revert to last version by Ningauble, see his rationales for why; I will add these are either off-topic or very long low-quality walls of text not quoted anywhere
← Older revision
Revision as of 20:53, 27 February 2016
Line 5:
Line 5:
* It is often said that women are better to talk about emotions, to write dialogues that hit the nail on the head, and men know how to create stories with twists and turns. As for me, I think it’s difficult today to make a distinction between genres. Some men are really able to imagine sensitive and complex characters, while some women are able to create sometimes violent action scenes. Nowadays, each writer has their own specialty. It doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman.
* It is often said that women are better to talk about emotions, to write dialogues that hit the nail on the head, and men know how to create stories with twists and turns. As for me, I think it’s difficult today to make a distinction between genres. Some men are really able to imagine sensitive and complex characters, while some women are able to create sometimes violent action scenes. Nowadays, each writer has their own specialty. It doesn’t matter if they’re a man or a woman.
:* Hiromu Arakawa [http://www.themarysue.com/hiromu-arakawa-part-1/]
:* Hiromu Arakawa [http://www.themarysue.com/hiromu-arakawa-part-1/]
−
−
* I read the ones which look to me to be of some interest. I give the rest to the children at Bellevue and let them read them and tell me what they think about them. I give them to teachers, psychiatrists. I take them home to my children. And if there is any question about one, and frequently there is for instance, about 2 years ago one of the psychiatrists wrote me in dismay saying that be, had picked up a comic his daughter brought him which a psychiatrist had been abused in his opinion and found my name on the advisory board and wondered how I could justify such a thing.
−
:In this particular comic the storywriter had thought up a new form of what might be called shock treatment, in which a wife, who was jealous of her husband, had been exposed by the husband, at the advice of his psychiatrist, to actual situations which could be interpreted as indicating that the husband was wanting to do her harm.
−
:But then it ended up with the husband explaining everything and the psychiatrist coming in and explaining everything and the wife and the husband reunited in, their mutual understanding and love, and the psychiatrist going home. He lived next door. The husband played chess with him, or something.
−
:Well, this didn't look very bad to me. I said I was not even sure it was not a good idea, it has some good ideas in it. Maybe if we actually did try to portray some of the delusions of patients and showed we could explain, that might be away of exposing disillusionary ideas.
−
:I showed them to the children in the ward, because they do have disillusonary ideas. The children in the ward thought that was a good story and they thought it was a good idea, it was like the kind of treatment we were giving them, which I had not thought of, in that fashion. They certainly thought it was a good way to cure the sick woman.
−
*'''Mr. Beaser''': You mentioned burning flames. Look at this picture here. It shows as a final scene a man being burned. You would object to that being distributed to children, would you not? I gathered that from your last remarks.
−
:'''Dr. Bender''': I would say this: I think I could distribute that to the children. I don't know who the man is. I don't think they know who he is, do they?
−
:'''Mr. Beaer''': Supposing it was a magazine which depicted him as the father of a child, a father figure?
−
:'''Dr. Bender''': Then I would object to it. You see, I objected to this thing about the sailors because it was our sailors.
−
:'''Mr. Beaser''':You would also object maybe to the sight of a child's mother and father being electrocuted?
−
:'''Dr. Bender''': Well, I object to seeing that under any circumstances, if you don't mind.
−
:* Dr. [[w:Lauretta Bender|Lauretta Bender]] [http://www.thecomicbooks.com/bender.html ''Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender, senior psychiatrist, Belleveu hospital Newyork N.Y.'']
* ...all our theories about how comics are put together are invariably about time. The duration of a panel's action and the duration between one panel and the next. We haven't added very much to the Eisner-Steranko concept of "sequential art."
* ...all our theories about how comics are put together are invariably about time. The duration of a panel's action and the duration between one panel and the next. We haven't added very much to the Eisner-Steranko concept of "sequential art."
