The Clarke Technique.

[Carlsborg Expert.]

I have had a lot of fun during my stay at this site, getting to know, or should I say forming cyber-relationships with, people,here. As I am the person I am,I found, that If I want a serious point to make, best not to read any of the board before I do. It only turns me into a giggling idiot, because its has subtle and intelligent wit coarsing all the wat through it. What did I expect,this is a site for 2000ad fans after all.Then theres the hours of brilliant debate,cutting through a few banal points of view.
So when I got in this morning my first mistake was to read something then decide to right this.And "this" is what I want to say.
I looked at Shimura and decided there was absolutely nothing wrong with the art. To *find* anything wrong with it would be to pretenciously elevate myself to the delusion in which I could hold council upon the fine arts criticising it, to be part of a steely elite of those who know what they are on about.
So I rubbed my chin and thought" what is my true opinion of this work."
my first reaction was to understand all the hard backbreaking work this fella Clarke puts in to entertain us at his studio, draft after draft, coining the expressive image in his quest for near perfection. The work, though it must have its influences, stands on its own, as original and a mastering of certain technique. Then there is the colourist who is obviously working on the same page as Clarke, sending the opening,black and white layout into a distant memory.
These two troopers of the colour within the panels locations, sympathetic script and fantastic charactors,(lest we forget)give me the sense of a hyper-reality and also, a form of super-comic is being attempted.If this was in book form it would have all those elements, duly self-appraised.
However, the truth is going to be far different. Andy Clarke has this amazing hand to eye imaging consultant that allows him to finish his artwork with extra ordinary precision, the buildings he opens the scene with are computer repeated with a few twiddles here and there to differentiate them, He knocks off at 4 o'clock after working for three hours and laughs all the way to pub.
Somehow I dont think Andy Clarke , laughs much.I dont mean that derogetory, I think he probably choose his time to laugh very wisely.Whether anybody else thinks so or not.I dont know.
The work combines to tell brief moment in time very well and the times between each scene will not be sorely missed. You are made to feel every important piece of story thread has been handed over and that you are definately in front of the action.
I do f you'll bear with my indulgence a little longer, have one minor quibble.
IT is the fact that,with  our disc-bomb android on the train, at the beginning of 228s Meg, being the guideline,to be set at a scale of 1:1,then the rest of the strip to follow.Then I would be perfectly happy.