[4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

[RDU Neil]

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

 

Squalid/silly, I like and dislike both to similar degrees.

 

BTW, I do think Preacher is good Iron Age work, even though I know many of you gag over it.

 

To me they both have a place... but they must not be in expense of story.

 

Life is silly at times, and having silly elements "THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE WORLD" is fine at time. Silliness just to be silly. Bleh.

 

Life is sordid at times, and having sordid elements "THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE WORLD" is fine at times. Sordidness for it's own sake... bleh.

 

To me it is all about dramatic verisimilitude. What makes you "feel" like the game makes sense to you. Sordid has a great deal more verisimilitude than silliness... IMO. Ellis' Stormwatch had verisimilitude, but Millar's take was meanness for meanness sake, and turned me off.

 

The "cartoon lion" story in Astro City is a great example. It's basic premise was so jarring to my verisimilitude of that series, that I didn't like it. It was too unreal and silly. I had to step back and appreciate it aesthetically... as an intelligent blending of Silver Age silliness and Iron Age sordid angst. I can appreciate it as a clever, artistic work... but it does nothing to draw me into it's world... an in fact served the purpose of pushing me out of that immersion.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

 

To me they both have a place... but they must not be in expense of story.

 

Life is silly at times, and having silly elements "THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE WORLD" is fine at time. Silliness just to be silly. Bleh.

 

Life is sordid at times, and having sordid elements "THAT MAKE SENSE TO THE WORLD" is fine at times. Sordidness for it's own sake... bleh.

 

To me it is all about dramatic verisimilitude. What makes you "feel" like the game makes sense to you. Sordid has a great deal more verisimilitude than silliness... IMO. Ellis' Stormwatch had verisimilitude, but Millar's take was meanness for meanness sake, and turned me off.

 

The "cartoon lion" story in Astro City is a great example. It's basic premise was so jarring to my verisimilitude of that series, that I didn't like it. It was too unreal and silly. I had to step back and appreciate it aesthetically... as an intelligent blending of Silver Age silliness and Iron Age sordid angst. I can appreciate it as a clever, artistic work... but it does nothing to draw me into it's world... an in fact served the purpose of pushing me out of that immersion.

 

Extremely well put.

 

I like the Authority, that puts me at odds from the majority here apparently. My reasoning is as follows, I think of Ellis' work as the best depiction of the Authority. Sure what came later was pretty sorry in many respects, but the core of the series is established in those first issues. The (original) Authority was thought provoking, it was in my opinion brilliant stuff about social issues, comic book genres, and how easy it is for the powerful to ignore the meek.

 

Do I think things raged out of control after Millar came on board? Of course! But there were some decent moments in that as well. I no longer read the series, as it has "turned me off", but for a while it was great stuff. Again, that's my opinion... I found it entertaining and thought provoking.

 

Likewise, I enjoy numerous "Silver Age" comics (so many I just can't possibly take the time to list them all). For the reasons you put forth above. Life is complex, so is art. There's room for complexities and myriad opinions in both I think.

[Southern Cross]

Re: [4color] Why do you dislike the Iron Age style? (No flames, ok?)

 

Actually,I like to refer to Kurt Busiek's comics work & his imitators as the "Steel Age".