Most comic books come across as pictures with words. What’s happening in the art itself is usually the most important part as you can tell what’s happening or is going to happen along with the mood of those on the page. But every once in a great while, a comic book comes along that breaks that barrier and reminds us that there is more to it then just a well received image. Jonathan Hickman’s four part mini-series, “Pax Romana” released through Image Comics is an excellent example of this kind of style as it’s chock full of words with a very unique blend of art as its background.
The story of Pax Romana is interesting to say the least. The concept is based around the later part of the 21st Century. Science has reached a whole new peak allowing human life to be greatly extended to upwards of 200 years. The Catholic Church still stands strong as a major religion and has been secretly funding scientific developments for most of history in hopes of bring about a greater change. The discovery of time travel by some of these religiously funded scientists have opened a path into the past for the Catholic Church to go back in time and fix some of the greatest struggles and conflicts that they have caused and have lead to a generally bleaker future. But can it really be that simple?
The art style has a very water color feel to it, making it more subtly and easier to take in with all of the text written over it. Lines are often neglected for style purpose with vague backgrounds that seem to look more like colored space than a town or desert. It’s as if the emotion of the specific area is represented through the chosen color and all secondary imagery has been replaced with it to keep the focus on the story and those in its direct context rather than leaving you searching for hidden details. You can clearly tell the time of day and weather behind each page as the color blends through the environment and into the characters themselves.
With Pax Romana being two out of four issues deep already, it will be interesting to see how Jonathan Hickman finishes the series up. Will there be more to it down the line? Will his latests book “A Red Mass For Mars” further bring his style of inking into a more mainstream approach or will this be the type of style that stays mainly in the indie category of comic books? It all depends on reader response and as we know, the readers cast their votes with their money, so head to your local comic book store and check out Image Comics series Pax Romana written and drawn by Jonathan Hickman.
Related Business Directory Categories:
Hayao Miyazaki is an acclaimed director of Japanese animated films. Miyazaki is the creator and director of numerous Japanese anime feature movies. Albeit a virtual unknown in the United States except the anime circles until his feature film Princess Mononoke was released in Miramax in 1999, most of Miyazaki’s anime films have enjoyed critical as well as commercial successes in his country, East and Southeast Asia. Miyazaki’s feature film, Spirited Away, is the all-time highest-grosser in Japan. His other anime, the Princess Mononoke also possessed the same title for some time until the movie Titanic’s release in Japan that same year.
Miyazaki started as an animator at Toei Douga studio in 1963. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he was able to rise up the studio ranks and dabbled primarily on television work in the late 1970s and early ’80s. His early directing work was the Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds in 1984, which is a movie version of his well-known manga serial. The success of Nausicaa quickly propelled Miyazaki to becoming one of the country’s top personalities in Japanese animation. Miyazaki’s succeeding films became box office and critical successes. Many of his films released abroad not only were box-office hits but also award winners as well. Spirited Away was the 2002 Academy Award’s Best Animated Film. His other equally popular anime features include My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service, done in 1988 and 1989, respectively and the Howl’s Moving Castle, which he directed in 2004.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997) another lavishly done animated feature made him Japan’s one of the most successful anime directors.
Indeed, the anime works of Miyazaki have generally been financial and critical successes. Such success has drawn out comparisons with Walt Disney, America’s very own animator However, unlike Disney, Miyazaki was no ambition of seeing himself as a man building an animation empire. He was very much comfortable being a Japanese animator fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to make anime films with his own style and personal touch.
Hayao Miyazaki’s influence of Japanese anime has been immense; a great part of Japanese anime’ present style and form has been taken from most of Miyazaki’s own style. Miyazaki’s feature films are recognizable by often recurring themes such as man’s relationship and interaction to technology, nature and environment. Most of the Japanese anime characters are strong, just as Miyazaki’s protagonists of his movies are likewise strong and often in an attacking mood. Girls and women in today’s Japanese anime are influenced by Miyazakis’ independent and strong women in his films. Typically the villains in Japanese Anime are most likely ambiguous characters with redeeming values, as with Miyazaki’s villains.
Hayao Miyazaki’s group also influenced the Japanese anime by making traditional the “minimal movement” in animation. The typical anime was done with the use of movement, which actually is the biggest and most important feature of animation, as little and minimal as possible. This rather unique and unconventional style of animation was accepted even by international viewers because of the penetration and acceptance by the society of manga.
Miyazaki’s more pronounced influence of Japanese anime was by promoting the exaggeration of the situations of Japanese anime. Much of Japanese anime is dominated by excessive expressionism. The Japanese anime was created so that the viewers would see less gestures and facial expressions, but just one picture of the character expressing all the necessary charm that would effectively send the message across.
Hayao Miyazaki and his contemporaries started this trend of expressionism. The young Japanese animators followed suit and adapted this style of excessive expressionism. As anyone can notice, anime characters have huge eyes which would still have multi-colored highlights. Shadows of characters were painted in a variety of hues, and the hair was likewise done in bright, striking colors.
The anime work of Miyazaki influenced many Western animated films. Some of Western anime features containing such influences are the films The Boondocks, Total Spies!, the Teen Titajns, and W.I.T.C.H. Other animated works are feature films such as the Avatar. These Western feature films are not really labeled as a strictly anime work. They are however noted as being influenced by Miyazaki’s anime style.
Comments