It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but as the impending wedding and honeymoon means all non-speech writing is basically going on hiatus for a few weeks, it seemed like a good time to share some of my favourite pieces from the last few months.
“It holds together the comic, which moves at a breakneck pace. As much as I’m buying the next issue to follow the continuing story of one of my favourite characters, the question that will really keep me coming back is: What is America wearing this month?
Oh, that and: Which fascist will America be delivering a fistful of justice to this month? I can’t wait to find out.”
“There are gods whose powers are specifically tied to a colour combination, like Baal’s white and purple lightning, or palette, like Dionysus’ rave neons and fluorescents. But whoever’s doing it, when shits gets supernatural – whether on stage or in battle – Wilson brings the fireworks.
As a colourist, Wilson is the best I’ve ever seen at making something look blindingly bright. It works well enough in print, but on a backlit screen – especially at the brightness level I keep my tablet turned up to, battery life be damned – a page turn can leave me blinking like I’ve just emerged into the midday sun.”
“Google reviews have the user’s profile attached. Which meant the shop – still in possession of her wedding dress – was able to identify which customer had left this rating. Which led to a member of staff ringing the mobile number she’d left with the shop, to demand an explanation for this three-star rating.
With her dress essentially being held hostage, my fiancée decided the best course of action was to deny all knowledge, and claim it must have been an errant thumb on her touchscreen.
“Fine”, said the man on the phone. “Change the rating to five stars then.””
MAY
“Before storming the Crispus Attucks complex, Luke Cage slips in a pair of ear buds, pulls up his hood, and starts blasting the Wu’s “Bring Da Ruckus.” This simple decision gives the scene a completely different flavor than its Daredevil predecessors. John Paesano’s score provides Daredevil’s fights with brilliant atmosphere but, frankly, who wouldn’t prefer to watch a bulletproof man cracking skulls to the sounds of a Ghostface Killah verse?”
“Every comics page is a succession of frozen instants, but they could be seconds or minutes apart. The density of a nine-panel grid allows for a consistent rhythm. The smallest movement, of Batman turning over the smiley badge in his hand, can be broken into parts, each like a frame of celluloid.
In Watchmen, this effect was equated with the ticking of a clock. In Batman #21, there is a literal timer in the corner of each panel, counting down one second at a time. This tick-tock rhythm is the heartbeat of Watchmen’s universe, as recognizable as the “Be My Baby” drum beat.”
Not only is Polygon a great website, but it’s recently introduced Buzzfeed-style image swiping tools, which let you jump back and forth between the original pages and my annotated versions. Whoosh! It’s the closest my writing has even come to having its own special effects. Go and check it out.