Panel one.
Now they’re talking. Interacting. As you’d expect, Kirby shows them up close.
Neither Paul nor I made a fortune in those days, but Paul said that if I’d split the past due payment with him, he could fudge the paperwork and get Jack seamlessly back on BC/BS. Cool.
So we executed his brilliant, benignly wicked scam and Jack was covered. Between Marvel’s coverage and DC’s, he didn’t have to come up with a nickel. Insurance paid for everything.
In 1980 or ’81 — I forget — Jack had a stroke that paralyzed his right arm and his drawing/inking hand.
A few of us at Marvel went to visit Jack in the hospital in Queens. Roger Stern was with me, maybe one or two others, I forget. We tiptoed into Jack’s room, all unsure of what to say. Jack was almost unaware of us. He kept staring at his inert right hand, trying to move his arm and his hand without result. We muttered the usual platitudes and stood there stupidly. And ignored.
Then, Howard Chaykin came breezing in. Howard had been one of Jack’s roommates at Continuity.
Howard’s opening line was words to the effect, “You were a lousy inker anyway, so no great loss.” Then he proceeded to insult Jack’s talents, his ancestry, his looks, his wife, his kids…..
Jack looked up. At Howard. And fired back. And they had a raucous insult-fest.
It brought Jack back to life.
Thank you, Howard. You knew what to do and you did it, while we dimwits stood around helplessly.
– Lettering should be clear and legible
– Lettering and balloons should be as unobtrusive as possible
– There should never be any question about which balloon comes next
– As much as possible, balloons should stay out of the way of the art:
– Anchor balloons to the panel borders when possible, unless that puts the balloon too far from the speaker or otherwise causes problems
– Try not to cover anything important or interesting—especially light sources, signs, figures, critical details and especially heads
– Characters shouldn’t be wearing balloons like hats or balancing them like trained seals—avoid “resting” the balloons on heads
– If a balloon MUST cover part of a head, try to keep the coverage small. If it’s going to cover a head down to the eyebrows, it’s time to adjust the art
– If you can overlap a head a smidge into the balloon to avoid covering the head or trained seal syndrome, please do
– Try to have short, straight pointers aimed at the speaker’s mouth
– Pointers should come from around the middle of the balloon. Avoid those cat’s claw pointers at the ends of balloons, especially long, narrow ones
– Consecutive balloons from the same speaker should abut, if possible, with a bridge connector between them
– If a longer bridge connector is required, make it as straight and direct as possible
Page Eight.
Panel one.
Action, a full figure.
Okay, panel one we have action—full figures if you don’t count Cap’s toe.
Look at the reactions of the background characters, and the Torch, for that matter. So much is expressed so simply and so powerfully. The words underscore the attitude Captain America expresses in the picture, and the Torch’s reactions, physically and verbally, tells us that what we’re seeing is a big deal.
Here’s the establish-the-big-new-location-shot, the Los Angeles Coliseum shot. Now that’s an establishing shot.
If you look carefully, you can see Johnny in the lower right hand corner. That’s Kirby ”telescoping” again, establishing our featured character’s position within the location. This really needed two shots, but remember, Kirby had fewer than 100 panels to tell this story, and he compromised here—probably hoping that Stan would mention Johnny’s presence in the caption. He didn’t. And the colorist colored Johnny’s shirt wrong. Oops.
Take a look at the second panel.
The boys have landed in a heap. In order to make that clearly, Kirby treats it like action, that is, he uses the usual action depth and shows us full figures, or nearly so.
All right, we’re in the backyard of this suburban home. Three young men are arriving. Look at her, the Invisible Girl. You get a pretty good look at her. You’ll see her feet later, trust me. You get a pretty good look at her, enough so that you might actually recognize her if you saw her again. Look at the acting going on here. It’s clear that these guys are arriving and they are excited. What is she saying? Even if you can’t read the balloon, you know she’s saying, “Stay back boys,” just from her body language. Cool.
Why this one? This one is an old comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and it was probably done at a time when the page rates for artists were around ten bucks a page, fifteen bucks a page, so it was probably done very quickly. I guarantee you, Jack didn’t spend a great deal of time pondering each panel. You couldn’t do that if you wanted to earn a living. He didn’t give it a lot of thought. He did it from instinct more or less. Nonetheless, it’s a great illustration of fundamentals.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén