One Year Anniversary

[TimothyCallahan]

Here's the thread to reply to my somewhat rhetorical questions from the "One Year Later" column. Join Straw Man Judd and I as we talk about comics, culture, comics, and more comics.

So, what's up, people?

[JohnShil]

About the Captain America thing: The main series is going on hiatus after #601 until REBORN is over.

[Matt Spatola]

Yeah I posted the same in a different thread about the Cap book.

[Couchman]

Congrats Tim, love the column, I look forward to it every week.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Jeez Tim, I thought you'd been here only three months or maybe four... that year has flown by!
(For those of us without weekly deadlines reading it for pleasure any way)!

I'd like more columns telling me about books I don't know about - like the David Mazzuccheli one.
Maybe more revisiting non-superhero books a lot of us may not have read, but should have.
I only recently read Jimmy Corrigan (like yesterday) - it was one I'd heard people tak about in columns and other reviews, but only in passing - never saw a 'why you should be reading this'.
Same with Seth's books, which rock the motherfucker, by the way!

Obviously revisiting superhero stories which were tops makes more sense on CBR, as the site does cater more to superhero fans - including me - but I'd love to see some more branching out to the whole medium, not just a genre.
(And basically, I feel a lot safer laying down the overhead on Fantagraphic.Dranw&Quartlery/Topshelf books, which is usually a bit higher, if someone's told me about it.

Then again, I've enjoyed most of the superhero columns.

So either listen to me, of keep doing what you're doing!

[davidtobin100]

Good column Tim. Really looking forward to your thoughts on 100 Bullets now that it's all collected.

[rev sully]

Hey Callahan!

Speaking of "OYL", I really liked Superman/Action Comics "Up, Up & Away" following INFINITE CRISIS ...

BTW: Byrne's recent STAR TREK stuff looks great...it's wickid tempting.

Can I say this and get away with it? I'm a bigger Green Lantern fan than you? I wear a GL ring on my pinky...I got a belt buckle. I actually only need 2 more Lantern Corps shirts to complete my collection. My roommate's parents took a phonephoto of me wearing my Indigo Tribe tee to send to the sister saying pleased, "they're like the guys on "Big Bang Theory"!"
"Would anyone put Geoff Johns's "Green Lantern" in the category of "literature?"
Already did. I like my fiction fantastic!!!
heh! (grant taught me that one ^_^). Agent Orange was an interesting arc. I like the idea of Larfleeze looking like the Dragon of Avarice should. This was interesting. I wasn't displeased with Tan's art...I mean the Orange Lantern Corps was fabulous...dead Lanterns rising as Orange Constructs (such foreshadowing, huh?). There was a mystic quality to it, the Hal vs. Larfleeze fight. I'm thumbing through it while writing this. I'm digging it. Now..I'm laterally accessing my coffetable because I got right here NEW AVENGERS #48...perhaps the last Marvel-616 title I've bought. But I'll agree with ya here on Tan's art: Spider-Woman & Ms. Marvel aren't sexy, Jessica Jones ain't cute, Wolvie's pelvis has Leifield qualities, blah blah woof woof...

An 02127 Moment...Petah David sounded so wickid defensive. "How Wickid Conceited", is what all the girls in Southie say...quote me on that one. I didn't make that one up but damn...I might buy X-FACTOR #50 just to get him not to post me to death right here right now. Deal? ;P heh!

I always ascribe my awesome real might in deductive reasoning NOT to Encyclopedia Brown, Hardy Boys or 3-2-1 Contact's the Bloodhound Gang (though all helped) but to this quote. When people are impressed by my reasoning & problem-solving skills, I say "grew up reading LOTS of BATMAN funnybooks" with a smirk on my big, bald Irish face. I'll always care about Batman...such as our ultimate disagreement, DC1MIL. I love the Batman of the 853rd Century...what a great idea! I love Millar's "System's Finest" from the 80-Page Giant! Don't get me started!!! ^_~

