Bonus
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What Are They Saying? (Convergence) Part I
There is a lot of spanish dialogue in this story. We won’t translate it all—we have to maintain the story’s magic after all—but here is an essential segment.
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Taking time to retrace our steps
We were always annoyed about how some comic book authors always felt they had to take a page or two to summarize past events. When we first picked up a comic book, we fell into a story arc whose ramifications went back several issues. We adapted.
However, more recently we read an interview with Mark Waid, who said: “Every once in a while, you’ll get some criticism from a fan who goes, “Yeah, yeah. I know all about Mega Crime. Stop beating a dead horse.” And I’m thinking, “Look, it’s awesome you’ve been keeping up with the book, but have some mercy or compassion for somebody who might be picking it up for the very first time.” (Oliver Sava, “Mark Waid on his Personal Digital-Comics Revolution,” July 10, 2012, http://www.avclub.com)
This was something of a revelation for us and we decided to integrate a summary of the past ramifications of the story we’re currently developing. The question was how to present it. We didn’t just want a straightforward summary. In a discussion with one of our collaborators, we were reminded of the importance of our timeline, and we decided to make use of that. It lets us integrate four dimensions: a short summary, a few key drawings, and the timing of the events.
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Finding paradigms, exceeding one’s concepts
In an analysis of an Iron Man retrospective featuring the period when Archie Goodwin was writing, Darren says, “He (Archie Goodwin) actively works to find a paradigm that will work for Stark.” (Darren, “Archie Goodwin’s (& George Tuska’s) Run on The Invincible Iron Man – The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus, Vol. 2 (Review/Retrospective),” April 25, 2013, http://them0vieblog.com)
Darren also identifies several innovations that Goodwin introduced into the Iron Man universe. But at the same time, he shows that Goodwin did not exploit the full potential of his own ideas. Several were taken up and extended by other writers. Goodwin was introducing new concepts without developing them fully, without allowing them the dramatic charge they would have deserved. We feel this analysis also applies to several contemporary comic books. Authors are full of ideas and concepts, but we don’t often see a paradigm: a universe that fits coherently with the character and with his or her interactions with the surroundings. In our opinion, Mark Waid’s Daredevil offers this type of paradigm, where we go beyond the concept to focus on the essence of the character.
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Work discipline
In an interview, Mark Waid admitted that he doesn’t have any work discipline nor a set pace of work. Some days may be dedicated to writing while others may be spent doing research online. We prefer to be more disciplined and to maintain a more steady work pace. Two constraints “force” us to write: first (naturally) are our own deadlines, and second is the identification of possible locations for the stories. For example, seeing these photos gave us the idea for the story “Tailspin.” On top of encouraging us to write, these two constraints help us better stage the stories we’re planning.
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Shape, Femininity and Nudity
Every once in a while, we come across discussion about whether or not female characters in comic books are just too sexy (Gentlemanlybatman, « EDITORIAL: Are Women Just There To Be Sexy? », www.comicbookmovie, september 22, 2013) or simply (and uselessly) disproportioned ((Leigh Hart, « Boobs in Comics», http://www.comicbookdaily.com, April 5, 2013). We let our collaborators draw the characters as they imagine them. But we have on occasion given instructions to emphasize the nudity of the characters because we feel that this type of soft eroticism is more natural. But we don’t want to go as far as full frontal nudity or “explicit sexual content,” as the TV warnings say.
