What makes a good comic-book action sequence? How do you balance dynamic movement and eye-catching art with coherency and continuity? On Saturday morning, some of DC and Marvel’s most exciting talents sat down to discuss their action-crafting expertise at WonderCon’s “Drawing Action” panel. Right off the bat, it was clear that the panel …
With the beautiful color combinations and punk aesthetic, Black Canary offers a female-centric comic that doesn’t fall into Batgirl’s discussions of touchy-feely emotions and make-up tips. Though Dinah takes some warming up to, ultimately she proves layered and sympathetic.
5. Paper Girls (Image) Paper Girls #1-3 Written by Brian K. Vaughan Art by Cliff Chiang Colors by Matthew Wilson Letters by Jared K. Fletcher Only three issues in, Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang’s Paper Girls has already piqued intense fandom. Grounded in the recognizably familiar–1988 Midwestern suburbia–with its head in the clouds–aliens on dinosaurs, time travelers, …
Archie #4 is an excellent showcase for Annie Wu’s energetic depictions of friendship, romance, and heartbreak with subtly powerful colors from Andre Szymanowicz and Jen Vaughn. Sadly, Mark Waid’s script gets bogged down in a cycle of dated and cliched teen melodrama instead of exploring the relationship and falling out between Betty and Archie in more depth. However, Jughead is funny as ever, and Veronica lights up the few pages she appears in.
With an opening page laid out like a page from one of those free newspapers, writer Brenden Fletcher and artist Annie Wu make the dynamic between Dinah (or D.D. as she is called by the press and her bandmates) and her band the Black Canary the focus in Black Canary #1. Touring and trying to make it as a indie punk band with an eclectic sound courtesy of silent guitarist Ditto and a charismatic lead vocalist comes first before the superheroics, but the kicking and action is always present. And instead of being something, like Scott Pilgrim, where characters accept the musical martial arts matchups without batting an eye, Dinah’s predilection for violence leads to tension between her and her bandmates creating the main conflict for the series along with some mysterious beings drawn in a looser style by Wu with pitch black coloring from Lee Loughridge.