Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc

In rec.arts.comics.misc, dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:

> 
> Death, dying, mortality.  Thumbscratch syndrome:  Creation as a denial
> of one's own transience.  The attractions of Armageddon.  It's a big topic,
> or constellation of topics, and not one which is easily handled by the
> serial narrative form generally used in comics.  StN is closer to being
> a montage of images.  The problem, when encountering such a work, is to 
> decide whether it's effective, or simply pretentious.

It is somewhat effective.  The essential premise, that the dying of
an individual is the death of a world is not all that brilliant.
It occurred to me when I was about 17 years old.  So I would say
that the obvious aspects of the plot are not that strong, and there
is not as much dense symbolism as in Arkham Asylum to keep one
working at understanding.  But it is competently scripted, and
as it does not have mutants engaging in bathetic speecifying before
beating each other up, I am inclined to cut it a bit of slack.

It is hard to fault the artwork though.  I love this style of painting,
and I will shell out $12 just to encourage that.
> 
> Pages filled with small panels are followed by two-page spreads consisting
> of a somewhat abstract painting with a few words.  Here a few hundred copies
> of the same eye, some lighter, some darker, and the words "AND I SAW AS IT
> WAS A SEA OF GLASS MINGLED WITH FIRE".  Here the Four Horsemen, one per
> page, each accompanied by the relevant verse/s from Revelations.  The
> message of each such spread is generally one mood, or one image.  I think
> fifty pages of small panels would be hard to take -- but are these spreads
> pulling their weight?

I am not sure.  I read it once and have not had the time to ponder it
at length.  Perhaps the large panels represent the noise, and you
are to determine what is useful.

> 
> And the central image:  The inhabitants of a European village, on the
> last night of 999 AD, waiting for the world to end.  (Why people thought
> that the world would end 999 years after the birth of Christ, rather than
> a year later, is something I've never understood.)   Out of 78 physical
> pages, this image/story appears on nine.  I'd have liked to see more
> on this, but it's not clear what the 'more' might have been.  In a way,
> it's a cheat:  *Could* one script a decent movie out of theis raw material,
> or is a single powerful image all it has to offer?  What could be added
> that wouldn't cheapen that image -- the defiant-lovers subplot, the
> redeemed-sinner subplot, the usurer's-comeupance subplot?

How about the wronged loner with an AK47 supblot.  Sure, it is anachronistic,
but artistic license would cover you.

I jest, of course.

> 
> Okay, it's definitely not pretention.  "Signal to Noise" works.  It
> presents its themes effectively, and leaves one affected and thinking.
> This whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.  

A little maybe.  It is good, not great.

> 
> But, conversely, many of the parts aren't very good.  The fact that a 
> change of pace is necessary doesn't mean that a two-page inkblot it the 
> best way to achieve it.  

Again, consider the signal to noise theme.

>That the clock is a powerful symbol of mortality
> doesn't mean that half a dozen pages with clocks and clock faces and
> clockworks represent the best way to present that image.  Maybe it
> is somewhat pretentious, at that:  Powerful and effective sections
> alternate with sections in which Gaiman and McKean are trying a bit too
> hard to be clever.

Well, at least the transcend the typically tedious and are to be applauded
for their efforts to make this art.
> 
> It's pretentious *and* it's effective.  It's flawed, but it's still
> well worth the cover price.  It'll leave you thinking a lot longer
> than any other $12 worth of comics you're likely to have bought in
> the past year.

It didn't me, but that is probably because I was pondering Derrida at
the time, and my mind was occupied.

Still, I am glad I bought it.


doug
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc