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Your Comic Book Pet Peeves...

Started by locustsofdeath!, 07 May, 2012, 07:08:11 AM

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locustsofdeath!

Tell us something that absolutely gets your eyes rolling when you encounter it in a comic book...

For me -

Writing-wise, I can't stand the character that talks way too much. Nothing worse than a comic book character who loves the sound of his own voice look of his own word-balloons.

Art-wise, I find the "sexy" lady-character with boobs the size of beach balls and waist as narrow as a pencil one of the worst (or poorly rendered) nerd-fantasies EVER.

COMMANDO FORCES

Writing military characters and not having a clue how they would talk to each other, use their weapons, employ tactics, etc... >:D

Trout

Bad dialogue. It ruins the suspension of disbelief, meaning you stop thinking about the story and start thinking about the comic and its creators.

Colin YNWA

#3
Quote from: locustsofdeath! on 07 May, 2012, 07:08:11 AM

Art-wise, I find the "sexy" lady-character with boobs the size of beach balls and waist as narrow as a pencil one of the worst (or poorly rendered) nerd-fantasies EVER.

This does defo make me sigh. In context (see my comments in the Prog thread) no problem but for its own sake its just silly. I get really frustrated with Frank Cho who is such a great artist and a decent writer too (anytime we get more Liberty Meadows will be a great day) but seems obsessed like few others with cheesecake art. Such a shame.

But the one that really does for me is sloppy storytelling that leaves you puzzling about whats happening, nothing worse for pulling you out of the story than that. Alas there's been a few examples of this in the Prog  of late. Strangely I don't necessarily put this down to the artist, rather its the editors job to catch it I'd think (easy to say from the outside). An artist can be too close to the work and not spot this stuff, an editor should however get this sorted?

Edited: Oh and a silly one apes being refereed to as monkeys. Tails and self awareness people, tails and self awareness.

TordelBack

All of the above (especially the ape-thing... grrrr), but one of my pet peeves is when artists draw 'foreign' locations without any reference to the reality of the place.  One of my (least) favourite examples was an old (possibly Jackson Guice?) New Mutants issue supposedly set in Scotland where the police drove US-style police cruisers and wore holstered sidearms. 

(See also, every superhero comic set in Ireland, ever).

JamesC

#5
My pet hate in any form of written narrative is when a character says something like:

'Is this really happening or am I in a dream?'

Not only is it a cliche it's something that no one would ever say in real life.



Another, more comic specific one, is when there is a double page spread in a comic and it isn't clear whether you're supposed to read each page separately or read from left to right as though it's one giant page.

TordelBack

Another one: when writers use an ellipsis to break 'dialogue' in thought balloons.  "Can't... hold.. on".  Fine in representing speech, but how do you break up a thought?

Roger Godpleton

He's only trying to be what following how his dreams make you wanna be, man!

SKD


SmallBlueThing

Quite the opposite of our locusts, i find comics where the dialogue is sparse so bloody annoying, i will often moan about them to complete strangers on the internet. (example: swamp thing vol 2 #21- reading time 30 mins. Swamp Thing vol 5 #1- reading time 7 mins.)
Also, any kind of 'bad ass' nineties style antihero in a leather coat, who previously would have smiled a lot and probably had a young boy chum.
Any batman, whatsoever.
Characters swearing in stories that are otherwise aimed at all ages.
Crossovers with other comics.
And, as noted above, double page spreads where it's unclear how the eye is supposed to proceed across.

SBT
.

El Chivo

Don't mind lots of/sparse dialogue.
Hate no dialogue, too quick to read. I need a good 5-10 mins on the loo.
Any prog episode is perfect

Chi

Satanist

The team of villains who each have weird names (usually a play on words) and each one is stranger than the last. They are then dispatched by whatever good guy is deemed to be their equivalent.

In every story.

And then its to be continued in book 2.
Hmm, just pretend I wrote something witty eh?

Third Estate Ned

Whenever anyone from a foreign nation is depicted in a half-arsed stereotype for no reason other than s/he is foreign. Infinitely worse with phonetically written accents. It doesn't make me angry, it just makes the whole thing less enjoyable and banal.

The pastiche or parody excuse can carry you only so far before it gets tedious.

SuperSurfer

When the pace of speech is different to what the visuals show eg someone is talking while someone else is boarding a vehicle, next frame the sentence continues and the vehicle is in the far distance.

Trout

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 07 May, 2012, 10:59:09 AM
And, as noted above, double page spreads where it's unclear how the eye is supposed to proceed across.

I'm with you on this, except for the Promethea comic with a double-page spread of characters walking along a path that's a moebius loop. It's not made clear where the dialogue starts and you can keep going round and round forever.

Inspired. That'll be Alan Moore, then.

- Trout