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Impulsivelad:
Eeeyikes....I didn't realize that until just now.
Flyboy:
About the Wolverine scene, for what it's worth. It ended up being a lot talkier than I had expected, from the unfinished script that I was given to work from. (The cool thing about not working on New X-Men anymore is that now I can talk about it a little) Grant turns in some very sketchy scripts for us to work from, and then offers us very little contact for additional information. The exception is Frank Quitely. Vince and Grant are close friends, so he gets to converse back and forth about what this and that might mean.
The script I was given had Logan saying very little. Page one asked for a splash of a very battle damaged but cocky Wolverine, standing over a pile of soldiers in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan. So I shot Grant an email. "Grant, what soldiers? Who are these guys?" He replied, "They're just bastards. Local slave traders." It was my decision to use Taliban as reference, since it seemed to be the throughline. I sent another email letting him know my plan, and that if he had a problem, he should let me know so I could change it before inks got to it. No reply. The script indicated that Logan would have dialogue, but offered no hint as to what it would be.
Page two specifically asked for a close up of Logan with a Frank Quitely sneer, and Grant simply had him saying to the trembling soldier, "Drop the gun or lose the hand." The guy drops the gun, and so Grant said that 'Logan turns and walks off. No more use for the man.' And then, well, you know the rest.
I was under the impression that it would be very dialogue-lite, like a Batman scene, and I drew it that way. (I also thought it took place at night, but you can't control everything all the time.) As I said, the end result was surprising to me. I still love the scene, and think it's a smarter version of a classic Logan confrontation that's been seen many times before. If anyone else had written it, that last soldier would have been cut to ribbons and spit upon, rather than just incapacitated. Grant's Wolverine, as far as this scene shows, only goes as far as he absolutely HAS to. He killed until he didn't need to anymore, until the opposition was rendered harmless. He spared the last soldier's life, because getting down the mountain didn't REQUIRE that he kill him. This is a form of pacifism, of a certain conservative nature, that peace is only acchieved through conflict. Through rendering your enemy inable to wage war.
I loved the airplane scene, flyboy. I thought about the time that Pope John Paul II visited Ali Agca, the man who tried to murder him, and forgave him. And the man wept and beg for forgiveness. I started thinking that in some ways, Charles has a messianic complex, and would lovingly wash the brains of those who would do him harm. It was all pretty sick and wonderful. I gave him a gentle smile (which could easily be read as smug, thank you) and gave him some Pope-like mannerisms while dealing with the terrorists. (The inks removed a lot of detail, I hasten to add. The interior of an Air India 747 has beautiful floral wall paper, which I drew, and was removed. P-tooey, Marvel.) If you smell some hypocrisy on the part of Charles Xavier, knowing what I know about Frank Quitely's run, this issue set up the ball to be spiked.
Runce:
Earlier, Yawn said that most comics are 'shite'. By the way, in the U.S., that last 'e' is silent. Come now. Liefeld's X-FORCE, I assume, would fall under that category for him. For me it doesn't, because it doesn't fail to entertain. The only sin is to bore, in my opinion.
Ethan Van Sciver |
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As for channeling Liefeld, yeah, and it was fun. I wasn't influenced by that age of comics at all, but I can certainly see their appeal. Pure trash-o-rama, and I think the fact that Liefeld couldn't really draw very well at all, and yet made oodles of money was punk-rock glamorous to fans. At first. That's the charm.