Robot 6
Nathan Cosby and the fine art of the recap page
From Thor: The Mighty Avenger #4
Fans of Marvel comics, and the creation process, would do well to follow the Tumblr blog of editor Nathan Cosby, which, in addition to dog photos, boasts brief interviews with the likes of Fred Van Lente, Brian Clevinger and Kurt Busiek, and this: a look at Cosby’s approach to crafting a recap page, using Thor: the Mighty Avenger #4 as a sterling example.
“I like giving a new reader a sporting chance at understanding what they’re about to read,” he writes. “Lil’ context & a few character names never hurt nobody. But I hate. Hate. HATE dry, text-heavy recaps with no art. When your recap’s so boring that a reader would rather skip it than know what’s happened previously, then your recap has no purpose. Might as well have an ad to start the book.”
- August 20, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
3 Comments
ryan
August 20, 2010 at 10:18 am
I really can’t stress enough how happy I am to see Thor: The Mighty Avenger get coverage. I hope it helps get readers interested in the book, so it can have a long run.
Shawn Daughhetee
August 20, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I love the way the re-cap page is handled in Thor The Mighty Avenger. Then again I just love Thor The Mighty Avenger.
Sijo
August 21, 2010 at 8:13 am
There are several old comic book features that have stopped being used for no particular reason that I can see. Recap pages are only one of them. They have forgotten the old maxim “every comic is somebody’s first.” OK, so they shouldn’t be text pages or reprinted art, but name dropping and expositional dialogue can’t be that hard to insert in?
Other stuff I miss:
- Thought balloons: Why is it we never see what the characters are thinking anymore? You’d think that would be a key factor to understanding their points of view. Maybe to allow more of the art to be seen?
-Text boxes: the kind that explain things, or even the ones that reference other comics “*As seen in issue # X!” You’d think that promoting their other comics would also be a prority for any company. Maybe again to show off more of the art?
-Sound effects. OK, these carried a silly stigma from the silver age where they were ridiculous and huge. BAM! POW!! Still, without them, the action just looks… still to me. Silent. Like I’m watching a picture of a fight scene rather than imagining it’s taking place. I guess they just want to… you get it.