Deep Sequencing: East-SLASH-West

Or a look at action composition and the use of symmetry in East of West Vol. 5
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, Rus Wooton; Image Comics

East of West is a pretty great comic. It is a comic about the end of the world in a kind of Sci-fi/Western alternate universe. In the world of East of West the US Civil War (and concurrent American Indian Wars) ended in a stalemate when a comet crashed and decimated much of the continent. As a result the US is divided into a number of warring states, once locked in an uneasy peace, and now openly warring. Oh, and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse stalk the land while Death rides in search of his lost son, the harbinger of the Endtimes. East of West is choked full of memorable characters, cool Sci-fi concepts, intrigue, and beautifully composed action. It is absolutely a comic worth reading.

I want to take a closer look at a particularly nifty action sequence from East of West Vol. 5 to try and unpack what I like about it and to showcase something cool it does using symmetrical layouts.

There will be *SPOILERS* below.

 

 

 

The sequence I want to talk about is a selection from a longer, excellent action set piece. The story of this chapter shows a number of ninja-like assassins infiltrating the palace of The People's Republic of America to murder Mao Xiaolian, the leader of this polity. Specifically sequence has the assasins corner the leader bathing, apparently vulnerable, and Xiaolian fighting back against her wouldbe killers. The entire story is wonderfully composed and very effective comics.

I'm going to focus in on these three pages though, since I think they showcase the strength of the storytelling and because they do a couple interesting things.

The first page is a pretty good example of the majority of the action storytelling in East of West. The composition here makes great use of how the reader naturally wants to navigate a comics page to deliver the action in a compelling way. The reader traces the arc of a tangent to quickly take in the key elements of the first panel in a way that creates a sense of the assassins charging at the naked, and seemingly vulnerable Xiaolian. This brings the reader to an across the page carriage return that is abruptly stopped by Xiaolian catching the sword blade in one of her robotic fists. The reader then sweeps up into the next moment and then into another carriage return that delivers the speed and force of Xiaolian's kick. It's overall a page that feels quick and visceral.

The second page initially uses the many of the same storytelling elements, except this time the flow of motion opposes the readers natural eye tracking. The first panel has a hilt-chop that moves against the left-to-right flow of the reader, making the moment more visceral, and then an impaling which also happens against the grain. And then this page does something really important: it zooms out and gives a static feeling glance of the action. This large panel reminds the reader that four of Xiaolian's servants sacrificed themselves to save her, reminding the reader of the stakes, shows how many assassins have been dispatched, and reveals how many killers are still active. This choice really highlights the scope of the remaining danger and provides critical context for just how dire the situation is. It is a great example of why pulling the lens out and establishing a sense of space can improve action storytelling.

The final page in this selection is the most interesting to me. Unlike the previous pages which use the normal back-and-forth path through the page, the third page here is all about convincing the reader to navigate straight down the page. I think this is largely accomplished through the use of symmetry in the layout. The way the top panel frames Xiaolian in the centre of the page makes her the obvious focal point of the first panel. When the reader moves down to the next tier, the narrowing of the central panels and simple, tall outer panels function to funnel the reader through the centre and into the final dramatic panel. When combined, this makes the page read as one clear motion, through the straining, splitting blade and into the double block in one amazing flurry of activity. It's a glorious page of comics that conveys a pretty complex sequence of events clearly, stylishly, and evocatively. It is fantastic stuff.

Previously:

Criticism:

Violence and character design

Dialogue composition

Reviews:

East of West Vol. 1

East of West Vol. 2

East of West Vol .3 

East of West Vol. 4

Deep Sequencing: Hostile Babylon

Or a look at depictions of violence in East of West. Vol. 4
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, Rus Wooton; Image Comics

I think violence is seldom portrayed in truly visceral, satisfying ways in most media. In comics, I find depictions of violence tend to be mitigated, rendered down to a palatable, symbolic state that conveys that injuries and pain are happening in a story sense without the felt-in-the-guts-horror of the violence being depicted. A lot of this, I think, comes from the tamed down nature of most depictions: a lot of violence in comics reflects that weird videogame/movie/TV language where consequences are cartoonishly minimized. (In a way that I find endlessly messed up when I actually think about it. Selling, like, gun violence as commonplace or where victims of gunshot wounds basically walk it off as opposed to being irrevocably damaged is super fucked up.) So I always find it interesting when comics find a way to depict violence in a way that captures the sheer awfulness of it.

Generally, I find most effective depictions of violence use two general strategies. The first is that they make heavy use of eye-guiding and layout to build a significant element of velocity into the artwork, making every action kinetic and maximizing every impact. The second is that they portray realistic violence: realistically drawn people are injured in the horrible ways that real people would be if stabbed, or bludgeoned, or shot. It's authentic and traumatic in a way that more sterilized depictions just aren't. A great example of a kinetic, realistic, and horrible depiction of violence was in the Ellis/Shavley/Bellaire run of Moon Knight.

What is interesting about East of West is that it uses a very different approach to depicting visceral violence that is pretty interesting.

There will be *SPOILERS* for East of West Vol. 4 below.

The context for the next sequence has to do with Babylon, the son of Death, who is the harbinger of the end times. Or, at least the fated harbinger of the End Times. Right now, Babylon is just a generally innocent child, raised by an AI in seclusion who is being manipulated by pro-apocolypse forces into growing up to end the world. In the course of Volume 4, his AI "balloon" is reprogrammed to push young Babylon into choosing to do violent, evil things in an effort to catalyze his development into a monster.

What I find so interesting about this effective sequence of violence, where Babylon is driven to kill a herd of wild pigs, is how it uses omission to create a visceral portrayal of violence. Rather than show snapshots of Babylon murdering the pigs, this sequence uses shadows and splatters to hint at the violence being done. This allows the reader's imagination to fill in whatever grisly moments of violence they picture occurring, which I find a weirdly effective choice. Part of this is the size of an imagination compared to the size of a page: the reader can picture more events, more moments of graphic violence than there is space in the page to show. Similarly, by not showing the actual events, the creators leave an ambiguity that allows the reader to picture an endless spectrum of depravity. It's a really cool use of the reader/creator/comic relationship to encode extra meaning and to use minimalist storytelling to make a really visceral moment.

Another aspect of this choice that I find interesting is even a bit more meta. By inviting the reader to envision the horrible things Babylon is doing to his victims, the comic is essentially making the reader choose to kill the pigs in their imagination. It's putting us in the characters place, putting us ideologically through the same process as Babylon, and making us complicit in his acts of violence. It's a really effective, transgressive bit of comics.

Of course, despite the apparent simplicity of the sequence, this bit of comics is filled with some really astute bits of layout and tracking to make the page kinetic and exciting. The central tool being used throughout this sequence is tangent lines (or honestly, I've always thought of them as "speed lines", but I have no idea if that is a term of art... but screw it, let's call them speed lines). Anyway, these speed lines, give every panel a sense of motion and an orientation of that motion. This makes every stab and slash, bloody splatter and splash, feel dynamic and in motion which substantially increases the drama of the sequence. It is also significant how the vectors of the action clash with each other and work against much of the eye tracking in the page giving each action a brutality and sense of chaos that wonderfully feeds into the ambiguity of the panels. Which I think is the true magic here: the exciting and dramatic storytelling creates a sense of danger and violence that allows the ambiguity to drive the reader into manufacturing a truly horrific episode of violence. 

Another aspect of this sequence that I think is kind of cool has to do with the character design of Babylon. When the sequence starts, an innocent Babylon is dresses in his all-white outfit. However, after enacting his slaughter of the pig herd, Babylon becomes covered in blood and gore, which shows prominently on his white garb. This works as a wonderful visual metaphor for the corruption that Babylon is undergoing in this sequence. It's a seemingly small choice, but it evocatively depicts the evolving status of the character.

Previously:

East of West Vol. 1

East of West Vol. 2

East of West Vol .3 

East of West Vol. 4

So I Read East of West Volume 4

A 250 word (or less) review of East of West Vol. 4
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Rus Wooton

East of West is an ongoing comic. To read the first chapter go here.

