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As far as I know, Dark World is set in Asgard, so hopefully there is no SHEILD there. And the Winter Soldier is a pretty epic story, even without backstory to establish the pre-history of the character, so there shouldn't be room in that one

Well, that's kind of anecdotal, but it has to do with my own experience: the word of a friend of mine running a shop in Toronto, lots of similar statements I've heard on comic podcasts (such as, "How do we get kids to start reading comics?" "Kids don't come to the comic shop."), the desparate need to perpetually restart series to attract new readers(New 52, Marvel NOW), and just the logic of it. The price is what really kills comics these days, and it's a reason some publishers look to Japan and magazines like "Jump" to figure out a healthy business model. Comics are like cigarettes. You have to get them started young. When I was a kid (1980), every convenience store/grocery store/drug store had a comic rack, and those disappeared as comics got more "mature" and collector oriented, leaving only comic shops. Now, you pretty much have to go to a comic shop to find comics, and most parents wouldn't take their kid to one unless directly asked to, and maybe not even then. So, for over twenty years, kids haven't been exposed to them like they used to. (Trade paperbacks at Barnes and Noble don't count, because they are out of a kids casual price range). When I was a kid, I could get comics at the corner store up the road from my grandma's house (population: 200) and get them for 35 cents each, the cost of a pop. Now they cost three to four times that, relatively speaking, and you likely have to drive to find a shop, and if you're in a rural area, you're out of luck. I will expose my daughter to comics, but it'll pretty much just be trade paperbacks. I'm not rich enough to collect both LEGO and comics. I think American comics won't get out of their rut as long as they demand full color work, and heavy stock paper, which make comics ill-suited to the mass market. A quick Google search of "Average age comic book reader": Link It's annecdotal too, but you have 56% above 30, and 37% between 18 and 29, with less than 6% below 18. If you find anything to contradict this, let me know. I'd love to see things be better. On a related note, in Toronto is what is possibly the first ever comic book shop for kids, Little Island Comics. If you live in Toronto, and want to get your kids/nieces/nephews hooked, take them there, or get them gift certificates. There's nothing a parent wouldn't like there http://www.littleislandcomics.com/

Since their birth, there have always been comics aimed at adults, in America, Europe and Japan (and elsewhere I guess). In America, the birth of the Comics Code in the 50's (check the wiki page on Frederick Wertham for the pathetic story). In the 70's and 80's, more 'mature' writing appeared, but a lot of it was just sexy and violent. Video games and multi-media, plus soaring paper prices are largely to blame for it now though (comics in America cost $4 on average for a 10 minute read... not for kids). The Gen X-ers were the last generation of kids to read lots of comics. Twenty years ago, the average reader was 15, and now they are in their 30's. So the stories and art have gotten a lot more sophisticated to go with that. Most books aimed at younger readers fail. Hopefully, the success of some comic characters in movies, plus the ability to buy and read them on tablets, will get kids back into them more. We'll see

Hey This is a good drawing. If you want to improve your drawing using Illustrator, try this tutorial: http://origin.media.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/digital-manga-illustration The second half is about doing lots of flare and shading, with Photoshop, I think, but the first half shows how to clean up drawings in Illustrator, and might be useful to you

