Part 3: Gods and Monsters - The L.A.W. GraphicNarrativ Seminar Series

 

During the 3rd lecture of the series we looked at the following sources of inspiration and storytelling devices:

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips creative collaborations go back more than 20 years and they have produced some impressive work from Criminal to The Fade Out. We looked through examples of their work on the comic book series 'Fatale' and 'Kill Or Be Killed.'

These publications come out of Image Comics which is a publishing company formed by creative people for creative people to promote creative-owned projects that are meant to be superior to work for hire projects.

Fatale was coloured by Dave Stewart

Kill Or Be Killed was coloured by Elizabeth Breitweiser

The lecture slides are shown below that covered the main points of the works under discussion; Fatale (2012-2014) and Kill Or Be Killed (2016-2018).

Fatale is a creative blend of noir and horror that leads the characters down dark paths to even darker fates. We feel compelled to continue reading in the hope of finding the clues to help us understand this mystery.

 

We are introduced to a ‘woman’ (Eve combined with Jezebel) who's been on the run since 1935. We discover her living unchanged in 2012 through a troubled reporter who after tracking her down, unleashes forces he can scarcely imagine. The story is full of problems as the ‘male gaze’ has been turned up all the way to 11. Is the woman a Siren, a Harpy or an Angel? We see doomed men from all walks of life who've been caught the web over the decades-long struggle between the ‘woman’ and a mobster monster. The mobster monster is after the ‘woman’ and he has an army of goons and acolytes to help in this pursuit. Can anyone be trusted? Most definitely not!

 

Ed Brubaker draws you into their insane motives, making you think about the why, before ripping everything apart right before your eyes. The illustrations by Sean Phillips strike a marvellous balance between graphic representation and the subtle evocations of the things that are normally unseen by the uninitiated. As the story proceeds we are exposed to bleak Lovecraftian tentacled beings, sacrificial rites and corrupted flesh.

The creative team behind Fatale have managed to combine the different genres seamlessly to forge a fresh and original retelling of its pulp fiction inspirations. They continued to use the genre mash up technique in their subsequent output.

Selected images for Fatale

Kill Or Be Killed is a dark take on the vigilante genre that became a cracked reflection of the world around us. Grad student Dylan makes a major error in his life due to his depression. His world is rocked by the sight of the demon. Is it real or is it part of his depression?

 

When he is forced to kill in order to stay alive, he decides that he can only execute those who ‘deserve’ it. As the months go by, he gets drawn deeper into the complexities and contradictions of his Vigilante lifestyle. Just how many people out there really ‘deserve’ it and is he really an Avenging Angel or a madman? Part existentialist parody, part Death Wish on Prozac, Kill Or Be Killed pays homage to the artists and illustrators whose vintage work inspired our creative team to write and draw comics in the first place.  

 

It is a direct response to the creators feeling that there is no justice in the world. Walking down those mean streets, those boulevards of broken dreams you begin sense that Dylan might be the only sane person in a world gone soft. His actions might actually be on the side of right. Convincing you to empathise with a cold-blooded killer is the reason that the book works. Naturally we are conditioned to hate it when bad people get away with it and we might fantasise about taking justice into our own hands. For us Dylan is doing what is right and we want him
to get away with it even though he shouldn’t.

Selected images for Kill Or Be Killed

References

Brubaker, E. and Phillips, S. (2015a) Criminal. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc.

Brubaker, E. and Phillips, S. (2015b) The fade out. Image Comics.

Brubaker, E. and Phillips, S. (2015c) Fatale. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics.

Brubaker, E., Phillips, S. and Breitweiser, E. (2017) Kill or be killed. Bielefeld: Splitter Verlag.

Brubaker, E., Phillips, S. and Phillips, J. (2022) Cruel summer. Portland, Oregon: Image Comics.

Brubaker, E., Phillips, S. and Phillips, J. (2021) Pulp. Portland, OR: Image Comics.

Proposition Time Part 3 

A WRITING EXERCISE

Genre Mash Ups suggested by the participants (students of Illustration and Visual Media) that were arrived at post lecture. Can you construct a new storyline by combining at least six of the Genres set out below?

A Genre is by definition: a style or category of art, music, or literature. "the spy thriller is a very masculine genre."

1. Rites of passage

2. Science Fiction

3. Detective story

4. Fairytale

5. Comedy

6. Fantasy

7. Romance

8.Crime story

9. Time Travel

10. High Finance

11. The Peace Treaty

What can you make out of combining the following selection? Can you write a 300 word summary about this new genre mash up? You should be trying to produce something that is original that you haven't tried to write before.

MY EXAMPLE OF THIS PROCESS
A rites of passage story that uses the detective process and comedy to explain high finance when it is combined with time travel and romance.

You hopefully get the idea and of course can develop ideas and a storyline using any combination from my list above. Have fun!