newsletter >> 02
Another issue of superzine!
:: message. The speed at which news changes is upsetting. I’ve written multiple drafts of this newsletter, hoping to get ahead of deadlines by having something nice and pat here…but that’s not the world we live in. Trump and his administration of sycophants and billionaires has again flooded the landscape, much like his plans for keeping california safe from wildfires. Just ineffectual flooding with bogus, threatening to both drown us and also leave us unprepared for the future.
My affairs are domestic. North of the american border, we wonder if our country will be annexed by a garbage-spewing idiot. I think a lot about Korea before it was taken by Japan, robbed of it’s voice in the League of Nations and ignored by the world for about fifty years. Would that happen? I’m not sure. I think based on the saber-rattling that I see that it’s how I would describe the large design of it.
I think these ar times when it behooves us to organize and make politicians uncomfortable. I think it’s best that we reach out to one another and comfort each other, remind each other that we’re not alone and that we can find strength in numbers. And I think this might be the work that we have to do in order to prepare for the future. It might sound dumb, but hanging out for coffees, being there for book launches and restoring friendships might be one of the steps in helping to restore democracy in the face of tyranny. Small steps.
:: film. This month has been mostly about fascism, propaganda and colonization. I wish I could say it’s been more fun stuff, but unfortunately, it hasn’t been.
The most recent thing I watched was The Rules of the Game by Jean Renoir. I…unfortunately didn’t get a good handle on this one because of it’s style and approach. It kind of demands that the audience fill in a lot of the blanks in a way, and so it has long takes for shots. Like, this is a good stylistic thing that ultimately leads into italian neorealism, but right now I’m bouncing off of it; the lack of cuts and strong narrative direction sort of make me exhausted. I’ll try again soon though (likely because I’ll have to).
This does (as always) bring me back to thinking about comics, of course! Comics are structured as lots of juxtaposed panels that create a narrative. The images make the story because you see one, then another, and then stitch together what you think is going on.
The panel juxtapositions take us to different times and spaces. So like from panel 7 we go to panel 8 with Mrs. Andrews, which takes place a week later. For us, this is instantaneous — we were just on the Lodge grounds in panel 6. When we’re moved to panel 7, a narrative is created for us by Montana, and he fills in the punchline, the missing gap for uus in panel 11, the double-exposed photograph (or Montana’s cheap way of drawing sexy gals, whatever.)
That’s customary! That’s comics. That’s probably the majority of comics! But what I’m having a hard time imagining is a long take in comics. The closest I can imagine would be like…
This is I guess like a long take. The eye moves around the page freely and gets to absorb whatever it wants. I’m leaving out the fact that this is composed very deliberately by Arthur Adams of course, but the rough idea is there; your eye can roam freely around the page and take in what it wants. If you even think about it, you can look into the Danger Room window and see Betsy Braddock and Doug Ramsey watching the whole thing.
Well what’s the point of that? The idea invokes a sense of realism, in allowing your eye to do what it does in reality, which is go where it wants and construct narratives from what it takes in. The various traps in the Danger Room give us a sense of what every team member feels individually, but we also have a sense that they’re unified in their goal to do something to Magneto, like beat him up.
It’s not reasonable though to have an issue of splash pages (even the crazy experimental run of Walt Simonson for Fantastic Four or his one Thor issue where he beats up on Jormungand are kind of one-offs) where you put that kind of effort into every page, unless you get some wild deadline…but it is fun to think about, that there are other ways to consider for making comics that ask more of the reader, or ways of making comics that maybe ask less. Anyways, fun theory to think about.
:: comics and the imagination. (Two comic essays in one newsletter! Anyways, what follows is a thread reposted from my Bluesky account. It’s about how the art form of comics should give a clue as to how we should be reading and writing for them)
"Realistic comics" and superhero designs would never permit Wolverine's mask design to exist (let alone be considered), and yet, he's one of the most enduring and popular characters out there. I argue that comics should be fun in one way or another, either through art or story.
I think every artist that draws superheroes and Marvel comics tries, at some point, to work out how Logan's hairstyle works with his mask, and it makes no goddamn sense. the magic of comics makes you buy the logic. One panel mask off, next panel mask on, we assume it works.
But it doesn't. Looking at reverse angles of Wolverine's mask, it doesn't spread out and become a giant mass, like we'd expect. His hair is all neatly tucked into a mask that sticks to his skull, and those wings flap out and don't connect to the mask. It doesn't make sense. And it shouldn't!
Wolverine's mask doesn't make sense in the same way that Batman's ears don't work. And bats don't even look like that!! I'm just saying that the art implies that comics should be left alone to do their own thing, which is just to be imaginative.
:: drawing board. Dinosaurs from Outer Space #34 is done and will be showing up in the April issue of Owl Magazine! Hitting newsstands now should be the February issue, which I think is story #32 for me. As always, I couldn’t do it without Wai’s contributions. You can see her work here: https://waiau.ca/logg/
:: superzine. I’m writing from the past (because I’m lazy!), but I think that by this point, I’ll have finished the Wonderland story that will be in Superzine no. 2! And if not…well that’s how it goes, dammit!! Also by this point, i’ll have completed a large part of the research that I think will compose a story about The Mark of Zorro, the 1920’s film by Douglas Fairbanks Sr. that inspired the Batman and Superman. Or I won’t! Let’s both see where I’m at in February!
:: aid. I’d like this to be a continuing section so that we can help aid one another through financial contributions if we can spare it, or pass along this info to those that are looking to help. If there are fundraisers or charities that can go into this space, I’m happy to donate it. See you all again in thirty.
:: eric