Sunday, November 22, 2009

Lily of the Valley

- Zuda

I love Lily of the Valley.
I love the pinks. It's not black and white at all. The pink lends a world of meaning to every page. So beautiful.
I love the flamingos. A tacky example of suburban memorabilia turned into fearsome murder weapon.
Sidebar:
It can be a little bit too easy sometimes to hand an unusual murder weapon to a violent protagonist and call it a day. I don't believe that's what we see here. The lawn flamingo is such a suggestive object. When I imagine the sort of person who owns lawn flamingos I imagine someone who isn't entirely aware. Can you imagine a lady who thinks her lawn is trendy and attractive by having a few? Maybe she doesn't really 'get it'? Doesn't entirely understand why she's got to have flamingos but she plants a few anyways in hopes of fitting in.
See where I'm going with this?
But back to the lovefest....
I love the composition of the pages. Canted camera angles at all the right times, frequent close-ups but never at the expense of telling the story, aspect to aspect scene transitions that heighten the mood.
I love the song title hidden on the steps on page 15. Get the tune in your head next time you read through it.
I love that the mailbox on Mrs. Bellows front porch has a little pineapple on it. (There's a nice tie-in to my previous blog entry if you're interested in a fun fact about pineapples.)
I love the progression between this work and Mr. Atherton's first submission. There was obvious talent on display in 'Bleed', but everything fits together so much nicer this time. The look is more finished and more importantly the look complements the subject matter. I recall Gabe Ostley once explained that 'Teachers' was an attempt to draw a comic that looked like the kind of stuff you'd do in study hall in high school. I can appreciate the thought process but I think his storytelling was a little too advanced for that. Far better in my opinion to simply dumb down the choice of media as Adam Atherton has done with a look that screams sharpie marker. Still very polished but in a sharpie kinda way.
And I love the polishing of his marketing plan. The most impressive progression in his work was in the quality of his efforts to draw votes to him.

Ever since Melody finished up and Sheldon Vella apparently switched to a 'one page whenever he feels like it' update schedule (I still love your work mang. :-O ) I've been ever so slightly less involved in reading what Zuda has to offer. Lily of the Valley is rekindling my enthusiasm and I hope you'll give it another look if you haven't peeked at it since the win.

1 comment:

  1. Awesome review and I couldn't agree more! Adam's got mad style.

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