In the last installment I said I would write about the importance of character, but after forcing myself to reread Batman: the Long Halloween something really stood out that I had been willing to over look in my introduction and that was the art. Not every artist is going to be able to express a broad range of expressions and emotions that a human being is capable of making. More to the point comic book artists typically have one of the hardest jobs in art; for starters they have to engage the reader on each panel and make sure that there is a flow to the art so the reader’s eye can easily navigate the pages. On top of that task they also have to act as a director of sorts, actor, set designer, everything depends on the artist. The genre that dominates the American comic book industry is not one that demands much from its artists; after all superhero comics have supplied Rob Liefeld with steady employment for over twenty years. I hate to make the accusation that your typical comic book reader will accept anything, but Rob Liefeld has had steady work for over twenty years. The superhero genre is one built on the foundations of operatic emotions, and so many artists are incapable of drawing anything other than explosive violence that they forget there needs to be a human element to it as well. Tim Sale, the artist for Batman: the Long Halloween is not the right fit for this story. He is an artist whose work I generally like, I like the long exaggerated shadows, I like the pinup influenced designs for some his women, I like the extreme stylization of the human form, but these elements work much better as a single illustration than as a work of sequential fiction.
All those interesting things about his work become a determent when you are reading a 200 page story about a man who dresses up like a bat. The weird anatomy, flat lifeless backgrounds, stock facial expressions, and static acting really take the reader out of the story. I can’t stress how important acting is for sequential art to thrive. We as the viewer need to be able to discern what if anything the protagonists are feeling, dialogue and narration boxes can’t impart that alone. Tim Sale’s art works much better as an illustration; take for instance the covers for Catwoman: When in Rome, there is a bold playful sense of design that is not found in the interior. Illustration is an apt description to the way the interiors of this work, characters seem posed and immobile; which works to the detriment of sequential art because sequential art has to imply movement. Drawings are always going to be static images, but a good artist can overcome that weakness and draw the reader into that world. Let’s compare for a moment this story with the one it is heavily inspired by; Batman Year One. Not every artist is going to be as brilliant as David Mazzucchelli’s pencils are in Year one. Mazzucchelli is able to create a world that feels dirty, urban, and cemented to a particular moment in time. You can feel the squalor and claustrophobia in the opening sequence of Year One which depicts Jim Gordon riding in a cramped subway. Mazzucchelli’s work in year one is almost baroque in its depiction of shadows, but we still get a sense of space and scope of reality, something that grounds the story as believable but is sorely missing in Long Halloween. The cityscape and world of Gotham depicted by Tim Sale isn’t one of urban dilapidation and flotsam, but one of sparsity and non existence. His art and storytelling is further hindered by the lack of physicality to his drawings. There is a weird sequence in the second chapter where batman brings a plate of food to a sewer dwelling zombie like character. It’s a weird sequence do to the art, the plate filled with filled is drawn from a strange perspective and the artist pays little attention to shadows. For an artist who has a reputation of being “masterful” in his use of shadow it is amazing to note how weightless and immaterial his characters appear. Shadows are more than just large swaths of inky black, they help define and give weight to an object.
Mr. Sale also has a hard time with his “acting”. I said before that working in sequential art is one of the hardest things that an artist can do successfully. Comics require hundreds of drawings to tell a story with sudden frequent changes in perspective. A painting is a standalone image that can imply a feeling through broad gesture and emotion. Comics have more luxury to develop moments but are much more reliant on the artist selling us on the scene through recognizable expressions and body language. Both comics and fine art rely on exaggeration, a still image alone cannot display the range of human emotions. Time is boon afforded to comics; each panel can represent the expansion or contraction of a moment, and can make an excruciating moment come to life. Mr. Sale as already noted works in a style best described as stylized, but adherence to that style has severely limited the range of expressions. In art there a certain rules of proportion that are adhered to; for instance eyes are generally placed one eye length apart from one another. This isn’t something that is ironclad but we perceive a certain amount of wrongness the further apart they become. When the designs are elongated and stretched out it’s not as noticeable but it does make it hard to buy into the reality that is presented. Mr. Sale’s representation of the Joker is noticeable in that he is depicted with having hundreds of teeth and capable of only one facial expression. The design choice is weird because it is so dominant; I suppose we are supposed to believe that the large Cheshire grin is meant to invoke madness but I keep wondering how or if this chap is able to close his mouth. I look at Brian Boland’s depiction of the Joker from the Killing Joke, despite the iconic status of his joker there is still a rich emotionality behind the image of Joker’s transformation. It’s a man broken by one bad day and someone who has succumbed to despair and madness. There is no emotional life to the characters in Long Halloween, the look and feel like toys being posed incapable of any expressing any pathos.
A writer should write to the strengths of his artist, in this instance Jeph Loeb should have realized the particular skill set that Mr. Sale brings to the table. For one thing it’s not subtly; his art while stylized is still loud and pulpy. Secondly, his strength as an artist is creating mood and atmosphere, but those elements alone aren’t enough to sustain a story. Washes of black India ink, rubbery anatomy, and static images are likewise not going to be able to sustain a story.
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