Showing posts with label John Romita Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Romita Jr.. Show all posts
Monday, April 26, 2010
Iron Man in USA Weekly
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Is Kick-Ass Gonna Kick Ass?
Kick-Ass, inspired by the comic book Kick-Ass, is coming soon to a theater near you, but the movie has already attracted international attention, i.e. this article from The Guardian. The interview with writer Mike Millar poses an interesting question regarding the comics-to-film phenomenon: Should comics be written with the intent of cinematic adaptation? Of course, every writer wants to establish a franchise viable for cinema and cash in accordingly, but what does this make the comic medium other than a glorified storyboard? As a comic book fan first, I take issue (no pun intended) with this mentality; consider the following excerpt from Millar's interview:
"The trouble is that the superhero movies so far – and I don't want to be unfair to them because I think generally they have been good – have been made two generations after they've been created, and in Superman's case three generations after they've been created. So if the technology had existed to make a Fantastic Four movie in 1966 it would have been amazing, because you had Kennedy and the space race and all of that. But now, really, what is the Fantastic Four?"
The implication is, cinematic adaptation asserts viability, and without it, the Fantastic Four is . . . well, nothing more than a comic book, right? The elephant in the room is, forty years later, Marvel's founding family is still worthy of at least two feature films -- whether or not they were good is relative to Hollywood's desire to produce them. These characters are still worthy of attention. Will Kick-Ass be as viable 40 years from now? No, perhaps Millar realizes, now is the time to act, lest his creation fall by the wayside of pop culture. After all, comic book movies produced in conjunction with a new, monthly comic book have always paved the road to success in both industries . . .
. . . right, Todd McFarlane? Right, Frank Miller?
"The trouble is that the superhero movies so far – and I don't want to be unfair to them because I think generally they have been good – have been made two generations after they've been created, and in Superman's case three generations after they've been created. So if the technology had existed to make a Fantastic Four movie in 1966 it would have been amazing, because you had Kennedy and the space race and all of that. But now, really, what is the Fantastic Four?"
The implication is, cinematic adaptation asserts viability, and without it, the Fantastic Four is . . . well, nothing more than a comic book, right? The elephant in the room is, forty years later, Marvel's founding family is still worthy of at least two feature films -- whether or not they were good is relative to Hollywood's desire to produce them. These characters are still worthy of attention. Will Kick-Ass be as viable 40 years from now? No, perhaps Millar realizes, now is the time to act, lest his creation fall by the wayside of pop culture. After all, comic book movies produced in conjunction with a new, monthly comic book have always paved the road to success in both industries . . .
. . . right, Todd McFarlane? Right, Frank Miller?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Kick-ass #1
Kick-ass #1, April 2008, Marvel Comics
writer: Mark Millar
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Tom Palmer
colorist: Dean White
letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
cover inks: Klaus Janson
editor: John Barber
Blogger's note: Entry for Sunday, March 2, 2008.
Kick-ass #1. Let's talk about it.
Kick-ass #1 is the elephant in the room. Any superhero fanboy (like me) that doesn't admit to daydreaming about becoming a superhero himself is a liar. Maybe he doesn't go so far as to design his own costume and plot his criminal surveillance (like me), but the modern superhero genre was founded on the premise of people becoming more than they really are, from training one's body and mind to its pinnacle to evolving thanks to a radioactive spider bite. (That the genre began with not a man but an alien disguised as a human is the ultimate irony, as if the superhero concept actually began in reverse to its true social significance.) To couple these fantastic narratives with the vivid imagery characteristic of comic books is escapism in its most perfect form, for while comics aren't as perpetual as film, they still drop the audience into the middle of the action, allowing for that space between panels to inspire more adventure and a sense of time and perspective, if the reader so chooses. Who could read a comic book and not want to fly alongside the Human Torch, or explore Earth's underbelly with Hellboy, or leap rooftop to rooftop with Shadowhawk?
