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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #40
08 March 1998
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
"Read This Sideways"
I did a column last year sometime with my wish list of things I'd like
to see done with comic books more often. I can't remember everything I put
on that list, but one thing I can remember and still believe strongly in is
the concept of "sideways" comics. It's been done and tried a number of
times in the past, including a SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL issue and a
SPIDER-MAN/X-FORCE crossover that I can think of off the top of my head.
The problem with the technique is that we still don't know how to read it
properly, and no master artist or storyteller has come forward to strongly
proclaim that it's something which deserves to be done and then shown us
how to do it. We need a Scott McCloud to do one.
Or maybe Frank Miller. Last week's new PREVIEWS includes an excerpt
from his upcoming 300 series. (Sounds like a set-up for a bowling
punchline, doesn't it?) It's all done sideways. It looks great, is
easy to read, and allows for panoramic shots the likes of which we're used
to with dramatic Roman epics such as, say, SPARTACUS. I really do hope
that Frank Miller can pull this off. That all five issues of the
mini-series will be done sideways. That it will catch on and someone else
will try it. That the format won't then just be limited to epic stories
set in the times of the classics.
There are obvious problems with the format. You might get a layout
and storytelling technique which more closely resembles a Sunday comic
strip than a comic book. This would, no doubt, be off-putting to people.
Of course, Bill Watterson started doing more comic-book-y approaches to his
CALVIN AND HOBBES Sunday strips, and did so wonderfully. So there is,
indeed, some cross-pollination.
You become more limited, then, in how much story you can get across in
a page. You only get one clear row of panels. If you add any more in, you
run the risk of confusing the reader.
The artist has to adjust his mindset. The big vertical splash pages
are gone. The story has to be told across the page, rather than across and
down. The paper has to be held a completely different way. (The last part
sounds petty, but have you ever tried breaking people of their long-held
habits and classic industry training?) You lose the large vertical splash
page, since to put one large panel across two pages means losing part of
the middle of the art in the crease, as well as having a splash page that
just isn't as tall, anyway. Your other choice is to just do it the
standard way and make the reader twist the book 90 degrees. And if you're
doing a splash page across two pages, then you look like you're wasting a
page. After all, you can get the same effect from a straight up-and-down
splash page.
You also have to convince the non-believers that holding a comic book
on its side is a good thing. Speaking on a retailer level, you still have
to draw the front cover straight up-and-down, since that's the way the
books are shelved, but that means cluttering up your cover with some sort
of blurb to let the reader know that "This issue is told sideways." And
you also add the "stigma" of an off-format book.
There are still advantages, though. We're in an industry which loves
to compare itself to the movie industry. Telling a story sideways means
using a more cinematic approach. The widescreen format can be better
replicated in this manner. And the widescreen format has certain
advantages, such as the awe-inspiring long shots certain panel angles. And
for those of us who just love to buck the trends, it has a certain appeal.
;-)
So what does the sideways format need to make it popular or, at the
very least, sellable? It needs a sponsor. It needs an advocate. It needs
someone with enough storytelling know-how to make it work properly. I
don't know how to pull it off. I wish I did. (I'm willing to work on it,
but who would I tell? If I ever had a scanner and an art program, it might
be fun to try rearranging a story sometime...) We need someone with
terrific art and storytelling skills to show us all how it's done. We also
need a big name to do it. Nobody is going to buy the format and the book
if that's its sole selling point. I hate to say that, but you'll need a
wider audience a recognizable name can bring to the table. You have to
have a creator who has his or her own built-in audience who would follow
them anywhere, to try this. If a tree falls in the forest and there's
nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound?
This isn't necessarily limited to an artist, though. You could use a
good writer with a strong grasp of sequential art. Kurt Busiek comes to
mind.
I like the format. I'd like to see it succeed. Maybe this is just
because nobody's really ever tried it before and I'm a cranky cynic. Maybe
it's because I think it might look really cool. Maybe because it's an
unused storytelling technique, or one that's only mis-used. (Such is the
case when an artist throws a sideways page into the middle of the book for
no good reason. See a last month's DEADPOOL issue for a good example.)
Of course, I might be wrong. It may be unworkable.
But I'd like to see someone give it a chance.
-Augie
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