Okay, there was very little research done. But I was right that it was a good prompt for discussion. See for yourself:
Fourth of July Fun
Josh agreed to come along with me on a short research trip to more fully explain this:
Okay, there was very little research done. But I was right that it was a good prompt for discussion. See for yourself:
Okay, there was very little research done. But I was right that it was a good prompt for discussion. See for yourself:
The Details are in "The Devil's Concubine"
"The Devil's Concubine" from IDW Publishing
So. A funny little story:
New York City is an amazing place. You never know who you'll meet.
The night before this past MoCCA Fest (@MoCCAnyc) I was catching the end of an event at Brooklyn's excellent comics shop Bergen Street Comics (@BergenStComics) and I meet a small group of Danish comics creators and one Danish comics journalist walking out of the store. We all walked together to the after-party at which we all got better acquainted: whose work do we like best, the differences between the Danish and American comics industries, etc. Wonderful time. Among these rare guests to NYC was the creator of the soon-to-be released in the US "The Devil's Concubine", Palle Schmidt (@Palle_Schmidt). This review is about a product of Denmark and was originally published there as "Blodets Konkubine". As is its charming creator Palle Schmidt. I was permitted to flip through pages and see a preview of "Concubine" and some other work of his. Never would have noticed the book otherwise. IDW gave it no publicity or advertising that I saw.
I love NYC exactly for these random circumstances.
You may have missed this slim graphic novella when it arrived in American comics stores from IDW Publishing about a month ago. Here I am to make sure you know about it. 'Cool' would be a good way to start out describing the fun, well-drawn crime comic that is "The Devil's Concubine". But I don't go for the easy solution. No sir. I can do better:
"The Devil's Concubine" is like a classic Hollywood crime movie, splintered into delicious chaos by New Wave cinema and Quentin Tarantino, and committed to paper in sequential art with shades of Frank Miller and Chester Gould.
And it's cool.
Some of it feels very standard. Set-ups. Showdowns. Double-crosses. Some of it is tongue-in-cheek and silly. Some of it is tough-as-nails. But what I enjoyed most was the sharp storytelling:
That's an amazing piece of sequential art. Time is splintered down to those slow moments of sudden recognition and just the right details shine through to tell the story. We don't see the moment our hitman main character Jean-Luc realizes he and his partner have been duped, but we do see what he sees the way he sees it. Much more powerful.
This page sets off quite a sweet and hilarious sequence concluding in our main characters being discovered, guns already drawn, in a metal safe. Actually, this page is where the book took off for me. Suddenly the situation gets dire and everything gets hyper-realistic.
"The Devil's Concubine" is essentially the story of two freelance hitmen Jean-Luc and Linda (or hitman and hitWOMAN I suppose) who've accepted a simple job to rip-off a crime lord named Latour but the job slowly reveals itself to be far from simple. Their anonymous employer turns out to have unusual motives. The case they steal turns out to be a mysterious object called the Devil's Concubine. (Or is it?) And their steps are being patiently followed by another dark figure only known as The Haitian. Nearly every classic crime/gangster cliche gets run through before the story ends in a surprising tragedy for the two weary criminals.
Characterization is, however, spread thin in the comic's 84 pages. We don't get a lot of time to get to know our characters. But what's there is strong. This is one of the few personal moments our characters show us:
"You were in the French Foreign Legion, right?""Yeah.""So, how was it?""It sounded better in the ad." [he said while lighting a cigarette]"When I was a little girl, I wanted to become a doctor...""We were very poor. We lived in the Tsukrami swamps. You know them? In Japan?""Anyway, my father had refused to sell bread to the Yakuza. One night they came. There was a terrible storm.""I hid in the great big cauldron on the fireplace. The Yakuza killed everyone, even the dog. But they never found me...""Great story. All lies." [he said, holding his cigarette]"Yeah, so?" [she said, eyes only half-open]~ pp. 41-42
Feels like Tarantino but a bit classier to me.
There's another page in this little Hitchockian graphic tale that is so good, so original, and so fun I can't believe it. You'll have to see that for yourself: "CLAC K-CLICK CLAC SNAP CLAC" Really loved it.
The written sound-effects are actually one of the smarter elements of "Devil's Concubine". A pretty rare compliment as they are so often over-looked and only some very few people make visually beautiful ones, but far fewer know how to use them to tell the story by themselves.
The design-work in general is quite strong actually. Jean-Luc is huge and imposing in his trench-coats (much like Marv from Miller's "Sin City") despite being a bit of a softy. Linda is small and feminine despite being abrasive, stubborn, and perhaps a little crazy. Latour is grungy and lithe despite being nervous and impulsive. The opposing visuals and personalities make for interesting contrasts both between characters and within them.
THE LONG AND SHORTBOX OF IT?
If you want a little action mixed with a little humor in a well-constructed package, you should order yourself a copy of "The Devil's Concubine". It's a unique balance of smart and fun you don't come across very often.
You can learn more about the graphic novella and where you can buy it at its own devoted website: DevilsConcubine.com or at IDW's site or the comicsmith Palle Schmidt's website. Palle is also on Twitter @Palle_Schmidt.
~ @JonGorga
~ @JonGorga
Gene Colan Passes On, Comics Loses a Master Practitioner
I'm sitting at my keyboard, with something I have to report, and suddenly not knowing what to say.
Gene Colan died on June 23rd of complications from a broken hip and a long battle with liver disease, at 84 years old.
I feel ashamed I didn't know about it sooner.
Colan drew comics at many major companies over his long career. His straightforward, smooth figures brought higher realism to the superhero and horror comics of the late Seventies, the era of work for which he is best known. He was drawing from his first professional comics work in 1944 to one-at-a-time personal commissions in retirement up until just a few months ago. Despite having lost his sight in one eye.
Mark Evanier said it better than I could:
"As a reader, I loved Gene's work. There was a credibility about it: No matter how outlandish the premise or plot, Gene somehow made you believe it."
Read this short post from close friend, writer Clifford Meth and have faith.
It's all true.
Evanier will moderate a Gene Colan tribute panel at San Diego Comic-Con next month.
I had the pleasure of meeting Colan quickly at an event for the "Marvelous Color" exhibit I covered in February of 2o1o. His passing is exactly what I am talking about when I say we need to make sure the elder artists of comics are well taken care of and know they are appreciated: I listed Colan among other comics creators still living over 75 years of age, in December 2o1o.
The Long and Shortbox Of It extends our condolences to Gene Colan's surviving family and friends.
He will be missed.
~ @JonGorga
Weekly Process Roundup 7/1/11
The weekly process roundup is a collection of sketches, pencils, inks, thumbnails, everything other than finished product, from The Long and Shortbox of It's favorite artists and illustrators, hitting every Friday.
- FRANK MILLER gives the LA TIMES a look at HOLY TERROR (above)!
- HILOBROW is running a series of posts called BTOOM! Kirby vs. Lee that investigates the notes that the King left for Stan the Man on the original art for page 3 of Fantastic Four #63!
- JASON doodles on an envelope!
- DALE EAGLESHAM sneaks us a peak of ALPHA FLIGHT #3!
- JOCK starts the breakdowns for the end of an era!
One Expanding Comicsmith in DC's Reboot, Many More in Other Avenues
Is a filmmaker better if he plays several roles in the creation of his film, like a writer/director or writer/actor? Is a film better for having a single authorial voice or better understood for being watched expecting a single voice? This guy thought so:
Francois Truffaut first advanced the position that the director of a film was its primary creator in France in the 1950s
Auteur theory (auteur is merely the French word for author) is a term for the theory or concept that states: the director takes control of a film, therefore he/she is responsible for it. It seems to me, the term could apply to any of the other principle craftsmen on a film, and I prefer the less-pretentious filmmaker. Film + maker.
Firstly, as I understand it from studying the industry, the closest parallel to the director in comics is the editor. The editor coordinates and guides the writer, artist(s), colorist, letterer, etc. to make a single cohesive work of art. The Japanese already have a word for a one-man-comics-machine as their comics industry is primarily made up of writer/artists leading teams of assistants. They call creators manga-ka. Manga = comics + ka = person. This is as similar as we will get to auteur in comics. As a parallel and as a hopefully more down-to-earth option, I have been referring since sometime in college to someone who undertakes several roles in the creation of a comic as a comicsmith. Comics + smith, a synonym for maker.
-Language lesson OVER.-
Storytelling in comics is a unique game. It requires visual/space thinking but also narrative/time thinking to do both sides properly. Doing both well is a rare thing.
