Monday, July 18, 2011

The Art of Short Story: Part I

A whole discussion can be had about how the policies of reprinting individual issues in TPB collections have changed how the stories are structured in each 22-24 page book. Thinking about that I started remembering certain short stories that I love, but I believe would not find a place in the current publishing environment...they just would not fit into any particular TPB.

Lets see how many of these sound familiar and I would love to hear your favorites (as long as they are 12 pages or less). By the way, I am not listing them in any sort of order of significance, they are all lovely in their own ways AND I feel that each one uses the comic medium to a perfection. So here I go:

"Beguiling" by Barry Windsor-Smith from Epic Illustrated

When I saw this, a bomb went off in my head. At that time I have heard about Barry Smith and the guy who worked at the comic shop seemed excited about Barry Smith's "return to comics", but I did not expect this. Reading this story is like having a vivid dream...and the art is fantastic.


"---Zounds O' Silence" by Larry Hama and Michael Golden from Marvel's Holiday Special

Unlike "Beguiling", this story was published without any fanfare. Just a short story in a silly holiday special that was PENCILED and INKED and COLORED by MICHAEL GOLDEN. Totally "silent" (except for the sound effects) it is an artistic feast with a cute ending to it.
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4 comments:

  1. norm4:06 PM

    I still think the Beguiling may be the best thing he ever did.....or at least the best comic book work.
    I never saw that Golden story though....great stuff.

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  2. Alex Sheikman10:01 AM

    Norm,

    Next time we get together I got to show you the pages (I ripped them out of the original book). You can see the whole story here:
    http://grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com/2010/07/zounds-o-silence-by-larry-hama-and.html?zx=cc3ce994cdac36d8

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  3. Faff1:00 PM

    Great post Alex, looking forward to part 2. I remember The Beguiling and a suprisingly large number of good to great short stories from Epic. Going to fish out my copy now.

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  4. HEH8:16 AM

    Love your blog and art, Alex. I just discovered it this morning. Thanks for posting the link to the Golden story. I'm always at Grantbridge, scouring about, but I' had yet to have seen that post!

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