DYNAMIC PANELING Thinking like a comic-stripper At its basest form, comics are just a series of boxes assembled on a page, but that’s much the same way that music can be said to be simply a series of notes. Those descriptions belie how complicated they both can be. Those boxes can be manipulated in countless ways, to change the way people read the work, how fast they take in the pace of the action, and the mood communicated. As this is tutorial is for Brick Comics, I doubt anyone here is aiming to win an Eisner award for their work, and if they were, they probably wouldn’t need my advice. All the same, consideration of how images are arranged can make your work look that much more exciting and fresh. Placing a series of photos online and calling it comic is all well and good, but it’s not making use of the screen, and not adding much for the reader. With a little effort, you can dramatically improve the quality of your brick comics. Pacing Comics have gone through a lot of shifts over 100 years. If you check out an old comic from the 30’s to the 60’s, each panel often represents a fair chunk of time, usually assisted by narration. (Click images to enlarge) Art by Steve Ditko Looking at that work now can often feel clunky and slow, not to mention shallow. Even the greatest artists of the past feel pretty dull by modern standards. These days, the trend is toward something called “decompressed story telling,” where scenes are spread out into multiple panels. Art by John Cassidy It’s generally more pleasant to read (in my opinion), but the result is that what used to be told in one page is now told in ten, and story arcs that used to be told in one or two issues are now told in six. Within these polar opposites of story telling, a tense moment can be blown up and magnified, so that a second seems to take a minute to occur. Art by Frank Miller It’s up to you and the story you’re telling as to how you choose to approach it. Ideally, you should want to be comfortable with a wide variety of techniques to suit your story, but not feel compelled to use them all. Comics have time built into them, and they convey it in different ways. After a series of medium shots, throwing in a long shot in a larger panel dramatically slows down the page. Conversely, having a number of smaller staccato close-up shots has a brisk rhythm. Generally, you’re going to want to have a somewhat consistent rhythm, except in places where you want to highlight something out of the ordinary. For example, a series of small panels are used to show Batman quickly tossing off batarangs and incapacitating a number of small time crooks, to emphasize his efficiency. Or the end of a heavy fight scene pulls out to a long shot with multiple subjects and their surrounds to let the reader take in the awesomeness of what has come before them. In comics, you can even have the subject in multiple places in one picture, and the reader reads it as time passing, rather than somebody being cloned. This sort of technique is used with the Flash all the time, but it could be used to show someone puttering around the house. With multiple mini-figs, the choice it yours. Art by Chris Ware Structure One thing that I strongly recommend is to start with a simple structure, maybe four to six panels a page, in a clear sequence, regardless of how ‘compressed’ your story is. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that this is the easiest way to tell a story clearly. The reason people have done it for 100 years is because it works. Crazy lay-outs can be mind-blowing, but they require a lot more thought from the reader to process, and can be tiring. The second is that the simple approach allows you to be mind-blowing when you want to be. If you always have big splashy images, then the end result is none of it is very splashy. Rather, keeping your images restrained allows you to have an effective punch when the time calls for it. Let’s imagine the panel is a video image, and we’ll rank the image from 1 (boring) to 10 (zany). 1 in this case is a static image, just the same image repeated, as if the camera was locked in place. 10 is a crazy, Men In Black-style flying around the room and between people’s legs camera. 5 is in the middle; your average movie, with close ups, establishing shots and the like. Enough camera changes to give the scene a mood, but not enough to make an octogenarian sick. In the 90’s, comics got splash page heavy (a splash page is a page with a single large panel), and the effect was that they had little effect. Rather, a splash should be saved for a big moment. A comic book like the Walking Dead is a great example of something which uses effective splash pages, with usually one per issue, always the most emotional moment of the issue. It hits you like a punch in the gut. If you’re creating an action sequence and you repeatedly have in-your-face images, the reader will be as numb as someone watching a Michael Bay film marathon. Rather, save it for the right time. Techniques like this should be used sparingly. In modern comics, there are lots of images overlaid on images. Whereas in the past, every panel had its own white space, now most artists layer panels on top of panels, like windows on a computer screen. This can be exciting, but the best artists are still showing the action in a fairly traditional way, where the order of the panels is never in doubt. Design should never overwhelm your page. Art by Frank Quitely Technique Okay, enough theory. Let’s put it into practice. This being a Brick Comic forum, there is a good chance of humor being used here, and all the stuff about drama and effect still holds true for comedy. Actually, keeping a straight face can be very important in humor, so utilizing these techniques can improve your comedy even more. Art by The Perry Bible Fellowship For my example comic page, I'm going to work with something already completed, since I'm not here to tell you about taking photos or even writing. The idea is to punch up and present something to the best of our abilities. I use Photoshop to throw things together, though for a simple project like this, other programs might do the