G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #209

[superboyprime]

"I never did read what was in the captions [in comic books]. People act and they talk. If it needs to be narrated, something is wrong. I try in my comics plots to make the story apparent in the pictures. Then, I add what words are needed to keep the whole shebang moving along. The less words I have to write, the better. It totally makes my teeth hurt when the artist puts me in the position of having to write dialog to explain the action." - Larry Hama

Comments

[icon_uk]

I never did read what was in the captions [in comic books]. People act and they talk. If it needs to be narrated, something is wrong.

Apart from all those times than an omniscient narrator actually helps things by setting the scene, which would otherwise require a lot of very clumsy conversations between people recounting what they had done three minutes before hand because it was in the last issue.

(It's like creators arguing against thought bubbles because they're not required, which removes the possibility of an internal monologue.

[jlbarnett]

yeah, I definitely agree with you

it's easy to say a picture is worth a thousand words. Which words those won't always be clear to everyone

[ozaline]

Actually as far as I can recall, Hama isn't fond of thought balloons either. He'd much rather have the characters exposit, and talk to themselves. Which is fine, he can tell a great story with no words as he has proven on a few occasions.

[bradygirl_12]

This guy would have hated EC Comics, that specialized in lengthy captions with ghoulish explanations! ;)

[starwolf_oakley]

What are Tomax and Xamot saying on the cover?

[ozaline]

"Do you ever get this feeling of de ja vu?" "only when I'm with you."