soapboxing

[verbicide]

You know what I wish? I wish someone would redo all of Alan Moore's books--the artwork, I mean.

I keep hearing that it's canon and everyone MUST SIMPLY READ IT. (My comic book guy keeps chanting at me, "Read it. Read it. READ IT.") But I can't. I own a bunch of his stuff. A couple of TPBs of Swamp Thing. V for Vendetta. I think that's it. Oh, I borrowed Promethea from some friends once. And I bought that erotic set, the name of which I can't remember--Lost Girls? The porny stuff he did with his girlfriend.

Anyhow. I find I just can't read his stuff because I hate the artwork so intensely. I also hated the artwork in early Sandman, but I hated it sufficiently less (or I was just more tenacious in my love of Neil Gaiman) that I was able to read it all--and love it. But the messy cluttered panels, the tiny lettering. It gives me a headache and I can never get past the first pages.

Outside of his amazing story-telling, it's why I worship Brian K. Vaughn and will buy anything he does sight unseen. The art is always so gorgeous and lends so much to the story.

Anyhow. I wish I could read Watchmen. (This rant camet on because of some random clicking leading to the Watchmen movie. Which makes me wish I could read Watchmen.)

Comments

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're telling me you're hating on the Bissette/Totelben artwork from Swamp Thing? Oh, MAN.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Are those the people responsible for the poorly drawn squiggles from the first two trade paperbacks? :)

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're making me sad! Such beautiful art ....

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

You know, I can't tell... are you joking? Or could I maybe be thinking of something else?

If you really love it--I'm sorry. (But...how? Why?? It's so CLUTTERED!)

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Heee :) It's OK, I certainly don't require that other people like the things I do! That would be suckerish.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that! :)

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

Someday maybe someone will remake all of those. It would be nice.

I couldn't stand the art in a lot of Sandman (Sam Keith should have stayed with the book--I really loved The Maxx). COLOR INSIDE THE LINES, PEOPLE! And the art for The Kindly Ones really irritates me.

However, the art in The Dream Hunters and Endless Nights is really great.

Watchmen is worth struggling through if you can, though, because the story is that good.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I agree--I loved The Dream Hunters and Endless Nights! The art in Preludes and Nocturnes was such a turnoff it took me like a year to painstakingly work my way through it.

I should really give Watchmen a try.

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

They really should kick Preludes and Nocturnes out of the series, since it has perhaps the weakest storyline and art of all of them. Oh, well!

I will have to check out Brian K. Vaughn's work. What has he done?

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, you kinda need the intro, even if it is weak!

Plus it has the Martian Manhunter. You can't hate on that!

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

That it does! That book feels very connected with the rest of the DC Universe in ways the rest of them don't. Which is pretty cool.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I shoved my way past it to the rest of the series, because it was so brilliant. <3 Gaiman

So, for BKV --I highly recommend:

Y: The Last Man --this is completed in 8-10 TPBS and is completely brilliant from start to finish. A post-apocalyptic world where all male mammals have spontaneously and simultaneously died of some mysterious cause--except for one guy and the Capuchin monkey he was training. Brilliant. BRILLIANT stuff.

Runaways --I worship Volume I, but I've really enjoyed the ongoing series in Volumes II and III and the continuing issues (because I can't wait for the next volume). Joss Whedon also did a few of these. A group of teenagers find out their parents are Super Villains and they runaway to try to stop them.

Ex Machina --has some great political drama. A guy develops super powers--the ability to communicate with machines, but decides what he really wants to do is run for Mayor and make the world a better place.

All of his stuff is beautifully drawn and the stories are funny and dramatic and sad and amazing. I can't say enough about him!

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

Cool! I will check it out.

Fortunately, my town's public library has a nice graphic novel collection.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Let me know what you think if you read any of it! :)

[llnaughty.livejournal.com]

issue 1 of y: the last man (http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1736_1.pdf)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Oh wow--thank you so much for that link!! I have a number of friends I want to seduce into reading this--and this is a brilliant way!

[llnaughty.livejournal.com]

no problem! i found it a while back on this page (http://www.dailybits.com/17-sensational-free-and-downloadable-graphic-novels/), which lists 17 free downloadable graphic novels (and the user comments contain more)!

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

How cool--thank you! And I figured out the Watchmen thing, too!

[archaica.livejournal.com]

I loved the art in the Kindly Ones! So, so good.

