I've been reading comics wrong for years and just figured it out

I was at a local comic shop in Phoenix last weekend, just grabbing my usual pull list. I overheard a dad and his kid, maybe 10, talking about a Spider-Man issue. The kid was pointing at a panel and asking why the background had a cracked wall, and the dad said it was to show the building was old and maybe a bit unsafe, adding to the mood. I realized I just speed-read through art, only focusing on the word bubbles and the main action. For like 15 years, I've been treating comics like slightly illustrated books, not a combined art form. I went home and pulled out a Daredevil comic from my shelf, and spent a solid 20 minutes just looking at the shadows and line work in a single fight scene. It was a totally different experience. How do you guys balance reading the story and really seeing the art? Do you have a method?

2 comments

2 Comments

veraj531d ago

My buddy collects old horror comics. He showed me a page from Tales from the Crypt once. The real scare wasn't in the words. It was in the tiny, twisted faces hidden in the tree bark. You had to stop and look. Now I try to do two passes. One for the story flow. Then I go back and just stare at a page. Found a whole subplot told through billboards in a Batman book.

laura_allen1d ago

Yeah, I had that same wake up call with older X-Men books. I force myself to slow down and treat each panel like a full page in a normal book, letting my eyes wander a bit before moving on. It sounds simple but it totally changes the pace and what you get out of it.