Your Comic Book Pet Peeves...

[locustsofdeath!]

If I think I can hear the writer saying "Look at this... arent I clever?" ...which I'll admit is probably more my reading than their writing. Anyway, most of Grant Morrison so add to that "Weird for the sake of weird"

That gets me, too. I like weird - Shakara weird sits well with me because it's all very part of the character and the alien world he inhabits. But if I get the sense that the writer's just throwing stuff in there to "weird things up" I'm left rolling my eyes...

[Mardroid]

Characters nattering away, apparently to themselves. THat was one thing that bugged me about the Dark Tower comics (although I largely liked them). I think the writer wanted to show the character's thoughts, and since thought balloons are unfashionable now*, he ended up speaking out loud. Except, people rarely talk like that.

Oh, and over description, using captions, of stuff you can blatantly see in the art. To be fair, that was a more older comic style.

Oh, yeah, and nastiness and overeactions to drive the plot or create tension just for the sake of it. I read 11-13 of The Walking Dead the other day, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yet there were incidents that raised an eyebrow. I know the characters are stress and under pressure, but there were incidents where I found myself questioning whether it was in character. I'll reiterate: it was a great read though.


*Although to be fair, I prefer comics without them. That's actually another peeve: when they were overused.

[Syne]

Characters nattering away, apparently to themselves. THat was one thing that bugged me about the Dark Tower comics (although I largely liked them). I think the writer wanted to show the character's thoughts, and since thought balloons are unfashionable now*, he ended up speaking out loud. Except, people rarely talk like that.

Alan Moore does a pretty funny parody of this in his 1963 series: "The Fury," a young, acrobatic hero clearly modelled on Spider Man, talks to himself non-stop, even while somersaulting through the sky and dodging bullets and/or dinosaurs. It's hilariously annoying .

[bluemeanie]

Creators who want you to pay to have their comic printed

...sorry, recurring one based on ANOTHER fucking morning of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo bullshit in my twitter, facebook and emai

[Spaceghost]

And, as noted above, double page spreads where it's unclear how the eye is supposed to proceed across.

I was reading Requiem: Vampire Knight last night and, as much as I love it, it's extremely guilty of this crime.

Tits, guts and sodomy. Specifically, I hate it when writers employ childish and juvenile shock tactics in order to appear edgy (I'm looking at you Millar and Ennis). Especially when this results in easily impressed readers believing these comics are in some way super-mature when, in fact, they are designed to appeal to adolescents.

Also, (and 2000 AD is MASSIVELY guilty of this) whenever a military unit appears in a story, does it really have to be yet another pastiche of the Colonial Marines from Aliens, a 26 year old film? "Lock and load!", "Fire in the hole!", "Assholes and elbows!", "Rock and roll!", FOR FUCK'S SAKE, TRY TO BE ORIGINAL.

Another one just occured to me; when it's obvious that the writer is using his comic as a platform to prove how cool, radical, clever and interesting they are. I had to stop reading Transmetropolitan because I wanted to punch 'Spider Jerusalem' (...sigh) in his stupid face whilst kicking Warren Ellis in the balls.

[radiator]

Bad/cheesy dialogue - this obviously isn't limited to the medium of comics, but naturalistic, believable dialogue is something most comic writers seem to struggle with, even if it's presented in a stylised manner.

The trite, soap opera-like dialogue is partly why I couldn't get into The Walking Dead or Y the Last Man. By contrast I loved the scripting in 100 Bullets which - to me at least - felt reasonably authentic and had a real flow to it.

Likewise dated-even-by-the-time-of-publication or inappropriate cultural references. Joss Whedon is generally quite good at that sort of thing, but Mark Millar's references to things like Myspace and Freddie Prinze Jr always make me cringe. See also the bit in Cradlegrave where all the hoodies are listening to Kaiser Chiefs at a house party. Just doesn't ring true at all. It's often painfully obvious that nearly all comics are written by middle aged men.

On a similar note, on the art side of things is artists who are unable to draw convincing contemporary clothing and fashions - again with the middle aged thing, a lot of artists draw characters sporting clothes and hairstyles that look ten to twenty years out of date. A lot of the time it's a lack of research or attention to detail.

It's the little things like that, if they're wrong put a wall between the reader and the story.

[JamesC]

On a similar note, on the art side of things is artists who are unable to draw convincing contemporary clothing and fashions - again with the middle aged thing, a lot of artists draw characters sporting clothes and hairstyles that look ten to twenty years out of date. A lot of the time it's a lack of research or attention to detail.

