TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS #1: SIZE MATTERS/PRESTIGE FORMAT

[Alex Groff]

by Alex Groff

Size Matters: Prestige Format

Yeah, I know: I could have thought of a less interesting title, but no matter how you slice it, this is a column about comics as an artform. The column is brief and sharp. Cut right to the point, because no one’s going to read pages and pages about punctuation without yawning. So, briefly: you’re not going to find out who Storm can beat in a fight or whose spandex are wound just a little bit too tight. Sharp: we're looking at page layout, comic length, thought bubbles— I’m taking comics apart like Legos and showing you what pieces work— I’m putting them back together again in new ways and trying to figure out why no one else thought of it first. I won't always succeed-- we all know that there are many fine minds creating comics right now, and they may beat us to the punch-- but that's the goal. In and out, under 1500 words: that’s the goal. We’re starting the column off talking about size, because no matter what she tells you— no matter what you tell him— size matters.

I Am Legion

As I write this, I have I Am Legion: The Dancing Faun sitting on my lap. I’ll talk more about Humanoids as a publisher later; to be honest, they weren’t actually the reason I bought this book. I’m not a big fan of World War II stories; I like them even less when they have all sorts of supernatural crap thrown in to make Nazis scarier. I’m sorry: when you kill well over six million people, you’re pretty scary. When your mustached leader has sex with his prepubescent cousin and you still worship him like a god, you’re pretty scary. No, I don’t like Nazis, and I don’t like stories about Nazis— even if they’re getting the merde kicked out of them.

But John Cassaday’s work is always brilliant, so I bought it anyway.

The advantage I Am Legion has over most comics— other than a brilliant artist— is its length. You have 54 pages of comic, with a nice title page and extra pages of artist sketches in the back. This is traditionally called Prestige Format, and it’s been used before for poorly written Batman and JLA titles. And, let’s be fair, Prestige is a weird format. At somewhere between 48-72 pages, it’s three times the size of a normal comic. But it’s not a graphic novel (or graphic novella), because it’s not the whole story.

For some reason I have yet to figure out, DC seems to have spent the last ten years ruining the format they helped create. Not intentionally, mind you. DC started with great creators doing great stories in Prestige format, but at some point, they forgot what made Prestige special. Let’s look at the stories that wound up as Prestige Format: Batman: Tenses, Batman: The Ankh, JLA: Soul War, JLA: Gatekeeper, JLA/Haven and the list goes on. None of these are great comics. I love Joe Casey’s stories, and I really enjoy John Van Fleet’s artwork, but all of these stories made me wonder why I spent extra on them, and why I should buy the next issue. DC tried to dress these stories in their Sunday bests with cardstock covers and spines, but they were still just glorified miniseries. There was not enough story there to make them worth the extra attention they were given.

I Am Legion is different. It’s the perfect example of why Prestige should not be the bastard child of comics. Prestige is what the best comics can be— and here’s why.

Novels are completely different than comics, because in a novel, you have all the space you need to tell your story. If you want to spend a page describing the way someone brews their coffee, you have the space to do that. I may be bored out of my mind, or I may not— I may even skim it, if I’m bored— but there’s no reason you can’t do that in a novel.

If you spent a page brewing coffee in comics, people would look at you like you were crazy. You don’t have time to waste on trivialities. You have 22 pages, and if something doesn’t explode or fight in those 22 pages, you’ve lost readers. Look at the book, Chiaroscuro, published by Meanwhile Studios. It’s filled with story, but there’s no real action, and because of that, or because of lack of attention, a lot of people aren’t buying it. Some stories are just designed to move at a different pace, and comics aren’t good at that.

Imagine if Clerks or Chasing Amy was released in 10 minute installments. Would you have waited week after week, at $3 a pop, to see the next segment? Prestige isn’t the whole movie, but it’s a lot more than 10 minutes.