MajorSpoilers.com has posted a simple list of the new series debuting from DC's re-boot in August/September you can read here. Out of the 53 titles they list, one of them will be written and drawn by the same person:
"Detective Comics" will be scripted and penciled by Tony Daniel. [The cover of the new #1 by Daniel is at left.] After illustrating Grant Morrison's scripts for a few years, Daniel held-up both ends of the creative exchange on "Batman" from issues #692 to #699 and then from #704 to the most recent issue, #711.
CBR interviewed him about his work at the keyboard and the drafting table twice. Once when his first run was about half over and again recently when his part in the relaunch was announced.
My opinion?
Sadly, Tony Daniel's issues of "Batman" were some of the most boring superhero comics I can remember reading. Very nice art. Nothing in the writing made me want to continue reading it. And sometimes I felt that things in the art seemed rushed and I suspect that it looked as good as it did thanks to inker Sandu Florea.
I thought of Daniel's first stint as a comicsmith as an exciting experiment for contemporary American mainstream comics and expressed that I would be curious to see how it was way back when we were posting weekly looking-forward-to posts here on The Long and Shortbox Of It. But as an experiment, I was sadly dissatisfied with it. DC doesn't seem to think along the same lines. According to Daniel's second interview linked-to above, he was approached by the company to do the writing for a second series as part of the upcoming relaunch. He is now also writing "The Savage Hawkman", to be drawn by Philip Tan (@philipsytan) according to Daniel's scripts, as well as swapping Batman titles with Scott Snyder (@SSnyder1835) and Francesco Francavilla (@f_francavilla), who were the team on "Detective Comics" previously and will now work on "Batman" instead. And Daniel is actually just one of several comics-artists being given a crack at writing scripts for another artist to illustrate. They might all turn out to be excellent writers, but it seems like a dangerous chance to take at such a crossroads for the company and the whole industry.
(Before I move on I have to say: "Batman" #702 written by Morrison, drawn by Daniel, and inked by Florea made it to my Best of the Year post. So I've got nothing against Tony Daniel. Truly and wholeheartedly, I wish him luck writing two series and drawing one of them. A challenge for anyone.)
Why is it the Japanese mainstream makes the comicsmith position the norm, and the American mainstream makes it the exception? I suspect a great deal of it lies in the aforementioned art teams the Japanese creators regularly employ. Here, artists do often ask the help of their fellow artists to complete their work, but only in a time-crunch, and always under the radar. Americans have this silly concept of the individual against the world, fully self-reliant. Which brings me back, of course, to the main question: Why so few creators who do it all themselves?
Mind you, that's entirely untrue outside of the American mainstream, these are all American comicsmiths:
Jason Lutes
Jason Little (@beecomix)
Chester Brown
Jeffrey Brown
Peter Bagge
Gary Panter
Gabrielle Bell (@luckygab)
Brendan Leach (@iknowashortcut)
Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz)
Dennis Pacheco (@dpacheco)
...
THAT list goes on far too long to name them all.
So could it be that being a good comicsmith, making quality comics all on your lonesome, simply takes time? Time not available to the maker of the monthly 22-page corporate comic-book? Seems possible. Could it be that the simple exchange required with an editor, inker, colorist, production man, etc. makes it far too messy? Seems equally possible. (As someone who makes comics without any collaborators himself and does it very, very slowly... I can tell you those ones make sense.)
There's a new comic-book called "All Nighter" I'm looking forward to reading, available in comics shops across the country from Image Comics, written and drawn by one man: David Hahn (@david_hahn). Looks good. Look for a review of that book from me in the coming months with a bit more commentary on this subject.
~ @JonGorga
Auteur theory (auteur is merely the French word for author) is a term for the theory or concept that states: the director takes control of a film, therefore he/she is responsible for it. It seems to me, the term could apply to any of the other principle craftsmen on a film, and I prefer the less-pretentious filmmaker. Film + maker.
Firstly, as I understand it from studying the industry, the closest parallel to the director in comics is the editor. The editor coordinates and guides the writer, artist(s), colorist, letterer, etc. to make a single cohesive work of art. The Japanese already have a word for a one-man-comics-machine as their comics industry is primarily made up of writer/artists leading teams of assistants. They call creators manga-ka. Manga = comics + ka = person. This is as similar as we will get to auteur in comics. As a parallel and as a hopefully more down-to-earth option, I have been referring since sometime in college to someone who undertakes several roles in the creation of a comic as a comicsmith. Comics + smith, a synonym for maker.
-Language lesson OVER.-
Storytelling in comics is a unique game. It requires visual/space thinking but also narrative/time thinking to do both sides properly. Doing both well is a rare thing.
