Atoll Comics: Ming Doyle

Showing posts with label Ming Doyle. Show all posts

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

So I Read Mara

A 250 word (or less) review of the Mara graphic novel
By Brian Wood, Ming Doyle, and Jordie Bellaire; Image Comics

Mara is a Sci-fi-Superhero comic set in a militaristic, hyper-regimented future that is really passionate about volleyball. In the comic Mara, an international volleyball superstar, is living the high life: she's famous, she's got sponsors, she has legions of adoring fans. That is until she exhibits superpowers while on the court and it all comes crashing down. With artwork by Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire, Mara is a fantastic looking comic well worth looking at. Unfortunately the script of Mara doesn’t really deliver on the premise or live up to the art quality. When Mara was launched it was hyped as a feminist Sci-fi epic which tackled materialistic, authoritarian themes of modern society and also volleyball. And for me Mara just didn’t deliver enough on these themes. The issue, I think, is that the comic tried to play with too many ideas and included too much plot for the short length of the comic. As a result, Mara failed to really develop the themes, characters, and relationships that were the most interesting to me. And so Mara really felt more like a trippy, Twilight-Zoney Superhero tale than the high concept comic or character study I was hoping for: a short weird story in a cool setting with some heady ideas instead of a fully developed discussion. That said, I think if you approach Mara with an open mind, there is still an enjoyable comics experience to be had. Or at the very least a pretty one.

Word count: 246

Monday, 13 January 2014

Favouring The Young Avengers #15

Or how colour is used to emphasize separation in Young Avengers #15
by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Becky Cloonan, Ming Doyle, Joe Quinones, Jordie Bellaire, Maris Wicks, Matthew Wilson; Marvel Comics

Young Avengers #15 is the final, goodbye issue of Young Avengers. It's pretty much a pitch perfect issue that, along with #14, does a really great job providing closure to the various character-plots of the series in a fun and VERY Young Avengers way. YA#15 is a testament to everything I love about the series and a perfect note to go out on.

Young Aveners #15 is also a comic that features a Noh-Varr section, with art by Becky Cloonan and Jordie Bellaire, with some really clever colouring. Colouring is an aspect of comics that I find really fascinating and important, but given the subtlety of it, pretty difficult to talk about. That said, YA#15 features colouring that is obvious in its intelligence and effectiveness.

There will of course be *SPOILERS* for Young Avengers #15 in this post.

Actually, before I get to the colouring of this section of YA#15, I'd like to point out how great the pencils by Becky Cloonan are. The characters are alive with emotion, the story telling is crisp and clear, and the entire composition lives every moment in a really evocative way. The Noh-Varr section of the comic may be short but it really highlights the tremendous acting, compositional chops, and the ineffable magic of Cloonan's artwork. It's always a pleasure to read comics drawn by Becky Cloonan.

The plot of the Noh-Varr portion of YA#15 is essentially that Marvel Boy is ruminating on how his relationship with Hawkeye ended and meditating on the bittersweet flavour of love lost. This is all played out while Noh-Varr is behind the mixing table DJing and watching Kate having fun and being beautiful on the dance floor. As such, much of the dramatic weight of this sequence is the physical and emotional separation between Kate and Noh. This is accomplished in a bunch of ways: from the very discrete ideological demarcation between DJ and crowd (cerberal-observant/emotional-active) to the way the pencils separate the two groups physically and contrast Noh-Varrs aloneness in the booth to Kate's position in the people of the dance floor. But I think one of the most effective ways the separation between the two characters is emphasized is through the way the sequence is coloured.

The brilliance of the colouring is that it colours Noh-Varr in a different way than Kate and the dancing crowd and this contrast in colour emphasizes the separation between characters. Simple stated, Noh-Varr is colouring in a cool, shadowy blue, while Kate and the dancing crowd are bathed in a red glow that permeates every aspect of their colouring. Now, this fits very well into the plot of the series as the dancers are all lit by the dancefloor lighting which is the in-story source of the red glow, while Noh-Varr working in the DJ booth is not lit-up and therefore living in the shadows. So this colour separation makes perfect story sense. But it also makes really great emotional sense too: the cool blue of Noh-Varr fits his melancholy (he is literally blue!) while the hot, passionate red captures the fun and energy of the dancers. This difference in colouring, then, manages to emphasize both the physical separation (booth/dancefloor), the emotional difference (sad/celebrating), and the story distance between the Kate and Noh-Varr in a seamless way that brilliantly enhances the composition and storytelling. It's great colouring and great comics.