I usually lurk on this list, and do so because I enjoy the
back-and-forth so much, but I really need to weigh-in on a few things
said here of late.
I personally know several of you folks on this list, and so please
treat what I'm about to say as if we're at a hotel bar somewhere and
I've just ordered what is about to be considered "one too many:"
I think that the idea that a super hero story can't be noir simply
because it's a super hero story is one of the most intellectually
retarded things I've read in a long time. There's enough grief, loss,
and ruin in The Dark Knight to give Cornell Woolrich geek-wood, and
that's saying something. I would hate to think that someone on THIS
List, of all yahoo groups, would be talking out of their ass, having
not seen The Dark Knight, and perhaps worse, subscribing some archaic
and 20 years out of date definition of "what comics are" in
contributing to this discussion.
Comics are a story telling medium. That's it. You can do anything with
comics that you can do with movies or books. That the most prevalent
story being told in comics is the super hero urban fantasy is beside
the point. There are hundreds of examples of comics being just the
medium to a story that doesn't have capes or people shooting lasers
out of their eyes. If you're defining comics as Super Heroes only,
you're doing it wrong. Personally, I can't wait for Cooke's Parker
graphic novels. Talk about the right guy for the job. Can't wait.
Noir, or the idea of noir, is literary convention, in my opinion. The
downer ending. The death, the tragedy, the sense of gothic gloom, and
above all, the sense of inescapable inevitability to it all. We are
NOT in control. Bad stuff happens. That, to me, is the essence of noir
writing and film noir.
Your own definition may vary, but the fact is, you can apply that
style-sheet to just about anything. Even comics. Even super heroes.
That no one does this regularly doesn't mean that it can't be done, or
hasn't been tried (Watchmen almost succeeds in this respect). Sin City
may be third rate Spillane, but it manages to skirt the edge a few
times. There's lots of examples of genre-bending, particularly in the
last 30 years.
Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the blurt-in, here, but the above just
needed to be said.
Mark Finn
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