Comments on Comics Comics: MULTIFORCE notes

i just extrapolated all over my keyboard.. writi...

2009-07-13T04:05:54.275-04:00

i just extrapolated all over my keyboard..
writing reviews like this are what frank should teach classes on, not unlocking secret comic tempos with ridiculous bullshit grids.

Frank touches on a thought I've had about these co...

2009-07-08T09:32:34.591-04:00

Frank touches on a thought I've had about these comics for a while, similar to what BVS mentioned about "aquarium comics." Certainly comics like Multiforce, Ninja, Powr Mastrs, and even Jimbo's Inferno are first and foremost about "worlds", but what makes them work even better is the immediacy of their lines.

They are direct drawings. They aren't meant to look labored over or professionally slick. They are meant to look like ultra-doodles, explorations of a wandering mind and a wandering pen. I think this is the intersection that makes these comic work. The world, the storyspace that is presented exists on the threshold of imagination, of daydream. This is why you see elements of narrative, value and character arrive and vanish in almost a flash. Nothing is concrete.

It truly is punk-fantasy for lack of a better term. My only advice to today's artists, keep it up! Just because Fort Thunder was 10 years ago and everybody is able to recognize it's "style" doesn't mean that artists should be afraid to play in the same sandbox. I love getting lost in Brinkamn, or Chippendale, or CF's worlds, but it also males me want to get lost in more worlds. There is a lot with this style of comics yet to extrapolate on.

Multiforce was always in black and white. I think...

2009-07-08T06:50:42.708-04:00

Multiforce was always in black and white. I think it had a spot color once in Paper Rodeo. Thats the strip in the collection that has an extra grey tone - the one with "Lam Zang in Space" at the top. It was printed with that extra grey tone instead of color for the collection.

(why am I up this early?)

Laffy, the ones I've seen are all black and white,...

2009-07-08T05:07:59.249-04:00

Laffy, the ones I've seen are all black and white, with an extra colour sometimes on the cover and one interior page

Jesus Christ!

2009-07-07T23:39:15.753-04:00

Jesus Christ!

I haven't seen all of them and I don't have any in...

2009-07-07T23:31:08.122-04:00

I haven't seen all of them and I don't have any infront of me at the moment but if memory serves me wasn't each paper rodeo printed in black with 1 additional color, and different color each issue?
did Multi force have that second color? or was it always just black and white?

A couple of things. First, Tom, thanks for posti...

2009-07-07T23:12:10.913-04:00

A couple of things.

First, Tom, thanks for posting those pencil scans. I'm amazed at the finished quality of the linework vs. the original pencil drawings. Really informative stuff.

Second, Frank, this post/review might be the best thing you've written (and I love your critical appraisals of comics past and present).

Third, thanks Dan. This book is spectacular.

Fourth, how amazing is Fort Thunder? It was great when these guys were releasing mini-comics and fooling around ten years ago. Since then, every single release seems more and more impressive. It's like the "bigger dick theory" in art comics. I hope Dustin Harbin has a copy of this, would love to hear him weigh in on it.

yikes! I didn't know it was all pencil. not even...

2009-07-07T17:36:05.767-04:00

yikes!
I didn't know it was all pencil.
not even inked in those spot blacks. awesome

wowzers. thanks T. You're the best, man.

2009-07-07T16:43:40.868-04:00

wowzers.

thanks T.
You're the best, man.

Try these images out. They aren't fixed up much b...

2009-07-07T15:51:59.765-04:00

Try these images out.

They aren't fixed up much but you get the idea.

Almost every page of MULTIFORCE is made up of 8 8-...

2009-07-07T15:19:50.155-04:00

Almost every page of MULTIFORCE is made up of 8 8-1/2 x 11 sheets turned on their side (almost). Mat varied this enough to make it hard to spot and he almost always inserted those little spot gags in place where he needed something to fill space. My educated guess says that he let a scene end when it wanted too rather than filling the strict grid and then collaged spot gags or "power drawings" in to make a full tabloid page. Something else of note is that none of these drawings are inked. It's all pencil run through a photocopier to end up with that rough look. If I can find a handy scan, I'll post it for comparison. {It goes without saying that this is a major comics work and everyone should buy it right away.}

The book is really nice but I definitely wish it w...

