Skip to main content

Welcome!


All we ever see of stars are their old photographs.

 Welcome to the Art of the Panel, a weekly blog to discuss all things comic-related. We'll be diving into a wide variety of Marvel and DC series, both ongoing and past.

When a popular movie or television show releases, hundreds of professional critics weigh in with their thoughts, spreading publicity and attention as well as highlighting the technical success and failures of the product. Comics do not receive the same treatment.

The goal of the blog is simple: critique and analyze comic stories in the hope of shining a light on the artistic value they bring to the table. Comics, like regular books, are a form of literature and a form of art, and are unique in needing to combine both writing and visual within the same picture, or panel. I hope to show readers that comic books can achieve great literary heights, manage complex themes and tell compelling stories.

And so we begin.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Justice League: Origins

The comic-verse is a complicated anthology to keep track of, not helped in the slightest by the vast number of timelines, parallel timelines, resets to those parallel timelines, convoluted resets to those parallel timelines in order to explain changes made solely based off of the preference of the writer, etc. The greatest element of yet also the biggest problem with comics, as has been discussed before, is their continuity. Everything is connected. In the first six issues of the New 52 Justice League run in 2011, Geoff Johns attempts to recreate a more modern origin story for the infamous band of heroes. Dc also attempts to leave the previous origins intact, the reasoning of which won't be explained for almost eight more years with Doomsday Clock. Timeline shenanigans aside, Justice League: Origins succeeds because it is a character-driven story of unwavering commitment to do the right thing. The characters who head the tale are not the ones readers had become to be associated w...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dark Knight Returns

Frank Miller's post-retirement tale of Batman is well-known and revered in the comic book industry. An aging Bruce Wayne dons the cowl one last time as Gotham City begins to implode without the Batman, teaming up with a new, plucky Robin in hopes of saving the day. This is an industry staple; a must-read. The Dark Knight Returns is a critique of American society, their fascination with violence, and their disconnect from empathy. It is also a sendoff to Batman that wound up being a catlyst for the modern age of comics, alongside Watchmen. Miller explores Batman and Joker's relationship, examining the yin-yang pull the two exhibits on one another. He also addresses heroism versus complacency. Heroes exist to serve the people, not a government, and one major character, in particular, had to be taught that.
Post a Comment
Read more

Injustice 2

The sequel to the surprise hit, Injustice: Gods Among Us and the respective tie-in to its video game counterpart, Injustice 2 is a smash ensemble series that picks up the story about a year after the conclusion of the first video game. Superman, one of the main characters of the first arc, is in prison, and no, there are no breakouts or incidents involving him that would lessen the impact of Batman eventually letting him free in the game to help fight Brainiac. Here, he is relegated largely to a guest character. The main villain is, instead, Ras Al Ghul. Unlike the first series, Injustice 2 is written with a physical publication in mind, and the artwork is far more consistent. Artists would get select mini-arcs within the story rather than one issue at a time, which allowed them to put the spins they needed on characters and better understand the plots of what they were drawing and coloring. Tom Taylor is back as writer and brings his usual selection of talents (see older posts for r...
Post a Comment
Read more