Line 48:
Line 35:
* ...the whole small press movement...[is] the first real upheaval in this country of Comics as a genuine Art - Art being to me a thing which is a lively part of life while commenting on life - as opposed to comics as journalism-cartooning or comics as a collecting-hobby or comics as boys power fantasies.
* ...the whole small press movement...[is] the first real upheaval in this country of Comics as a genuine Art - Art being to me a thing which is a lively part of life while commenting on life - as opposed to comics as journalism-cartooning or comics as a collecting-hobby or comics as boys power fantasies.
** Eddie Campbell ''Arkensword'' 17-18, 1986
** Eddie Campbell ''Arkensword'' 17-18, 1986
−
−
* I began very early, when I was 16 or 17. I had the (completely wrong) idea that cartoonists were like movie stars: you know, rich, famous, glamorous... Then, when I first met them, I discovered that they were exactly the contrary: in those days, artists were usually poorly paid, virtually unknown, and actually anything but glamorous. But I liked the job and stuck to it. I sold my first story in 1964. It was a filler humor series for "Diabolik" - I also drew it. An awful thing, that should be forgotten, but curiously enough, is still widely remembered...
−
* Italian comics give much emphasis to writing, surely more than French and American ones. As Walt Disney used to say, "writing comes first."
−
* I have the bad tendency to use too many talking heads and too little action; this has become a style in Martin Mystery, and readers accept it, but it is, in fact, a defect I should change. As I write many words, it goes without saying that I'm strong in the dialogue and characterization aspects of writing.
−
* A whip can work miracles! Hah! I made a calculation when I celebrated my first 25 years of work and I discovered then that I had written more than 30,000 pages. Italian comics in general, and Bonelli comics in particular, are traditionally thick, monthly 96 page books, so you HAVE to write a lot if you want to keep the pace. Martin Mystère alone needs (94 x 12 =) 1128 pages for the regular monthly series; 128 pages for the Summer Special; 224 pages for the Autumn Giant Issue; 80 pages for the Winter "Almanac;" 160 pages for the yearly "Bis" double issue; 160 pages from the "Stories from Elsewhere*" tie-in -- all of this without counting special "testimonial" stories and other special initiatives. That makes a grand total of 1880+ pages every year. ("Elsewhere" is a secret government organization which studies paranormal phenomena --- Something like the MIB basis, but I invented it much before, hah!) When Martin Mystère began in 1982, I used to write the entire production; now, after 18 years, I have slowed down, in part, because I work half the day at the publisher's office as an editor. Let's say I write a minimum of 500 - 600 pages yearly, plus all the dialogue in the books written by my co-writers: Vincenzo Beretta, Andrea Pasini, Carlo Recagno who also aids me in my editorial tasks, Enzo Verrengia, Marco Deplano, and Alessandro Russo.
−
* "Diabolik" is the only surviving representative of the so-called "black comics" - pocket comics characterized by the fact that their hero is a villain. Diabolik is an immensely popular character, created in 1962 by two sisters, Angela and Luciana Giussani; the series sells around 125,000 copies a month. American audiences will soon make his acquaintance, through a series of animated cartoons to be released by Fox, and the translations of Italian issues published by Skorpion. The weeklies "Skorpio" and "Lanciostory", which publish fine adventure series from Argentina, sell approximately 60,000 copies a week; the "family" weekly "Il Giornalino", a fine Italian series, sells about 150,000 copies; "Lupo Alberto", a "funny animal" strip created by Silver in 1974, and "Cattivik", by the same author, sell a total of 100,000 copies monthly. The Italian branch of Marvel publishes the bulk of super-hero-type comics, that are now enjoing a small boom, with combined sales of approximately 6,000,000 copies a year. "Manga" - another small "boom" of the 90s - sell about 2,500,000 copies a year. A few comics are published in book-form (among them, the works of the Italian cartoonists Crepax, Manara and Pratt, and the translations of the French "album" "Asterix", "Lucky Luke", "Tintin") are sold exclusively in bookshops; sales seldom exceed 10,000 copies. Italian newspapers publish very few or no comics. As syndication is not possible, due to the small number of newspapers in Italy (about one hundred), the cost of a series made for just one newspaper would be too high. The merchandising inspired by Italian comics began to spread in the late 1980s; the leading character is Silver's "Lupo Alberto", which ousted "Snoopy" and "Garfield" in the market. The average prices of Italian comics are lower than American ones; a black and white 96-page Bonelli book costs 3,500 lire, less than two dollars US. 97% of Italian comics are sold at the country's 37,000 news-stands; they are distributed by three national distributors and 175 local distributors (the percentage kept by the distributors ranges from 30% to 50% of the cover price). Italian news-stands are much bigger than American ones, and offer a great variety of periodicals: besides comics (not less than 250 titles), magazines and newspapers, they display series of videocassettes, records and software. Only in recent years have comics been sold in bookshops and department-stores. There are "Comic Book Shops" in all the major towns, but they do not constitute, as in the US, an alternative to national distribution. Ooof!
