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Colin Smith on American Reaper

Started by Emperor, 11 March, 2012, 05:35:21 PM

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Emperor

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Spaceghost

Absolutely bang on. He's managed to articulate all the reasons I hate this awful strip.
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Daveycandlish

An old-school, no-bullshit, boys-own action/adventure comic reminiscent of the 2000ads and Eagles and Warlords and Battles and other glorious black-and-white comics that were so, so cool in the 70's and 80's - Buy the hardback Christmas Annual!

James Stacey

Thank you Colin for successfully articulating much of what I hate about this comic and answering some of the other niggles I couldn't put my finger on.

flintlockjaw

I don't agree. It's just different than what we're used to. If anything, Mills is guilty of writing to langleys strengths and letting him run hogwild. Which isn't unusual when you read Mills collaboration with Ledroit.

Mudcrab

Quote from: Emperor on 11 March, 2012, 05:35:21 PM
Just thought I'd pass this on:

http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-american-reaper.html

That's a load of utter bollocks. I know I'm late to the American Reaper party but tearing it to bits cos there's a nice looking girl in it? Fuck off! Oh sure yeah, you want to make the character that's supposed to be attractive enough to attract the attention of the bad guys in the first place a fat ugly bitch? Sure, go ahead moron.  ::) I take it this guy doesn't watch movies or TV at all because of all the unrealistic women in them? Or maybe, nah I'll stop before I get offensive.

There's quite a few bizarre little analogies that I'm seeing in it. I found it a bit basic and generic initially but the more I read the more subtlety I see in it, pretty normal for Pat Mills but probably the most I've noticed in his stuff since Marshal Law. Besides, the general sleaziness of it is part of what makes it great, so i guess there's an element of "not getting it". I don't mean that in a derogative way, more a "doesn't click" kind of thing, in the same way that some people just don't like some music, if that makes sense.

The art's obviously a contentious point and it's got a bit worse, in the photo-strip kind of way as it's gone on (just reading 320, so not even got to the sexy ostriches) but the brazenness of it is great, especially the first part. Love all the ad pages too.

So yeah, though I can see why poeple aren't liking it, it's not exactly a huge leap from the Slaine/ABC art is it? Plus story-wise it's a bit weird for the Meg perhaps.
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TordelBack

From reading his blog I think Colin likes the pretty ladies just fine, but he is heavily down on the default portrayal of women in mainstream comics, which position spills over in that piece.  And while I haven't seen the episode of AR in question and thus have no opinion on it, I can't say I disagree with his general stance as expressed elsewhere. 

dweezil2

Any sense of a negative depiction towards women has been completely lost on me. If anything, in my opinion, American Reaper seeks to critcise society's obsession with youth and it's preoccuption with percieved "beauty" I guess if you want to take a position of self righteous indignation you can find something to support your view if you look hard enough.

I agree that it's not the best strip that Mills and Langley have created, but it has enough interesting ideas and potential for it to warrant continuation in my view.
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TordelBack

Quote from: dweezil2 on 03 May, 2012, 06:48:59 PM
I guess if you want to take a position of self righteous indignation you can find something to support your view if you look hard enough.

Well, as I said I can't comment on the strip in question, but I don't think you'd have to look very far in mainstream comics to fuel all the indignation you could shake a stick at it, self-righteous or otherwise.  And I suspect it's these wider concerns that lead Colin to raise a quizzical eyebrow at the backseat-changing sequence he reproduces there.  Whether he's right to apply this disapproval to AR, I can't tell without reading the damn thing (one day!), but I have plenty of respect for the man and his views, just as he does for Pat Mills. 

Roger Godpleton

Very rarely, a few times in a lifetime, you open a comic and when you close it again nothing can ever be the same. Walls have been pulled down, barriers broken, a dimension of feeling, of existence itself, has opened in you that was not there before. American Reaper is a comic strip of this magnitude. Pat Mills may be the most gifted writer I've ever read; gifted not just because of his imagination, his energy, his originality, but because he has access to the unutterable, because he can look inside a person and discover the unique essence of his humanity. To read his words in conjunction with Clint Langley's sightscapes is to have yourself taken apart, undone, touched at the place of your own essence; it is to be turned back, as if after a long absence, into a human being.
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Mudcrab

Quote from: dweezil2 on 03 May, 2012, 06:48:59 PM
Any sense of a negative depiction towards women has been completely lost on me. If anything, in my opinion, American Reaper seeks to critcise society's obsession with youth and it's preoccuption with percieved "beauty" I guess if you want to take a position of self righteous indignation you can find something to support your view if you look hard enough.

That's how I've seen it and why I thought his criticism of it misplaced. There's definitely a commentary on the youth/beauty obsession and I'm not saying he's wrong to criticise media in general for glamourising stuff unnecessarily, but that's I think he's wrong in this case. As I said, it's necessary for the story that she looks like an "underwear model".

As for the back seat thing. That bit (and others) struck me as an analogy for old men preying on younger women, probably because of their own obsession with youth and beauty. If you combine that with the more obvious "identity theft" idea in the real world, it's comparing old men posing as teenagers in chat rooms and the like. He asks why it's not a woman ogling a man, well that in itself is fair enough. Why not he says, I'd say why? 50/50 thing there, but in the context of the metaphor mentioned, it makes little sense. I'm sure you do get older women preying on young men (ooh, young man! lol) but I'm sure it's a minority.

I'd said I liked the ads, which heavily use the 50s nostalgia thing. That's well known in the US as completely fake nostalgia thing, where everyone is young, healthy and beautiful and there's no sign of a black person, so maybe that's the reason there's a prevalence of white people, another of his critcisms.

Anyway, that's enough for now, just thought I'd expand a bit more in a bit more reasoned fashion than yesterday  ;) Looking forward to the rest of it.
NEGOTIATION'S OVER!