East of West is a Sci-fi Western comic about the end times. The comic is set in an alternate reality United States that is divided into a series of opposing nations, a result of an asteroid impact that occurred during the concurrent American Civil and American-Indian wars and calcified the political landscape of the time. East of West Vol. 4 is very much a logistic issue, giving the various plot threads a chance to mature and develop: we check in with each of the nations of the fractured United States, we visit with Death and the other major characters of the story, and there is even an encyclopedia about the various polities of East of West. If there is a central narrative of East of West volume four it is about Babylon, Death's son, as he is tempted into fulfilling his role as the harbinger of the apocalypse. Overall, East of West Vol. 4 is an important set up chapter that seems to be getting the pieces of the comic ready for a tremendous pay off. It isn't the best chapter of comics ever, but it contains the smart world building, relentless storytelling, and beautiful and cerebral artwork that has made East of West so enjoyable. Basically, Vol. 4 a solid chapter in a great comic you should be reading.

Previously:

East of West Vol. 1

East of West Vol. 2

East of West Vol .3 

So I Read The Manhattan Projects Volume 5

A 250 word (or less) review of The Manhattan Projects fifthcollection
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire, and Rus Wooton; Image Comics

The Manhattan Projects is an ongoing comic. To read a review of Vol. 1 go here.

As a real-life scientists I find The Manhattan Projects an insulting and unrealistic smear job, but as a comic reader I find it to be andelightfully entertaining comic. While The Manhattan Projects might be a hideous caricature of Science, the one thing it gets right is that it's always about what comes next. Real, ethical Scientists are always pushing, trying to find that next idea or thing that will benefit humankind. Volume 5 of The Manhattan Projects is also a quest for what comes next: the mission to save poor Laika, the lost space exploring dog; the struggles to co-opt the US government; the tension with the alien force behind the Soviet Government; and a multiverse safari. It is a fresh take on Mad Science and a great continuation of what has come before in The Manhattan Projects. It's as hilarious, weird, inappropriate, and chillingly believable as the true history the comic parallels. As a comic reader I highly recommend it. As a Scientist I have to point out a factual error: the Einsteins conclude that a dirigible monster shot with incendiary rounds cannot hold Noble gasses since it did not burn. This is wrong because Noble gasses are so named for their chemically inert nature, due to their full valence orbitals, and cannot oxidize and burn. Their results instead indicate that the dirigible beasts DO contain Noble gasses. I expect better accuracy from my Mad Science Exploitation comics. C'mon guys.

Word count: 241

Post by Michael Bround

Previously:

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 1

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 2

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 3

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 4

Deep Sequencing: The Bomb

Deep Sequencing: Red-vs-Blue

So I Read East Of West Volume 3

A 250 word (or less) review of the third East of West collection,
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Dragotta, Frank Martin, and Rus Wotoon; Image Comics

This review will have *SPOILERS*. For a clean reviewof East of West Vol. 1 go here.

East of West is a Science Fiction Western comic about the end of the world. The Chosen and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are preparing for The Beast and paving the way to the end times. Meanwhile the Horseman of Death is acting against his erstwhile allies as he hunts for his kidnapped son and for the chance to win back his stolen wife. Previous chapters of the comic have done a fantastic job introducing us to the Horsemen, The Chosen, and to the fractured world of East of West's ravaged and divided American continent. Volume 3 is the issue where it begins to all fall apart: the ironclad armistice that has kept the nations of America at peace is challenged and broken, the Horsemen revolt against their role and plot to kill The Beast and usurp his mantle, and Death continues to do whatever it takes to reclaim his son. It really feels like the end times are finally beginning. East of West is one of the best comics I am reading. It is this magnificent creation that balances an ingenious plot with pitch perfect dialogue, seamlessly wedded to spectacular artwork that is wonderfully imaginative, beautiful to look at, and brilliantly composed. It is a great example of every element of a comic book working together flawlessly to create a perfect comic reading experience. I cannot recommend this comic enough. It is must read comics.

