Bendis-Bagley vs. Lee-Ditko

Well, I did a word count on Ultimate Spidey #10 and compared it to a word count from The Amazing Spiderman #10 from 1964. I had been thinking that the new books were a little short. It was just that I can finish reading any one of the new issues in a matter of a few minutes, say 10-15 at a nice slow pace.

Ultimate Spidey #10

Well,

I'm glad someone did the legwork! I too thought the same thing. Reading comics today seems to be over way too soon. This could be the cause. Well, it seems that only Ultimate Spidey has that problem today come to think of it.

Although it is a great comic in my opinion, I think they could reduce the number of issues by half if they didn't place such an emphasis on art. If I want to 'read' comics for just the art, I'll buy the poster book they released a couple of weeks ago.

Oh well, that reminds me , I think Peter Parkerpider-Man is out today. Later

I tend to lean the other way, or, at the very least, I sit on the fence. I like to be able to see the art (when it's good art). What is the point of having a visual medium if all you look at are the words? You may as well buy a novel. It comes down to the role that you, as a reader, want to play. Do you want to 1) be completely in charge of visuals, through imagination, 2) interpret images into the story behind them (something a lot of people do at a museum), or 3) use a little of both imagination and interpretation to fill in the gaps between the art and the words.

If you're looking for number one, you might want to get out of comics. If only because the writers in the comic field are, in general, not up to the task of writing in a way that sparks the imagination. In comics, the art is supposed to add to the flow of the story. When a character says something, you can picture how they say it by looking at the art behind it (again, when it's good art)

If you're looking for number 2, you may be better off going to the museum that I mentioned earlier. It's rare to find an artist that can tell a story with just pictures. In these cases, the images are done so well, and flow so neatly, that words would take away from the story. There are a lot of talented artists in comics, but they seem to be 'splash-page' artists, not 'narrative' artists.

Finally, number 3. The would-be home of the comics industry. When done right, you can read the words and look at the images, and there are no boundaries. Each one feeds the other. Take away one, and you still have a story, but not a _good_ story. When a character says something, the response can be just a look that means something. The second character does not need to say that they are angry or surprised, you can see it. Sadly, most books do not find this balance. Either the writer fills the page with meaningless words, or the artist gives you 22 pages of pinups.

By the way, just out of curiosity, what were the relative number of pages in those books? For instance, if Amazing was 48 pages and Ultimate was 22 pages (just throwing some numbers out there), then the ratio would be more like 1.5 to 1 (looking at words per page here). There would still be a difference, but it may be more or less significant.

My 2 cents worth. (or maybe 2 and a half)

Rick