Desolation Jones

To review the script for Desolation Jones, I've had to read it twice. The first time through I was expecting something more along the lines of a film script or a detailed story board, but was surprised by the script's lack of specification (which is not to say the script is visually lacking, its not, it reads very fluently, less like a set of step by step instructions on how the comic should be created and more like a story.)
An array in the level of detail in the script illustrated key events, as Warren Ellis takes time to describe environments and characters to set up the tone at certain moments:

(Page 1)Pic 2
Cut to: a middle-aged WOMAN, sitting in a big chair, reading from a cardboard folder. Again, the distortion, the chair seeming massive, her hands ballooned by the weird focus into immense talons.

While more frequently omitting specification at others:
"Pic 4;
Jones on the phone, still trying to wake up."

I feel that the difference in these moments has left an impression different than that that may have been picked up reading the comic, which I still have not read. It'll be interesting to see if the flow of the story is effected by the affinity created by having details drawn out. Diminishing the contrast between: "Still trying to wake up" and "the chair seeming massive, her hands ballooned by the weird focus into immense talons."

Ellis gives a lot of freedom to J.H. Williams III to choose how to cover a majority of the stories action. Although at other moments Ellis describes the method he wants Williams III to illustrate in (the angle he should shade from, etc.)
I wonder how many images were sent back and forth between the William III and Ellis, whether or not this script should be treated like a script that is being pitched for story or for production. From the perspective of our class, I've been treating it like production, which may be why it seems so odd to me, although this is the only comic script I've read.

Reading it simply as a script, a very powerful element of is Ellis's creation of a space and character:
"A light source from above bounces off her little glasses, so that we cannot see her eyes."
There is a logic to how the practicality of the space effects the tone of the piece,
which made the script so enjoyable to read. And the characters are drawn very clearly.

The link to the script can be found on Warren Ellis's site at:
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7954

The Spirit/Batman by Darwin Cooke

The idea to combine Batman and the Spirit is fun, but the comic Batman/The Spirit doesn't really develop too far beyond getting the two vigilantes together.
The first half of the story is told through parallel action, using different color schemes to indicate the different cities. Gotham seems darker, using cooler tones, while Central City is covered in warmer and lighter colors. The contrast between the two cities is minimal enough to prevent Central City and Gotham from being completely alien to each other, but at moments the affinity between the two cities is too great, and may be confusing. Like most parallel action, as the action converges, the number of panels inbetween the actions become fewer.
Aside from form, it is interesting that the villains initiate the bridge between Gotham and Central City. Either Plato or Aristotle writes that when man secludes himself from society it is unhealthy and the root of villainy/evil in men, yet here we have the heroes being secluded while the villains fraternize with each other across cities. The fight for evil is more organized and offensive, while the fight for good is counteractive. Although maybe this makes the fight of good seem overwhelmed, so that the audience roots for the underdog. I’m not sure.
For this comic overall I would have liked to see a larger sense of the noir in the illustrations and more development on characters. I know that the characters have already been developed to the point of icons, but I feel that the concept would have been better served if more time were taken to sit with the characters.

The Shadow

Possibly one of my new favorite series The Shadow is exactly what I was looking for when I was 12, I wish I would have discovered it earlier. I had heard the radio dramas, which are great, but still have a very "mass market" quality to them. Which makes sense, radio programs were product sponsored, the stories weren't only to entertain, but to entertain a specific demographic. Which turns out is why Margo Lane was created in the radio programs.
That's not to say that the pulp books are not "mass market" just in a different sense. They are the Hardy Boys fused with a Korean Gangster film. Great action, ridiculous briefly introduced scientific contraptions (the truth chair that only appears for a few pages in The Partners of Peril), and incredible gore, which, in ways, makes them both more indulgent and more potentially offensive. Although its hard to gauge what levels of violence were deemed excessive, this is before the mta rating system and Doctor Spock.
It makes sense that Batman was heavily influenced by The Shadow, from elements of his disguise, to the themes of the night, even the style of violence and the city backdrop both vigilantes share. Although The Shadow feels infinitely darker. His world is more violent, and more terminal, Batman doesn't kill as casually (although its always emphasized; The Shadow only kills out of necessity and even then only under pressure.)
What I find most appealing about The Shadow is the tone of the writing. The writing is fast and cliche, but it sets the tone of the piece perfectly, giving it more depth than The Spirit. The Shadow is always described in shades of black, and forms like wisps and vapors. The pacing is quick, but detailed, again more so than The Spirit, which takes 2 frames to tell an action that would make the story seem more fluid in 4 or more. The Shadow doesn't have this frame restraint, the action is thought out, and relatively complex, at least, again, in comparison to The Spirit. At times it is so complex that looking back on it seems ridiculous.
In The Partners of Peril around page 108 there is a scene in which Meriwether, superintendent to a chemical plant (because all comics from this period seem to be obsessed with chemicals) chases The Shadow. Both characters end up continuing the chase on trains loaded with explosives within a compound, that manufactures explosives. The superintendent eventually blows The Shadow's locomotive to smithereens, creating a crater within the compound. While I was reading this I wasn't at all phased, but seconds later, when the Superintendent was back in the office explaining the chase to the detective I realized how absurd the whole thing was. The only reason I was accepted it was the pacing of the story.