job. I'm merely assembling pictures, not editing them or doing special effects on them. I've chosen to work on the four-photo zombie tale that Darkdragon has done recently (at the time of typing). Please go look at it now, I'll wait Pay Attention It's well-thought out and conceived. Not exactly as a comic strip, but as a story. If it were conceived of as a comic page in the first place, I would have done a few things differently, which I’ll mention after looking at the finished product. Anyway, there is a lot to work with. So, my first thing is to sketch it out. THIS DOES NOT REQUIRE TECHNICAL SKILL. Just a concept. My sketch was done on the back of scrap paper while I was 'working.' The point is to decide on the images you’ll need when taking photos, and have an idea of how they'll flow on the page. This can be changed of course, but it's a heck of a lot easier to draft it on paper than it is just to start with a blank computer screen. The key points I went for are these: -The first photo is broken down into two panels. The main one is a larger establishing panel, with a quieter one to establish the zombie danger. Essentially, it's now got two beats, despite being one cohesive scene, and also makes the happy face on the character even more natural, since there is no 'danger' in the first panel. -The second photo is broken up into two close up shots, and shown at Dutch angles. The original was a full body shot, but all that info wasn't necessary to the story. The key info is the fear on the human's face, and the violent action. The smaller panels done in close-up give it a faster pace, and the tilt on them make them a little more action-y. -The third photo donates an image to the violence mini-panels, though the whole of the main picture is used in the next panel, with a little cropping to fit the page. Because the first one is a close-up, you don’t even notice the image is used twice. I give it an enlarged border to give the image a stronger beat. This is a technique Calvin & Hobbes used a lot, and, sparingly, it's neat. -The final one is large panel, pulling back to shown the punchline/true scene. By making it larger, the characters can stay near the same size, helping keep the rhythm, but also slowing down for a dramatic final image. The rhythm of the page should go: Bum-da-da-da-DUM-duhhhhhhhh! Let's see how it turns out. I like it Love, no, but it's satisfying. If I were to change a few things with the original pictures, I would take a one more action pic to throw into the violence montage, like of the arm swinging. Also, in the final pic, I would change the expression of the main character to an "oops," as he realizes what’s happened, simply because the facial expression is repeated and it doesn't add new info to the page. Much like I took out the background in picture two, there is no reason to repeat info, unless it's for a purpose. Each panel should portray something, be it narrative or simply mood. These things are in order to create a comic page, as opposed to a critique of the original, which works as it is. As for what I might change with what I did, I like most of it, but the second-last panel could have had a colored border instead of a white one. Maybe something in red might give is more zazz. As well, I’m not deeply attached to the color of the page or the lettering, but those are not so related to the paneling. The three violence panels could have sharper borders, to get that action across more. But, overall, I think the page works, and has made the original story more readable. Now, how about you give it a try? Create something dramatic, something romantic, something gut-busting! It’s up to you. ASSIGNMENT For this lesson, you need to create a comic page (or even pages, if you like). Step 1: sketch out your idea. It doesn't need to be fancy, just get an idea of what you're going to do. Do you have a variety of panels? If not, why not? Is the information in each panel important to the mood or the story? Has anything superfluous been removed? Step 2: Build it, photograph it, use the other tutorials here. Step 3: Put it together, tweaking your original idea as you go along to see what works. Step 4: Explain it. A good comic stripper usually doesn't over-analyze their own work, or get very conscious about it when making it. But, after the fact, there are things that work and that don't, and part of being a competent artist is understanding why things work. So, much like I explained why I did my page the way I did, I'd like you to give some conscious thought to what you've done. In the future, you never need to do this again For this assignment, you need only show the finished product, and an explanation of it, though if you want some guidance early on, you may post your sketch. Please start a new thread to show your WIP strip. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Addendum These are some artists whose page designs I respect, just if you're curious, or want inspiration outside your sphere. Eiichiro Oda- artist on Japan's number one manga, One Piece. A vibrant, kinetic artist. I'm not a fan of manga, but his work stands out for its liveliness. Frank Quitely- A Scottish artist known for slowly-produced, but impeccable work. Mind-bendingly exciting work on Batman & Robin and All-Star Superman. He has a very flexible structure, but always clear story-telling. Bill Watterson- The creator of Calvin & Hobbes. He had a brilliant jazz-like page, especially in the later years. His Sunday strips put the rest of the comics page to shame. Chris Ware- In my opinion, the greatest comic artist alive. His page and panel design drastically overshoots what most on this site would aim for, but his stuff is simply the most complicated, intricately created comic work ever done. You don't have to love it (and a lot of people consider it overly depressing), but you need to respect it (like this bastard of a page that needs to be turned in all directions to read). He might be the only comic artist in the MOMA in New York. There are many others, but those are the artists which jump out at me when I think of exciting pages, you will likely have your own inspiration. Go for it!

