Friday 12 October 2007

Friday Night Fights: Back on the Grid

More nine-panel fretwork, but whereas last time out Jack Kirby gave us the classic fluid moves of superhero “action”, Eddie Campbell here conjures up an ugly little scuffle, in which narrator and focal character Alec MacGarry ends up trading no blows at all.


I’m not sure that the switch from the appropriately confused jumble of viewpoints in the first four panels to the static point of view in the next four is entirely effective, although the change probably makes the joke of Alec’s lack of involvement in the actual fight rather clearer. And I love the hands on the end of the looping caption pointers.

It’s more violence for Bahlactus, whose appetite is never sated.

Panels
Alec – Love and Beerglasses: More Episodes from the Life of Alec MacGarry by Eddie Campbell, Escape Publishing, 1985 (strip dated March 1983)

3 comments:

Siskoid said...

My enjoyment of Alec strips always depends on my thirst at the time.

Which reminds me, gotta go get a beer.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

"And I love the hands on the end of the looping caption pointers."

Perhaps a tip of the hat to Carmine Infantino, who used the device often.

Siskoid said...

Update:

Ow my head. OWWWWWW!