[Amalgam Comics] Legends of the Dark Claw #1 - "Through a Glass Darkly"

[laughing_tree]

I never did read what was in the captions. 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

[lordultimus]

So was the previous Sparrow Kitty Grayson?

[broblawsky]

And would now be either Nightcat or Shadow-Wing. Both of which are pretty 90s names.

[lordultimus]

Would Laura be fused with Damian or Cass?

[akodo_rokku]

These are the questions I wish would be answered by a new Amalgam run.

[thanekos]

Cass, just for the Sarah Kinney + David Cain mashup.

(Daken's combined with Damian, of course.)

[scorntx]

Laura fused with Cass.
Damien fused with Gabby.

Because really, what other choice makes sense?

[lordultimus]

Fusing Damien and Gabby seems like mixing matter and anti-matter.

[scorntx]

Doesn't it just?

[beyondthefringe]

Fun fact: there actually was a character called Nightcat, who appeared in a one-shot in 1991, starring real life actress/model/singer Jacqueline Tavarez.

[laughing_tree]

Pussy Grayson.

[deh_tommy]

*slow clap*

[mastermahan]

Damn. Well played.

[thanekos]

The episode of The Dark Claw that adapted that paraphrasing of " The Master Race " was good.

[ozaline]

Ooh yes, love Amalgam so much fun and of course I'm a huge fan of Larry. I love the letters where one guy trashes on Larry and one guy adores him here too.

This was such a fun little project.

[beyondthefringe]

I, too, hide all my superhero costumes behind a simple closet door.
I question his dedication to actual security.

[lucean]

For me, what makes it even better is that the same closet has the hidden entrance to Dark Claw's cave. So it is a conscious choice to leave it all out there for someone to just walk in on.

[mastermahan]

He did say he wasn't the one with an imagination.

[donnblake]

I think I've mentioned before when pages from this have been posted- that little sequence where Dark Claw punches Sparrow in the arm is a really good example of what I think Hama's talking about up top- suggests a *lot* about their relationship without needing a thought bubble or caption box to explain it.

I don't have anything against captions though- a single " Downtown, elderly ladies carry their houseplants out to set them on the fire escapes, as if they were infirm relatives or boy kings.” Makes up for a lot, for me.

[wizardru]

That is a nice moment. Hama sure has his characters exposit a lot here, though. Huntress spends a lot of time whispering to herself to give us information. The only two things I'm not super-enamored of here are that Dark Claw's costume is so...AWFUL, imho, and the way the artist sexualizes Sparrow here. I mean, yes, 90s, but still.