−
* In Italy there is not a specific legislation concerning comics, but most publishers stick to an "interpretation" that I'm very proud to have contributed to in the 1970s, after long struggles with the "Corriere dei Ragazzi" publishers. The average retribution for the first printing ranges from $ 100 to $ 350 per page (art) and from $ 35 to $ 100 per page (script); original pages remain the property of the artist; net profits of reprints are divided 50%-50% between the publisher and the author(s). At Bonelli, the originator of a comic series (as I'm for Martin Mystère, Tiziano is for Dylan Dog, Medda Serra and Vigna are for Nathan Never) is granted a royalty on the sales. Licensing rights are usually divided 50%-50% between the publisher and the author. We own our characters, and have to follow some rules concerning their use, in the case they are no longer published by Bonelli. Contents are controlled by the creator, but must remain in the boundaries that characterize the philosophy of the publisher. In my case, I have complete control on merchandising.
−
* When I discovered Marvel's Super Heroes in the late 60s, I liked the "super-heroes with super problems" idea quite a bit, as the "fairy tale" mood that was present in Superman (and, most of all, in "Captain Marvel", my favorite super-hero, which was never published in Italy) was updated, but was not lost. s for the super-heroes of today, I know I'll be hated by the majority of your readers, who will call me "Grandpa" or worse, but - with a lot of due exceptions - I'm not a big super-hero fan. I think that people wearing funny trousers and polychromous capes are part of the fairy tale world, and when they are confronted with everyday problems and try and seem "realistic," well, it sounds a bit funny. Saturday in Turin, I met Jean "Moebius" Giraud, whom I've known since I worked for "Vaillant" in Paris. Somebody asked him how he felt drawing the Silver Surfer. "I'm not a super-hero fan" - he said - "and find them 'un petit peu dingue', a little bit childish. But I'm not an anti-super hero integralist. So I decided to try". That's exactly my position: even if I don't like super-heroes much, I'm not an integralist. Had I the opportunity to write a super-hero story, I would try. I'm not so sure I'd succeed in doing it well. I don't think that that the obsession with super-heroes has stymied creativity, as long as other genres can thrive around them.
−
:* [[w:Alfredo Castelli|Alfredo Castelli]] [http://www.ubcfumetti.com/international/dh_bvza_en.htm]
* Her husband had been willing to indulge her affection for the comics so long as it was just her, but now their children were growing up and starting to read and he was not convinced that people having adventures in skintight costumes were altogether appropriate. His feeling was that his wife would have to stop reading it, and she was heartbroken because she had an equally strong commitment to the fictional characters she had been enjoying all these years. When you come face to face with that kind of circumstance, it has to be treated with respect. It's like singing on stage and realizing you had an impact on your audience, and using that as an excuse to do your craft better than before.
