Comic book art not only serves the immediate purpose of visually telling the story. A little wiser now, 25 year old me can see the clever ways artwork can be used to convey a message or make a point, sometimes in subtle ways.
Related: Observations on Comic Book Art: Part I, the folly of youth
Take Batman: Year One. First published in 1987, yet you could leaf through its pages and mistake it for something more recent. The story telling and art have aged well. The artwork may seem somewhat abstract, the ink work a bit odd, but it has a timeless quality to it. Except for a few details, you'll be hard pressed to pin it to a particular decade. The same could not be said of the Knightfall story arc, with artwork that is unmistakably 90s. Nothing wrong with this, but I suspect that 20 years from now Year One will still be reading Year One as the timeless origin story.
Batman: The Long Halloween has a very somber colour palette, lots of grey but just enough colour to remind us that this is a coloured comic. It enhances the story and complements the fact that this is a detective story.
Who hasn't read Watchmen and heard the numerous comments about the use of panels and so on? As for me, I'm fond of how visually it looks the way old pulp comics looked. To me there is a contrast between this style and the grim reality of a world on the edge of a nuclear holocaust. It reminds me that all too often superheroes are depicted fighting supervillians, these battles sometimes feel like they exist in a bubble, in isolation. In a nuclear war, could such extraordinary individuals survive when others would surely perish? The pessimist in me thinks not.
The final comic I want to talk about is Invincible Iron Man. I enjoy Iron Man, the artwork is appropriate to this story where technology and scientific progress play such a big part. The art is beautifully detailed and coloured (achieved digitally to some extent) and emphasises realism, discarding over muscled supermen and outlandish designs for human body proportions and practical, believable tech (as far as you can be in a comic). It complements one of the underlying themes of the book: progress and technology. Iron Man himself is a product of technology, or at least a vision of technological marvels dreamt up by the writer and artist.
So, that's my little jot on comic art. Not the view of an expert, just someone who enjoys comics.
So, that's my little jot on comic art. Not the view of an expert, just someone who enjoys comics.
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