Tag Archives: Comic Tropes
Vids I Dig 397: Comic Tropes: Denny O’Neil: Crafting Grounded Heroes
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Denny O’Neil was a very good writer and a great editor. A man who was good at stripping away the more exotic elements of a character and finding a way to focus on their core personality. From acclaimed runs on Green Lantern/Green Arrow to Batman to Iron Man, he was a top writer in the 60s and 70s at DC and Marvel. He also edited Frank Miller’s acclaimed run on Daredevil, invented the name Optimus Prime and oversaw the Knightfall epic where Bane broke Batman’s back.
This episode takes a look at Denny’s career including his rare missteps and tries to contextualize how his real life experience informed his writing style. He was a college graduate, a sailor in the US Navy, and a self-proclaimed hippy. And there’s still a lot we can learn from him.
Vids I Dig 379: Comic Tropes: Donny Cates: Writing About Addiction
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Donny Cates is an up and coming young writer at Marvel Comics, writing Venom, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy and more. This video takes a look at his history interning at Marvel, studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and getting his work published at Dark Horse Comics and Image Comics as he broke in. Specifically, this video analyzes the themes Donny Cates writes about which include father issues and addiction issues.
Vids I Dig 368: Comic Tropes: The History of Comic Book Coloring (and How Modern Technology Can Ruin Reprints)
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Colors are the first thing you observe when you look at a comic book. This episode discusses the process of coloring comic books from the original screen prints with ben day dots to the modern digital methods with computers. But most important of all are the choices that colorists make. Famous colorists include Stan Goldberg, Marie Severin, Jim Steranko, Lynn Varley, John Higgins, Richmond Lewis, Tatjana Wood, Steve Oliff, Matthew Hollingsworth, Dave Stewart, Jordie Bellaire, Marte Gracia and many, many more. One of the biggest challenges isn’t just selecting the best color palette but making sure the printer and paper used will work with those choices.
Vids I Dig 356: Comic Tropes: Bernard Krigstein: The Most Influential Comic Book Artist
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Bernard Krigstein had a relatively short run in comic books in the 40s through the early 60s but his impact was tremendous. Art scholars and comic book aficionados have studied Krigstein’s work, especially the comics he illustrated at EC Comics in the 50s. He had a philosophy that changed the way artists approached comic book storytelling. In this episode I talk about what comics were like before Krigstein’s work and how his pages changed modern storytelling techniques. This includes a deep dive into his famous story Master Race from Impact #1.
Vids I Dig 345: Comic Tropes: John Buscema: More Than a Jack Kirby Clone
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: John Buscema is one of the all-time great illustrators in Marvel Comics’ history. He worked on over 200 issues of Conan comics and had celebrated runs on Avengers under three different writers: Roy Thomas, Steve Engleheart, and Roger Stern. Yet there are critics who will say he’s simply a clone of Jack Kirby. I believe this accusation is unfair and in this episode we look at Big John’s history and techniques. We pay close attention to the evolution of his artwork including key turning points in the Silver Age and on Silver Surfer #4.
Vids I Dig 330: Comic Tropes: Awful and Fun: Golden Age Superhero Dynamite Thor
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Sometimes we can learn from comics that are absurd. This is one of them. Dynamite Thor is a superhero whose power is to throw sticks of dynamite at problems. Golden Age comics would often try ridiculous things like that so we take a look at this strange Fox Features Syndicate comic book from 1940.
Vids I Dig 315: Comic Tropes: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Co-Creator Kevin Eastman: How to Lose $14 Million In Indie Comics
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Kevin Eastman co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird in 1984. They self-published the comic book and retained all the rights. This video shows how the business needs pulled Eastman away from being creative as well as how he got seriously involved with creator’s rights. Eastman has run Mirage Studios, Tundra Publishing and Heavy Metal Magazine. This has given him both massive success and allowed him to blow a fortune of around $14 million on independent comics. The video also takes a close look at his artistic techniques and his inspirations from Jack Kirby to Frank Miller.
Vids I Dig 300: Comic Tropes: Jim Shooter: From Comics Superstar to Outcast
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: Jim Shooter has accomplished more than most in the world of comic books. But he’s also had failure at Marvel Comics, Valiant Comics, Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics. This video tracks not only Jim Shooter’s career by tries to look at his writing and editing techniques and his personality to try to understand how he has had an equal number of successes and failures.
Vids I Dig 285: Comic Tropes: Shazam! The Rise and Fall of Captain Marvel
From Comic Tropes’ YouTube description: The original Captain Marvel came from Fawcett Comics and was pretty much the most popular superhero throughout the 1940s. He spawned a bunch of spinoffs and even outsold Superman. His creators, Bill Parker and CC Beck, made something special that younger readers loved. Writer Otto Binder brought it to new heights.
This episode breaks down the history of the rapid rise and equally fast decline of Captain Marvel in the Golden Age, taking special care to explain what was best about the books by looking at the serialized story, Mr. Mind and the Monster Society of Evil.
Talking Pulp 
You must be logged in to post a comment.