* Her husband had been willing to indulge her affection for the comics so long as it was just her, but now their children were growing up and starting to read and he was not convinced that people having adventures in skintight costumes were altogether appropriate. His feeling was that his wife would have to stop reading it, and she was heartbroken because she had an equally strong commitment to the fictional characters she had been enjoying all these years. When you come face to face with that kind of circumstance, it has to be treated with respect. It's like singing on stage and realizing you had an impact on your audience, and using that as an excuse to do your craft better than before.
Line 75:
Line 53:
* You know, I distrust people who 'read' comics … you don't read a comic book. You look at a comic book. While you're looking at a comic, sure, you read the words; as well, you learn to look at the panels in a certain order, in a certain way … if you start out to 'read' a comic book, you're starting out with the wrong mind-set.
* You know, I distrust people who 'read' comics … you don't read a comic book. You look at a comic book. While you're looking at a comic, sure, you read the words; as well, you learn to look at the panels in a certain order, in a certain way … if you start out to 'read' a comic book, you're starting out with the wrong mind-set.
** Samuel R. Delany ''The Comics Journal'' 48
** Samuel R. Delany ''The Comics Journal'' 48
−
−
* I explained to Danny that I liked my villains a little more layered-some moral ambiguity, some shades of grey-and that, frankly, I'd had my fill of the psycho's and mass murderers running through the pages of half the comic books on the stands. (And those-heaven help us-were the heroes!) Peter Parker, on the other hand, was, is and always will be a kind, decent, compassionate, caring human being-something of a rarity in the comic book climate of the 90's.
−
** [[w:J.M. DeMatteis|J.M. DeMatteis]] ''DARKNESS, LIGHT...AND FREE FOOD an introduction of Sorts'' to ''[[w:Maximum Carnage|Maximum Carnage]]''
* ...'comic' simply means funny, so the word is inadequate. To tack on the word 'adult' has resulted in a style of magazine suitable for only some adults, glossy comics barely containing their airbrushed breasts, leaving little room for genuine content.
* ...'comic' simply means funny, so the word is inadequate. To tack on the word 'adult' has resulted in a style of magazine suitable for only some adults, glossy comics barely containing their airbrushed breasts, leaving little room for genuine content.
Line 152:
Line 127:
* All the comics are [[w:Sigil (magic)|sigils]]. "Sigil" as a word is out of date. '''All this magic stuff needs new terminology because it's not what people are being told it is at all.''' It's not all this wearying symbolic misdirection that's being dragged up from the Victorian Age, when no-one was allowed to talk plainly and everything was in coy poetic code. The world's at a crisis point and it's time to stop bullshitting around with [[w:Qabalah|Qabalah]] and [[w:Thelema|Thelema]] and [[Chaos]] and [[Information]] and all the rest of the metaphoric smoke and mirrors designed to make the rubes think magicians are "special" people with special powers. It's not like that. '''Everyone does magic all the time in different ways. "[[Life]]" plus "[[Semiotics|significance]]" = magic.'''
* All the comics are [[w:Sigil (magic)|sigils]]. "Sigil" as a word is out of date. '''All this magic stuff needs new terminology because it's not what people are being told it is at all.''' It's not all this wearying symbolic misdirection that's being dragged up from the Victorian Age, when no-one was allowed to talk plainly and everything was in coy poetic code. The world's at a crisis point and it's time to stop bullshitting around with [[w:Qabalah|Qabalah]] and [[w:Thelema|Thelema]] and [[Chaos]] and [[Information]] and all the rest of the metaphoric smoke and mirrors designed to make the rubes think magicians are "special" people with special powers. It's not like that. '''Everyone does magic all the time in different ways. "[[Life]]" plus "[[Semiotics|significance]]" = magic.'''
