Whitechapel - Pop Comics! 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla & Feed Publisher Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=76797#Comment_76797 2008-08-16T02:20:53-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 Chris M Ferguson http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1141 [Soundtrack: Big Star] I’ve talked a bit about this before, but the idea has grown since then. I come from music; before the keyboard, it was the guitar. Which is more similar than you might ... Big Star]

I’ve talked a bit about this before, but the idea has grown since then. I come from music; before the keyboard, it was the guitar. Which is more similar than you might think — you hit keys or chords to achieve a specific effect suited for your needs.

And now that I’ve moved onto writing, and specifically, comics, the similarities to music continues to grow. See, films are a machine. There are too many rules for films — running time, budgets, sets. Films nowadays want to be music videos; look at a film like Juno where it relies too heavily on its music to carry the tone, but that’s for another night.

Pop songs are about two minutes; comic singles run for about twenty-two pages. Nothing new.

I’ve been looking at the Wall of Sound — a production technique created by record producer/psycho genius Phil Spector — and seeing how it relates to comics. The basic idea was creating a sound that was larger than life by layering orchestral arrangements on top of electric guitars, and then recording the songs in an echo chamber.

It was about getting straight to the emotion. Cutting right to the bone. The Ronettes Spector-produced “Be My Baby” is a pop symphony. And it begins, as best said by Jason Ankeny, “Hal Blaine’s drums are the Morse code of the gods — and somehow just keeps getting better from there.”

That’s what superhero comics have been doing for the last seventy years. It’s a pop symphony in twenty-two pages about larger-than-life things.

And a comic that reads like it was produced by Spector is All-Star Superman. Each issue is a stand-alone, meaning it can be read by itself without knowing who the hell Superman is, but it builds towards the end of the arc.

The writer Grant Morrison has said that he overwrites each issue, then compresses forty-four pages into twenty pages of script, just like a diamond. Each issue is epic, it’s big, yet it touches your soul.

Just like how a great pop song should.

Thoughts?

Visit the site at chrismferguson.wordpress.com]]> Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=76923#Comment_76923 2008-08-16T17:11:27-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 warrenellis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2 I think I said exactly the same thing eight years ago. And did the Spector comparison four years ago. And "Be My Baby" on Suicide Girls one year ago. How weird. Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=76949#Comment_76949 2008-08-16T19:23:48-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 Chris M Ferguson http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1141 I remember the Spector comparison but I haven't read your Suicide Girls posts, Warren, and I wouldn't dare copy your stuff. But I haven't read anywhere where you tied the "Wall of Sound" ... Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=77405#Comment_77405 2008-08-19T19:04:54-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 Brandon Seifert http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=333 Matt Fraction's Casanova is specifically intended to be "Wall of Sound" in comics-form. (Or at least, the first storyline is.) And I think it does it quite well. Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=77557#Comment_77557 2008-08-20T12:33:49-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 KieronGillen http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1761 I wonder if the wall of sound is played out, as much as I love anything vaguely spectoresque. I want to see Dubstep comics. KG
KG]]> Pop Comics! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=3339&Focus=261661#Comment_261661 2010-09-23T05:23:06-07:00 2013-05-18T11:51:41-07:00 White35Mollie http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=9425 Different people in every country take the personal loans from different creditors, just because that is fast and easy.