Featured

DRUNK HULK’S TOP 10 TWEETS OF 2011

Here are the Top 10 most popular tweets by Drunk Hulk in 2011!

DRUNK HULK NEW YEAR RESOLUTION!

DRUNK HULK MAKE NEW YEAR RESOLUTION!

DRUNK HULK MOST SEXIEST PEOPLES OF 2011!

Drunk Hulk chooses the sexiest men and women alive for 2011!

DRUNK HULK MOST SEXIEST PEOPLES OF 2011!

DRUNK HULK DEBATE FAIL!

In less than :53 seconds, Drunk Hulk destroys his chances of becoming the next President of the United States. Sadly.

DRUNK HULK HAD 99!

Drunk Hulk steps in to do a little protesting of his own!

Categories
- Books
- Comics
- Drunk Hulk
- Featured
- Fiction
- Headline
- Interview
- On Writing
- Uncategorized
- West Coast Avengers

Long Box Tuesday: Northlanders #17, Page 19

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on January 19, 2010 at 10:05 am

I was late to the Northlanders party, and judging from the numbers for this book, I’m not the only one. And that’s a real shame.

I’m not one of those people who immediately gets interested in the story at the mention of pirates, monkeys and vikings. So when Brian Wood, writer of Local and DMZ, announced he was doing a monthly about vikings, I was naturally disappointed.

I’ve read somewhere online that Northlanders is a crime saga that happens to be set in the viking age, and is a great way of selling the story. And if that doesn’t work for you, consider picking up issue 17, “The Viking Art of Single Combat”, an extraordinary example of comic book storytelling. The entire issue is a single fight between two men, which by itself could be enormously entertaining with the right creative team (and paired with Vasilis Lolos on art, it is), but it’s Wood’s narration and point of view that really sells this one.

Page 18 hits all the right notes:

Northlanders #17, page 18

Artwise, I love Lolos ability to convey movement. The thickness of the lines and the clarity of the fight’s choreography makes the action feel real in a surprising way. You can really feel the energy of the fight and the eventual fatigue the longer it goes.

It’s the writing here that makes this page so successful for me. The language Wood uses is rich, and it does a superb job at making a viking as common and likable as a modern man, something I feel a lot of writers aren’t necessarily good at when tackling characters from the past. And I especially love the placement of those last two captions with the dark image of man getting ready to bring the ax down. It’s so effective.

Most importantly, removed from the rest of the book, I think the page works as a stunning piece of nanofiction that has a burst cultural quality with a solid emotional center.

Long Box Tuesday: Daredevil #116 (Vol. 2), Page 13

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on January 12, 2010 at 10:01 am

Ed Brubaker couldn’t win no matter what he did with Daredevil. For years it was always about being in the shadow of Frank Miller when it came to the title, but I’d argue that it was Brian Michael Bendis’ shadow that Brubaker was struggling to get out from under when he took over the book. Also, continuing the story from one of Bendis’ cliffhangers didn’t help matters at all.

That said, Brubaker’s work was excellent on Daredevil, especially considering that Brubaker spent a lot of his run returning Daredevil to the unpredictable street-level hero we know and love after not only having his identity revealed to the public, but being incarcerated (a storyline I wish was longer). Not only does he pull this off without completely undermining what came before his run (Milla fans will argue this, but really, if you’ve been reading Daredevil for any length of time, you have to know by now that she couldn’t possibly have stayed in the book), he even throws the book back to the Mike Murdock swashbuckler days for some extra nostalgic fun.

The issue that I keep returning to with Brubaker’s run on Daredevil is issue #116, the first issue of the “Return of the King” storyline. Not only is it a great beginning, it’s a fantastic stand alone piece that should be required reading for any comic book writer looking to establish an emotionally resonant story within 22 pages.

He didn’t do it alone though. David Aja’s artwork in this issue is simply gorgeous. It’s clear Aja put a lot of thought into the construction of the panels and it really shows with page 13:

Daredevil #116, Page 13

The artistic depth here is breathtaking, and it’s easy to miss at first glance. You have a profile silhouette of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, and within this image you’ll find Spider-Man (I love how the webbing reflect’s the Kingpin’s devious mind), Daredevil, and Bullseye. Bullseye’s presence within the darkness of Daredevil makes sense, how he’s always lurking in the background, whether we are talking about Daredevil’s life or Matt Murdock’s guilt.

And then the narration pushing your eyes downward until you come to the stark image of his wife Vanessa.

Speaking of narration, it’s one of the elements of this issue that I really love. It reminds me of the second-person narration from the 1961 film Blast of Silence, a device that elevated the movie, such as:

You’re alone. But you don’t mind that. You’re a loner. That’s the way it should be. You’ve always been alone. By now it’s your trademark. You like it that way.

I covered my appreciation and love of Blast of Silence over at Where the Long Tail Ends before, so I won’t wander in that direction. But Brubaker’s decision to use this kind of narration for a comic book villain like the Kingpin was an extraordinary way of allowing readers to look at the character with fresh eyes – something I didn’t think was any longer possible with the character. And on top of that, despite knowing all the bad things the Kingpin has done over the years, you still find yourself hoping that he’ll take the opportunity presented in the story and turn a new leaf.

And if you know how these stories go, like in Blast of Silence, it’s when these guys reach out for something good when bad things happen.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: All-Star Superman #10, Page 12

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 29, 2009 at 12:01 pm

I know I already covered this particular issue of All-Star Superman, but as the new year approaches, I couldn’t pass up sharing this beautiful and optimistic page written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely.

This is as good a place as any to call it a year with comics.

See you back here in 2010.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Animal Man #25, Page 24

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 22, 2009 at 9:50 am

Leave it to writer Grant Morrison to take a hero as hokey as Animal Man and turn his book into a metafictional meditation on the nature of comic book storytelling. In the process, he would give more pathos and dimensions to Animal Man than ever before and establish the seeds to his personality that have carried through to today. When other writers play with Animal Man, they are writing Morrison’s take on the character, which goes to show the mark he left.

Morrison’s 26 issue run on Animal Man is crazy brilliant, a sprawling story that winds back on itself with amazing precision, and when it’s over, you want to read the issues again to see how it all came together. And page 24 in Animal Man #25 is the moment when it all comes to a head. After two years of Animal Man going through hell and back, we finally learn what the point of it all was when he is confronted by the man who has been making his life miserable. Here is where our hero meets the writer of his own book, Morrison himself:

I consider this scene to be one of the most important encounters in comic book history, not only as the culmination of Morrison’s storytelling on Animal Man, but in context of postmodern literature.

The more I understand what Morrison is doing in his writing, the more I believe that he is one of the most important comic book writers working today. And Animal Man was a delicious appetizer of what Morrison would end up doing in the next 20 years of his career.

New Fiction: Deconstruction Page 5 (of 5)

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 18, 2009 at 9:35 am

This was originally meant to be for an anthology to be published next year. I had written other pieces for the anthology that explored horror movie and police drama cliches, and I thought it would be fun to apply the same thing to comic books. The word limit for the stories were 1000 words, and once I decided to do this story visually, the trick was trying to do this in less than 100 words, for the challenge of it.

If you read comic books, I think you’ll notice the little details (Kirby dots!) and recognize the story, one that’s been told a million times before.

New Fiction: Deconstruction Page 4 (of 5)

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 17, 2009 at 9:35 am

This was originally meant to be for an anthology to be published next year. I had written other pieces for the anthology that explored horror movie and police drama cliches, and I thought it would be fun to apply the same thing to comic books. The word limit for the stories were 1000 words, and once I decided to do this story visually, the trick was trying to do this in less than 100 words, for the challenge of it.

If you read comic books, I think you’ll notice the little details (Kirby dots!) and recognize the story, one that’s been told a million times before.

New Fiction: Deconstruction Page 3 (of 5)

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 16, 2009 at 9:35 am

This was originally meant to be for an anthology to be published next year. I had written other pieces for the anthology that explored horror movie and police drama cliches, and I thought it would be fun to apply the same thing to comic books. The word limit for the stories were 1000 words, and once I decided to do this story visually, the trick was trying to do this in less than 100 words, for the challenge of it.

If you read comic books, I think you’ll notice the little details (Kirby dots!) and recognize the story, one that’s been told a million times before.

New Fiction: Deconstruction Page 2 (of 5)

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 15, 2009 at 9:33 am

Page-2

This was originally meant to be for an anthology to be published next year. I had written other pieces for the anthology that explored horror movie and police drama cliches, and I thought it would be fun to apply the same thing to comic books. The word limit for the stories were 1000 words, and once I decided to do this story visually, the trick was trying to do this in less than 100 words, for the challenge of it.

If you read comic books, I think you’ll notice the little details (Kirby dots!) and recognize the story, one that’s been told a million times before.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Fantastic Four #51, Page 1

0

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 8, 2009 at 9:49 am

Do you know how hard it is to agree on just one Jack Kirby page?

This wouldn’t be a problem for me when I was young. As a kid, I didn’t like Kirby’s work at all. I prefered the art of people like John Buscema, John Romita Sr., Frank Miller, John Byrne, Al Milgrom and Mike Mignola (thanks to Rocket Raccoon!). I just didn’t understand Kirby, and I was frustrated because everyone kept telling me how I was supposed to. He was “the King” afterall.

Luckily, I came around when I was older.

So now I can appreciate pages like this:

Outside of Kirby’s art, this page has all the things I loved about Marvel. Stan Lee’s hyperbolic credits, the larger than life title, and the gravity that I couldn’t find in the DC comics coming out in the same time. As for the art, this is the Thing that I love, at once horrifying and pitiful. The facial expression Kirby gives him is perfect, and though the rain is a lazy and overused visual shorthand to express sadness and disappointment, the heaviness of it and the thickness in Kirby’s lines make it work.

Fantastic-Four-51-Page-1

What my young brain couldn’t reconcile was how Kirby’s work appeared to go against what I trained to expect from comic books. I understand now that Kirby wasn’t repeating the language of comic books, but instead he was reinventing it, exploring it further, and then reinventing it again. I think a lot of comic book artists see the empty page and think of only the story that needs to be told, but Kirby looked at the page and saw an entire universe waiting to be discovered.

Favorite Comic Book Pages: Daredevil #232, Page 22

3

Posted by Christian A. Dumais on December 1, 2009 at 9:47 am

I’m not going to get into how amazing Frank Miller’s “Born Again” saga in his Daredevil run was. By now, it’s become one of those facts of life. Nor am I going to go into detail explaining the shadow of Miller which looms so heavily over the character and the book itself. Writers appear to work with two modes when taking on the character: 1) scrambling to get out of Miller’s shadow, or 2) enjoying the shade.

I think it’s a shame that Miller’s influence has equated to dumping as much tragedy and despair onto the character that you possibly can (seriously, when is the last time this guy has had a good day?). That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the stories of seeing our hero falling from grace again and again.

What’s worth talking about is the enormous sense of relief and pure glee on turning the page and seeing the final splash page for issue #232 of Daredevil, the penultimate issue to the “Born Again” story. Up until this point of the story, Daredevil’s life had been completely dismantled and it had been months since he even put the costume on, months since he was half the hero we knew he could be. So, to see this page was like a religious experience:

I can’t possibly imagine this story without David Mazzucchelli’s stunning artwork. I know the idea of widescreen, cinematic sequences in comic books came into being (at least in terms of our ability to be aware of it) around the turn of the century, but Mazzucchelli’s art was as epic and widescreen as you could possibly get at the time. Just thinking about his work in this book makes me smile.

Yeah, it’s time I got this collection out again and gave it another read.