Man, you people are PHILISTINES :)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Its so funny because I've seen some of your artwork--and it's so clean and awesome compared to that stuff. It just surprises me! But, tastes--they vary! :)

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

I readily admit to being a Philistine. Kindly Ones art = blocky and weird. But I might have disliked it more because it was so different from the rest of the series, I don't know.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I don't remember the art --I'll have to check it out when I get home!

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was totally different. That was the great thing about the Sandman.

[mixed-up-media.livejournal.com]

OMG--is that icon from Battle Angle Alita???

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

Yep!

[mixed-up-media.livejournal.com]

Cool!

I have a strange fondness for Battle Angel Alita--strange not in light of its totally kick-ass female protagonist (which is of course always a plus in my book), but in my willingness to put up with its odd--and at times, inscrutable--plotlines in order to read it. (As I recall, it gets weirder and weirder as it progresses.)

It's a fun series, though.

[shashalnikya.livejournal.com]

It does get a little odd near the end of the original series, and there's a second series out there that I haven't read (Battle Angel Alita: Last Order) because it is even weirder, and ignores the ending of the original series.

But I still love it.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

When I first read Sandman, the art didn't bother me so much, because I hadn't read many comics. That was when I was still in the "read the text carefully, skim the art" phase of comic readership. I find that now, when I try to reread it, I am horribly distracted by the fugly early-90s Vertigo art. It's so horrible!

The case with Alan Moore is different. With Sandman, I see it as a case of good written material not getting the graphics to back it up properly. But in all the Moore stuff I've read (Watchmen, Top 10, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, some Promethea), the busy, detailed panels are part of the package. And from interviews I've read with artists who have worked with him, that approach comes from Moore. I find that sifting through all the artistic details in an Alan Moore comic--looking for clues and in-jokes--is part of the fun, but it definitely requires a certain frame of mind to deal with.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I think part of this is that my vision is sucky. My glasses are fine, but I still hate peering at cluttered panels.

As a kid, I loved the 'find the banana, kitty, apple, water bottle, and the guitar in this picture!' from Highlights, but as an adult, not so much.

Maybe I need to get some sort of old lady magnifying glass. But it's just too much effort to read a book.

Good to know that it's stylistically intended, and not just shoddy work.

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

You need the senior-citizen large-print version! Just kidding.

Personally, I tend to prefer a sparser approach to artwork. But the Alan Moore approach has its place. His comics remind me of the Richard Scarrey kidbooks like "the Best Word Book Ever." Big complicated pages with very busy artwork and you can spend half an hour looking at one page and noticing all the stuff going on.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm about to let go of my pride and start buying LARGE PRINT BOOKS any day now!

And you know what's funnier--those Richard Scarrey books were my FAVORITES growing up!

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Also - Watchmen may have a lot going on in each panel, but Dave Gibbons' art is not "messy' or "cluttered." He's probably one of the cleanest lines I've ever seen.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I will check it out the next time I'm at the comic store, then!

[llnaughty.livejournal.com]

have you seen the free "motion comic" (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTVSeason?id=284790710) version (note: link will launch itunes) that's being done to promote the movie? they did a good job i thought.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Huh. It says it will launch iTunes, and iTunes is open, but then nothing happens. Do I need to do something to view the motion comic?

[llnaughty.livejournal.com]

it should take you to the product page. it's a free download, but you still have to "buy" it for $0.00 dollars. if it doesn't come right to the page, then search for "watchmen" in itunes.

[andhereirant.livejournal.com]

i SO understand! i never finished the 9th book of sandman and therefore never read the beautiful book 10, because i hated the artwork in 9 so intensely that i simply could not view its pages and thus never get into the story.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I'm so bad at remembering the sequence--which one was 9? Do you remember?

[andhereirant.livejournal.com]

the kindly ones. the end of Dream.
i have to reread the series to read the last one and i'm seriously considering just skipping that one and finding a synopsis on line. the art work of the other books didn't stick with me so much. kinda blah. i remember the 10th is gorgeous and i was looking forward to reading it based entirely on this factor.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I bet you can find a summary of key points so you don't have to read it. I totally don't remember that one, so I have to go look at it when I get home!

[mixed-up-media.livejournal.com]

I'm not crazy about Alan Moore's art, either (and I do also love Neil Gaiman).

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not alone! :)