** [[Grant Morrison]], in [http://www.popimage.com/content/grant20044.html "Grant Morrison: Master & Commander" by Christopher Butcher, Part 4 : Highway X]
** [[Grant Morrison]], in [http://www.popimage.com/content/grant20044.html "Grant Morrison: Master & Commander" by Christopher Butcher, Part 4 : Highway X]
−
−
* Batman vs. Al Qaeda! It might as well be Bin Laden vs. King Kong! Or how about the sinister Al Qaeda mastermind up against a hungry Hannibal Lecter! For all the good it's likely to do. Cheering on a fictional character as he beats up fictionalized terrorists seems like a decadent indulgence when real terrorists are killing real people in the real world. I'd be so much more impressed if Frank Miller gave up all this graphic novel nonsense, joined the Army and, with a howl of undying hate, rushed headlong onto the front lines with the young soldiers who are actually risking life and limb 'vs' Al Qaeda.
−
** [[Grant Morrison]] [http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Batman/Morrison/Morrison_Batman.html Newsarama]
* Comics are an international language, they can cross boundaries and generations. Comics are a bridge between all cultures
* Comics are an international language, they can cross boundaries and generations. Comics are a bridge between all cultures
Line 165:
Line 137:
* Of course, to work alone is both harder and easier. There's nothing fabulous about drawing comic books. When you finish, you're relieved and happy, but it's the middle of the night and there is no one to share your joy with. With filmmaking you have a party with your crew and then the premiere. All that stuff you miss when you just draw manga. But there are drawbacks to filmmaking too: sometimes it's really difficult to get your ideas across to your crew.
* Of course, to work alone is both harder and easier. There's nothing fabulous about drawing comic books. When you finish, you're relieved and happy, but it's the middle of the night and there is no one to share your joy with. With filmmaking you have a party with your crew and then the premiere. All that stuff you miss when you just draw manga. But there are drawbacks to filmmaking too: sometimes it's really difficult to get your ideas across to your crew.
** [[w:Katsuhiro Otomo|Katsuhiro Otomo]] [http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/katsuhiro-otomo/ ''Midnight Eye'' (Dec. 29 2006)]
** [[w:Katsuhiro Otomo|Katsuhiro Otomo]] [http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/katsuhiro-otomo/ ''Midnight Eye'' (Dec. 29 2006)]
−
−
* Now we're essentially all consuming very childish things - comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously.
−
: It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it's taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about ... whatever.
−
:* [[w:Simon Pegg|Simon Pegg]] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/man-up/simon-pegg-geek-culture-twitter/ Geek Culture Twitter]
* If I were a better [[artist]], I'd be a [[painter]], and if I were a better [[writer]], I'd write [[books]] — but I'm not, so I draw cartoons!
* If I were a better [[artist]], I'd be a [[painter]], and if I were a better [[writer]], I'd write [[books]] — but I'm not, so I draw cartoons!
** [[Charles Schultz]] 1992, as quoted by [[w:Tom Tomorrow|Tom Tomorrow]] in [http://archive.salon.com/comics/tomo/2000/02/21/tomo/index.html his comic strip ''This Modern World'' (21 February 2000)]
** [[Charles Schultz]] 1992, as quoted by [[w:Tom Tomorrow|Tom Tomorrow]] in [http://archive.salon.com/comics/tomo/2000/02/21/tomo/index.html his comic strip ''This Modern World'' (21 February 2000)]
−
−
* It is as important a serious piece of work as Strindberg or Ibsen. You don’t shortchange the work because it is a comic book franchise for a studio. I think entertaining is a serious business and shouldn’t be taken half-heartedly.
−
** Patrick Stewart [http://blackfilm.com/20030502/features/patrickstewart.shtml]
* The thing that made it doubly interesting to me is the whole the thing is a little bit unpredictable. No matter what you do with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, there's certain lines you can't cross with them. They're always gonna -- at a certain point you go, "They won't do that." But with these guys, you don't know what they're gonna do because they're not the characters that you know. To me that was really exciting, just to be able to explore the unpredictability-ness of it.
* The thing that made it doubly interesting to me is the whole the thing is a little bit unpredictable. No matter what you do with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, there's certain lines you can't cross with them. They're always gonna -- at a certain point you go, "They won't do that." But with these guys, you don't know what they're gonna do because they're not the characters that you know. To me that was really exciting, just to be able to explore the unpredictability-ness of it.