That's just it: it snaps open, and it requires a bit of force. The 2006 model used lower gears, and it took two or three times the rotations to open, so the wings smoothly opened. It looked more like in the movies, and felt more relaxed in the hand. That's my preference

I picked this up today. I had the last X-wing from 2006, and the build of this one is a lot more elegant overall. The body is lighter and tighter. The wings as well are better, with the underwings being inversions of the upper wings, as a result, they are smoother and SNOTtier. Both aesthetically and build-wise, it's a big improvement on a design I was personally quite satisfied with. The main criticism I have is that the wing opening mechanism is a lot less smooth. As a build, it's simpler and I liked it as I made it, but in action, it's a little jarring. As a minor second one, the ship ID is done in stickers, which is fine for one piece, but a real challenge to align two adjacent pieces together. All the same, I'm considering picking up a second in order to show two off at the same time. Big from me.

Thanks! I think it's great that you love the movie, but saying that it's not real, it's heightened reality, except when it's a metaphor, doesn't prove it to be a great movie. And Batman getting eight-years upset is fine for "Nolan's Batman," but it sucks for Batman. It's fine for what it is itself. I'm going to watch the movie again at some point, to see some of the positive points of the movie again, like Bane's charming accent, but I won't be expecting a coherent, real movie. I'll expect one where every cop in the city enters the sewer together and live there for three months.

Fox has those and the X-Men rights, and don't seem interested in giving them up soon. And Daredevil crosses over really well with Spider-man Spidey is in Manhattan, and DD is in Hell's Kitchen. DD needs to visit Manhattan for lots of reasons, and both are street level heroes.

Calgary I hear it's really nice, but I'd have a hard time living in a small city so far from other cities... But, as a non-Canadian, it'll simply be a new experience for you, so it'll be fun I have arrived in Oshawa! With jet lag, it's not bad that I'm starting my day at 4 am, I should be on Toronto time in a day or so

It's a time travel story, but it came out 10 years before Bishop was ever a character. It was a two issue and done story, not a dragging sub-plot that lasted years. Future writers have cannibalized the ideas from it for years. The original two issue story is worth a read, though they won't be able to follow it well in the next movie: it starred a grown-up Kitty Pryde, the daughter of Cyclops and Phoenix, and Franklin Richards, the son of Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four. Awesome story! It would be great to see that made in Lego, sentinels and all!

Again, spoilers... Dale, Glenn, and Michonne lived, and continued to take part in the series, so no worries The next 20-30 issues are all travelling, so lots of opportunities to meet new people as well

