Balance
by Frank Santoro
Monday, October 13, 2008
If you aren’t checking out this comic every week, you’re missing the most inventive color comic being produced these days (with new pages added every tuesday). Even if you haven’t been following along, it’s worth spending some time at this site. Shaw is doing some incredibly interesting formal work in his compositions and in his color. And the very format of the strip –the scroll– is really altering my ideas about how a webcomic can be enjoyed and how it might translate into a printed book.
It’s consistently amazing and works really well on the web. The interview he did on Inkstuds is a great listen. Interesting that he’d never heard of Yage before starting Bodyworld.
Hunh. Burroughs. I hadn’t made that connection. Good one.
It's an interesting read and I love how he plays with the color very unique for a web comic. I agree that the scrolling effects the pacing of the read, in a good way.
I did get tired of reading a little piece every week.
So what I did was stop reading it for 2-4 months – then I printed all 2-4 months worth of comics and made myself a comic book so I could read it on a train. (I even created a cover based on a great panel from that month. I also numbered it by months – So I wouldn't mix them up.)
It's great reading it this way – by the time I finish reading them Dash has almost a month or two worth of comics waiting for me to print them & create a brand new comic.
It's a great little read and works as printed piece as well as a webcomic.
Do you guys know if he's going collect it in the future?
-Paul
Yeah, Pantheon is going to put it out in a book in ’09. Word I heard is that it will be sort of vertically oriented- imagine reading Ice Haven turned sideways, so it approximates the effect of the scroll- but with flaps on the inside front covers revealing the maps. Which sounds like it’ll be a cool little object.
Dash Shaw’s work is so amazing!
The arc of his development as a storyteller is almost as engrossing as the individual pieces. In reading each new project I’m consistantly amazed by how many new symbols/methods he invents to communicate.
I didn’t know he’d interviewed on inkstuds! I’m going to go give that a listen…
Wow- side ways Ice Haven type book!
When I created the comics from his online story I pretty much kept it very vertical just like his web page. But, I like a traditional comic – saddlestiched in the center. I also used his maps/symbols always as end papers to the issue.
I really curious to see what Pantheon puts out.
-Paulo
check out the overlays of color in the most recent chapter
how it mimics the pace of the story
the effect creates a distortion that is closer to reality or the feeling of memory’s pull on our reality than the more straightforward scenes from previous chapters. its really good.
Frank, since you guys already have a big chunk of Cold Heat “in the can”, would you ever consider putting those pages out on the web in a format similar to Bodyworld? I mean, Bodyworld is coming out in book format eventually as well, so Pantheon at least doesn’t seem worried about it affecting sales.
I just finished reading Bodyworld and I was really floored by the format. It made me think that it along with Cold Heat are by far my two favorite current comics. I wish I could click on a Cold Heat website and get caught up on that next!