Someone's Been Reading His Scott McCloud

Nicolas Juzda · Post by **Nicolas Juzda** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 4:03 am

That someone being me, of course, so I'm noticing T's use of layouts. Maybe T has been reading Scott as well and implementing Scott's ideas consciously, maybe not. There's really no way of knowing, short of getting a direct answer from T, and that's just crazy.Anyway...As early as TMDG, T and co. were abandoning the traditional comic book page shape in favour of the "claustrophobic" long vertical panels. This was a very successful use of the advantages of an on-line medium as providing varying layout possibilities, and suited the story well, especially when paired with the black background.LtA saw an initial return to the standard comic page shape, followed by an almost random intercutting of long horizontal and long vertical pages. With one notable exception, where a horizontal page abruptly turned vertical, I don't think LtA's experimentation was as innovative in using layout possibilities for dramatic effect. Though certain panels made good use of a "widescreen" effect (I'm thinking here specifically of the on-rushing tanks) that was highlighted by a horizontal layout, in many cases it felt like T had made the decision to use only horizontal or vertical pages for the story but hadn't really had a reason in mind, so he was arbitrarily choosing either one or the other on any given day. I don't think LtA would have been significantly hurt if the layout had remained traditional.In case that looks like I'm insulting LtA, that's not my intent. The writing, drawing, etc. were all fine. The layout wasn't even actually bad, per se, it just wasn't doing anything for me.FSaH saw a return to the traditional comic book page, and, ironically, a freer layout style. Since T had been using (with the one aforementioned exception) unidirectional panel sequences, the layout was relatively constrained on both TMDG and LtA; all panels in a given page had to have one dimension be the same (height on horizontal pages, width on vertical ones), and the panels could only be juxtaposed with the preceding and following ones. With the traditional comic page format of FSaH, these constraints vanished.Does this mean that abandoning the traditional comic book page layout is a dead end, with only a limited utility? Nope, as T has now started to demonstrate.We have come to Escapism. Perhaps having been reminded by FSaH of the advantages of having panels work together in ways other than a unidirectional sequence, T is giving us all sorts of wacky panel layouts. And unlike LtA's, there is no feeling of arbitrariness in the changing selections. Shanna's flashbacks to her mother had a distinct uniform feel (horizontal layout with widescreen panels for flashbacks); the uniformity made the choice to present them that way look planned as opposed to arbitrary, while the distint look set them apart. Similarly, when we were given a splash page for the "voices" page, it had a large dramatic impact as we suddenly had Shanna in a much wider space than the small panels we had been seeing, which emphasized her isolation.And T is, for what may be the first time in FANS, giving us panels against a much larger, often empty, backdrop, that he is making full use of. This is where we get the McCloud reference, as Scott has been advocating the use of spaced apart panels as a key element of the potential of on-line comics. A paper comic that had panels spaced as on today's page would look like it had cheated the reader, because there is so much "unused" (but dramatically effective) empty space. But on-line, no such problem exists.Nicolas

Wish · Post by **Wish** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 4:23 am

I agree.. Escapism's wide open spaces kinda reminds me a little of Mr. McC's very own ZOT! Online... only this background image (the padded cell) doesn't SUCK (like the cheesy 'star field' background in ZOT!). Errr, sorry.. Did I get a little loud there? <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/biggrin.gif">-Wish
"After the Space Cats' victory, many humans will have to work 20-hour days in vast South American vomit mines, and they will be the lucky ones."

FrustratedPilot · Post by **FrustratedPilot** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 6:23 am

Basketball Player (Holds his hand up): All I need to stop him is THIS!

Doublespeak · Post by **Doublespeak** » Tue Apr 10, 2001 9:09 am

Wish, you have baked my brain. You jus gots ta tell me where that quote comes from. It is physically hurting me i'm so close to remembering <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gif">
---------------------
"...CREATE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOR ALL...
...RULE US WISELY...
...TEACH US FREEDOM...
...LEAD US TO..."