And what can you do with a lot of story-space? Well, I am Legion: The Dancing Faun throws out dozens of plot threads in the first issue— and all of them are developed enough to keep your interest. Compare that to a similar 22-page first issue: Chaykin’s Challengers of the Unknown #1. I think the premise is interesting, and the art is great— but as to what’s going on... well, that I don’t know. What would have happened if Howard had been given an extra 32, or even 10 pages to flesh out his ideas? I wonder the same thing about Vertigo’s most recent miniseries, Angeltown, which offers a lot of promise, and slightly less clarity.

To consider the opposite, I’ve been reading Ashley Wood’s Lore from IDW. It’s not his best work, but it’s quite good— and the page count (36 p.) has definitely helped keep it from becoming too jumbled and confused. There’s a certain amount of mystery and purposeful complexity, but the ideas there are being developed at a comfortable pace. If you want a fast-paced story, Prestige makes sure you don’t have to sacrifice content for action.

Prestige is also perfect for stories that are set at a slower pace. You want to brew coffee for a page? You still have 53 pages left (or more… some Prestige books are 72 pages). If you want to tell a story with a pause in conversation— or a conversation instead of action— there is no rush. Lee Ferguson’s Freak has a great deal of action and intrigue, but also spends time on the romantic aspect of the story— because there’s space. I’m not saying you should purposefully make your comics slow and dull, but if you have an excellent story that has to be told at the slower pace— like Chiaroscuro or Strangers in Paradise, then it’s only fair to give the readers more.

Once upon a time, there were great stories in Prestige format. Vertigo put out Kid Eternity by Grant Morrison and Duncan Fegredo and Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Frank Miller wrote The Dark Knight Returns for DC and then went out on his own to put out Give Me Liberty with Dave Gibbons. Even Marvel did great work with Prestige, putting the Simonsons on Wolverine/Havok: Meltdown with tagteam art by Jon Muth and Kent Williams. These are the great names of comics, working in this format. The fact that it disappeared baffles me. When that many superstar creators christen a format, it’s a wonder that the format doesn’t catch on like wildfire.

To tell you the truth, I haven’t actually finished I Am Legion, because the story is massive. But savoring a story, enjoying each page as you go... that’s not a bad thing.

No, that’s not a bad thing at all.

---

Everyone tells Alex groff that size doesn't matter. But then they don't return his phone calls.

---

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.

[Dylan McKay]

While I think the article is really good, I have to disagree on a few points.

1) The reasons people don' buy actionless comics have nothing to do with format, and everything to do with readership. Post-CCA comics have been pretty much the realm of boys, and thus action adventure rules. While the age group has diversified, the diversification of who reads has not overly diversified. Therefore action adventure still reigns supreme, and a change in format will not bring in the new readers who would enjoy non-action adventure comics.

2) I disagree that a comic is ten minutes of a movie. A 22 page comic can range from 5-20 minutes of a movie, some may even hit the 23 minutes needed for a full TV show. It's all about pacing. Some great examples of increasing the density of a comic without increasing the length would be Formerly Known As the Justice League which uses 16 panel grids for talking heads scenes and thus is able to get full and detailed conversations in one page, rather than spreading it out over three. Exact same result, 1/3 the pages. And Rex Mundi which tends to include 1 to 2 more plot points per issue than most comics and allows it to create an expanssive story of intrigue, and it is done without ever losing the reading. The story moves along at a surprisingly fast pace, but remains rich and full of detail. Both of these comics can easily go 22 pages without action, and both are excellent comics. And what's more, rather than increase the length of the comic, it is an increase in density of the comic. The beauty of comics to me is the limitted page space, it means you can't have a page dedicated to pouring a cup of coffee, unless pouring a cup of coffee is vital to the story. Writers are forced to be economical with what they do, which illiminates the greatest flaw of novels, which often bore me because I end up either trudging through so much, or skipping so much that I just don't bother finishing. A comic can't do that. It's up to the creators to get more out of the format. And with books like Rex Mundi & Formerly Known As the Justice League I'm getting more for my money than I would be by paying more for a longer comic that doesn't contain more. I've yet to read a comic where slow pacing helped.