So Kick-ass makes it happen. Just as Hamlet adopted the "play within a play" motif, or Seinfeld boasted "a show about nothing in a show about nothing" subplot, so too Kick-ass envisions an escapist fantasy within an escapist fantasy. Dave Lizewski insists that he's a regular high school -- he likes Scrubs and the Goo Goo Dolls, he fantasizes about his moderately attractive but irresistibly dominating biology teacher, and he is an old child raised by a single, hard-working father, since his mother died of an aneurysm. He and his friends like comics, too, and they swear like sailors. So, toss all of these incredibly mundane, relatively commonplace elements into the blender that is the adolescent mind via Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and we get a kid that buys a wet suit and walks on rooftops.
So where does the "kick ass" part come in? How 'bout when our young hero finally decides to engage the enemy, who is, in this case, some kids spraypainting the side of a building. For a few panels, I actually thought Lizewski was going to pull it off, that his self-fueled training and high protein diet would result in the skills necessary to take down three seemingly harmless punks. The knife to his gut, and the hit-and-run driver that smacked his already bloody frame across the street, quickly brought me back down to Earth. We already know that Dave will survive these injuries and experience further adventures, since this issue begins with a grim look into his crimefighting future, but these final seven pages do more harm to this series' title character than some superheroes experience in years' worth of stories.
For which I'm a little grateful, in case some kid picked up this book because of its eye-catching name and almost perceived it as a how-to guide for adolescent vigilantism.
So, yes, Millar tells an incredible story, though with a tagline like the one on this issue's cover, he has a little bit more work to do: "The Greatest Superhero Book of All Time is Finally Here!" John Romita, Jr., fresh from his stint on World War Hulk, is in incredible form, and Tom Palmer's inks capture Romita's characteristic cross-hatching, depth, and detail just as capably as longtime collaborator Klaus Janson. (Romita is obviously at his best when he shares a creative investment in the series, i.e. The Gray Area.) Heck, Romita has made his mark on almost all of Marvel's superhero stable, so it makes sense that he finally draws us, the fans, projected into the form of this Dave Lizewski kid. I couldn't help but notice Dean White's colors, too -- his work has a watercolor quality to it, creating a dreamy, almost filtered essence to every page. The hues are realistic and rich, yet also ethereal, as if this is the escapist fantasy we've all been having all along.
Well, except for the part where Kick-ass gets his ass kicked. At the end of my superhero fantasy I make out with the chick from church camp and get home in time for dinner. That wouldn't make much a comic, though, would it? Besides, without Millar's twist of the real world ramifications of superhero vigilantism, Kick-ass #1 would just be a comic we've all seen before anyway. In our own mind's eye.
C'mon . . . you know it's true!
writer: Mark Millar
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Tom Palmer
colorist: Dean White
letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
cover inks: Klaus Janson
editor: John Barber
Blogger's note: Entry for Sunday, March 2, 2008.
Kick-ass #1. Let's talk about it.
Kick-ass #1 is the elephant in the room. Any superhero fanboy (like me) that doesn't admit to daydreaming about becoming a superhero himself is a liar. Maybe he doesn't go so far as to design his own costume and plot his criminal surveillance (like me), but the modern superhero genre was founded on the premise of people becoming more than they really are, from training one's body and mind to its pinnacle to evolving thanks to a radioactive spider bite. (That the genre began with not a man but an alien disguised as a human is the ultimate irony, as if the superhero concept actually began in reverse to its true social significance.) To couple these fantastic narratives with the vivid imagery characteristic of comic books is escapism in its most perfect form, for while comics aren't as perpetual as film, they still drop the audience into the middle of the action, allowing for that space between panels to inspire more adventure and a sense of time and perspective, if the reader so chooses. Who could read a comic book and not want to fly alongside the Human Torch, or explore Earth's underbelly with Hellboy, or leap rooftop to rooftop with Shadowhawk?