T Campbell · Post by **T Campbell** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 2:58 am

*I've* been reading my Scott McCloud too, <A HREF="http://faans.com/d/20001115.html" TARGET=_blank>as longtime readers know...</A>

Wish · Post by **Wish** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 3:37 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Doublespeak:
Wish, you have baked my brain. You jus gots ta tell me where that quote comes from. It is physically hurting me i'm so close to remembering <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspace.com/forums/wink.gi ... TE>I'll take pity on you, Doublespeak... it's from the Brunching Shuttlecocks feature called 'Everything I Need to Know, I Learned From My Cat' (url: <A HREF="http://www.brunching.com/features/catlearn.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.brunching.com/features/catlearn.html</A> ). It features other gems such as:Being cute and furry will get you far, but not quite as far as a giant vomit powered space ship.Contrary to the popular saying: curiosity has never killed any cats. However, collaborating has. Heathcliff, we know where you are, and your death shall be a painful one.For those who havn't heard of them, the Brunching Shuttlecocks are a hysterical collective of strange strange people with obessions towards foreign junk food and cereal. Go, and laugh heartily at their hijinks, yea verrily!-Wish
Fox News is a guilty pleasure.

Doublespeak · Post by **Doublespeak** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 6:46 am

You do me a great service; this poor soul does not deserve your pity. I deserve to be spit upon and cast into the woods for the wolves to make sport of.

FrustratedPilot · Post by **FrustratedPilot** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 7:16 am

While we're sorta on the subject, who were those three comic-book store urchins who watched Rumi buy those books for Red Xenochicklet anyway?I'm not as read up on comics as you would normally think.

Czhorat · Post by **Czhorat** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 8:09 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Roscoe Mathieu:
They were, as far as I know, from a hilarious book called "How To Pick Up Girls If You're A Comic-Book Geek" and mostly starred the tall one with the glasses.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Those were the Three Geeks. Kowalski wrote not only "How To Pick Up Girls If You're A Comic-Book Geek" (which appeared in these pages - bonus points to whomever can find it), but also ongoing series called The Three Geeks and Geeksville, none of which lastes all that long.

Maccabee · Post by **Maccabee** » Wed Apr 11, 2001 8:48 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Czhorat:
 Those were the Three Geeks. Kowalski wrote not only "How To Pick Up Girls If You're A Comic-Book Geek" (which appeared in these pages - bonus points to whomever can find it), but also ongoing series called The Three Geeks and Geeksville, none of which lastes all that long. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Due to financial restraints, Kowalski combined his 3 Geeks with another independent called Innocent Bystander and (I think) something called Tales from the Comic Book Shop. After several issues as an independent, the anthology book (Geeksville) got picked up by Image. I don't know how long they kept the property, I'm getting pretty out of touch with the print industry myself.Kowalski's work is absolutely divoon, by the way. I highly recommend it.------------------
Risus est telum ultimum contra tyrranem. Nullus dictator exercitibus allibus ridiculem vulgi longe resistare potest.

T Campbell · Post by **T Campbell** » Thu Apr 12, 2001 5:05 am

Geeksville is ending NOW, actually. The last issue should be in stores already. Rich talks about bringing the guys back someday, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it... they tried pretty much everything to keep the property going THIS time around, and Rich seems more interested in new projects.It is good work, and I recommend the trades. Rich also did an uncredited "dialogue check" on their FANS appearance, making sure everything was in line with the characters he'd given life. (And Rich, thanks for letting me take that chance with Jim...)

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Thu Apr 12, 2001 8:40 am

*Casts Doublespeak into the woods and misses so he lands in the pond, then decides that that since the cast got good distance it'd be a shame to waste it and uses Doublespeak as bait to catch a 40lb bass and after taking the bass of doublespeaks foot mounts it on the wall and puts electronic gizmos in it so that when some one pushes the button it says "I'm a F!%$%in' DEAD FISH! Have some respect for my life!" and let's Doublespeak go to the mall and eat a cookie from a place outside the food court*Hey, that aforementioned 3 Geeks book actually made an appearance in Fans! before the geeks themselves. It was part of the reading material that Rikk got when he was in the hospital.------------------
Tom the Fanboy
http://www.geocities.com/tee-moss
The House of Tee-Moss, home of Billberg University and the Pop Subversion League.

Doublespeak · Post by **Doublespeak** » Thu Apr 12, 2001 11:54 am

Thats the second biggest bass I ever caught with my foot.

Czhorat · Post by **Czhorat** » Fri Apr 13, 2001 12:48 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by T Campbell:
Geeksville is ending NOW, actually. The last issue should be in stores already. Rich talks about bringing the guys back someday, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it... they tried pretty much everything to keep the property going THIS time around, and Rich seems more interested in new projects.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Really? THe last I saw of it was Geeksville #1 through 6 from Image. Has there been anything since then, or is Image's #6 the final issue that's now in stores? In either event, I agree that it is very good work. In some ways I'm surprised it didn't do better. It's odd that Knights of the Dinner Table, which also pokes fun at our subculture, has thrived while other fan-related books (like Fans! and Geeksville) couldn't ever find an audience.