Favourite Moments in Comics #7 - Batman (1)

Alan Moore considers his and artist Brian Bolland's Batman: The Killing Joke to be one of his "inferior" works; I'm not sure why, because it pretty much grips and shocks from start to finish.

It's essentially the Joker's origin story, and explains the unique connection between the Joker and the Batman; that "one bad night" can tip your life one way or the other. It also explicitly asks questions about the nature of "madness" - is a person who dons a cape and cowl and prowls the streets by night beating up criminals to avenge his dead parents any less "mad" than a psychotic "clown" who kills people because he finds it funny?

Anyway, the stand-out sequence in the book involves the Joker's terrifying kidnapping of Commissioner James Gordon and the shooting of his librarian daughter, Barbara (Batgirl):

Moore's/Joker's black humour shines through: "Mind you, I can't say much for this volume's condition. I mean, there's a hole in the jacket and the spine appears to be damaged."

After this sequence, the Batman visits Barbara in hospital. There's a note of real terror here in Barbara's voice:

Later, the Joker torments Gordon with images of his naked, crippled daughter:

This was shocking then (as it is now) because there was rarely a sense of consequences of the Joker's insanity; he would kill people, be captured & sent to prison, escape then the sequence would begin again. The psychological (and physical) effects of his madness were never considered. It's to DC's credit (and a testament to the power of Moore's writing and Bolland's images) that, as of writing this, Barbara Gordon remains in a wheelchair 20-odd years after this story. Every time I see her in her wheelchair, I think of The Killing Joke.

Favourite Moments in Comics #6 - Marvels

This is one of those "wow" moments. Kurt Busiek & Alec Ross' Marvels series took a look at the familiar - in this case the formation of the Marvel universe - from the point of view of an ordinary bystander; it was a technique often used in film, but rarely in comics.

Artist Ross has gained a reputation for gorgeous painted artwork, but it's not his brushstrokes that were the draw here. In this panel, we see one of the Avengers, Giant Man stride across a New York street, but Ross' composition really brought home the idea that these were *super* heroes - very different from ordinary people - and that their (ahem) perspective was very different from ours.

Favourite Moments in Comics #5 - When The Wind Blows

Raymond Briggs modelled the characters of Jim & Hilda, the two pensioners who we follow throughout this story, on his own parents. It must have been particularly difficult, then, to take them down the path he created for them.

Briggs created a funny and terrifying tale of two ordinary people oblivious to the increasing threat of nuclear war. They are confused by contradictory government advice on preparing and surviving a nuclear attack, and exist in a world made more secure by the naive trust in government and repetition of clichés and malapropisms.

The example below comes near the end of the book and features some wonderful examples of Briggs' dialogue: "Another IBM might come over...", "The Powers That Be will get to us in the end..."

Favourite Comics Moments #4 - The Spirit

The Spirit is justifiably famous for its clever splash pages and it's creator Will Eisner's mastery of storytelling techniques, both of which are on display in this episode: 'Showdown With The Octopus', from 1947.





Every page shows how much Eisner was the boss of his medium: the use of background details to give the story a context on the splash page, Dolan's smoke leading the reader's eye through page 2, the incredible use of a single flashlight source on page 3, framing the action on page 4, the sound effects on page 5, the panel rhythm on page 6 and use of dramatic lighting on page 7.
For some creators this would be the high water mark of their career, but Eisner was just getting started; he would go on to father the graphic novel in the US, produce some of the best Black & white comics magazine work and inspire a whole new generation of comics illustrators. It's not for nothing that comics version of the Oscars is named for him.

Favourite Comics Moments #3 - Judge Dredd

This was probably the first moment I remember thinking "that is *so* cool" to myself with regards something I read in a comic. It is from 2000AD prog 227, published in 1981, and features everyone's favourite fascist, Judge Dredd.

Years before the Batman became really grim & dark, John Wagner was doing it with Dredd and managing to do it with a wonderfully dark sense of humour too.

To give you the background, the Dark Judges (basically the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse) are taking over Mega-City One and one of them - Judge Fear - terrifies people to death this way:

But when Fear tries his schtick with JD:

Whenever I think of Dredd, I picture him drawn by Brian Bolland, largely because of this sequence.

Favourite Comics Moments #2 - Master Race

The word "art" is thrown about willy (and indeed nilly) these days, and no less when discussing comics than any other form of endeavour. It is encouraging, however, when one comes across a piece of work that truely deserves that label.

Master Race was a story published in 1955, in the first edition of EC Comics' Impact! and illustrated by the peerless Bernard Krigstein. It deals with the guilt of a concentration camp officer and has a depth and sureness of touch that, even more than 50 years later, still stands head and shoulders above most other published comics stories. Krigstein spent only a few years in comics; his best work was done with EC, and his best EC work is in this story, an important and influential example of how to tell a story using both words and pictures.

Favourite Comics Moments #1 - Calvin & Hobbes

The first of the series where I'll post my favourite moments from comics (books/strips/albums/graphic novels etc) is the last ever strip from Calvin & Hobbes:


It may seem strange to begin with the last episode, but this strip does things to my insides that no other (not even another Calvin & Hobbes) does. It works on all its levels and is the product of an artist in full mastery of his medium. When I knew that I was about to read the last strip, I had pre-empted my feelings by being annoyed that I wouldn't get to read any more new Calvin & Hobbes strips. The feeling I'm left with after this strip is one of profound embarrassment that I could be so selfish. Now that I'm a parent with a son about Calvin's age, I feel that I've waved goodbye to my precious bundle at the school gates and allowed him to go and find himself.