This really gets on my tits! What's worse is when an artist creates a visual style for a comic and then another comes along and fucks it up.
Take Frank Quitely's version of the Bat-suit. It looks great - quite realistic with seams and padding details. Half the artists on the Bat-books now seem to draw it like something that Rob Liefeld would have designed in 1992.

[W. R. Logan]

Also, (and 2000 AD is MASSIVELY guilty of this) whenever a military unit appears in a story, does it really have to be yet another pastiche of the Colonial Marines from Aliens, a 26 year old film? "Lock and load!", "Fire in the hole!", "Assholes and elbows!", "Rock and roll!", FOR FUCK'S SAKE, TRY TO BE ORIGINAL.

I've said all of those things and continue to do so.
Although I do also use the by the manual commands as well.

[radiator]

When artists slip in photographs instead of drawn backgrounds - as if no one will notice.

I know it's a time saving thing, but I'd honestly prefer a simple, suggested bg or none at all.

[Alski]

Mark Millar's over use of the word "Moron", gets right up my nose. It just never rings true fore me.

Just a pet peeve, that one, as I love his comics otherwise.

[Link Prime]

One slightly different peeve for me, but eminently relevant in these trying times of austerity...
Multiple shipping of a 'Monthly' comic book.

"Hey True Believers- how about four issues of X-Factor this month, at a paltry $3.99 a pop???"
F*CK YOU MARVEL!

My other main peeve is character overuse...the usual suspects here; Batman, Wolverine, Spider-Man et al.
Just how greedy and unoriginal does a company have to be before a well regarded comics character is rendered into an obsolete cypher due to overexposure?
How exciting would 'Day Of Chaos' be if Dredd was appearing in 6 completely unconnected story lines, running concurrently? We Toothsome fellows have a lot to be thankful for.

[gdwessel]

Also, (and 2000 AD is MASSIVELY guilty of this) whenever a military unit appears in a story, does it really have to be yet another pastiche of the Colonial Marines from Aliens, a 26 year old film? "Lock and load!", "Fire in the hole!", "Assholes and elbows!", "Rock and roll!", FOR FUCK'S SAKE, TRY TO BE ORIGINAL.

I've said all of those things and continue to do so.
Although I do also use the by the manual commands as well.

This is something I'm trying to avoid in DISCHARGED.

[gdwessel]

One slightly different peeve for me, but eminently relevant in these trying times of austerity...
Multiple shipping of a 'Monthly' comic book.

"Hey True Believers- how about four issues of X-Factor this month, at a paltry $3.99 a pop???"
F*CK YOU MARVEL!

This.

[SmallBlueThing]

Without wanting to appear like a smart-arse, i do feel the need to point out that 2000AD 'ships' four times, sometimes five times, a month- more, if you count the megazine.

But yes, i know what you mean. However, one of the most recent examples of this, Amazing Spider-Man, had the financial hardship offset by the marvelousness (heh) of the quality storytelling and simply more good spidey than we'd had in decades. Walking Dead going thrice-weekly in the lead-up to #100 is equally welcome, as long as the storytelling doesnt suffer.

SBT

[Link Prime]

Without wanting to appear like a smart-arse, i do feel the need to point out that 2000AD 'ships' four times, sometimes five times, a month- more, if you count the megazine.

2000AD does indeed ship weekly, but its been marketed as a weekly comic since 1977!
It's also cheaper, of higher quality and longer page count than most North American comics, but then again we all know that.

But yes, i know what you mean. However, one of the most recent examples of this, Amazing Spider-Man, had the financial hardship offset by the marvelousness (heh) of the quality storytelling and simply more good spidey than we'd had in decades. Walking Dead going thrice-weekly in the lead-up to #100 is equally
welcome, as long as the storytelling doesnt suffer.

Walking Dead popping it's issue 100 cherry a coupla months before it's 'official' milestone smacks of zeitgeist band-wagon jumping to me, but I generally read the trades, so won't loose too much sleep over it.

SBT

I know you weren't being 'Dark Judge Pedant' about this topic SBT, but I genuinely find it irksome. Comics are an expensive hobby. It just so happens that four of the titles I previously budgeted at 12 issues a year are shipping 20+ issues a year, ultimately meaning I'm more likely to drop them and less likely to try new titles from that publisher. Money grabbing ploys like multiple shipping of popular books is just down to one
fact: pure, unadulterated, greed. Is it any wonder digital piracy is rampant?