Remedial Comics

Responding to a post at THE BEAT about Marvel’s new online comic initiative, rounding up a number of reactions.

i see people complaining about the price point, but y’know, five bucks a month is a lot easier on my budget than what i typically pay for the material i buy from Marvel, and it gives me access to books that i would like to read (but don’t because of budget constraints), AND (and this is a pretty strong motivator) it keeps my home office from piling up with stuff i’ll never read again.

Put that five bucks against what i currently pay for my monthly dose of Marvel and it’s really a no-brainer. (i just counted and now i am surprised and feeling slightly guilty to find i actually have 10 Marvel books that i regularly buy. Is it really that many? i’ve been trying to cut down!). With Marvel DCU, i can cut back on the number of those books and get to read more.

What really surprised me is that the interface actually doesn’t suck. i get Brian Heater’s point about what happens when “works that were created to be consumed in book form go online” but here? It just didn’t matter much. For one thing, it’s space opera, and sometimes there’s good art. If it turns out that i really like it and want to hold it, chances are i’ll have already picked it up–i’m not going to use the web interface for material like that.

For another thing, the interface was actually really easy to use. All i had to do was press my keyboard’s arrowkeys. NO SCROLLING REQUIRED. YAY FOR NO SCROLLING!

In fact it’s easier than reading an actual comic because i don’t even have to move my eyes!*

i do wish there were bookmarking (a way to mark where i left off, and maybe that’s there and i haven’t noticed it) and bookmarking (a way to link to a particular page).

As for waiting to read something six months later–Heck, i already have to do that plenty, the way Marvel’s keeping the schedule, so not an issue.

My real question is whether or not it will actually provide EVERYTHING that Marvel publishes, rather than select comics. i want to go back and catch up on Brubaker’s Daredevil, and Annihilation, and Big in Japan (by way of examples). There’s a lot of stuff i’d like to buy but just don’t because of budget constraints.

But the inventory that i can see right now is pretty limited. i don’t want to read 2700 comics–i want to read the comics i want to read. Big in Japan? No sign of that. Agents of Atlas? Check, but only one issue. Annihilation? 2 mini-series (both of which happen to be the only ones i have). i’m not interested in paying Marvel for teasers.

If you view Marvel DCU (okay, the name makes me laff) as a way to replace print comics, you might be feeling hostile. But as a another way to get to material i’d otherwise ignore?

i plan to sign up. But i’ll probably wait until i can see more of what i’m looking for.

*Er, yes. That’s snarkasm.

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“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the seventh page of the story. Here are the first page, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh.

Jeff Parker was kind enough to send me the script to Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #3, which i posted about earlier this week. i’ve updated the post with an excerpt from the script.

Thanks, Jeff!

i have been noodling over (and admiring) this panel from Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #3 (August 2007) by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo. Spider-Man and the FF (minus Reed) are looking for a Cure, and Spidey has just told Doctor Doom, “…Reed couldn’t figure it out. He’s still working on it.”

Then this:

From Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #3 by Jeff Parker, Mike Wieringo, and Wade von Grawbadger. Copyright ©2007 by Marvel Characters, Inc.

What i really admire about this panel is that, while it contains only one brief line of dialog, it has four beats (by my reckoning, anyway):

• Dr. Doom realizing that this could be his opportunity to show up Reed Richards.
• Sue’s wary hopefulness that Spidey’s reverse psychology will bear fruit
• The impulses of the Thing and the Torch to set Doom straight
• Sue’s innate understanding and anticipation of her teammates with handy-dandy force-muzzles

All the expressions are spot-on (especially Doctor Doom’s!), and the panel is laid out to give us all the reactions in the right order. Another artist might have been happy to give us Doom’s reaction and rely heavily on the small type in the spacious word ballon, but Mike Wieringo takes pains to frame a great shot that lets us see everyone’s reactions.

i’d really be interested to see how this panel came about. My sense is that Jeff Parker is perfectly capable of scripting this, but it’s laid out so tightly, and relies so much on Mike Wieringo’s ability to capture just the right expression, it’s hard to believe that this doesn’t come straight from the artist to the page. i’d love to see the script.

Between this and Bully’s recent comparison of then and now Spider-Man compression, it’s also started me thinking about beats-per-panel. i don’t know if that’s a very useful metric, but i confess that “useful” never really stops me from thinking about things. For instance, i wonder how long you can sustain a particular number of beats per panel….

(This panel first caught my eye when i was reading Spidey/FF#3 a couple of days before Mike Wieringo died. The panel had really ratcheted up my opinion of Wieringo’s abilities, and i feel cheated by the terrible synchronicity. i pre-ordered Tellos Colossal at Amazon, but just learned that i will have to wait until February to have my ordered filled. Apparently i’m not alone in my interest in digging further into Wieringo’s work.)

Update!

i pinged Jeff Parker about this panel and he was kind enough to share the script with me. Here’s the excerpt for this panel from PAGE EIGHTEEN:

Panel 4/ Okay, here’s the setup. Doom’s head is close up in foreground, and we can see his wide eyes really well for the first time. Behind him are Ben, Sue and Johnny. Sue is forcefielding Ben and Johnny’s mouths closed, their eyes are wide. She looks displeased too, but she’s following webhead’s lead.

DOOM: Richards… can’t figure it out?

The other update is that two hours after i first posted this entry, Amazon let me know that Tellos Colossal had shipped and i just received it today. Yay!

If you have the current version of the Adobe Flash Player, click the image to see how the page breaks down.

“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the sixth page of the story. Here are the first page, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth.

If you have the current version of the Adobe Flash Player, click the image to see how the page breaks down.

“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the fifth page of the story. Here are the first page, the second, the third, and the fourth.

If you have the current version of the Adobe Flash Player, click the image to see how the page breaks down.

“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the fourth page of the story. Here are the first page, the second, and the third.

If you have the current version of the Adobe Flash Player, click the image to see how the page breaks down.

“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the third page of the story. Here are the first page and the second.

If you have the current version of the Adobe Flash Player, click the image to see how the page breaks down.

“The Black Condor” in Crack Comics #4 (August 1940), Lou Fine (click image for breakdown)

Continuing with the Black Condor story by Lou Fine that recently appeared on Golden Age Comic Book Stories. This is the second page of the story. Here’s the first page. i’m reserving comments for now.