Word count: 237

Post by Michael Bround

Previously:

East of West Vol. 1

East of West Vol. 2

So I Read God Is Dead

A 250 word (or less) review of God Is Dead Vol. 1
by Jonathan Hickman, Mike Costa, Di Amorim; Avatar Press

From the Messianic parallels in the Superman myth to the literal mythological figures like Thor and Wonder Woman, cape comics seem deeply interested in exploring the divine nature of superheroes. The provocatively named God Is Dead is Jonathan Hickman, Mick Costa, Di Amorim, and companies foray into a gritty exploration of superpowered gods. God Is Dead portrays the return of gods from various ancient civilizations  to Earth. These returned gods attract followers and launch an age of holy wars. These wars spread to the pantheons and the gods themselves war for supremacy. Meanwhile a team of underground scientists launch a quest to save humanity from their horrible deities. God Is Dead is not a particularly good comic. There are just so many comics exploring divinity, and God Is Dead doesn't really say anything that hasn't already been covered better in another comic. Even worse, the art is horrible. Di Amorim’s figure work, anatomy, and acting are inconsistent, and his storytelling is choppy and uninteresting. God Is Dead is very much a predictable story told with subpar art. As such, it’s not a comic I can really recommend. But if you’re interested in godly superhero comics, Hickman and Bodenheim’s A Red Mass For Mars is a much more interesting examination of the theme and Supergod by Ellis and Gastony (also from Avatar) covers almost the same territory as God Is Dead with more chutzpah and better art. Read those, not God Is Dead.


Word count: 242

So I Read The Manhattan Projects Vol. 4

Or a 250 word (or less) review of The Manhattan Projects Vol. 4
by Jonathan Hickman, Nick Pitarra, Jordie Bellaire, Rus Wooton, Ryan Browne; Image Comics

This review will contain *SPOILERS*. For a clean review go here.

I'm a Scientist and as such I think Science is the key to the future of humanity and I'll have you know that I fi.... fuck it. I'll be honest, Science is just really cool. I get to go to work everyday and do really cool stuff like electrocute still beating genetically engineered heart cells to figure out how they work. And that is awesome. I might have good, lofty intentions, but at the end of the day I love this shit because Science is fun. And so fucking cool. So maybe those assholes making The Manhattan Projects might be on to something. In Volume 4 we see more of the madness side of Mad Science as cannibalistic Oppenheimer's Science coup comes to a dramatic conclusion, the civil war in Oppenheimer's mind rages on, and we finally learn what happened to the real Einstein. This issue is really the culmination of a lot of The Manhattan Projects up to this point and it really pays off in shocking and excessively violent ways. It's also the launching point for another promising new chapter (paradigm) of Science. Bad. The Manhattan Projects might portray all of my friends and colleagues as fucking monsters, but at the very least it gets that Science is awesome.

Disclaimer: I don't actually think that Team TMP are assholes. That was for dramatic effect.

Disclaimer: I take my job as Scientist very seriously. Don't show this to my boss.

Word count: 241

Post by Michael Bround, PhD Candidate 

Previously:

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 1

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 2

The Manhattan Projects: Volume 3

Deep Sequencing: The Bomb

Deep Sequencing: Red-vs-Blue

Deep Sequencing: Secretive Colours

Or a look at the atmospheric effect of the colouring in Secret
by Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Bodenheim, Michael Garland, Rus Wotoon; Image Comics

Secret is a comic that is doing some interesting things with colours. I'm not entirely sure what, but I have some theories, several theories. Well, it's more like I HAD some theories. After more thought than is probably rational I was forced to reject each of my theories one by one until I am left with no discernible pattern of what the art team is trying to do. There is something going on, but I cannot figure it out well enough to present it to you. All I know is that Secret is doing some interesting things with colour.

But even if I can't tell you the logic behind what the creative team of Secret is trying to do, I can delve into how I respond to the unorthodox colours in Secret.

There will, as always be *SPOILERS* herein.

Secret does not follow any obvious rule of colouring. At first, we are presented to a black and white world where points of violence and emphasis are coloured bright red. So maybe red means violence? Except in other scenes a woman's dress or finger nails are bright red. And other times just a computer screen. In other scenes the world is black and white except for points of illumination. On some pages all of the artwork is coloured in sepia, or orange, or green, or purple. On other pages the colouring jumps back and forth, panel to panel, from grey to a colour or between colours based on some set of rules I haven't pinned down. Or maybe no rules, just aesthetics. One character's suit is left white on a page that is overwhelmingly coloured in greyscale. A few panels have colours that approach, but do not quite reach true colours, and I have no idea why. Secret is a roiling, inscrutable colour machine.

