Are there any ranting comics writers these days?

[williamtheday]

I remember in the 70's there were writers would just rant, Rant, RANT in their books. Sometimes it would be a whole page of rant(and purple Prose), with a little bit of artwork. It made me wonder why they didn't just write a novel instead.

[CliffHanger2]

The 70s was like that? You must mean the 2000s.

[Spike-X]

No, he means the seventies. Caption box after caption box filled with turgid, over-written narration describing exactly what was happening in the pictures.

[jeanvaljean]

And odd, hard to place political Statements. Vaguely pro peace but anti Hippie culture.

Can never tell Mike Friedrich and Gary Friedrich apart, but one of the two did that a lot.

[ed2962]

I like Don McGregor but he was sort of the poster boy for over written 70's comics.

I think with all the decompression and trade writing that goes on today, you really don't have that same type of over writing in modern comics. Heck, I think we almost have the exact opposite problem.

[KOSLOX]

I like Don McGregor but he was sort of the poster boy for over written 70's comics.

I think with all the decompression and trade writing that goes on today, you really don't have that same type of over writing in modern comics. Heck, I think we almost have the exact opposite problem.

True. As much as I liked Panther's Rage that book was so dense it took me FOREVER to get through.

[ouroboros]

To be fair, McGregor wasn't just relaying what the eye could see. Some older writers, particularly Gardner Fox, were influenced by radio and tended to recapitulate the action in the panels. McGregor, in contrast, was trying to explore a level of emotional and symbolic texture that the pictures couldn't show.

By coinkydink, I recently finished a blog-essay on one of the Panther's Rage stories, here.

[williamtheday]

Yeah, Mcgregor was the least annoying. At times he would give a little more depth to an unsympathetic character.

[David Walton]

To be fair, McGregor wasn't just relaying what the eye could see. Some older writers, particularly Gardner Fox, were influenced by radio and tended to recapitulate the action in the panels. McGregor, in contrast, was trying to explore a level of emotional and symbolic texture that the pictures couldn't show.

By coinkydink, I recently finished a blog-essay on one of the Panther's Rage stories, here.

Really enjoyed your article, Gene, so thanks for posting. I'm not familiar with the source material, or the era in general, having grown up as an early 80s Marvel kid. But the piece is really well-written and highly recommended.

I enjoy prose bits like the one you've included. Maybe the best example I can think of is Roy Thomas' Savage Sword of Conan. Of course, Roy was lifting the prose directly from Robert E. Howard, but he did a great job of lifting the right passages, and finding the optimal balance between text and art.

[Paradox]

Spike-X notes:

No, he means the seventies. Caption box after caption box filled with turgid, over-written narration describing exactly what was happening in the pictures.

I agree to an extent. I'm confused by him calling that "ranting", though. Ranting is aggressively going on and on about (usually) some topic of controversy. Dave Sims' essays are rants. Common '70s "overwriting" isn't.

[JLS Comics]

Ranting exposition in books is a rarity these days. Most writers (those that have a proclivity to rant that is) get their full on message boards and twitter

[Michael P]

I agree to an extent. I'm confused by him calling that "ranting", though. Ranting is aggressively going on and on about (usually) some topic of controversy. Dave Sims' essays are rants. Common '70s "overwriting" isn't.

Gerber made an issue of Howard the Duck into a rant.

[Paradox]

That is an accurate description of that issue, yes.

[ouroboros]

Really enjoyed your article, Gene, so thanks for posting. I'm not familiar with the source material, or the era in general, having grown up as an early 80s Marvel kid. But the piece is really well-written and highly recommended.

I enjoy prose bits like the one you've included. Maybe the best example I can think of is Roy Thomas' Savage Sword of Conan. Of course, Roy was lifting the prose directly from Robert E. Howard, but he did a great job of lifting the right passages, and finding the optimal balance between text and art.

Thank you, David; glad you liked it.

Going back to the original topic-- Miller's HOLY TERROR is pretty much a rant disguised as a bad Batman adventure.