MajorSpoilers.com has posted a simple list of the new series debuting from DC's re-boot in August/September you can read here. Out of the 53 titles they list, one of them will be written and drawn by the same person:
"Detective Comics" will be scripted and penciled by Tony Daniel. [The cover of the new #1 by Daniel is at left.] After illustrating Grant Morrison's scripts for a few years, Daniel held-up both ends of the creative exchange on "Batman" from issues #692 to #699 and then from #704 to the most recent issue, #711.CBR interviewed him about his work at the keyboard and the drafting table twice. Once when his first run was about half over and again recently when his part in the relaunch was announced.
My opinion?
Sadly, Tony Daniel's issues of "Batman" were some of the most boring superhero comics I can remember reading. Very nice art. Nothing in the writing made me want to continue reading it. And sometimes I felt that things in the art seemed rushed and I suspect that it looked as good as it did thanks to inker Sandu Florea.
I thought of Daniel's first stint as a comicsmith as an exciting experiment for contemporary American mainstream comics and expressed that I would be curious to see how it was way back when we were posting weekly looking-forward-to posts here on The Long and Shortbox Of It. But as an experiment, I was sadly dissatisfied with it. DC doesn't seem to think along the same lines. According to Daniel's second interview linked-to above, he was approached by the company to do the writing for a second series as part of the upcoming relaunch. He is now also writing "The Savage Hawkman", to be drawn by Philip Tan (@philipsytan) according to Daniel's scripts, as well as swapping Batman titles with Scott Snyder (@SSnyder1835) and Francesco Francavilla (@f_francavilla), who were the team on "Detective Comics" previously and will now work on "Batman" instead. And Daniel is actually just one of several comics-artists being given a crack at writing scripts for another artist to illustrate. They might all turn out to be excellent writers, but it seems like a dangerous chance to take at such a crossroads for the company and the whole industry.
(Before I move on I have to say: "Batman" #702 written by Morrison, drawn by Daniel, and inked by Florea made it to my Best of the Year post. So I've got nothing against Tony Daniel. Truly and wholeheartedly, I wish him luck writing two series and drawing one of them. A challenge for anyone.)
Why is it the Japanese mainstream makes the comicsmith position the norm, and the American mainstream makes it the exception? I suspect a great deal of it lies in the aforementioned art teams the Japanese creators regularly employ. Here, artists do often ask the help of their fellow artists to complete their work, but only in a time-crunch, and always under the radar. Americans have this silly concept of the individual against the world, fully self-reliant. Which brings me back, of course, to the main question: Why so few creators who do it all themselves?
Mind you, that's entirely untrue outside of the American mainstream, these are all American comicsmiths:Jason Lutes
Jason Little (@beecomix)
Chester Brown
Jeffrey Brown
Peter Bagge
Gary Panter
Gabrielle Bell (@luckygab)
Brendan Leach (@iknowashortcut)
Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz)
Dennis Pacheco (@dpacheco)
...
THAT list goes on far too long to name them all.
So could it be that being a good comicsmith, making quality comics all on your lonesome, simply takes time? Time not available to the maker of the monthly 22-page corporate comic-book? Seems possible. Could it be that the simple exchange required with an editor, inker, colorist, production man, etc. makes it far too messy? Seems equally possible. (As someone who makes comics without any collaborators himself and does it very, very slowly... I can tell you those ones make sense.)
There's a new comic-book called "All Nighter" I'm looking forward to reading, available in comics shops across the country from Image Comics, written and drawn by one man: David Hahn (@david_hahn). Looks good. Look for a review of that book from me in the coming months with a bit more commentary on this subject.
~ @JonGorga
P.S. ~ This gent over at CBR has some excellent and clear things to say about both DC's reboot and the digital release news in general.
I've written three articles that at least touch on the DC re-boot now. I think I'm done talking about that whole mess for now. Until the books are actually on the shelves, at least. Josh looks like he has a bit more to say on it. You'll get your fix from him hopefully.
I've written three articles that at least touch on the DC re-boot now. I think I'm done talking about that whole mess for now. Until the books are actually on the shelves, at least. Josh looks like he has a bit more to say on it. You'll get your fix from him hopefully.
2
comments
Shortboxes: Batman, David Hahn, DC, DC Relaunch, ditorial, Grant Morrison, Sandu Florea, Tony Daniel, underground
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