I'd rather see the presitige format for graphic novella's like Tales From The Bully Pulpet or The Killing Joke. I really don't see the point of the format for multi-parters that can be mini-series.

[Captain America]

What about trades? They have generally have six issues' worth, and unless the story has been decompressed for the sake of fitting the format better, you have explosions (to use your own example of what a comic needs) is every sixth of the book. They take a while to come out, but surely they provide a substitute for the prestige format you yearn for?

In any case, I liked the column. Good job! Looking forward to seeing more in the near future.

[Alex Groff]

A lot of it comes down to a matter of taste. I'm a huge fan of novels, and my favorite kind of story is expansive, labrythine. Ryan pointed me to Murikami, and part of this column came from my trying to figure out, "could a book like that work as a comic?" The books I enjoy the most-- Danielewski's House of Leaves, King's Dark Tower, Conn's P, E.P.'s Cantos-- tend to be large, and as comics would simply be unwieldy. A couple of these columns look at how expansive the format can be, in order to go in directions that haven't been explored before.

None of this is to say that comics can't be denser, because I tend to agree that they should be. Some of the best comics I've read were standard nine-panel comics or variations on nine-panels. From Hell and Watchmen are fine examples of dense comics. Both Gaiman and Morrison have this rare knack for writing dense comics on loose panel layouts, which is really quite impressive. (Sixteen panels is a bit much, as it rarely works well and often throws off the flow of the book, but it can work.)

I don't think Prestige format would inherently lead to loose, sloppy writing. How many 22 page comics are poorly written and poorly paced? Its not because of decompression. Before decompression, stories were still poorly written and poorly paced. Which is to say that bad writing cannot be saved by the format of the book; while good writing can be stifled by it.

As for trades... they're still based on 22-page principle, which has the same flaws.

[Blake]

This really isn't *that* on topic but when is the next issue of I am legion due?

[Kevin Sutton]

I didn't care for the format of I Am Legion. I hadn't known that it was only part of the story; but that aside, I found the large white borders inside the comic were distracting and it was very clear that the artwork would look much better (and the lettering would be much clearer) in a larger size.

So while prestige may have been appropriate for the kind of story being written and marketed, in this case I felt that it wasn't a good idea to put a Humanoids story drawn for a much larger size into this format.

[BoomBot]

I can say that this is a great column. I think it shows that Alex can and probably will write some great comics, superhero or independent. Then he'll owe me $10 and some free books.

David did well with the Prestige format in Hulk: The End. While it was a one-shot unlike most of these stories, it fit nicely since it couldn't be split into even two issues.

[Dylan McKay]

Originally Posted by Alex Groff

A lot of it comes down to a matter of taste. I'm a huge fan of novels, and my favorite kind of story is expansive, labrythine. Ryan pointed me to Murikami, and part of this column came from my trying to figure out, "could a book like that work as a comic?" The books I enjoy the most-- Danielewski's House of Leaves, King's Dark Tower, Conn's P, E.P.'s Cantos-- tend to be large, and as comics would simply be unwieldy. A couple of these columns look at how expansive the format can be, in order to go in directions that haven't been explored before.

None of this is to say that comics can't be denser, because I tend to agree that they should be. Some of the best comics I've read were standard nine-panel comics or variations on nine-panels. From Hell and Watchmen are fine examples of dense comics. Both Gaiman and Morrison have this rare knack for writing dense comics on loose panel layouts, which is really quite impressive. (Sixteen panels is a bit much, as it rarely works well and often throws off the flow of the book, but it can work.)

I don't think Prestige format would inherently lead to loose, sloppy writing. How many 22 page comics are poorly written and poorly paced? Its not because of decompression. Before decompression, stories were still poorly written and poorly paced. Which is to say that bad writing cannot be saved by the format of the book; while good writing can be stifled by it.

As for trades... they're still based on 22-page principle, which has the same flaws.

I tend to think that comics shouldn't be compaired to other mediums. Books don't work well as comics, movies don't work well as comics, comics work well as comics. But that could just be me... And if you like large expansive stories, you really should try Rex Mundi.

