What format is best???

Well generally for me it’s novels, then films which on rare occasions (Fight Club) out shine the novel and lastly but by no means least, comics which on very rare occasions out shine my other two favourite formats. I’ve started to have this discussion with a couple of dudes at my place of work who like me love all of the above but not necessarily in this order. For Mr Comic Book Jesus (see my Blog Roll) it’s definitely comics first. Well I was trying to explain why I liked Ryu Murakami’s novel Piercing when i really didn’t dig the issue of Hellblazer given to me.  I sighted the gratuitous violence and torture on the first few pages of the issue of Hellblazer but the counter argument was that this was prevalent in Piercing…

So I stuck on my thinking cap and tried to analyse the difference these 3 different formats have upon the audience??? Well in the best traditions of a CAD Manager I drew a diagram to try to explain.

I guess what I’m saying is that because Ryu Murakami’s words were paced and laced with such a rhythm and specific detail that it left enough room for my imagination to fill in the gaps and exercise a built in level of graphic imagery and focus on the grisly parts that left me chilled but not repelled. The comic book on the other hand for me had a fixed piece of artwork that left little to the imagination and for me failed.

Bottom line I guess one format is not better than the other. It seems that film is often the medium for everone unless Hollywood butcher it and you are generally either a comic book or novel kinda guy or girl, a bit like penut butter or marmite lover! Then again some rare types like both with an equal passion. 

Personally it’s going to take a genius to get me raving about a comic, the artwork will have to blow me away page after page and give me just enough for me to want to fill in the gaps, whilst delivering a fantastic story and sharp super focused dialogue… Can such a comic exist? Well thankfully for me it does just check out Jonathan Hickman’s Nightly News.

Bottom line a great story can be destroyed or enhanced by what ever format it lives in and I guess which format hits the bullseye more often just depends on how your brain is wired.

Dave

This post was part inspired by my recent reading of Story by Robert McKee. I will post my ’summary of learning’ from that recent experience next…

Welcome

In the beginning there was light and dark and stars and books, lots of really cool books that resonated with an other worldliness that sparked and arced ideas of such beauty and foreboding that Dave thought… I think therefore I am. From that day on Dave decided to pick up the mighty pen that had been created from a passion fruit seed in the outer rim where he spied attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

His fate was to write and his quest was to create something that resonated with the crackle of all those amazing books he’d read and all those awe inspiring silver screens he’d seen with the likes of Roy, The Dude, Jacques and an American beauty trailblazing across…

This would be no easy journey but then all the best moments are revealed when the edges of the envelope are near. Dave saddled up his trusty laptop, waxed his board, stepped on the wave of fate and dropped in.

Enjoy and keep winding those words.

Dave