Secret never quite conforms to a realistic colouring scheme. It comes close a few times, but never does it really use a palette that reasonably reflects the colours of reality. And so, for me, everything feels a little false.

Everything feels disingenuous, like the comic is lying to me, or maybe that I don't have the whole picture. Like I haven't figured out the Secret yet. It's like the colours are telling me that I'm only seeing a portion of reality, just the orange beam of light split by the prism of the comic instead of the complete spectrum. Which I would argue creates a sense of mystery and dishonesty about the comic. It makes it feel like Secret has a secret.

Secret also is wildly inconsistent in its colouring; it is constantly changing its palettes and the rules governing the applications of colour. As a result, Secret feels unmoored from a fixed position or reality. Secret feels unstable.

Let me try to explain. Say I tell you that there is an apple on a wooden table and that the apple is red. What if someone else now tells you the apple is green and the table was aluminum. What if you got to see black and white video showing a greyscale apple sitting on a greyscale table. Or a painting of that scene depicted in psychedelic colours on an oil painting that the artist swears is realistic. What if you saw the apple with your own eyes but saw that it was red, no wait green, no wait yellow, no wait blue. You'd start to feel unmoored from the fixed reality of the apple on the table right?

Secret is constantly showing us the apple in a constantly shifting variety of colours.

As a result, I would argue that Secret posses an emotional sense of an unfixed reality. That what we are seeing and the understanding we are gleaning from the page is unfixed, liable to change at a moments notice. It's like the comic trying to tell us that we are just moments away from a perspective altering revelation, which of course plays into the idea that the comic is lying to us. 

I spent all of Secret waiting for the next big revelation, twist, and colour change for when it all came together and I'd see the world with true colours.

Secret is being governed by inscrutable colouring rules. The comic clearly has unnatural colouring that is obviously trying to do something, to emphasize some page elements but not others. There is clearly a system of some sort in play within each individual panel. But whatever rules are being used are constantly changing between pages, between panels, which implies that there is a system or logic governing this as well. Which implies that the entire comic has some sort of overarching colouring strategy with rules that ought to be followed. Which, for me, leads to trying to figure out what those rules are.

Except these rules, whatever they are, are not obvious.

Which leads to a sense of paranoia. When reading Secret I was constantly developing ideas about the colours and theories about what the rules might be governing them. One theory would be contradicted and then another, and as I rejected my theories, I'd develop more outlandish ones only to have those disproven too. But I was still sure that there had to be a bigger pattern, some governing system, so I kept trying. And kept rejecting. Theorizing and disproving until, here I am, ranting like a nutter on the internet. All because of colours in a comic book. 

The brilliance of Secret is, I think, that it's turned the colours in the comic into a machine that mirrors the experience of reading the plot. The comic presents a secret, a mystery and as a reader the object of the story is to, along with the protagonists, solve the mystery. This involves, at least for me, devising a series of theories based on the narrative information on hand and testing it against future events, rejecting broken ideas as I progress. In a comic like Secret I assume that at least some of the characters are being dishonest and do not trust the creative team, who have an interest in making the mystery convoluted, to be completely honest brokers. I read with the understanding that I am being lied to, that the reality of the comic may unexpectedly change with new information, and that there is some thing for me to figure out. Secret has a colouring scheme that actively engages that same experience of being deceived in an ever shifting reality that strains against casual understanding. It presents colours as an additional mystery on top of the mystery of the plot.

And the synergy between the two is emotionally effective, Secret had me on the edge of my paranoid, theorizing seat the entire time.

But I have no idea if this was intentional, or if it is just another paranoid colour theory that is ultimately wrong, or if I still just haven't quite figured out the real rules of Secret's colours. 

All I know is that this is how I experienced Secret.

Post by Michael Bround

Previously:
So I Read Secret
Deep Sequencing: Secret Author