So Kick-ass makes it happen. Just as Hamlet adopted the "play within a play" motif, or Seinfeld boasted "a show about nothing in a show about nothing" subplot, so too Kick-ass envisions an escapist fantasy within an escapist fantasy. Dave Lizewski insists that he's a regular high school -- he likes Scrubs and the Goo Goo Dolls, he fantasizes about his moderately attractive but irresistibly dominating biology teacher, and he is an old child raised by a single, hard-working father, since his mother died of an aneurysm. He and his friends like comics, too, and they swear like sailors. So, toss all of these incredibly mundane, relatively commonplace elements into the blender that is the adolescent mind via Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and we get a kid that buys a wet suit and walks on rooftops.
So where does the "kick ass" part come in? How 'bout when our young hero finally decides to engage the enemy, who is, in this case, some kids spraypainting the side of a building. For a few panels, I actually thought Lizewski was going to pull it off, that his self-fueled training and high protein diet would result in the skills necessary to take down three seemingly harmless punks. The knife to his gut, and the hit-and-run driver that smacked his already bloody frame across the street, quickly brought me back down to Earth. We already know that Dave will survive these injuries and experience further adventures, since this issue begins with a grim look into his crimefighting future, but these final seven pages do more harm to this series' title character than some superheroes experience in years' worth of stories.
For which I'm a little grateful, in case some kid picked up this book because of its eye-catching name and almost perceived it as a how-to guide for adolescent vigilantism.
So, yes, Millar tells an incredible story, though with a tagline like the one on this issue's cover, he has a little bit more work to do: "The Greatest Superhero Book of All Time is Finally Here!" John Romita, Jr., fresh from his stint on World War Hulk, is in incredible form, and Tom Palmer's inks capture Romita's characteristic cross-hatching, depth, and detail just as capably as longtime collaborator Klaus Janson. (Romita is obviously at his best when he shares a creative investment in the series, i.e. The Gray Area.) Heck, Romita has made his mark on almost all of Marvel's superhero stable, so it makes sense that he finally draws us, the fans, projected into the form of this Dave Lizewski kid. I couldn't help but notice Dean White's colors, too -- his work has a watercolor quality to it, creating a dreamy, almost filtered essence to every page. The hues are realistic and rich, yet also ethereal, as if this is the escapist fantasy we've all been having all along.
Well, except for the part where Kick-ass gets his ass kicked. At the end of my superhero fantasy I make out with the chick from church camp and get home in time for dinner. That wouldn't make much a comic, though, would it? Besides, without Millar's twist of the real world ramifications of superhero vigilantism, Kick-ass #1 would just be a comic we've all seen before anyway. In our own mind's eye.
C'mon . . . you know it's true!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Gray Area #2
The Gray Area #2, July 2004, Image Comics
writer: Glen Brunswick
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Klaus Janson
letterer: John Workman
colorist: Bill Crabtree
Blogger's note: Entry for Tuesday, February 26, 2008.
If the afterlife was simply an extension of your earthly existence, would you be so afraid of death? As much as you might hate your job, isn't an eternity of working a familiar relief compared to the other more disturbed condemnations mankind has imagined over the years? Yet what if this shallow echo of your terrestrial life was really just a test to determine whether or not you should advance to heaven or be condemned to hell? Would you be able to find joy in those mundane moments at work? Would you be able to conjure compassion in place of contempt for your fellow man?
Welcome to the Gray Area.
Of course, my hypothetical introduction assumes that you hate your job. If you don't, you wouldn't end up in the Gray Area in the first place, so forget I even mentioned it. For the rest of you, consider Rudy Chance, this series' protagonist, your guide to "Living a Successful Afterlife." Chance, a corrupt cop killed in the line of duty, is pulled into this peculiar purgatory, and, thanks to his law enforcement skills and street smarts, is recruited by the Gray Watch to protect his fellow meandering souls. Among them exists an army locked in perpetual combat, and the victims of a riot actually trapped in a purgatory for the purgatory, if you can believe that. Chance initially declines the offer, but when his spirit guide Jordan reveals the painful alternative, Rudy accepts his fate -- which takes almost half of this issue! Chance is definitely a glutton for punishment, but his greatest nemesis is himself, as struggles with finding the compassion he needs to exhibit the cosmic powers available to him in the afterlife.
