Indie (independent) comics are an offshoot of what we’ll call mainstream comics (DC & Marvel). Unlike the superheroes and villains of mainstream comics, Indie comics arose from an artist or writer who wanted to tell their own story, rather than recycle the same old good vs. evil. Because of this a lot of Indie comics might not have as high a production value as mainstream, but there is a different demographic for the average Indie comics. Certain boundaries can be broken in Indie comics that might not be palatable for mainstream audiences, whether it’s content or even the very design of the page.
One incredibly huge factor in Indie comics production is the lack of color. This is almost entirely due to a lack of funds, as Indie creators are doing it for the love of comics and might not have the necessary backers to print in color. But some Indie comics can make it big, such as Jeff Smith’s Bone. Bone started as an Indie comic, from the love that Jeff Smith had for comics. Throughout the arduous task of creating the 55 issue comic, which took 12 years, Jeff Smith moved Bone from a self published Indie comic to full blown mainstream hit. Or at least, he had mainstream success. During those 12 years he only used other companies for distribution, not publishing (http://www.boneville.com/bone/bone-history/). After completion of the Bone epic, Jeff Smith had partnered with Scholastic to help bring Bone to kids everywhere, especially in the libraries. Unlike most Indie comics creators, Jeff Smith actually made enough money, that he was even able to print Bone in color, provided by Steve Hamaker. Personally, while Steve did a fantastic job of coloring my favorite comic of all time, I prefer the pure black and white of the original Jeff Smith creation.
The above two images are the original black and white version of a page and a colored version from Jeff Smith's Bone.
One advantage that the average Indie comics have over mainstream comics is the restrictions of being independent. If an artist is only able to use black and white then the art cannot simply rely on color to gloss over their flaws. Likewise, most Indie comics are done by one person, so the writing, drawing, inking, and lettering (and occasional coloring) all have a singular vision, because a single person did it all.
To continue using Jeff Smith’s magnum opus, he used a very simple panel layout for all of his pages. The 90s, when Bone was being published, brought about the use of full bleed comics. This meant that every inch of the page could be filled. This used to be almost impossible up until that time due to technology bottlenecks, but full bleed became the norm soon enough. Many Indie creators didn’t even use panels, as it was more artistic and avant-garde. But Jeff Smith used a very basic layout and rarely, if ever, deviated from those self-imposed restrictions. In my mind this created a more cinematic feel, as if reading every page was simply watching a silent movie and some of his scenes are the most powerful I’ve ever seen in comics because of this.
One of the greatest comics creators, not just known in Indie circles, was Will Eisner, the creator of The Spirit and known as the father of the graphic novel (http://culturemob.com/will-eisner-father-of-the-graphic-novel-on-screen-at-the-afi-silver). He pushed and broke the boundaries of the status quo of comics. In A Contract with God, often considered the first graphic novel, panels and word balloons were all but extinct. Sometimes panels would intersect with each other because it was another way for Will to tell his story. Dialogue was written without the use of rulers which brought a life of its own, making conversations much more organic than they seem in mainstream comics.
In Will Eisner’s The Spirit every title on the inside of the comic was worked into the backdrop. It was always different and was seamlessly mixed with the mood and setting of its surroundings. This was very radical as books like the X-Men and Batman always had the same emblem that could just be pasted on. But Will put his heart and soul into making comics and copy and paste didn’t seem to be in his vocabulary, making him, in my mind, what epitomizes the idea behind Indie comics.
The above image is the title page from a Will Eisner comic.
While both mainstream and Indie comics have their place, visionaries like Will Eisner and Jeff Smith are what stand out in my personal hall of fame of Indie comics. Heart and soul matter, in any form of art, and while a lot of Indie comics are not necessarily my cup of tea, almost across the board, Indie comics are about telling the story that the creators want to tell, in the medium they want to tell it in, with the tools they want to use, which I think is the true meaning of art.
No comments:
Post a Comment