Astro City, Drawing Crime Noir

Kurt Busiek's Astro City was a really amazing piece of work to read. The world Busiek creates is something extremely familiar, but on the whole different from anything I've read before. He succeeds utterly in his stated goal of giving super heroes a world of their own, a world that makes sense within its own reality, as opposed to transplanting super heroes into our reality, and the effect is incredible. The cross-section that the book provides of life in Astro City, from the daring rescues of the overworked Samaritan, to a fateful day in the life of Marta, a young woman from the wrong side of town, is an amazing feat of world-building. Through the few stories of Life In the Big City, one gets a surprisingly complete account of a tangible, believable world, while getting the chance to get personal with several distinct and interesting characters.

Reading Drawing Crime Noir for Comics and Graphic Novels by Christopher Hart was interesting, although I feel I would have gotten more out of it if I were a more accomplished artist myself. The book is clearly for those who have some experience with figure drawing, and who wish to modify their style for a certain effect. That being said, it was interesting to get an idea of the processes by which traditional drawing styles can be modified for storytelling and dramatic effect. particularly, I enjoyed reading and seeing how sometimes it is best to bend the rules of cast shadows a bit, in order to increase the contrast and drama of a scene.