For a long time, the stories in the different Spider titles had a theme, like Amazing covered Spider-man's homelife and college buddies (like Flash), another handled Daily Bugle stuff. Then a few years back, the titles were all consolidated into Amazing, which came out three times a month... That was a little intense, so it's monthly now, and there is a new title, Avenging Spider-Man, which is pretty much a team-up book, Spider-Man and another hero, usually an Avenger. When you say "one long story," it's hard to call it that. Most comics have a set continuity, where what came before happened, but whenever a new creative team starts on a book, a lot of old plotlines get abandoned, and some ideas get taken out. So, while it's one big story, there is no need to read most of it. I would call it a soft-reboot when creative teams come in. The last big re-boot was Brand New Day (google it) when Amazing Spider-Man went three times a month, and there were some good stories there, though not great. If you want to get into Spider-Man now, it's hard to say where to turn. There have been a lot of great stories, but they might not read quite as well to a new fan. I love the 70's stuff, but it is a lot more dense than what comes out now. But, you may want to surf through this page, a great geek site's top voted Spider-Man stories http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/category/50-greatest-spider-man-stories/ He appeared in the third volume of Captain America, by Brubaker and Epting. It's a pretty awesome series, and though it's expensive, the omnibus edition (issues 1-25) is the easiest way to get the story. You might need to get a trade or two after that to see how it turns out. Really addictive. http://www.amazon.com/Captain-America-Omnibus-Vol-1/dp/0785128662/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344063107&sr=8-1&keywords=captain+america+omnibus Yes, it's just a marketing tag. Marvel does it every two years or so, as an excuse to launch new titles. I think it's a little confusing myself.

Honestly, between the general tone of the film, and the tragic shootings that occurred, I would think that TLG is going to emphasise the comic Batman over the Nolan-verse one. I may be wrong though...

I can't quite get that at all. The third and fourth were pure camp to me (from number three: "Holy rusted metal, Batman!"). With the third, the movie started turning into the 60's TV show. I can agree that Batman Returns was sillier than the first one. Gotham got a little out of control. But the first one was pretty restrained. The Gotham in it was literally gothic, and though I prefer the Nolan version of Gotham, it had a solid quality to me. I dare you to rewatch the first and third

They can't ever be compared to the Nolan series, since that would be comparing 'very real apples' to 'fantasy oranges.' I like the first film, though it is a bit lumpy in places. Particularly the part where Joker killed his parents. Comic movies have seemed stuck with connecting the villain to hero's origin ever since. (the suckiest example being Spider-Man 3, where we learn Sandman killed Uncle Ben, despite that plot being finished in the first one) I've been meaning to rewatch the second for a while, and while I liked it enough at the time, it wasn't amazing. Ultimately, Burton had a strong vision of Batman, which wasn't contrary to the comic, though Michael Keaton would never manage a Bruce Wayne chin. And I still consider them the real start of the modern comic movie, since Superman had been a fluke of sorts. After Batman came out though, there was a steady trickle of comic-based properties (rent the Rocketeer!), leading up to the deluge we have today. So, good stuff. Batman Forever sucked, full of Dutch angles and forced neon lighting, then Batman & Robin sucked worse. I took my girlfriend to see that second one, and I was so embarrassed. I liked to think I had good taste, but I had chosen to take her, so that suck was all on my shoulders. That being said, it is probably the worst movie of the 90's, and I love it now. Invite friends, have a drink or two, and watch that film together... You will be laughing all night. It's stunningly, amazingly terrible, and it's very entertaining. You can practically taste the cocaine on the screen.

I read that a few years ago (maybe even mentioned it in this thread ) and I reread the book about a month ago, after season two ended. Between the first and second reads, I read the following 50 or so issues. I can tell you one thing: the author wasn't simply cleaning house. It seems to be part of the writer's attempt to remind us that nobody is safe. And there was a lot of dealing with what happened there. All the same, I'd say only a few 'key' characters died. Most of the others who leave at the end were people who had been around from a few story lines before. All the same, if you found that unsatisfying, you'll probably find the later issues unsatisfying as well. 'Key' characters die at an interval, and for the 100th issue, another dies brutally. I really like the issues, and don't take so much care to the numbering or arc numbers, but a lot of websites made an issue of the 100th. I still find it one of the more compelling books out there, and moreover, the artist is really consistent, with never a fill-in for 90+ issues, which maintains a remarkable sense of the world. So, I hear your frustration, but I still liked it enough to read it twice, which is not so common these days

Halfway through "Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future" by Ian Morris. Why is English the world's second language? Why did Europe dominate over Asia for the last few hundred years? What are the chances that this trend will continue? Interesting stuff. Really interesting. The world we live in is interesting.