Indeed, The Gray Area has a very tangible message: kindness and compassion are empowering characteristics, even when you're dead.
Like I said, a good half of this issue is dedicated to Chance accepting Jordan's offer, and while his episodic torture becomes a bit repetitive, these scenes give artist John Romita, Jr. a chance to stretch his supernatural legs, as I suggested in my review of The Gray Area #1 a year or so ago. This three issue miniseries is an excellent vehicle for Romita's strengths, as this afterlife retains distinctive urban traits usually typical to Romita's native superhero fare, yet we readers get to experience this existential aspect to his art, as well, a very visually rewarding return for this issue's four dollar cover price. A solid 32-pages, The Gray Area #2 is a hefty, engrossing read that actually stands on its own as an introspective look at personal integrity and death. Rudy is always a like able character -- and, therefore, is extremely realistic.
So, like The Craptacular B-Sides, I'm two issues deep in a three issue miniseries, and I actually care about how it ends. Here's to hoping I find The Gray Area #3 in another quarter bin! Does that mean I'll have to extend A Comic A Day for another year, just give you some closure?! Arg, maybe I'm already in hell!
writer: Glen Brunswick
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Klaus Janson
letterer: John Workman
colorist: Bill Crabtree
Blogger's note: Entry for Tuesday, February 26, 2008.
If the afterlife was simply an extension of your earthly existence, would you be so afraid of death? As much as you might hate your job, isn't an eternity of working a familiar relief compared to the other more disturbed condemnations mankind has imagined over the years? Yet what if this shallow echo of your terrestrial life was really just a test to determine whether or not you should advance to heaven or be condemned to hell? Would you be able to find joy in those mundane moments at work? Would you be able to conjure compassion in place of contempt for your fellow man?
Welcome to the Gray Area.
Of course, my hypothetical introduction assumes that you hate your job. If you don't, you wouldn't end up in the Gray Area in the first place, so forget I even mentioned it. For the rest of you, consider Rudy Chance, this series' protagonist, your guide to "Living a Successful Afterlife." Chance, a corrupt cop killed in the line of duty, is pulled into this peculiar purgatory, and, thanks to his law enforcement skills and street smarts, is recruited by the Gray Watch to protect his fellow meandering souls. Among them exists an army locked in perpetual combat, and the victims of a riot actually trapped in a purgatory for the purgatory, if you can believe that. Chance initially declines the offer, but when his spirit guide Jordan reveals the painful alternative, Rudy accepts his fate -- which takes almost half of this issue! Chance is definitely a glutton for punishment, but his greatest nemesis is himself, as struggles with finding the compassion he needs to exhibit the cosmic powers available to him in the afterlife.
Indeed, The Gray Area has a very tangible message: kindness and compassion are empowering characteristics, even when you're dead.
Like I said, a good half of this issue is dedicated to Chance accepting Jordan's offer, and while his episodic torture becomes a bit repetitive, these scenes give artist John Romita, Jr. a chance to stretch his supernatural legs, as I suggested in my review of The Gray Area #1 a year or so ago. This three issue miniseries is an excellent vehicle for Romita's strengths, as this afterlife retains distinctive urban traits usually typical to Romita's native superhero fare, yet we readers get to experience this existential aspect to his art, as well, a very visually rewarding return for this issue's four dollar cover price. A solid 32-pages, The Gray Area #2 is a hefty, engrossing read that actually stands on its own as an introspective look at personal integrity and death. Rudy is always a like able character -- and, therefore, is extremely realistic.
So, like The Craptacular B-Sides, I'm two issues deep in a three issue miniseries, and I actually care about how it ends. Here's to hoping I find The Gray Area #3 in another quarter bin! Does that mean I'll have to extend A Comic A Day for another year, just give you some closure?! Arg, maybe I'm already in hell!
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