I'm loving Bone. The comic you idiot. It's one of those books that I just never got around to reading. I bought the collected edition and it reads so wonderfully and well-paced that I can't imagine reading this thing in single issues over the span of years. It starts cutesy and cartoonish, but about a quarter into it, events hinge and there's a whole section in darkness, in a thunder storm, and Fone bleeds from his head and Thorn cuts an arm off one of the rat creatures. Granma Ben goes nuts. The change in tone is seamless and logical, but also abrupt and stern.
I can't get over how easily story conventions are flexed and then made flexible. My favourite writers are those that play within existing genres and traditional story structure. Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughn, Michael Chabon, Orson Scott Card's good stuff, Charlie Kaufmann. (The Kaufmann one is debatable, but I'd argue that -- Adaptation aside -- he's more oldschool conventional than appears on the surface. Which is why I think he works so well.) It's so disciplined. Cats like Dave Eggers write beautiful sentences and break conventions but it's suspect whether or not they can tell a solid story. If they can only write post-modern and convoluted and in their own first-person voice.
This is my problem. I really used to get off on the experimental, post-modern shit. Actually I still do. And I got used to writing in that style, and while I can freestyle a poem for you with fancy metaphors and wordplay in tact, I can't tell you a solid story with a beginning, middle, and end. An end that is both logical and satisfying.
In any case (back to Bone), writer/artist Jeff Smith makes great use of stark black and white images and knows how to use the space between his panels. Check this out:
And speaking of favourite writers -- I'm downloading the new Nas album as I type.
peace.
I can't get over how easily story conventions are flexed and then made flexible. My favourite writers are those that play within existing genres and traditional story structure. Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughn, Michael Chabon, Orson Scott Card's good stuff, Charlie Kaufmann. (The Kaufmann one is debatable, but I'd argue that -- Adaptation aside -- he's more oldschool conventional than appears on the surface. Which is why I think he works so well.) It's so disciplined. Cats like Dave Eggers write beautiful sentences and break conventions but it's suspect whether or not they can tell a solid story. If they can only write post-modern and convoluted and in their own first-person voice.
This is my problem. I really used to get off on the experimental, post-modern shit. Actually I still do. And I got used to writing in that style, and while I can freestyle a poem for you with fancy metaphors and wordplay in tact, I can't tell you a solid story with a beginning, middle, and end. An end that is both logical and satisfying.
In any case (back to Bone), writer/artist Jeff Smith makes great use of stark black and white images and knows how to use the space between his panels. Check this out:
And speaking of favourite writers -- I'm downloading the new Nas album as I type.
peace.
While we both like to talk back to the TV and have a love for disaposable pop culture, I'm noticing this time around that my brother watches a lot of fucking TV. And not just any TV. ALL TV. Whatever is on. Today he was watching some celebrity show on STAR...about celebrities who drink wine. And by celebrities, I mean Jason Priestly. And the Barenaked Ladies.