Happy Anniversary! That's great. I enjoy this column and these people in this culture. It really attracts the Right Crowd. I wholeheartedly give WWC Thumb's Up and hope for more. What would I like to see Callahan write an article about...sheeesh...since he's taking requests...one of my favorite, all-time best, smashingly GREAT series EVER...because I'd like a TPB or two. Andy Hefner & Bill Sienczwywzwyz (sp) then Kyle Baker THE SHADOW!!! Pre-Vertigo DC Prestige! wow. that jarred something loose in my head, it was Summer Camp 1989 I was 15...and my buddy Muggs, a great kid from upper-class NJ brought a footlocker of FUNNYBOOKS!!! The Shadow was the best of 'em. I hunted the line down once already...it's worth hustling down this run at mega-sale day at the LCS but iDigress...

crea shaakti,
Rev. Sully
http://www.thechannelocho.blogspot.com/

Eric O'Sullivan
Boston, MA

[rev sully]

But I'll agree with ya here on Tan's art: Spider-Woman & Ms. Marvel aren't sexy, Jessica Jones ain't cute, Wolvie's pelvis has Leifield qualities, blah blah woof woof...

As we also say in Southie, "der". Wrong Tan. I got Billy and Philip mashed up.

But I stand by my Green Lantern thought! sorry for the mix-up...

[TimothyCallahan]

Helfer/Sienkiewicz/Baker "The Shadow" is one of my all-time favorite comics! I just pulled it out of mothballs last week. Good call.

[Trey]

Tim, your columns are among the best on the internets. I always look forward to your insights.

Did you use "Risso" and "worst" in the same sentence during your latest Wednesday Comics discussion? That's scandalous, dawg. Anyway, I just finished all 100 issues of 100 Bullets and eagerly await your column. The final trade was exhilarating.

Another topic I hope you can look into (because i can't imagine anyone able to pull it off as well as you) is the trend for all-dialogue comics, no captions of any sort. I feel it takes something away from the experience. When did it start? Why? Bendis?

Captions, whether inner monologue, or some type of narrator, is a tool that is used to enhance mood or tone or a number of many things. All dialogue writing really is lazy. It takes more craft to include narration. These aren't plays or movies, their comics.

[TimothyCallahan]

You like narrative captions, huh? I tend not to, unless they have a bit of poetry to them, like you'll see in Alan Moore.

Most writers these days tend to see captions as the equivalent of voice over, and if the dialogue and art can't convey the story, it's probably not a very good story. That may be a bad assumption, but it's one I tend to subscribe to. (There are exceptions, of course.)

Out of curiosity, who do you think should use narrative captions more, and why?

(And speaking from experience, it's WAY easier to use narrative captions when writing comics then it is to do the story purely through dialogue, so I don't see how it's lazy to drop them.)

[Trey]

Well, it's not a movie, so it can't be voice over. A lot of writer's use boxes to establish tone, mood, establishing shots, etc. Morrison (when called for) Frank Miller, Darwyn Cooke, anyone writing Conan.

Using captions also allows the writer to add another element to his story. It allows his own voice to connect with the reader. Not on what he says, but on how he says it. In other words, writing.

How can writing dialogue only be harder? When the writer never shares anything with us other than what's said and done? There's a disconnect. It's very hard to right narration.

When Daredevil is exhausted and slumped on his couch with an arrow through his arm and we get 3 panels 1) him sitting down, 2) grabbing the arrow 3) pulling it out, with no narrative to hit both experiences of "reading" and "looking at the sequence" at the same time we lose something there, I feel. Usually we get 1 panel of him yanking the arrow! Not even a sequence!

I guess I want to read something other than dialogue only. Of course, I don't want narration that simply describes the panels. I want something to give me a sense of duality. Other than hero punches villain, followed by snarky remark.

Now think. To enhance that 3 panel sequence above, what would a good writer come up with? Silence? Could work. The panels certainly tell a story. But add a nice caption about pain or Foggy or his latest girl he lost or the new pain in the ass DA and you get that duality. Two levels. And you get insight into DD.

Just to be clear, I'm referring to any type of caption/narrative box, whether its internal monologue, omniscient narrator, a character narrating, Any info.