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The Drunken Odyssey

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The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Terror Inc.

Heroes Never Rust #98: The Graphic Nature of Storytelling

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Heroes Never Rust

≈ 1 Comment

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sean ironman, Terror Inc., Violence

Heroes Never Rust #98 by Sean Ironman

Terror Inc.: The Graphic Nature of Storytelling

Terror Inc. is part of Marvel’s MAX imprint—a collection of comics geared toward an adult audience. The imprint was launched in 2001 and is known for featuring explicit content: sex, violence, profanity. Stan Lee, who co-created the Marvel universe, has spoken out against the imprint, saying, “I don’t know why they’re doing that. I don’t think that I would do those kinds of stories.” You see, some people do not want to read stories with sex, violence, and profanity. I know, shocking. Of course, I feel differently than Stan Lee, but I do understand that there are a lot of people who will not stand a story with questionable content. Check out these Amazon reviews:

  • One star review for Reservior Dogs: “All Tarantino dialogues sound like something a high school kid came up with. Just goes to show that anyone can make a lot of money with vulgarity and no talent.”
  • One star review for South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: “This is a R-rated movie? Yea right! This sure seems like an x-rated movie! The languege is so awful! Those four foul mouthed boys should be given a bath!T hey say the F-word about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0oo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo, ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo times in it!It sould not be viewed by anyone! I would have voted no stars,but no!Ii had to vote 1!”
  • One star review for season one of Game of Thrones: “Way too much explicit sex for a science fiction action story.”
  • Two star review for season one of Masters of Sex: “pretty much just porn”

Terror Inc 4

Apparently, there is a common thought that only valid content should be used in storytelling. Of course, anything in a story can be too much (I’ve discussed this before). There can be too much sex in a story, too much profanity, just as there can be too many conversations, too many scenes of characters hand-holding. This seems to be the main topic when discussing popular fiction these days. How many articles about nudity in Girls have been written? How many people have announced they are boycotting Game of Thrones because of an act of silence in the newest episode? Just a few minutes ago, I saw that George R.R. Martin has once again been asked about his thoughts on the violence against women in Game of Thrones. We will never decide this matter. I can tell you how much I want my stories to reflect the real world, and in order to do so, a story must contain content that I do not enjoy. I can appreciate a graphic violent act in a story and not condone the actions in real life. I think sex and, especially, nudity creates an intimacy between me, as view or reader, and the characters. But, I am after something different when I read or watch a story.

Terror

A story is a complex creation, meaning it could be used for multiple purposes: entertainment or art. Escape or thought. Entertainment makes us feel good, while art challenges us. David Cronenberg said, “Entertainment wants to give you what you want. Art wants to give you what you don’t know you want.” Now, I believe a work could be both. It’s more of a sliding scale between entertainment and art than two disparate choices. But, that seems to be at the root of the matter: some people watch a TV show or a film, or read a novel or a comic book as entertainment. Others look for something deeper. There is no convincing a person who only wants to be entertained with a story lacking any difficult or graphic content that the story should have such content. And vice versa, a person looking for something deeper will continue to pick apart summer blockbusters.

TerrorGore

Stories, in general, are capable of giving a reader, or a watcher, a different experience. Yet, each story is geared toward a specific purpose: entertainment or art. People will go on complaining about a story having inappropriate content, and others will complain about stories not having enough depth. The only thing storytellers can do is to make certain the audience knows what they are getting into before they start. Marvel’s MAX imprint does just that. If a reader prefers his or her stories without violently graphic content, then he or she can pass by the book on the shelf. There are enough people out there, enough possible readers. If someone doesn’t like the content, then it’s not for them.

_______

Photo by John King

Photo by John King

Sean Ironman (Episode 102) earned his MFA at the University of Central Florida. Currently, he teaches creative nonfiction and digital media at the University of Central Arkansas as a visiting professor. His work can be read in The Writer’s Chronicle, Redivider, and Breakers: A Comics Anthology, among others.

Heroes Never Rust #96: Characters Who Cannot Die

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Heroes Never Rust

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Tags

Batman, Terror Inc.

