"where the line is drawn"

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Guy Vs. Guy


I've always enjoyed the simplicity of Antonio Prohias' SPY VS. SPY. Two protagonists, indistinguishable from each other, save that one wears a black trenchcoat and the other a white trenchcoat. We know nothing about them except that they are spys, and that they are trying to kill each other. And that's really all you need to know. Each one page strip is complete with no dialogue to get in the way of the gags. And that's the genius of it, it's economical and lean in a way that few other comics are or ever hope to be.

And that's something that I'd like to do. No, I'm not going to rip off Antonio Prohias. But I want to create something that is as basic as the concept of Spy Vs. Spy.

So, I'm thinking characters, and a relationship of conflict. Because, if there's no conflict there's nothing there. An easy and obvious concept would be MONSTER vs. MONSTER. You know, like Godzilla vs. another Giant Monster. Atomo is already there, why not?

And it's kinda like my first attempts at comics. I was inspired by THE TERROR OF GODZILLA or maybe it was GODZILLA VS. THE COSMIC MONSTER, whichever one had the manga artist working for the Godzilla theme park. I got a stack of computer paper from my dad and drew Godzilla vs. everything. And then I stopped. Hey, I was just a kid. Gimme a break.

Ok, question. Atomo versus who or what? I'm thinking maybe a big monkey or giant robot....

0 comments: