THINKY STUFF

i don't have the time/energy to do a panel-by-panel recount of why i do everything i do, but these are the sorts of things comic artists (and hopefully writers) think about as they translate a string of words in a script into a river of images...

this page reminds me of a criticism "infinity inc" recently received. one reviewer was bothered by the fact that i didn't clearly show the infinitor's jet getting blown up, i only showed an energy blast being leveled at the jet, and then the wreckage of the jet afterward.

now it so happens that there is a specific, story-driven reason why i chose that solution. but i was more thrown off by their insistence that instead, there should have been a giant, perhaps even 2-page shot of the jet exploding.

NO.

that's the equivalent of having a michael bay explosion where everything suddenly goes slow-motion, while swelling operatic (or if you're peter jackson, faux-celtic) music erupts from the speakers. that is some premium, grade A, lazy trope shit there. there might be some extremely specific times when that works, but the idea that this is the obvious default solution for a certain sort of scene is just aesthetically, technically, and morally reprehensible.

(to be clear, i'm not really complaining about that reviewer, i just see a lot of that sort of thinking in comics and film, and it rarely improves anything.)

anyway, in this case there was also a reason why i framed the shoot down in this particular way. there's pretty much ALWAYS a reason why i do what i do, even if it's a stupid reason.

here, i wanted a non-sexy, matter-of-fact-news-footage feeling of distance and casualness. the plane shoot down isn't part of some epic battle, it's not the climax of anything and it shouldn't have that slo-mo-opera grandeur to it. the moment when a handful of people are consigned to death is, here, simply a programmed and impersonal act.