Deep Sequencing: Head Of The Family

Or a look at how narration and captioning empower a character in Lazarus Volume 3
by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Santi Arcas, and Jodi Wynne; Image Comics

In the comic Lazarus, the world is ruled by plutocrat families which function essentially as corporate royalty. Forever, the protagonist of the comic, is a genetically engineered supersoldier who exists both as an enforcer and a junior member of the Carlyle plutocrat family which rules much of western North America. An important aspect of Forever's life are the complicated family dynamics of the Carlyle family, particularly her relationship to her father, the head of the family and business, and de facto ruler of the Carlyle domain. It is a strange relationship and Malcolm, her father is an interesting and intimidating character.

Malcolm Carlyle is portrayed as an authoritative character. He is white, apparently middle-aged, and has a generally stern baring. He dresses in a grown up, all business way usually wearing suits or dress shirts. He is always seen in command of the room he is in with his family members, and even members of other plutocrat families deferring to him. Malcolm Carlyle is obviously a big deal in a very consistent, systemic way.

The thing is, Malcolm Carlyle is also portrayed as a big deal using a really cool comic trick in Lazarus Vol. 3.

Which of course, involves some *SPOILERS*

The story of this page is that Forever, acting in her capacity of Family Lazarus is sent to deliver a message to her counterpart from a rival family. The goal of her trip is to negotiate a Conclave, a gathering of the plutocrat families, to settle a dispute. What is so remarkable about this sequence is that the actual negotiations depicted occur silently, and are instead narrated in the instructions Malcolm Carlyle gives Forever. This choice depicts Malcolm as being a deeply cunning and prescient strategist that can accurately predict the shape of the negotiations ahead of time. It is also a choice that lends Malcolm an authorial voice: this page reads less like conventional narration than as a literal script dictating how the scene and artwork should look. This script-iness is built into the structure of the narration captions as they, unlike normal narration in Lazarus, blend into the gutters of the page and appear to somewhat outside the bounds of the panels and comic world. Collectively this lends suggests Malcolm exerts a great deal of power and control to the point that it can seem that he is writing the comic world he inhabits. Which is really, really smart and interesting comics.

And why I totally accept Malcolm Carlyle as a truly intelligent and formidable leader. 

Previously:
Lazarus Vol. 1
Lazarus Vol. 2
Lazarus Vol. 3

Deep Sequencing: Repetition and acting

So I Read Lazarus: Conclave

A 250 word (or less) review of Lazarus Volume 3
by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas; Image Comics

Lazarus is part of an ongoing series. To read a review of Volume One, go here.

The first chapter of Lazarus focused on introducing us to Forever, the superhuman bioengineered enforcer of the Carlyle family, and the second chapter constructed the dystopian world of life inside the Carlyle family holdings. Lazarus: Conclave shifts the focus from establishing internal conflicts to the international world of Lazarus and the complicated framework of warring plutocratic families which control the globe. In this chapter wayward Carlyle son Jonah seeks sanctuary with rival family Hock and instead finds himself held hostage. This leads to a Conclave where leaders from the ruling families and their Lazarus enforcers meet to settle the dispute between Carlyle and Hock. This gives us a much deeper look into the ruling class of Lazarus and a fitting stage for a great story of intrigue, romance, drama, and betrayal and maybe the impetus for the central conflict of the series. Lazarus: Conclave also represents a tonal shift for me: while still very smart, very well made Sci-fi, Volume 3 feels less obviously horrific and focused on examining sociopolitical trends and more interested in telling a compelling story and character development. Which is a welcome change in that it gives the creative team a chance to show their great ear for dialogue and eye for acting to really breathe extra life into the comic's characters. Lazarus was always good, but now it feels inhabited by real people. Which has transformed Lazarus from a smart, scary Sci-fi comic, to a smart, scary Sci-fi comic that I’m deeply emotionally invested in. 

Word count: 250

Post by Michael Bround

Previously:
Lazarus Vol. 1
Lazarus Vol. 2

Deep Sequencing: Repetition and acting

Deep Sequencing: Twisting The Knife

Or a look at how extra panel beats are used to guttering effect in Lazarus Vol. 2
By Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas

Lazarus is the Dystopian Science Fiction comic that feels too realistic to be fun. It tells the story of Forever Carlyle, the enhanced Lazarus enforcer for her family, in a future where obscenely wealthy families have carved up the world and rule over humanity. It's a comic about the logical extension of todays most worrisome trends. It's very good, and very horrific.

It is also a comic that has some great examples of the use of repetitive panels.

I am fascinated by the use of repetitive panels in comics. The practice of placing a series of panels with only slight differences in composition or action can lead to some pretty interesting storytelling mechanisms. It's really a unique and discrete comics tool. And Lazarus Vol. 2 does some really interesting things with repetitive panels worth taking a closer look at.

There will be *SPOILERS* for Lazarus Vol. 2 below.

The simplest, most obvious example of repetitive panels is all about reaction and emphasis. A panel shows a character in one position, and then something happens, and we see the character react. The similarity in panel composition let's the reader focus on the differences between panels, which in a character reaction shot really enhances the emotion of the moment. This works great in the above selection from Lazarus, where we really see Forever react to the awful, awful experience of being woken by an alarm. Because the panel repetition drives home the contrast between the peaceful sleeping Forever and the stunned, suddenly alert Forever we absolutely experience that blade of shock that comes with sudden wakefulness. It's an awful, awful feeling, but great comics.

Repetition in panels also has the effect of drawing out moments. Often, each panel in a comic is kind of like a unit of time; the more panels you see, the more time is being depicted. It's somewhat analogous to individual frames of film in a movie reel. So one of the things that can happen when several highly similar panels are used in a row, is that moments can stretch and feel longer than they might otherwise. This meditation scene is a great example of this: we get an establishing shot panel and then four, very similar panels in a row that make the scene feel especially long and especially still. Which is a great visual tag for meditation, which is really the act of spending long spans of time as still as possible as a way to quiet and focus the mind. It's a really smart page layout.

The time displacing effects of repetitive panels can really make moments feel heavier, more significant too. The woman being interrogated here is essentially powerless and in the hands of people who can, and will, do whatever they want with her. And yet, she takes the time to build herself up and tell them to fuck off. It's a powerful moment that I think works as well as it does because the use of repetitive panels creates a sense of time. And this sense of time shows that the woman had to work up to the moment, that it was a conscious utterance and not just a reckless, emotional reaction. It's a really masterful use of panel allocation for emotional effect.

One of my favourite things about Greg Rucka as a prose author is that he has this wonderful tendency to build up these emotional gut punch moments that are like knife blows to the soul. Just these perfectly delivered moments of awful that make you step back from the novel and chew on for a moment. With Michael Lark and Santi Arcas in Lazarus, we get that same soul-stabbing knife twist moments in comics form.

And these knife-twisting moments seem to rely on repetitive panel constructions to work. It seems like the combination of contrast and time stretching create this perfect storm for significant character moments. Like, take the above sequence. Forever has a weird relationship with her father; she has been conditioned to love him deeply, and yet she is also being taught that she is property, a weapon of the family. In the above sequence we see this entirely encapsulated in three repetitive panels. We see kind of a lovely moment of Forever embracing her father and then that moment ruined in this slow, awful way that emphasizes the grosser parts of her role in the family. This sequence absolutely guts me, and I think it comes down to how stretched out it is, how we get to see the entire arc of glee and rejection play out, and the sharp obvious contrast between the happy embracing Forever and the disappointed formal Forever. It's this perfect, significant moment, that uses repetitive panels to twist the knife in your soul.

Lazarus Vol. 2 is a great comic with some great use of repetitive panels which will give you feelings. You should check it out.

Previously:
Lazarus Vol. 1
Lazarus Vol. 2

So I Read Lazarus: Lift

A 250 word (or less) review of Lift Volume 2
by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas

Lazarus is a comic about a dysopian future where North America has been carved up between plutocrat families and where humanity has been divided between powerful Family, a privileged group of Serf specialists, and hordes of wretched, impoverished Waste. The protagonist of the comic is Forever Carlyle, the genetically engineered super solider "Lazarus" for her powerful family. In Lazarus: Lift we see Forever work to foil a terrorist plot and get glimpses into her terrifying childhood spent training and conditioning to be her family's loyal enforcer. We are also introduced to the Barrets, a Waste family, on a desperate pilgrimage to be made Serfs and lifted out of squalor. Lazarus is a really good comic: the story is solid and the art is endlessly atmospheric. Lazarus is also not a very fun comic. I find it far too prescient, far too much the logical extrapolation of the worst trends of hyper-capitalism, economic inequality, environmental disaster, and authoritarianism for it to be a good time. It is hard to look at a cautionary tale of impending doom and find it full of laughs and awesome moments. But Lazarus is interesting, gripping, and probably one of the most uncomfortably engrossing reads I've had in recent memory. From a series structure Lazarus: Lift feels like the first real act in what promises to be a challenging and worthwhile story. Just be ready to be terrified.

Word count: 232

Previously:
Lazarus Vol. 1

So I Read Lazarus: Family

A 250 word (or less) review of Lazarus: Volume 1 
by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas; Image Comics

So much of our collective imagination is based around the idea that there have been golden ages, times which were morally, or creatively, or materially better than today. Sometimes I wonder if we are in such a golden age today, a golden age that threatens to teeter off into some kind of corporate police state run by an oligarchy of plutocrats. And it seems that Rucka, Lark, and Arcas have worry about this too. In Lazarus they portray a future where a dystopian North America is controlled by extremely wealthy families, who, through their stranglehold on scarce resources and strength of arms, rule as merchant princes over retainer Serfs and piteous, countless Waste. A future that seems like the logical extension of our current economic disparity, of personified corporations, of commodified natural resources, and of uncontrolled climate change. It is in this terrible and plausible future that Lazarus tells the story of Forever Carlyle, the genetically enhanced, superhuman Lazarus enforcer of the Carlyle Family and the complicated familial and situational conflicts she is embedded in. Lazarus: Family, the short first volume of the series, is effectively the opening scene of the ongoing comic: the first chapter succinctly establishing the premise of Forever, and the rest of Family constructs the larger world and the dynamics of Family Carlyle. As such Lazarus Volume 1 is so much more intriguing than satisfying, but it has certainly left me hungry for more. 

Word count: 238