STORY: KIERON GILLEN ART: JAMIE McKELVIE & MATT WILSON COVER A: JAMIE McKELVIE & MATT WILSON COVER B: EMI LENOX JANUARY 4 / 32 PAGES / FC / M / $3.50 “IMPERIAL PHASE (I),” Part Three The comic that says, “What could possibly go wrong?” and then looks at the camera and stares until we all start crying releases another issue.
Including Minerva’s new look and Emi Lenox stepping in to be amazing on the alt cover.
1) Minerva is adorbs 2) Possibly the most truthful solicit text ever.
We can finally pull the badge of STAR WARS: CLASSIFIED and reveal the new ongoing by Kevin Walker and yours truly, out December.
My first, somewhat giddy, interview is here. Lots more as we approach. In short: two-fisted (mostly) morally bankrupt archaeologist’s misadventures across the Star Wars universe.
The fact that Aphra is the first non-film character in the new expanded Star Wars universe to get her own ongoing is pretty much the coolest news possible.
Basically, it’s our Kevin Wada issue, and our solution to the problem of “how to do an issue with an artist who famously doesn’t do sequentials.” Our answer is to do the whole issue as an in-world magazine, with the content mainly being interviews with the gods.
It’s very much pushing the story forward as much as any issue of WicDiv, and astoundingly beautiful. If you are a fan of Kevin, you’re going to adore it.
All the articles are actually written by real world culture journalists and critics. Kieron did a chat-roleplay with each of them to generate a transcript, which they then turned into totally convincing articles. The kind writers who agreed are Leigh Alexander, Dorian Lynskey, Mary Choi, Laurie Penny and Ezekiel Kweku who are all truly excellent writers.
It’s also the first issue of a new arc, following directly on from the fourth trade (RISING ACTION) which just dropped this week. Oh, and the rest of IMPERIAL PHASE (Part 1) is a traditional GillenMcKelvieWilson comic.
DID YOU KNOW: we’re doing a Mew Issue in Squirrel Girl? BECAUSE WE ARE AND IT’S GONNA BE IN ISSUE #15, out in December!! Here’s the solicit:
When the TASKMASTER comes to town - and brings with him his ability to DUPLICATE ANYONE’S SWEET MOVES - who stands between him and total domination?
See, I can tell you’re glancing at the title of this comic and whispering “Well, it’s PROBABLY Squirrel Girl,” but guess what? This time it’s actually Nancy’s cat Mew, who has NO POWERS WHATSOEVER!
THRILL as Mew loafs around the house! GASP as Mew chases a mouse and then has a nap! BOGGLE as you wonder how we possibly managed to pitch “an issue entirely from the cat’s point of view” to Marvel, a multinational corporation with a LOT invested in our comic continuing to star a squirrel and/or girl!
They knew the risks when they let Hawkeye have that Pizza Dog issue though, so this was clearly inevitable.
MEW ISSUE, BRING YOUR TISSUES!
One can only assume that this will one day lead to a Mew v. Pizza Dog miniseries that ends with bonding and team-ups.
First appearance of Mera, in Aquaman #11 (1963), words by Jack Miller, art by Nick Cardy.
I feel like some day people are going to realize that Mera’s powers are like Magneto-level terrifying and bow down to the Queen.
The true reason Aquaman is so insecure about the whole “talking to fish” thing:
He goes home every night and brags about throwing a shark at a bad guy, but deep down he knows Mera could pick up the Pacific Ocean and throw ALL the sharks at once.
This is a thinkpiece on the construction of identities in Wicdiv. It has
words in it.
After four fast-paced issues
that reintroduced us to the original protagonist-turned-god Laura, The Rising
Action arc closed on the gruesome murder of Ananke, but not before the two of
them shared an enigmatic bit of dialogue. Its obscurity, its slightly off tone,
immediately prompted the theory that we were not witnessing a conversation
between Persephone’s reincarnation and Ananke, but between the latter and the
actual Persephone, who somehow managed to inhabit Laura in a way that hadn’t
been demonstrated by any of the other gods.
I find this interesting and fairly on point, give or take some quibbles with this reading of Tara, and with leaving Minerva out entirely (what was her source material but a butterfly in amber, frozen by the loss of agency when too young to develop a self who can function “normally”, but with genius brimming out the ears anyway? The real question there is, what would/will she become if the cycle breaks and she grows up?)
And dancing quite on point with Persephone, I think. (Where IS Laura when she pays for her 1 cigarette?)
One of the reasons that I love comics so much is that there are many valid ways to approach the medium. When I make comics, the parts I’m most concerned with are character and story. Everything I draw on the comic page is in service to character and story. Because of my focus on those two elements over, say, experimenting with my art and page structure, I will sometimes get criticism that my work is safe or boring. This is probably fair criticism! I don’t do a lot of experimenting with paneling or challenging storytelling or explicitly challenging artwork in my comics, because right now that’s what I’m not interested in. Maybe I will be more experimental someday, but not right now, with the kind of stories I want to tell. :)
When I make a comic, my goal is for my readers to be engaged with the story I’m telling, and the characters in that story. That’s also what I look for when I want to read a good comic. I want characters to love, I want a story to be engaged with.
For the most part, I struggle with drawing comics (most artists do, if we’re honest ;)), but there are some parts of comics I think I have a good handle on. I feel like I’m strongest when portraying emotion on the page, and I’m good at drawing those scenes out and making the reader feel what my characters are going through. Some of the techniques I use to convey emotion came from being obsessed with movies when I was a teenager, and some techniques are stolen from my holy trinity of influences: Jeff Smith (Bone), Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist) and Naoki Urasawa (Monster, Pluto, 20th Century Boys).
Of the three artists I’ve mentioned, I consider Urasawa especially to be a master of emotion and pacing. When I first started reading his comics, it was like light struck my brain; finally I saw what I’d been trying to do for years right there on the comic page in front of me! I like the way he lays out his emotional scenes a lot. Here’s an example (read right to left):
Urasawa uses repeating panels and decompression to draw out the emotions of a scene. In this single page there isn’t a lot of movement. It’s literally just two characters staring at each other, but the tension rises going from panel 1 to panel five. Gesicht (the man)’s expression doesn’t change between panels two and five, but we literally feel his anger rising off-panel, concluding in the close up in panel 5.
There’s an excellent You Tube channel called Every Frame a Painting (I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but if you haven’t, please go watch all the videos! There aren’t many, and they’re all really informative). My favourite video is this one, about editing:
This video hit on something that I strive for in my comics: emotion takes time. When I draw a scene that is emotional, when characters are struggling with something, or celebrating something, or being challenged, I want my readers to feel what the character is feeling, and one of the best ways to do that, for me, is to take my time. To give that emotion time to breathe on the page.
I’m going to use some scenes in The Nameless City to illustrate how I use decompression and pacing to underscore the emotion in my comics. To avoid spoilers and because this is getting a little long, I’m going to put it under a cut. Please read on! :)
