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- Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.claremont.edu!nntp-server.caltech.edu!toddpw
- From: toddpw@cco.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel)
- Newsgroups: alt.fan.furry
- Subject: Re: Albedo #7
- Date: 27 Dec 1992 08:46:03 GMT
- Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
- Lines: 37
- Message-ID: <1hjqgbINN443@gap.caltech.edu>
- References: <9212211926.AA06603@lynx.corp.frame.com> <1992Dec21.174640.9550@iscsvax.uni.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu
-
- peacock5293@iscsvax.uni.edu (Greywolf) writes:
-
- >of Venus Wars, however, because each episode seemed too short for the money I
- >was paying for each issue. (Whether it was or not ... {shrug} ... That's just
- >the way I felt, and however the consumer's feelings are translated into sales
- >is probably worthy enough to be of importance to a maker of comics.)
-
- Actually, most of the current "manga" comics are like that -- they seem fast
- because they are designed to be read fast. Each episode is pretty intense and
- I find that every issue of Venus Wars or Caravan Kidd or Battle Angel Alita
- zooms by in about 10-12 minutes, but it makes a good head rush (and it's safer
- than more direct methods).
-
- Manga in Japan (FYI) is printed (I believe) weekly in thick anthology "phone
- books" on fairly cheap paper, and is usually read quickly during an hour long
- commute by train into Tokyo or in some other nook and cranny of an otherwise
- overworked Japanese's life. American comics are generally not like that, but
- manga-ish comics done by Americans (Dirty Pair is the big example here, I'd
- also include Gold Digger although some may disagree) will usually come close
- by using a dense variant of the normal American comic style. By this I mean
- carefully chosen shifts between large and small panels, dialog or no dialog,
- and so on. Manga tends to be very visually oriented, and that eats up pages
- quickly. The question is whether the product of the intensity and the length
- is enough to be worth your dollar (or two fifty, like it usually is).
-
- >Albedo has had some pretty neat stuff in it. However, #7 looked like a bunch
- >of talking heads, at least compared to the stuff I'd read back in Command
- >Review #1-3. Something looks different, and I'm not sure I like it.
-
- The feeling I get is that Steve is trying to cram a lot of character
- development into little space, and it's stretching things somewhat. I don't
- mind an occasional issue like this, but it had better not become the norm
- unless things get really interesting (and to me who started from scratch when
- New Albedo #1 came out, it nearly is).
-
- Todd Whitesel
- toddpw @ cco.caltech.edu
-