Review the Third

If this is your first time here, I’m offering you a chance to read not-so-solicited reviews of the Tiny Life Preview.  I’m not just giving the good reviews like so many newcomers tend to do (“If people think that everyone likes it, they’ll buy more!”  It’s the Everybody Loves Raymond syndrome).  I’m posting any review that catches my eye.

This one is from Jay at Happy Harbor Comics in Alberta:

Nick,

The first thing I noticed was that the really old woman didn’t look all that old.  No wrinkles on her face.  If she had died a dozen times, she should look more like it.

The story reads very quickly without saying a lot, a pet peeve of mine with a lot of modern comics.  Pages of similar panels with tiny bits of exposition text that don’t really move the story forward or are redundant to setting mood that feel like pages are being wasted.  I appreciate the imagery but I really felt like I wasn’t getting much of a story from the preview and certainly not enough art to read as well.

I’m a bit old school but I like my stories to move briskly and I like lots of “visual” story to accompany the text to help enhance and overfill my reading.

Jay Bardyla, owner

HAPPY HARBOR COMICS

CANADA’S BEST COMIC STORE – 2007 Shuster Award

  EDMONTON’S BEST COMIC STORE – 2007 SEE Mag Poll

  GLOBAL RETAILER OF THE YEAR – 2007 Eisner Nominee

10112 – 124 Street, Edmonton, AB T5N 1P6

  Phone: 780-452-8211

Wed, Thurs & Fri – Noon to 9pm

  Sat, Sun & Mon – 10 am to 6 pm

  www.happyharborcomics.com

I thought about this review quite a bit.  If you’ll notice, it’s not as long as the other ones, but it seems to say just as much; it still seems like a punch in the gut (anytime anyone isn’t thrilled with Tiny Life – for as hard and as long as I’ve worked on it – I get a tiny tummy ache).  But then I read it a few times looking for separate points; really, Jay’s only got one: like many other comics nowadays, it moves too slow.  Dangnabbit.

I think Jay is of the Chester Gould School of comics: make it as fast and as interesting as possible.  After all, we are talking about comics here; it’s a child’s medium.  If I’m going to read a child’s book, it better damn well go as fast and as hard as possible.  To paraphrase others of like-mind, “It’s comics, stupid.  Keep it moving.”

See, I don’t think comics are necessarily for kids (or grown-ups who want to read material for kids – the Harry Potter crowd).  I think comics are whatever you make of them. 

One of the things I’m trying to do with Tiny Life is to turn comics into “legitimate” literature.  It’s been done on a small scale several times – Maus and Blankets both spring to mind – but I don’t think anyone’s really sat down with an entire series and said, “I want learned people to look at this and compare it to other works of literature.” 

See, I want people to look at Tiny Life and compare God & Country (the 2nd-to-last book to be published) to Paradise Lost.  I want people to look at some of the philosophy raised in Brain Damage / Eclipse (the 4th book to be published) and compare it to some of John Locke’s philosophies.  I want some of the ideas raised, especially in the first few books, to be compared to ideas raised by Ralph Ellison.  Most comic writers seem to really fear the comparison to well-known works of art (which boggles me.  Why wouldn’t you want to be compared to Da Vinci?).  A lot of the discussions I’ve seen revolve around “My Superman vs. Batman is just as good as Frank Miller’s, but it’s different.” 

Actually – and don’t tell anyone – I really don’t read comics that much anymore.  I’ve tried to stay away from the repeated scenarios and stereotypical potshots that many comics take. How many times have you heard, “If you’re not with me, you’re against me,” or a powerful hero (or villain) scream, “That’s enough!”?  I think, if you really think about it, the answer is higher than you care to relate. 

So, I guess to summarize, I disagree with Jay.  I think comics should move at their own pace.  And, when all is said and done, the work itself will tell you whether that pace was too fast, too slow, or just right.