WARNING: FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Hello, all! Hope you had a productive week. Hope you’re getting done whatever you need to. I just made a crucial error in judgement and walked around Las Vegas in new shoes. I’ve got wide feet and a problematic bunion, so this trip didn’t go my way.
A short one this week. On a topic you know too well if you’ve been a regular reader here. So I’ll give a little tease of what’s to come so you can feel like you didn’t click on this needlessly.
Ludo is delivering fantastic pages of unmistakably euro beauty. More on this soon.
ELEVATING GENRE ISN’T ROCKET SCIENCE
I watched the movie Thief last night. I don’t remember the last time I saw it, but I know this time around I was doing an inspection.
Somehow I’ve arrived at that corner of Youtube populated by nicely-made videos about the craft of film. 40mins of why Collateral is a landmark film that fully capitalizes on the then-new phenomenon of digital cameras. An hour on how the landscape of Los Angeles shaped film technique. Three-part series on if Steven Segal is a performance artist doing a lifelong bit. That type of thing.
Thief is often referenced in those corridors.
And for good reason. It’s just a serious (maybe self-serious) crime story. But in addition to great performances, it’s got superlative vibe. Shots hold for one second longer than similar movies. Or one second shorter. You’re encouraged to look at the scene after the actors have left it. Everything is lit for impact. Nothing brilliant here. It doesn’t even go to the same stylistic places that Point Blank does. It’s just a good looking genre movie.
I (like to) think this is a formula that works in all mediums. You take a simple thing and make it more attractive. Maybe this works in romance as well. We all want a simple relationships and if that can be made more appealing with good looks, that’s really nice.
I’ve talked in this newsletter about how I’d like to tell simple stories with plenty of genre touchstones, and just make them more beautiful, more exciting, or more imaginative.
I’m gonna pitch retailers on an idea soon, but I’ll spitball it here. After some pleasantries, I’ll clear my throat (in email) and ask, “what if the bad girl comics from small publishers that you KNOW have dedicated readerships inside and outside the direct market ALSO had the sales floor of a high-quality Image series with great writing and art???” At which point I’ll drop the mic, dance a little, and look for high-fives.
Prose book stores don’t live and die off big ideas. They continue making readers happy with a steady supply of familiar things done well or tweaked to touch on different aspects of well-worn territory. Comics exists in this space too… but in a tenuous and decaying fashion. We have to get back to that place of trust where a reader picking up a bad book is an aberration and easily forgotten.
How’s that work? Well, quality control to start. And this is a tough one because I really believe new creators need to get work under their belts. Can’t gatekeep ourselves into no new talent. Likewise, I think quality and sales sometimes take years to link arms. Is it better to take 100 chances on a capable team than it is to hand it all to hacks who lucked into a win? I think so.
More in the “oh, I know this all too well, but it was done so expertly I had only good feelings” realm, I watched Absence Of Malice on a bus ride to Vegas. It’s a Sydney Pollock film about the responsibilities of journalists. But really, it’s about a small incident and the human fallout of it. The idea I hammer in NOBODY IS IN CONTROL is addressed with a much more delicate hand here. The difference between ‘accurate’ and ‘true.’
The film is described as a neo-noir, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s a drama. Well-acted. Directed in an unflashy and steady fashion. With zero real violence and no urge to oversell. I would recommend it.
And it got me thinking about NEWBURN from Zdarsky/ J.Phillips. That title has violence for sure and is a genuine neo-noir in most regards. Dramatic THINGS happen in every issue. But it is still rather reserved by comic book standards. And it’s the best work of Zdarsky’s career. Check out this page where he doesn’t feel the need to talk us to death. Don’t stare at it too hard just eat it quick and get to the point: this guy is outta options.
I wonder how much space we have on shelves and in our minds for the comic equivalent of Pollock films. And not the boring-as-shit Fantagraphics-adjacent bio comics that people trot out as some type of alternative to ‘superheroes.’ Such a false dichotomy there. Superhero books tend to be corporate comics. Those tend to have a formula and a governor is placed on creativity. Falling outta love with that is not the same as falling into the comic book version of mumblecore. There’s a healthy middle path called genre.
A PLEA FOR YOU TO DO SOMETHING ELSE
Pardon the melodrama, I just read a book so trash I had a moment.
A HOLE TO FALL DOWN
In Absence of Malice, a reporter mentions the San Francisco assassination attempt on Gerald Ford. I couldn’t say “the 1975 assassination attempt on Gerald Ford” or even “the September 1975 assassination attempt on Gerald Ford” because there was TWO within 17 days of each other. Next time someone tries to tell you America is a hotbed of political violence in 2024, refer to the 1970s. Anyway, the mention is in regard to Oliver Sipple and what media attention did to his life. I was unaware of the story, found it fascinating and tragic, and thought I’d recommend this Wikipedia page.
MY FOOT HURTS AND I’VE GOT WORK TO DO
I think there’s comic news, but man, I’m aching. Lemme live. Do your best work until next week. I’ll try to do the same. Do for self.