16 panels works well in FKATJL, but I can see how it would work elsewhere, it needs an expressive artist like Macguire. While presitge doesn't lead to sloppy pacing, I'm just not sure how or why it's needed. I just don't see how 22 pages is flawed, if a writer can't fit what they need in 22 pages, maybe it's the writer who's plan is flawed.

[Alex Groff]

Originally Posted by Dylan McKay

I tend to think that comics shouldn't be compared to other mediums. Books don't work well as comics, movies don't work well as comics, comics work well as comics.

I guess that's where we part ways. When Gaiman-- I believe it was Gaiman, but I would have to check-- was asked why writers like Moore, Morrison, Milligan and himself had so many new idea, he answered it was because they read more books than comics. Ellis talks about his interest in music and graphic design affecting his writing. Pound studied and learned from music what he applied to his writing. Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" is drawn from Yorke's reading of Hesse's "Siddhartha." All art cross-pollinates.

Should one art form mimick another? Of course not. I agree that comics make poor movies, video games make poor comics, and movies make poor book adaptations. But to say that there aren't ideas or concepts, styles or formats that we can't learn from other mediums and experiment... well, I think that's when comics stop growing as an artform.

(And to clarify, when I said, "how would Murikami work as a comic, my intention was not, how to adapt it, but how to take that style of story, and attempt that style of story in comics.)

Originally Posted by Dylan Mckay

16 panels works well in FKATJL, but I can see how it would work elsewhere, it needs an expressive artist like Macguire. While Prestige doesn't lead to sloppy pacing, I'm just not sure how or why it's needed. I just don't see how 22 pages is flawed, if a writer can't fit what they need in 22 pages, maybe it's the writer who's plan is flawed.

I don't think 22 pages is flawed. However, I also don't think it works for everything. Some tv shows are half an hour, some are an hour, and a few are an hour and a half. The style of show that is designed for half an hour is fundamentally different than those designed for an hour. A 64-page comic is fundamentally different than 22-page comic, and part of the problem I've seen is that too many people write Prestige books as if they were writing singles. I'm not in favor of getting rid of 22 page comics... my interest is in trying new venues, seeing what other options are available.

[Dylan McKay]

Originally Posted by Alex Groff

I guess that's where we part ways. When Gaiman-- I believe it was Gaiman, but I would have to check-- was asked why writers like Moore, Morrison, Milligan and himself had so many new idea, he answered it was because they read more books than comics. Ellis talks about his interest in music and graphic design affecting his writing. Pound studied and learned from music what he applied to his writing. Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" is drawn from Yorke's reading of Hesse's "Siddhartha." All art cross-pollinates.

Should one art form mimick another? Of course not. I agree that comics make poor movies, video games make poor comics, and movies make poor book adaptations. But to say that there aren't ideas or concepts, styles or formats that we can't learn from other mediums and experiment... well, I think that's when comics stop growing as an artform.

(And to clarify, when I said, "how would Murikami work as a comic, my intention was not, how to adapt it, but how to take that style of story, and attempt that style of story in comics.)

I don't think 22 pages is flawed. However, I also don't think it works for everything. Some tv shows are half an hour, some are an hour, and a few are an hour and a half. The style of show that is designed for half an hour is fundamentally different than those designed for an hour. A 64-page comic is fundamentally different than 22-page comic, and part of the problem I've seen is that too many people write Prestige books as if they were writing singles. I'm not in favor of getting rid of 22 page comics... my interest is in trying new venues, seeing what other options are available.

Ok, I get you now. I agree that inspiration can and should be drawn from various sources. I just adamantly oppose adaptations. I wish I had the patience to become fluent in Japanese just so I could properly read Lone Wolf and Cub.


I think I see what you are saying with Prestige, I'm just not sure I get the benefit of the format unless it is self-contained. Because as a serialized mini-series, I tend to think an OGN would work best. And I've never seen an ongoing in Prestige format. But I think I can see how it would work, it would be a unique story telling method, I'm just currently not able to visualize it.