Heroes Never Rust #96 by Sean Ironman

Terror Inc.: Characters Who Cannot Die

Terror Inc 2

At the end of the first issue of Terror Inc., Terror is tricked and defeated. Issue two opens with the bad guys, a shady government group, placing Terror’s body parts in acid, melting him, and flushing the remnants down the toilet. Due to his curse of not being able to die, Terror soon takes control of a frog, then fights a cat and becomes a cat-frog hybrid. He finally finds a human host in a despicable man who beat his son and is hiding from his ex-wife to avoid paying child support. Before long, Terror is back at it. But, where’s the conflict in following a superhero, or a super-powered being for those who may not find Terror all that heroic, who cannot be killed? Terror can escape, seemingly, any situation. There is bound to be a living creature nearby, and, since he cannot be killed, even if his body is decimated, another creature may eventually come by and he will take control of that creature—even if he has to wait years. This begs the questions of what the conflict is in Terror’s tale and what is at stake for our hero. How do you craft a story without conflict?

Well, for one, anyone who reads a comic, or any story for that matter, about one character should probably expect that character to make it to the climax of the story. So, for Terror Inc., it’s a safe bet that Terror, even if he could be killed, would make it to the final issue. Spider-man is not immortal, but I expect him to live in each story. I would be shocked to see Spider-man die at the end of his next film. Characters do die in comics, but most of them do not stay dead for long. When I see a James Bond film, I do not worry if James Bond will be killed. There seems to be this approach in creative writing, especially in the visual mediums of film and comics, to amp up the conflict and what is at stake in a story—mainly the main character’s life, their lover’s or family member’s life, and the lives of a city or the world as a whole. That makes things exciting, some people say.

I guess. To me, it gets old. But, anyway, that’s another topic for another day.

I, personally, do not care much about high stakes—I need clear stakes. I need to understand what is at stake, even if it’s something small. Of course, I want a reason the protagonist must succeed, but life and death does not have to be brought into it. I like Terror Inc. not because it keeps me on the edge of my seat—it’s entertaining to watch Terror go from obstacle to obstacle. I like seeing the inventive ways he continues on his story. I know he’ll succeed in the end—I don’t care that I know the end.

Terror

Why do we read? And I don’t mean in some high philosophical way that so many academics like to talk about. What are we reading for? There are multiple answers to this question, I am sure, but I think there are very few that involve trying to figure out the ending. Personally, I dislike works, both in print and in film, that work to only surprise the audience with an ending. M. Night Shymalan’s Unbreakable, to me, is superior to The Sixth Sense, which seems to be his most popular film with the mainstream audience, because Unbreakable, while it has a nice added twist at the end, does not rely on the ending to tell the story. The Sixth Sense is crafted for that surprise ending. Reading, or watching, to figure our the ending of a story does not make much sense to me. I like to take my time with stories, which is one reason I dislike binge watching, like with the new Daredevil TV show on Netflix. Finishing a story is not what I am after. I want an overall narrative arc, but as the years go on and I read and watch more stories, I realize that I prefer strong individual scenes. I want them to add up to something as a whole, but it’s more important to me that the in-the-moment scenes are more important. When I read an essay, I’ll follow it wherever it goes as long as each paragraph is interesting. Deadwood is a great TV show, not because of the overall narrative, but because each scene is magnificent. Terror Inc. is an interesting comic book because each issue is fun and filled with adventure and cool visuals and characters.

In a way, introducing the idea that the main character may die is an easy way to get the audience interested in the story. In 1943, Columbia Pictures released a 15-chapter Batman serial. Batman and Robin fought Dr. Daka, a Japanese agent. At the end of one chapter, Batman and Robin are in a plane that has landed, and then the plane blows up. This takes place about halfway through the fifteen chapters. The next chapter shows Batman and Robin escaping through the plane’s door moments before the plane explodes. Placing the main characters in danger was supposed to create tension, but there is no tension because the audience knows Batman and Robin will not be killed halfway through the story. Instead, the audience waits for the next chapter to see how Batman and Robin happen to escape, not if they escape. Today, the scene comes across as silly.

Batman

When I was an undergraduate (and before), most of my stories had the protagonist in mortal danger, with quite a few having the protagonist die at the end. (How many stories from undergraduates end with the protagonist dying?) To get out of the habit, I wrote a comic about a character who is immortal. In that sixty-issue story, I could not rely on cheap thrills and cliffhangers with the protagonist in mortal danger. It helped me craft different stories. One of the reasons writers put a character’s life in danger is that death is the most horrible consequence of characters failing their mission that the writer can think of. Perhaps writers just need to do some hard thinking. There’s worse things that could happen to a person than death. Not everything needs to be about characters fighting for their lives. There’s a lot more to life than death.

_______

Photo by John King

Photo by John King

Sean Ironman (Episode 102) earned his MFA at the University of Central Florida. Currently, he teaches creative nonfiction and digital media at the University of Central Arkansas as a visiting professor. His work can be read in The Writer’s Chronicle, Redivider, and Breakers: A Comics Anthology, among others.

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