Some panelling conversation

The following is an e-mail I sent in response to reading this article: http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-steve-ditko-stan-lees-amazing-spider.html

The site is more than worth the time to check out if you have any interest in comics literacy. But right, that e-mail I sent.

"I wanted to share a bit about how I think you’ve just flipped my perspective on things. When I began my university career, I guess this was 2004, as a hobby that I probably devoted too much of my work/study time to, I worked on a comic of my own (just pencil drawings, shown only to friends for the most part). This was long before I began doing comic reviews, also many personal intellectual advances due to education/experience had yet to be made (I’m not too worried about stating the fact that I’ve made progress, so long as I acknowledge that it’s a lifetime process, and I’ve got a long ways to go still), but the comic’s still pretty fun I think.

Anyways, with each page I’d always be concerned with varying the layout from what came before, for the sake of mixing it up a bit. I didn’t want to change it for the sake of change alone, and for that reason I’d really wrack my brains to justify mixing it up, to justify the move from a 3X3 grid (even then I was aware of how short changed I was with modern comics storytelling, with three panels to a page, a splash page, a DOUBLE page splash. Wanting to emulate those early Marvel’s I admired, you’ll be hard pressed to find one of my pages with fewer than six panels… well, okay, not hard pressed, that’s exaggeration, especially since I usually opened up the issue with a splash page.).

The flip on my perspective that’s been brought about is the fact that those reasons to break out of the 3X3 mould, if they don’t jump out at you on their own, I certainly don’t need to chase after them. At least, that’s if I’m writing comics more to my taste; it may be a different matter if I’m trying to be marketable to the “wider” modern audience of, you know, that rump that keeps coming up in conversation here. Well, that’s a bridge I can cross if I ever get to it.

Ah-HA! But before I fall into yet ANOTHER trap of thinking in one set way, it’s important to be aware that visual variety is indeed key to keeping that eye on the page and finger turning the corners over. You rightfully point out the various different camera shots Ditko uses on a single page- exciting AND communicative, rather than just exciting in the “look at all the crazy assortment of panels on a page”.

It must be said that of course there’s a place for the storytelling of the crazy panelling variety- I’m hardly going to tell J.H. Williams to knock it off with the beautiful (often beguiling) Batwoman stuff (I’m just going by the Detective Comics run and the little of Promethea I’d read, I haven’t actually checked out the new 52 Batwoman, though I assume it’s done in the same style), but there should maybe be a label for new comics readers, and a reminder to the seasoned veteran: “Warning- this comic for advanced readers only, otherwise you run the risk of continuous head scratching and loss of interest in the comics medium!”

It’s like you say, there has to be some* mastery of the basics of the language before it can be messed around with, this is true of both the creators AND the readers, though I often forget that about the readers.

*I say “some” because I consider myself notorious for being woefully ignorant and antagonistic towards the specifics/scientificity of (particularly linguistic) grammar. Participles, infinitives, other… grammar-y words… how is it that in trying to make clearer communication possible, the rules to express that effort are as clear as mud? AND frequently argued over amongst the experts regardless! So, yes, I specify “some mastery” to avoid being that most hated of things- a hypocrite!"