Kibbles and Chunks, 1/25/10

Many thematic parallels to crappy shojo manga are obvious. The heroine is a pretty and popular yet “ordinary” girl whose one (1) character flaw is clumsiness–which isn’t really a flaw, since it just makes her cute and in need of constant rescue by leggy, hot men. The love interest is a bishonen guy surrounded by sparkles. Their relationship consists mostly of the hero bossing the heroine around, insulting her, and periodically protecting her from other hot assholes, just like in every shojo manga published in the latter half of the 1990s.

Joe had reached out to Spiegelman and gotten him to agree to an interview with Wizard, which was kinda tantamount to Entertainment Weekly landing an interview with Nelson Mandela to discuss Invictus in terms of a legitimizing event. Wizard had long been seen as the unruly frat house of comics, so a working relationship of any sorts with Art Spiegelman, complete with meaty interview and profile, would be a huge first step in Joe’s savvy plan to up the mag’s profile and pedigree.

The open letters have a drop shadow on the right side only, which to my eye makes it possible to see the letters as either raised above the enclosing box, or inset into it. The comic lasted fifteen issues, not great, but not bad for a villain book.

And, well, I realize that Simone can’t trash her artist (that would be unprofessional), but that doesn’t actually reflect reality. Benes’s men have one face, his women another, and they all have the same flat, empty expression. The body language tends to be of the “crotch or butt thrust directly at the reader” variety, and the “subtle acting” is so subtle as to be nonexistent. The “fiery European influence” would be better termed “draws kinda like Jim Lee used to, only with bigger boobs,” and the “vaguely manga and video game-esque influences” is the kind of annoying strawman people pull all the time without actually naming names. Is she talking about UDON? Humberto Ramos? Paul Pope? Joe Madureira? Ed McGuinness?

Does having published comics make it more difficult to be critical of someone else’s work?

Oh, totally. It’s like I have less of a license to attack something. “How dare you say Alex Ross sucks, Frank? You suck. You can’t draw. Look at your work, Frank. You suck.” But the person that’s saying that is some schlub who has never picked up a pencil. That’s really tough. I’m not saying that that person has less of a critical eye than I do, or anything. A lot of this is just opinions. But it’s tough. I’m so used to people just telling me, in terms of comics, that I don’t have what it takes. I’m so—I’m okay with that. I’ve been hearing that my entire life. “You suck, Santoro.”