the opposite to be true. I'm grateful that you remembered me when you saw that piece.
ReplyDeleteThank you.