Monday, March 1, 2010

Here, Catch!

In McCloud's book, Reinventing comics, he talks about how people in one genre, say Superheros take elements they've used often in other comics - even if those scenes don't quite make sense.

There's a common scenario in Manga, where someone throws something, say a can of juice at his friend, and the other guy catches it.

I thought of this when I read Jiro Taniguchi’s Summit of the Gods book. For the uninitiated, Jiro Taniguchi is a master of realistic (if slightly stiff) Manga characters & backgrounds. Early on, there's a scene where someone throws a pickaxe at his friend, and his friend catches it.

It's a quick scene, and helps move the action along. But logically, it makes no sense. Obviously if you throw something that dangerous at someone, they'll likely be injured or die. That's why I read so many comics, including the bad ones - I try to take what works, and what doesn't.

No comments:

Post a Comment