Comics and Sequential Art

[dancemonkey]

So I just completed Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art. My initial impressions after completing the book are the same as when I started it. Wow. And anyone who believes that Scott McCloud's books make Eisner's obsolete has clearly not read it. As a collection these are really especially good

Comments

[dancemonkey]

That's quite a mouthful you just gave me there.

First off, I wonder if there could be some confusion with Eisner since he was more or less writing comics before they were even remotely considered a viable media. Meaning, that he was more or less developing the art form in many ways. So for him to work on producing viable characters was less important than creating sound artwork. And this would actually work considering his emphasis on art versus story in Sequential.

I've read that Moore writes intense scripts for his novels. It definitely shows. But moreover, Moore works on graphic novels. I wonder if it is fair to even compare The Sandman series with something like The Watchmen. If you haven't, you should check out The Sandman Volume 3. At the end of it Gaiman includes a copy of his script for Calliope. He is really detailed about his artwork but when you compare the script to the published version you'll see that there was some pretty substantial variations from the script either done by the artist or by one of the suits. On top of that didn't Gaiman work with a new artist for every one of his issues? That's 75 different pencillers, man. That's a lot of artists (including Gaiman) that have to be 100% on point the whole time and not to have any miscommunication over eight years -- under deadlines!

Now this could be construed as a fanboy defending the honor of one of his favorite authors, and to an extent that's true. But I think to suggest that Gaiman didn't give a shit about the art is being pretty categorical.

And I haven't read The Invisibles. Are you recommending it?

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[doctorellisdee]

I give Eisner lots of credit, but eventually, a work must stand on its own merits, regardless of if it came first. To make a reference almost no one would get; sure, Venom did that Slayeresque Black Thrash before anyone else, but they really didn't do a very good job. That's why everyone knows Slayer but not Venom. dig?

Eisner does alot of formalism, that is, he's more interested in the storytelling techniques than in the story being told. That means I'm interested as a comix guy, but unengaged as a reader. Not a winning combination.

Moore does ongoing series as well, and he cares about the art there, too. Of course, he has an unprecedented level of control over his creations. I wasn't comparing Watchmen v. Sandman specifically. Yes, saying Gaiman don't give a shit about the art is quite general, and demonstrably false. I said it sometimes seems as though..., in terms of the actual results on the page. He certainly picked specific artists for appropriate stories, and wrote to their strengths, but not always, and sometimes I just really dislike the artist in question.

Gaiman worked with many artists over the course of SM, but not nearly that many. He would usually stick with one for an arc. Kelly Jones (the artist of the Calliope ish, and others, like A Season in Hell) is one of the better ones, IMO. Jill Thompson, otoh, suuuuuuuucks. She did a buncha the arc where delerium goes looking for destruction. The best of the series is Michael Zulli, he did the last volume. They apparantly had to make technical changes to the printing process to facilitate his pencils. Other faves are P. Craig Russell (borrow the ring cycle from Vail) - he did Ramadan, and John J. Muth...

I recommend Invisibles very highly. But it is a good example of a series where the quality of art varies wildly, including crapass Jill Thompson. Read Illuminatus! first, if you haven't awreddy.

Re: kaaah kaaaaaah kaaaaaaah mix

[dancemonkey]

You make all sorts of right on the money points here.

You definitely have a far better knowledge base than I do about The Sandman series (disclosure being I've only read the first four volumes of it and I'm still working through it). However, that said, he does state that he doesn't control who the artists are in the series. That the publishers select the artists and then he attempt to write to their strengths.

I'd have to actually read some of Eisner's actual comics works rather than his writings on comics before I could make any sort of judgment on his prowess as a creator.

But this is why this entry still falls under the vein of searching for comics knowledge. Thanks for your input, man.

Re: kaaah kaaaaaah kaaaaaaah mix

[dancemonkey]

The Illuminatus! being this? http://tinyurl.com/2uyg2t