Hey everyone, this is just a technical sort of announcement. Don't feel like you have to read it because I have faith that you will all figure it out as we go along ANYWAY (unlike every other post, which you should feel compelled to read). Just some changes in the way I'm going to operate the blog this week and, if it goes well, maybe in the future. I guess what I'm saying is that this post is just over-explanation with a focus on process. So it's not that different from my regular comic review.
In the hopes of making the blog perhaps a little more readable (two big long paragraphs for each review don't necessarily always draw the eye) and in the hopes of shining a little more light on certain parts of comics that maybe I don't always mention (the art, you guys. I'm talking about the art here), I'm going to start reviewing comics in criteria, ultimately giving a grade to each criteria and an overall grade to the book. As ever, it's important to remember that comic reading is subjective; I'll undoubtedly like things you guys don't and I'll undoubtedly hate things you guys love. I hope we agree more than we disagree but this has always been the case. I also want this sort of rating system to find the strengths in books I don't like and maybe the weaknesses in books I do like. The criteria, at least to start (I'll likely find that I need to adjust it in the testing phases), will be the following:
Plot/Story - I'll be talking about the impact of the story or the progression of the plot or the overall feel of the story here.
Character - I love talking about character so any sort of characterization worth noting will be talked about here. This includes things I feel are out of character, things I don't understand, things I love, whatever. Sometimes a character won't change and it'll get a perfect score, sometimes a character will change drastically and it'll get a perfect score. No wrong answers (well, there undoubtedly are wrong answers, but none right off the bat, okay?). As with story, this can be impacted by writing and art.
Writing - Here's where I'll talk about the actual writing in the book. Word choices, grammar (okay, probably not grammar), tone, dialogue, whatever.
Art - I'd love to break this up into its components (or at least into pencils/inks and colors) but I already have too many categories so one umbrella will have to do for now. I find art maybe the hardest to judge (which is why I mention so often that I'm not paying attention to it) because I have no background in it. I have a background in writing and I study writing relentlessly. Art's a bit different. I'm not disconnected from it in my life (I GO TO MUSEUMS, YOU GUYS) but I recognize it's so subjective. My tastes in the art of a book also range wildly so it's possible two books will rate the same and have completely different styles. I may talk about whether the art helped or hurt the story (in terms of understanding the events happening on the page) or I may talk about that in story.
Miscellaneous - This is the wild card rating. There's a lot more to comic books as a whole package than the four categories above. Maybe I want to talk about the continuity. Maybe I want to talk about the letters page. Maybe I want to talk about the cover or the variant covers. Maybe I want to talk about the price point. Maybe something just didn't sit well (JASPER SITWELL) with me and I couldn't shoehorn it into the other four spots. Maybe I just feel bad for a low rating and need to boost a score? Anything is possible and it'll all go here.
So those are the five key criteria I'll be looking at. I plan on giving each category a 1-5 rating and rating the comic as the average of those scores, roughly. I chose to go with a 1-5 rating because i thought going 1-10 rating would make me get too precious about granting high scores. Don't be surprised to see plenty of 5/5 scores; I like a lot of comic books out there. I don't want to get to a point where only incredible and groundbreaking books get a 5/5 and really solid books end up with 4/5 as the highest possible (you should see my iTunes library, it's a mess because I'm too precious about rating songs). Hopefully I manage to get into a rhythm where I'm not writing paragraphs for each but rather a couple sentences, leaving the actual size of the review about the same as it is now. If that doesn't work, I'll likely switch things up again soon. In addition, I'm going to actively try to condense the summary where ever I can. I don't want to give away everything that's in the book with overly long summaries (though I will still be giving away key plot points so, as ever, be prepared) and I need to try to cut space somewhere while I add SO MUCH MORE.
Other minor changes also include writing out the full list of the creative teams on the books. Now I'll be breaking up the (a) for art with things like (p) for pencils, (i) for inks, etc, as well as adding in an (l) for letters and, as necessary, an (s) for story, which I have used on occasion. Just feelin' guilty about not attributing correctly. Ummmmmmm. You know what, I think that's about it. Stay tuned for all the inevitable changes to this format or, perhaps, even to reverting back.
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