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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4079
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| Posted: 22 March 2013 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | 1
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A positive side effect of digital distribution is that there seems to be a bit less "writing for the trade" now than we had five years ago. I guess the 99-cent price tag invites more casual readers than a $4 comic book, and publishers are feeling more pressure to keep those 99-cent customers coming back than they have for the $4 customers, who are obviously hooked and will keep buying no matter what.
One of my favorite/least-favorite examples of decompression has to be the Spider-Man daily comic strip, where Spidey starts a punch in the first panel on Monday, talks about it in the second and third panel, then the first panel Tuesday has to be a slight recap of the last panel on Monday...and all of that week's action gets re-told on Sunday, since some readers only get the paper Monday through Friday and won't see Saturday, and some newspapers only carry the Sunday strip. It can take months from Spider-Man hearing about the Rhino robbing a bank until he finally gets the guy safely behind bars.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35923
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| Posted: 22 March 2013 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | 2
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DM Zomberg wrote:
| the first time I noticed it was in Loeb and Sale's atrocious Batman: The Long Halloween. |
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Different strokes, but I loved THE LONG HALLOWEEN. Perhaps it's my affinity for Sale's art, but I thought it was a great book.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133257
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 4:00am | IP Logged | 3
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"Decompression" is one of those pretentious -- and pretty much fake -- terms that have crept into comics as the scales have tipped in favor of the ennui-engorged fanboys on both sides of the counter. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, iin the early days of Marvel, were really the first to turn the continued story from an occasional "special event" to an industry staple, but much of that came from Kirby actually drawing LESS, doing more splashes and fewer panels per page, than from what today is passed off as "decompression". It comes back to one of my oft-repeated complaints about fandom and the industry today (and for several decades): NO SENSE OF HISTORY. And "history", as I am ever quick to point out, does not mean "continuity". History means an awareness of how things were done, and why, not obsessing over what happened in an issue published twenty years ago. An awareness of history would keep us reminded of who the real audience is supposed to be, and what is the best way to serve them. And that would not be by turning a mass market product into a niche market product, and turning tales that were once painted with flashes of lightning into endless rounds of navel-gazing. The "continued story" is here to stay, most likely, but within that format we should remember that we are still telling STORIES, not reproducing diaries, and a three issue span should read A-B-C, not A-A-A...
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Greg McPhee
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5087
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 9:56am | IP Logged | 4
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Wasn't The Long Halloween designed as a 12 part story? I never used to mind the event multi part stories the likes of Roger Stern, David Michelinie and Bob Layton used to do in The Avengers or Iron Man purely because each issue moved the story along and things happened.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11294
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 10:08am | IP Logged | 5
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Yes,if memory serves me correctly,each month`s story represented a `holiday` i`m not sure if each issue was released during it`s represented month ie:-February The Valentine`s day theme etc.
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Chris Basken
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 January 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 120
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 10:22am | IP Logged | 6
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One of my big problems with the show Heroes was that it was nothing but continuing episode after continuing episode. After the first episode, each one would start off with a flimsy "conclusion" of the previous episode's cliffhanger, then introduce a new concept, and lead to another cliffhanger. Only to be just as flimsily resolved and discarded next episode so they can bring you the new shiny.
Any writer will tell you that setup is one of the easiest parts of storytelling. All it takes are a few brainstorming sessions and you have setups for your entire season. The hard part of writing is taking that setup and crafting it into a satisfying and credible conclusion.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 10:27am | IP Logged | 7
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I agree with Chris. I think a lot of other shows were guilty of something similar to that, SMALLVILLE for instance.
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Joe Hollon
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 13697
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 10:38am | IP Logged | 8
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I'm reading a TPB of Steranko's NICK FURY, AGENT OF SHIELD comics and each story strikes me at how dense they were back in those days! Each reprinted story takes nearly a half hour to get through...and these were originally only half a comicbook shared with Dr. Strange stories! Those were the days!
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Greg McPhee
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5087
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 10:41am | IP Logged | 9
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Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin could get a lot in to their 70's and 80's Superman stories.
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Brian Skelley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 February 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 231
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 11:09am | IP Logged | 10
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Personally I've always thought of decompression a result of the creative team attempting to be to clever. Like that guy everyone knew that wouldn't shut up about how no one ever used the bathroom on Star Trek. Now that the guy has grown up and has a job with comics, he feels it's his duty to address all those little points no one cared about in the first place.
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Adam Jones
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 March 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 5
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | 11
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As someone who still buys the individual issues of a lot of comics I'm starting to find reading a lot of them akin to Peter Griffin trying to watch an episode of Maude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjWhDLbr3MA
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James Howell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 September 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 363
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| Posted: 23 March 2013 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | 12
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Nail on the head, Brian....Mundane nit-pickers have gained control of the writing, putting humdrum thoughts and actions into their stories, to "humanize" characters, and make them "relatable" to their aging fanbase. Killing off any sense of wonder, excitement, pathos, imagination, or closure. Just a lot of meandering stories, that end to a sudden. unsatisfying climax.
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