The most compelling comic pages

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Let’s start by telling what this thread is not about: it’s not about the work of artists with a spectacular style, it’s about pages that are great because they used wisely what is specific about comics:

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

varied size of panels, vision of angles, transitions from a panel to another, broad plan, close-ups…

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

These “artists” know the language of comic and they used it to bring life to a story.

Artist Adam Kubert bringing life to a story

[Riv86672]

Whoa.
Those pages are not appealing to me at all.

But they ARE good examples of what the OP described.

[Zelena]

Whoa.
Those pages are not appealing to me at all.

Different tastes, different comics…


I have read in my life comics in colors and comics in black & white. For me, color is not a necessary element of comics. And some comics, like the Saga of the Swamp Thing, are much better without. (And I’m not the only one to think it…)

And here are other examples:



Nicola Mari with his black & white expressive style conveys very well the tragedy and darkness in Nathan Never’s adventures…





Black & white can also transmit dreamlike atmospheres like with Didier Comès’ book, Silence. (Note how the second panel looks a little bit like the negative of the first panel to punctuate the page…)

[Riv86672]

Different tastes, different comics…

Yup, that’s why I made sure to say “to me”. I’m a fan of all the Kuberts from Joe to Emma, but those pages just flashed me back to all that was bad about nineties Marvel.

I’m w. you in the black & white though for me it depends on the story and the art style.
Jeff Smith, Michael Avon Oeming, Paul Grist, Ben Edlund...their art flows really well in b&w.
Some artists though, it just looks like it’s meant to be colored and no one got around it.

[Adam Allen]

Two pages starring Rachel Summers (the redhead) from different artists.



The first one depicts a sudden and brief fight well rendered by only two panels. Note at the bottom of the page the unusual and expressive view from above: the reader overlooks the characters like Rachel overlooks her defeated adversary…

It does not take away from it being a good use of art to display a quick fight, but am I misremembering, or wasn't that actually Amara she took out, just then?

[Zelena]

It does not take away from it being a good use of art to display a quick fight, but am I misremembering, or wasn't that actually Amara she took out, just then?

… You’re right! Selene’s trick!

[Zelena]

When a comic page is in colors, it can be very pleasant, alluring… in the condition that the comic artist uses the colors cleverly.
Indeed, I find “a bit” irritating that, because we see, on a page, the same characters in the same scenery, all the panels have the same dominant color, as if making a comic is like using a “camera” planted in the ground and you can only put in the panels what you can get thanks to a machine…

With a little creativity, it is possible to have a good-looking page that doesn’t bore the reader, though. For example, you can put one panel in the page with a dominant color that is completely different from the rest like with this page from Enemy Ace: War Idyll by George Pratt: the old aviator is eventually out of his chamber. Before, the panels were dark, gloomy and now, under bright skies, the dominant color of the panels is light blue.
Still, there is a golden panel in the center of the page…





Or with with page of Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow: the author is saving the reader from what could have been a boring bleuish and brownish page with a touch of red at the end…

[CaptCleghorn]

I like this as it's symbolic and covers a mood as opposed to action. The dialogue, especially in the last panel is brilliant.

[Adam Allen]

… You’re right! Selene’s trick!

It's from the era when I started reading comics. I probably read those issues all like ten times or more!

[CliffHanger2]

Moebius- Long Tomorrow. Kinda disagree the art should never overshadow the story. If it's really good the art is the story imho.

[Zelena]

Moebius- Long Tomorrow. Kinda disagree the art should never overshadow the story. If it's really good the art is the story imho.

Well, when I was a child, every time I read a comic, the artist was good, and even more than good. The level was quite high.
So I thought it was quite normal stuff.

And, once, I met a manga whose art style didn’t appeal to me at all. So much I thought I would never read it. And still… despite the “ugly” style, I read it and even appreciated : overall, the comic was ok and the story, interesting.

For me, appropriate art is just the icing on the cake because if the art is impressive in a comic, but the rest is not there, it’s not enough for me to read it.