Tip 9: Tilted planes imply movementIn the central, large panel where the horizon is tilted a good 30 degrees off horizontal, the Yakuza boss has turned over the table in his anger at both Ryuji and Hara. The drama and movement of the panel is heightened by the calm, orderly quality of the upper panels. In those, Ryuji is absolutely still in his terror. (In all the small squares of his face, he doesn't move. Even the drops of sweat stand still.) Horizontal and vertical lines make a space seem calm. So then when the boss bursts up and throws the table over, everyone, Ryuji and the reader included, is shocked and knocked off guard. The lower left panel continues the diagonal movement, by showing Ryuji as though we were looking at him from below the floor. As the situation calms, the lower left panel calms things down visually by bringing the horizon almost back to horizontal.
The row of squares of Ryuji's face, by the way, are by way of slowing down the time, as we discussed before. The boss has shown his displeasure, and Ryuji wonders for what seems like a loooong time if that large knife is going to be used to chop off his finger.
3 comments:
Going back a bit to your reply to my comment on 01 January:
Interesting. I have no idea about the merchandising. But the book was first put out as a hardback. Prestige format. It seems to me it was meant to appeal to the discerning reader.
Indeed. This is something DC still does but Marvel does not.
I think only a particular fan buys these prestige books. Especially when they are hardcover first, then some months later softcover. From what I see of people talking around the message boards and generally talk, the average comic book collector buys several monthly comics. And they have to budget their lives around that. Sometimes (usually the younger people, or those with families to provide for) even having to pass up monthly comics they’d like to get. So something so grand is, more than likely, missed by a wide audience.
Plus they get limited advertising and exposure.
When usually everyone agrees the quality of the monthly comic book titles is so bad, I would love to see these quirky miniseries type stories embedded into he monthly titles.
When one purchase a book like Willworld, one sees what one is getting. Buy the ticket, take the ride. But for such compelling work and Seth’s, for that to show up in a monthly comic that people of all ages collect, it’s a much wider audience. And once that book is in their collection, they can always pull it out of the box to look at it again. Maybe when they’re more ‘ready’ for Seth.
But apparently DC finds this method better business. (Owned by Warner, they of course have their own book production facility…)
What is a major plus is that they are ready for the bookshelves, which has been a real big change in comic books stores; the trade paperback and collections editions have totally usurped the “back issue” comics. Many stores not even carrying old comics but having walls of the collection.
So Seth’s Green Lantern story is preserved, and hopefully always in stock. Whereas the brilliant 2 issues of Doom Patrol is not so lucky.
And to keep this on-topic with this entry: Vertigo *really* needs to collect Seth’s Pop! story!
Vertigo has plans to reprint Pop Tokyo along with Pop Bangkok in the same book. They have already purchased from us the rights to reprint it.
Anyway your discussion of the various ways of publishing different stories points out something that is always true: every choice you make limits your choices in other areas. The cost of a hardback book limits the general readership, but it makes the book available for a much longer time. So people who discover Seth's work through a monthly title and then want something more permanent can get the book later, because it will still be around.
Vertigo has plans to reprint Pop Tokyo along with Pop Bangkok in the same book. They have already purchased from us the rights to reprint it.
Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
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