One of the more annoying things journalists do in mainstream publications is accompany any article about comics-related topics with a lazy headline cribbed from the fight scenes of the old Batman television show from the 60’s. Like, “Biff! Bam! Pow! Superhero Movies are Hotter Than Ever!” or some such inanity like that.
But those same lame sound effects can be actually kind of fun in a comic proper, and I certainly give myself license in SF to use every cliche I can. Goes with the original parodic origins of the strip quite nicely. Also, I’m admittedly not great at sound effects. Walt Simonson (Thor, X-Factor, Fantastic Four) was THE MAN when it came to sound effects, weaving them into his art with crazy spellings that made them integral to the pace, dynamism, and flow of his pages. I wish I were half as talented at that crazy master of the form.
SF 700 APPROACHING
Marc just sent in the inked art for the upcoming SF 700 and let me tell you… wow. He is one-upping himself with this one. Can’t wait for you to see it!
See you on Wednesday with SF 695 – “The Mighty Money Man!”
“cribbed from the fight scenes of the old Batman television show from the 60′s.”
The 60’s Batman was more true to the comics of the time than people realize, and the fact that people still callback to it says more about its influence than anything else.
Fact of the matter is that a lot of the humour from the 60’s Batman came from the fact that they used the same style of writing as the comics, contrived plots, ludicrous resolutions and all, played dead straight.
When Superhero movies are good, they’re cherry-picked versions of the comics. If comics were presented accurately in movies, they’d look more like the 60’s Batman even today.
The problem with mainstream comics — aside from sexist portrayals, lazy hack or incompetent writing, and occasionally down-right offensively bad art — is the fact that they often take something ridiculous (“Hi! I’m a guy wearing spandex fighting some other guys wearing spandex!”) and treating it deadly serious instead of having fun with it.
I don’t fault the 1960’s Batman show AT ALL. It was a great show. Very clever, colorful, and a lot of fun. The problem I was trying to identify in my comments wasn’t with the show, but with those who would appropriate its conventions to hold comics and the people who love them in derision. Perhaps my sample headline was a bad one, but I remember a time, before comics were as mainstream as they are now, when every article about superheroes and comics were written with an air of superiority and a fundamental misunderstanding of the medium in general.
“Nyet”
Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam!