Hellboy: The Fury Part 1 - Motion comics

[thwhtGuardian]

I originally got into Hellboy thanks to the motion comics on the Playboy site back in the nineties, so I think they're ultimately a useful tool. If they drum up support for Hellboy in Hell, then that's wonderful.

Those were the ones I used to show people when they'd ask where to start with Hellboy.

[Kees_L]

I have no problem with it existing. Like you said, it brings in new readers. But it is compromised in its execution and always will be until a comic is designed from the ground up to be a motion comic. There are certain decisions made for a comic, especially knowing it will be viewed on two open pages at a time, that just don't work when translated to a motion comic. No matter how good it is, it's always compensating for the fact that it wasn't designed to be viewed this way.

So you're saying this little advertisement clip should not have been made because the product it showcases is a comic instead of a video?

But then garden tools are made for use in the garden - does that mean they can't make commercials for them, with using cameras or studio sound?

Because I cannot agree this clip feature would be designed to be like a new medium of any kind, it is not a cartoon based on a comic, but it is literally the comic art itself visualized with minor animation bits plus a few soundhints here and there.

Of course Hellboy: the Fury is not "intended to be viewed this way" because it's intended to be what it is: A COMIC.

But don't mistake this "motion comic" thing for much else than merely an advert to a comic. It does not taint the comic it focuses on. Plus I don't think the voice acting is bad at all.
So it will *just* be your opinion if you don't like it. - Not to say your opinion would be little in any way but there'd be a difference between your opinion and the voice acting having to be bad - a difference between your opinion and this thing having to be compromized.

In my opinion, when any fan-persons or people feeling particularly knowledgable on certain things, such as for instance art or animation, when such people get potentially really vocal or subjective or possessive or narrow-minded on stuff, then they should realize there might still be other perspectives to take besides their own.

For some people things such as this may seem to be amounting to some kind of new artform or new format, like a "motion comic" format.
But I'm not really seeing that myself. I know these motion features have in case of Hellboy been in existence for quite a while.
But to me they don't seem to produce any graphics of their own because they only visualize or focus on the comic art.
It is comic art we see here, visualized and reworked featuring some animation but it isn't anything else than the art of Fegredo/Mignola. Which obviously was made for the comic medium. We know that, because we've read the comic. Didn't you read the comic Hellboy: The Fury?
It's really great.

[Middenway]

Kees, when I say "compromised" I didn't mean it shouldn't exist or shouldn't have been made. I only meant that it wasn't taking advantage of the medium to reach its full potential. Obviously as an advertisement it's perfectly fine. As a motion comic it's fine. I don't like it (which is my opinion) but it is compromised by the translation process from static to motion comic (which is fact). However, compromised does not necessarily mean it's bad, just that some things (not all either) get lost or obscured in translation. The visual vocabulary for a motion comic may share similarities to that of a static comic, but it isn't the same. It's like the way Asterix is compromised in any language other than French, since the puns don't translate perfectly and regional humour has to be tweaked. I can't read French, but I still love Asterix in its compromised English form.

It does not taint the comic it focuses on.

Again, I agree. I still have the comic to keep me happy. No one's forcing me to watch this. As I said, I have no problem with it existing.

Plus I don't think the voice acting is bad at all.

I'm very fussy about sound, so this was always going to bother me. But I don't think it would financially viable to do it well either. Keep in mind, I come out of most movies complaining about bad sound design. :P And, of course, this is only my opinion, nothing more.

Even though motion comics aren't my thing, I still think I'd be interested to see how one could be approached if it was designed from the ground up to be a motion comic, rather than just being translated from a regular comic, but for me it's still difficult to imagine it looking like anything other than an animatic. (Slightly off-topic, The Iron Giant animatics are incredible. Well worth checking out if you want to see how camera moves can be used to tell story)

[Kees_L]

Thank you Middenway, for replying as thoroughly and as thoughtfully as you did / do.

After reading my own posts back I feel I should stipulate that your viewpoints are meticulous and fine and totally yours to have, even should you get fussy or such! I have no quarrel or beef whatsoever with any of it.

My only point to be making would be this: wouldn't you think this motion comic would have been specifically designed to be referring to the graphics of Fegredo as done for the comic itself as closely as possible? As basically as possible?
As such I wouldn't think of it of being a medium or format of itself - it isn't meant to be newly designed from the ground up - because it aims to be overviewing the comic art, where any animation or "camera-work" and sound are merely for being like a 2D 'magic lantern pop-up-version' of the comic?

I'd personally think that because of aiming to be sticking as closely to the comic art of the comic it portrays, this motion comic would have been made as basically and as unglossily as possible, with keeping any motioning or sound to a minimum. And that would be why I'd think it well done and functional. Which would be my opinion. And you're most welcome to disagree of course.

[Middenway]

I finally see where you're coming from. Makes sense. I hadn't really thought of it like that.

[Middenway]

Here's part 2:

[Middenway]

And here's part 3:

[Middenway]

And part 4:

[Middenway]

Part 5:

[Kees_L]

Ahhh, so that's what the penis thing would sound like. Feels good to know !

(And saying that p-word would be allowed 'cuz it's clearly Latin. Popes speak that.)

[Middenway]

Ahhh, so that's what the penis thing would sound like. Feels good to know !

There's a sentence I never thought I'd see written.

[Middenway]

...and here's the final part:

[Kees_L]

Don't know about you but I personally found this whole motion sound version after what would be the Fury comic quite a fun experience.

Fun to notice how some bits seem to be conveying or pointing towards stuff rather specifically in their own capacity. Like how for example in the the ending of some of England as laying ruined, amid which people both as some stuff appearing visible as being to recover - it seems to be panning out or conveing itself differently in motion I'd say, although the flowering or blooming reference - as proving a reoccurrence for dedicated readers - would be bringing it all together.

Although the instance of the heart getting thrown, followed by an immediate female person getting flung also as if due to it, as if matters or outcomes would be decidedly linked here, spoke out to me.

Or old Gruagach, seeming to be sounding rather Jim-Henson-esque all of a sudden . Made me smile.

Or Alice, being left with Mabh's old crown and for the rest foremostly cobwebs and creaky woodwork. The coppery face-bits made me think of Edward Grey the same way in this thing as how the comic did. For the copper faces both as weird and dusty emptied out fireplaces. So mysteriously...

Fun experience indeed, it'd seem to me.

[Middenway]

The makers of motion comics could learn a lot from this short film, which uses different sized panels to define space.

[Middenway]

Here's another take on the motion comic... very different.