The thing is, the whole movie was not 'real'... Not in a 'movies aren't real' way, but in the 'planes can't steal other planes in the sky' or 'you can't punch a man's vertebrae back into his spine and have him walk later' way. So, ultimately, I would have rather seen Killer Croc make an appearance, or anyone else that was ruled out based on Nolan's vision of 'real'. As for the comics fans, it's true, the average person isn't a reader. But, I think the current boom of movies is somewhat based on the large number of animated shows based on these characters from the 90's (Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man, and Iron Man being the main ones) which did mine the comics successfully, so there is a mass audience with an appetite for strange comic ideas. And I think the success of the more comic book faithful films of the last few years is an example of that. I really do have the feeling that Nolan feels above the material. I like his movies, Inception and Memento in particular, and I really liked Batman Begins. I just don't care for his "rules" for the Nolan Batman-verse. I look forward to the next reinvention of the character on film I wouldn't have done that Maybe when I was in high school I would have. The last movie I tried to watch with my mom was Rushmore, which she turned off 30 minutes in for being weird. She would have just said no to Batman. Your mom watched it with you because she loves you Now that I saw it, I can follow up on the podcasts I listen to, which are all weighing in on it this week. The aintitcool megablocks on poptards (link for good geeky podcast:http://www.poptardsgo.com/?p=3902) all liked it, with a lot of criticisms which almost sounded like they didn't. On the Slate Culture Gabfest, all were pretty tired out from it, which was close to my feelings on it. I'll check out the Filmspotting review tomorrow. The movie is a major cultural point, so it is getting coverage from all points, and at the very least, I'm glad to be caught up to the conversation On another note, I saw a really nice looking girl on the street today with nerd-chic glasses and a loose T-shirt with a Batman logo on it. It's amazing how this character has traveled the world.

Maybe Marvel is going to try another Hulk movie (though I don't know they should, he might be best for special occasions). Trank will not working on it, he's been signed by Fox to reboot Fantastic Four. (Google "Trank Fantastic Four" to see reports) I really enjoyed Chronicle, so I'm looking forward to whatever he does next.

I saw it, but I don't think it explains why he became a recluse. There are story points which apparently make sense in the Nolan-verse, but really, they make no sense in a Batman story. That includes the disappearance of Batman. It's just not how the character works. I look forward to the next movies, and hopefully the director doesn't think they're better than the comics and insist that everything is "real." I'd much rather see the video games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City used as models. They are truer to the characters and fun. The reviews for this are about 80% love, and 20% hate, and I think I just fall into that second category. Of the trilogy, I think Batman Begins is my favorite, but I won't be rewatching them all to make that call.

I just watched this movie, and I thought it was utter clown shoes. There were some things to like, but Nolan's repeated mantra of "real" makes the thing silly. In that opening scene, the notion of a big plane taking a smaller plane with a bunch pros dropping from the big plane is just totally 'bad James Bond'... Sure a big plane is expensive, and of course hiring a dozen world class assassins costs money too, but it's the League of Shadows or whatever Then the reveal that the eight-year Batman vacation was because his girlfriend died, oh my God that was dumb. His parents die, and that leads him to a psychotic life as a crime fighter, but then some girl he sort of dated dies, and he turns into Howard Hugues? The whole premise was flawed, which made the rest of it just silly. And the rest didn't make a lot more sense either, since Bane's "plan" made no sense. What was his goal? Why do any of it? In retrospect, The Amazing Spider-Man looks a lot better. And the video game Arkham Asylum is better than both. <sorry if this hurts any super fans here. I'll watch this again in six months and try to see if it's any better, but right now it just seems desperate for parody>

My base of operations is actually going to be Oshawa, but I may just show up at that meeting

If it gets to you, feel free to move south of the border I grew up in Canada, came of age there, so I'm pretty up on how the economy works