Or a look at the ballsiest comics car chase in Stumptown: The Case of The Baby in The Velvet Case
By Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Rico Renzi; Oni Press
In the hallowed days before digital special effects made movies lazy and terrible, there was a glorious halcyon age of stunts in action films that climaxed in dramatic, beautifully shot car chases. These car chases were high octane spectacles, meticulously crafted acts of stunt driving, grounded in the plausibility of having to actually have happened. And yet, these film segments were somehow larger than life, shot with the widest of angles in dynamic, kinetic styles that are so much bigger than the static, tighter angles of the more conversational story sections. These car chases are awesome, and special, and completely an artifact of a certain kind of film.
Or so I thought.
Because Stumptown: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case somehow pulls this off in a static, comics form. It is magnificent.
This post will contain *SPOILERS* for Stumptown: Vol. 2. Do yourself a favour and read the comic first; it's really, really great.
So part of the magic of the car chase scene is how it contrasts to the more conventionally drawn portions of the comic. The majority of Stumptown: Vol. 2 is drawn beautifully and atmospherically in the standard mode of comics with panels progressing from the top left of the page to the bottom right. It's the comics equivalent of tight angled dramatic shooting.
The brilliant choice, that makes the entire car chase scene feel huge and cinematographic is that they took the page....
...and turned it on its side.
And the result is pure comics widescreen magic.
By turning the page on its side, Team Stumptown changes the entire feel of the comic. The unorthodox page orientation instantly makes the car chase sequence feel special, like its not comics as usual. But it's so much more than a simple gimmick, because altering the page orientation also changes the page into a series of short, wide panels that emphasize horizontal space and movement which enhances the feeling of speed throughout the chase. Add in some really clever, cinematic angles, stylish blurring, and really great use of the speedometer and street signs and team Stumptown completely catches the giant, amazing feeling of a true movie car chase in a comic. It couldnt get much better...
...until...
They jump the fucking bridge!
How amazing is this double page spread? Everything about this moment is perfect: the bridge decks peeking into either side of the spread to set boundaries, the tiny car hanging in the void, angled toward the apex of the leap. Perfect. By maintaining the widescreen page orientation, the double page spread manages to emphasize both the height and the tremendous distance of the jump. The relative simplicty of the page also helps punch up the moment: the single colour background and the minimalist elements all help make the jump feel exceptionally fast, and yet due to its iconic simplicity, somehow timeless. It perfectly captures that sense of a super short moment, that due to the tension and insanity of it, just seems to stretch on and on. It's perfect comics.
Stumptown is a comic that I cannot recommend enough.
Previously
Stumptown: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case
Stumptown: The Case of The Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini)
A Fistful of Rain
Deep Sequencing: Making an entrance in Stumptown
A 250 word (or less) review of Stumptown Volume 2
By Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Rico Renzi; Oni Press
This
comic, you guys. This comic. Stumptown: The Case of the Baby in the Velvet Case
continues the tradition of being outrageously good comics. This installment of
the series follows perpetually down-on-her-luck private investigator Dex Parios
as she hunts for Baby, the prized guitar of Mim Bracca, the lead guitarist of
rock sensation Tailhook. When the investigation runs afoul of skinhead drug
dealers and the DEA it becomes apparent that more than the guitar is missing
and that Dex might just be in over her head. And it's all kind of perfect. The
story is exciting, the mystery is satisfying, and this volume of Stumptown
swaggers with all of its trademark charm, smarm, and humour. It's an endlessly
engaging, infectious read. It's also a really ballsy comic: there is a sequence
in this comic that is both technically brilliant and just gonads to the wind,
rock and roll, brave. It's a sequence that absolutely HAS to be seen. I also
really enjoyed the inclusion of Mim and Tailhook, the stars of Rucka's novel A Fistful of Rain (probably my favourite Rucka novel). While The
Case of The Baby in the Velvet Case contains all the narrative information you
need, it was fun to see Mim and to view her through the lens of her prose
depiction. Stumptown Vol. 2 is a fantastic comic and I still have absolutely no
idea how this series isn't a much, much bigger deal than it is.
Or the fantastic character introduction of Dex in Stumptown Vol. 1
By Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth; Oni Press
You only get one chance to make a first impression. The first five minutes of a movie, the first sentence of a story, the opening page of a comic. The preface of a novel. The first time we meet a new character. If done masterfully, the audience knows exactly what the story is going to be like and has an understanding, a solid sense, of the newly introduced character.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It's the Star Destroyer pursuing the Rebel corvette in Star Wars. It's Clint Barton falling out the window in Hawkguy. It's a screaming comes across the sky. And it's the cold open to Stumptown: The Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her Mini).
This post contains slight *SPOILERS* for Stumptown Vol. 1. All of the information is from the first half dozen pages and constitutes the cold open of the comic, so no big reveals are given away, buuuut it's probably better that you go and read Stumptown for yourself.
The comic opens with this page which effectively sets out a number of important facts about the comic. We have a car travelling to a remote location, killing dah lights, and two sketchy looking men doing something that doesn't look above board. This page establishes that Stumptown is a comic about little-c-crime, not supervillains and heists, but the more ubiquitous texture of crime in any urban centre. This page tells us that the world it's set in, at least from the information presented in this page, follows the rules of our own. Basically, this page sets a contract with the reader about what kind of comic Stumptown will be. It's not a brilliant, revolutionary page, but it does effectively set the tone of the book.
The brilliant part is what comes next.
This is the first panel of the next page, and our first glimpse of the protagonist of Stumptown, Dexedrine Parios. It is also the best character introduction I can think of in comics.
This single panel, especially following the page turn from the previous page, manages to convey a surprisingly dense character sketch of Dex. For starters she is in the trunk of the car in a remote area where she is held prisoner by the two sketchy dudes from the first page. We also see she has a black eye and is at least a bit beat up. Together this information suggests that Dex has shitty luck and that she has a tendency to get in over her head. But then we see her face, cracked in a wry grin, and read the speech bubble which, I imagine, is her pleasantly and casually speaking to her captors. This tells us Dex is brave (or at least bravado), she isn't flipping the fuck out, which is really the standard and reasonable response of being held captive in the trunk of a car. It also tells us that, given the self-aware smile and the blatantly ridiculous question, that Dex has a sense of humour and, with a wink to us audience folk, is aware of the ridiculousness of her circumstances. This of course, is all kinds of charming. (The casualness also feeds back to the down-on-her-luck characterization, because it suggests that yeah, she is used to this shit, but what are you going to do?) Closer inspection of the panel also reveals that she has a cell phone in her hand. While it is unclear at this point if she is phoning for help or just trying to use the phone to provide some light, it does convey that she is smart and resourceful. All of this, that Dex is charming, brave, resourceful, and terribly unlucky, all of it is packed into this single panel. And that is absolutely brilliant comics.
(I'd also like to point out how great this double page spread is. The way the bird flying away is used as a semi-sound effect as well as a time keeper, like sand through an hourglass, to drag the moment out is really smart and interesting. And I am ALWAYS a sucker for a beautiful picture of a bridge. Love me some bridges.)
Or a 250 word (or less) review of Stumptown volume 1
By Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth, Oni Press
My favourite thing about certain works of fiction is how
effortless they seem, how they just hang together and work as this
fully realized thing. Stumptown is a perfect example of a comic that
just... is. Every aspect of the comic, every writing and art decision,
just perfectly fills its niche. As a result, Stumptown Vol. 1 is just filled
with moment after moment of "of course it is". It's kind of
spectacular. Stumptown: The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo (But Left Her
Mini) collects the first story of Portland-based, down-on-her-luck
private investigator Dexedrine Parios. In return for forgiveness of a gambling debt, Dex is tasked with finding the wayward granddaughter of the Casino’s
Chief. What follows is a lean detective story with plenty of excitement,
suspense, and detecting. It’s a superbly crafted comic with taught, economic
writing that manages to build a pretty remarkable world while maintaining its
focus, coupled to artwork that manages to capture this perfectly balanced drab-gritty
atmosphere. But the thing about Stumptown that really makes it sing for me,
beyond all of its seamless craftsmanship and danger, is its charm. Stumptown
Volume 1 is just permeated with this unpretentious charm that makes it a joy to
read. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Stumptown has heart. Actually, I'm
trying to say that Stumptown is one of the most enjoyable comics experiences
I've had. Like,
I-don't-understand-why-everyone-isn't-name-dropping-this-comic-always
enjoyable. If you haven’t read Stumptown Vol. 1… just, go read it. Seriously.
Word count: 249
