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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[mixed-up-media.livejournal.com]

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