The Spirit: Lorelei Rox and The Origin of the Spirit

The Origin of the Spirit is one of the shortest origin stories I've ever read. The Spirit is created within 2 pages, and as soon as he is created, he solves the crime that made him. Most origins stories focus on the heroes past, but The Spirit, at least from what we've read, seems to be doing the same duty, living the same life, that he had been before his "death." He just picks right up where he left off.
The Spirit himself wasn't really created in his origin story, at least not in the sense of Batman or Wolverine, whose creation seems to have a larger impact on their personality. Denny Colt seems to have always been completely obsessed with his job. So loosing his identity only enables him to better do his work. I guess this works in the film noir style. Bogart, or Nicholson (in Chinatown) never seemed to have anything else going on aside from their practice, but I think the different note between the noir in the film world and the noir in the comics, is that the crimes we were watching in classic noir film opened the lives of the detectives. They showed the vulnerabilities of the detectives through their desires, brought to light how unhappy the men were.
The Spirit isn't made more human/vulnerable through his cases, he is kept human through his limitations (being beat and near murdered in Loreli Rox) but its not the same.
Its still undeniable that the style is Film Noir. By looking at the first page of Lorelei Rox you see the light is motivated by tone. Commissioner Dolan is reading in the dark when The Spirit enters the room, but it establishes the feel for the comic. The action is all very blunt, taking place before us.
I think what throws me off the most about this comic, is how fast everything happens, I feel like its too episodic even for a publication with its page limitations and deadlines.

Scott McCloud on Comics TED talk

My favorite part of this speech (that wasn't directly in Understanding Comics) is the exploration of future forms of comics. Online comics are now everywhere, and I think its important we do maintain the difference between comics, and new emerging media. McCloud talks mostly about the necessity for space in comics to maintain its relationship to time, and discusses that motion within a panel defeats the idea of moving from one panel to another. I understand that visual the space is the same with sound, but I have a problem with the new motion comics Marvel has been releasing. They exist as an awkward demi medium between animation and comics. Its important to choose which elements should be added into a new medium, and i'm glad he explores the reasons why some forms work and some don't.


My father always said that one generation studied science so that the next could have the opportunity to turn around and waste it all on the arts.

Production/set design from "Hello, Phillip" short film by Sehaj Sethi.
First set design project, making 2 back yard gardens out of 1 slab of concrete, garbage and plants not made for the weather.


Got lucky. The set was littered with extra junk, some of it was purchased before, the rest thanks to M Cat :]

Fifth Sight and Sound Project
Not at all what I had planned. Everything that could go wrong did.
Lost actors, recast actors, lost recast actors, recast recast actors, loss equipment, got equipment, but later, then lost location and therefore story. Started improvising with Dan and Praveen, (who saved my ass) and it started pouring.
Improv inspired by a previous failure in Chinatown, where I fell down a flight of stairs, covered myself in the blueberries I had just bought, and, bleeding from the knees had to re-climb the stairs while being made fun of by old Chinese men playing checkers. At the top of the stairs I met another old Chinese man, who asked if I was alright, then started doing Tai chi, which my Idaho ass thought was Karate. I asked him how long he had been doing Karate, he thought I wanted to learn Tai Chi, so had me copy him. So now, bleeding from the knees and covered in blueberries I was doing a chubby white girl imitation of Tai Chi while old Chinese men laughed at me while playing checkers..... anyways...