2009-07-07T14:25:50.140-04:00

The book is really nice but I definitely wish it was printed on newsprint instead of the higher quality paper it's on right now -- somehow the faded xerox look doesn't look right on this new paper, much in the way that a lot of old comics coloring looks wrong when reprinted... that said the book is a amazing, and great review.

"collage of different drawings put together" is co...

2009-07-07T12:34:54.751-04:00

"collage of different drawings put together" is correct. lots of little bits, xeroxes of stuff. there are no "originals" per se, as far as I know. It was like a printmaking project in a way.

Where the original drawings for multiforce all on ...

2009-07-07T11:41:48.514-04:00

Where the original drawings for multiforce all on one large sheet or were they a collage of different drawings put together? has anyone seen the originals?

Brinkman was the first one out of the gate to real...

2009-07-07T02:52:51.344-04:00

Brinkman was the first one out of the gate to really drill straight to the center of the collective unconscious shared by game players. Tron was prescient, but clung to and was held back by conventional narrative design. The "story" in Multiforce is the aimless wandering of Metroid or an OD&D crawl. It is natural that so many people would be inspired by this work. Their challenge is to work their way towards something that doesn't just repeat what Brinkman did. A first step might be: "don't just draw a lot of bricks."

Leaving narrative behind feels natural for Brinkman, but I would love it if he had more comics some time in the future.

anyone with an arcade game emulator and a love of ...

2009-07-06T15:55:48.875-04:00

anyone with an arcade game emulator and a love of Multi Force should check out Vicory Road, or sometimes called Ikari WarriorsII: Victory Road.
I've heard tell it's Brinkman's favorite video game.
it basically looks like Multi Force in video game form.
there is an NES version worth a look but it's shitter than the arcade and doesn't have the hilarious voice samples.

Multiforce is at or near the top of my pantheon. ...

2009-07-06T14:51:43.972-04:00

Multiforce is at or near the top of my pantheon. Can't stop laffing at the simple but ever-funny device of playing fantastical, exotic characters and locales against goofy dunderhead speech. "Where the fuck are my pincers? I forgot my motherfuckin pincers."

-Lane

yep. the book is just reprinting the o.g. materia...

2009-07-06T11:52:17.379-04:00

yep. the book is just reprinting the o.g. material that appeared in PR.

I like all the music terminology. I don't have all...

2009-07-06T11:08:49.475-04:00

I like all the music terminology. I don't have all the original Paper Rodeos, were all those single panel gags next to the longer narrative parts originally?

I am super glad to see you use the term "Aquarium"...

2009-07-06T02:40:04.054-04:00

I am super glad to see you use the term "Aquarium" in all this. In my mind I've been privately rolling around the idea of aquarium comics and what that means. when I first read Brian Chippendale's ninja I realized I wasn't reading a comic about a narrative plot, and it also wasn't gags or just a bunch of freak out crazy drawings that I had previously assumed it was.
a narrative was there but reading the comic wasn't about that. what it was more about was entering this strange world and looking around and seeing what happens, it was like viewing into a portal into a strange world that you wanted to keep checking in on. kind of like an aquarium. immediately after reading Ninja I suddenly understood Krazy Cat, a comic that had otherwise always baffled me. it was the same thing, krazy cat is about it's little world, and looking in on it, it's not about jokes about throwing bricks even though that does happen. of course Multi force fits this definition. and all three of these present a world so strange yet so hand made that I think the reader is more occupied with trying to see how things work in these realms that they don't expect things to work they way they do in our real world like we do when we read a more narrative comic. you stop really looking around for a narrative thread and just go with it. of course now I seem to come across more comics that fit this aquarium comics term. many of which, not surprisingly, seemed to be newspaper strips from the pre motion picture era. it seems there was a time when all comics needed to be about was a weekly transportation opportunity to alien worlds and giving the reader a opportunity to look around.

excellent review! so pumped for this release.

2009-07-05T18:04:33.099-04:00

excellent review!
so pumped for this release.