So, given that, I enjoyed Jog's read of it quite a bit, as he says Proof of Concept "isn’t quite so much a collection of short stories as a link in a multi-media chain of communication between writer/publisher Larry Young and his readers." Which is a pretty astute observation that I haven't seen any reviewer make in almost six years. The thing that I find most compelling about comics is that it's the most direct-line feed from our heads to yours. No editorial interference, no corporate shenanigans, no limits whatsoever. Hang on to a robot running across the surface of the moon? No crushing of Cocoa Puffs into fine powder, no craft services table full of carrots and celery for the union electricians. No complex lighting set-ups, no highly paid actors, no $200 million dollar budget. All I have to do is write:
PANEL ONE: Takes up the top third (or perhaps even half) of the page. The Honda robot is retreating into the distance, running across the lunar surface with Dave hanging on for dear life. Originally he was on the robot’s back, getting a piggy- back ride. Dave is now hanging on around its neck and is flying out behind it like a cape blowing in the wind. The robot is kicking up a lot of lunar dust. Dig what’s going on? Dave’s catching a ride to the newsvan on the back of a fast robot. This is supposed to be funny... almost Road Runner-like. Go to town.
and I get this from Charlie Adlard:
Straight from our brains to yours.
Jog also put his finger on something others have commented upon, however: "While not everything is solid gold, there’s a palpable sense of affection flowing out of the book, something that’s not always easy to find in today’s comics." It's the nature of those who enjoy comic books to see the world in a binary fashion: Captain America good, Red Skull bad. Batman good, Joker bad. As readers mature, you get Love and Rockets good, Micronauts bad. Art comix good, superheroes bad. As if one has to be chosen over the other.
While I pointed you to H's quote yesterday that called me the 21st Century's version of Stan Lee, I look at it like Augie De Blieck, Jr. does, that we're the Jerry Bruckheimer of comics, delivering adventure and entertainment and pathos and instruction and joy. Which is something Tim O'Neil sees, as well.
Tim notes in today's review of Proof of Concept on The Hurting that "Pretty much everyone who composes the current 'New Mainstream' in comics - which I would define as anyone who wants to make their living publishing intelligent but not overly cerebral entertainment in comics format, with the idea of exploiting the vast market of everyday readers who have been abandoned by 'Mainstream' comics – is already following all or most of the suggestions on this list. Certainly Larry Young, as the movement’s ostensible figurehead, has proven that it is very possible to make a living by reaching out to the casual readers who – in a healthy industry – would compose the bulk of comics readership."
Although "Given Young’s proclivity towards understatement..." is certainly a sentence fragment most commentators on the scene would never think to write.
That reminds me; I have to call Ken.
