Smart People Arguing Comics Art

* I went to artist Jesse Hamm's on-line essay about the tendency of many comics writers to make alarming visual mistakes in their scripts because I'd read in multiple places that Mark Waid had experienced a meltdown while arguing a counterpoint. Oddly, I think I agree with just about everything Waid had to say: Hamm came on really strong at his essay's beginning and I can imagine this triggering an involuntary "Screw you!" mechanism in a lot of people, no one has a monopoly and maybe not even a special advantage when it comes to skill with visual language, the production process thwarts a lot of the perceived advantages writers have in a traditional comics collaborative process, and so on.

Personally, I think Hamm's essay works better as a descriptive than as a prescriptive. I worked in collaboration with an artist for a few years, and I think if I had read Hamm's piece I might have been paralyzed with fear in a way that would have had a negative effect on that partnership. One of the great things about collaborating where those involved have different strengths is that you can rely on them as a corrective for bad choices in a way that enables you to work at a slightly more daring, engaged level. You don't want to be a burdensome partner, but I think it's a sign of a successful collaboration, not a dysfunctional one, for there to be the occasional conversation about a bad creative choice one or the other made, whether it's spatial staging or improvised dialog.

* Missed it: Daryl Cagle touches on the "A killed cartoon in Killed Cartoons" story in his mighty blog (April 2 entry), including a statement from Wallis that goes after some of the more extreme and what seems to be off-base criticism that he's suffered recently.

* Matthias Wivel retrenches a bit on his "Certain Tendencies in French Comics" argument, restating a few things in light of some of the better counter-arguments he's received. It's an interesting discussion, although I think there's still a distinction to be made between empty, beautiful works, and works that traffic in the visual language and values of comics art that has significant surface beauty.
 
posted 3:02 am PST | Permalink
 

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