A Response to Bryan Hitch and Wizard
Missed the original letter, printed in Wizard Zero? Read it here

This letter was NOT printed in any subsequent issue of Wizard. Too bad. At the time, I thought I crushed Bryan Hitch’s response.

EDIT 6*9*2005: I’m not exactly sure when I wrote this, but seeing as how Wizard Zero was published in August 2003, I’m pretty sure I wrote it then… I will correct the date if I find otherwise.

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Dear Magic Words (and Bryan Hitch),

Thanks for printing my letter. I think it was very cool that Mr. Hitch responded to it! I also think, however, that what Mr. Hitch did was restate my pro-film points and not really responding to the real issue my letter tried to express: creators need to stop viewing comics as film on paper.

Yes, films offer useful techniques that can be used in comics. In fact, I think that all artistic mediums are related in some way; comics are related to music, prose, film, photography… you name it. I say, use whatever you can learn and whatever inspires you in your art in a way that will make your art better. That, however, is not the point.

The last sentence in my original letter was, “Films are a great influence, but creators need to make sure that they are adapting the influence of film for comics, and not adapting comics to be more like film.”

I think that statement is pretty self-explanatory, but an here’s an elaboration: comics are not film, no matter how similar or how related they are. Using outside influences and techniques found in other mediums is fine… it’s great, even! There are lots of possibilities for “cross-pollination,” as Mr. Hitch puts it. That doesn’t mean you should try to convert your chosen artform into a medium that it is not.

Case in point: Mr. Hitch gave Watchmen and the Matrix as examples. He didn’t, however, explain how Watchmen was like a film and how the Matrix was like a comic book. Instead, he explained that Watchmen was akin to film storyboards, and the Matrix was a comic book on film and employed comic book-style storyboards. No disrespect to Mr. Hitch, but storyboards are not film either. Thus, using storyboards as a pro-films example renders the point invalid. Storyboards are a comic book-style guide used to aid in the direction of a film, showing camera angles, composition, and lighting elements. They even give a sense of pacing. But storyboards to not provide the actual experience of a film, no matter how closely they will be followed. Actual filming techniques are not used in storyboards, either. So when comparing Watchmen to movie storyboards, you’re actually comparing the Watchmen comic to a comic book-style filming guide.

Storyboards are also a medium all their own, since they’re comics intended to be used as a film guide, while a comic book is intended to be a comic book. Therefore, no matter how closely related the Matrix storyboards are to comic books, they are still comics intended to be a film guide, and not intended to be a comic book.

Thus, we come to my point: it is okay to learn from and use your influences. It’s another thing to become your influences. I’ll use the Matrix as an example: The Matrix was influenced by the comic book medium, but the Wachowski Bros. didn’t try to turn their film into a comic. The experience is different, the viewing is different, the actual pacing is different, the viewer participation is different… the medium is different, no matter how closely related the Matrix is to comics.

Creators- use film techniques and ideas, please! Use music, prose, photography, scultpure, performance, theatre – whatever – when creating your comics. Just keep in mind that you are trying to make a comic book, not a film or anything else. You can’t further an artform when you’re trying to turn it into another.

Thank you

Phillip Ginn

Sacramento, CA