2008 Comic Book News Archives

Action Comics #870

November 1, 2008: Artist Gary Frank on Jonathan Kent's Death

Gary Frank spoke to Newsarama.com about his work on the "Brainiac" story in Action Comics, specifically on the death of Jonathan Kent. Here's an excerpt from the interview...

    Q: When we talked about this storyline back in June, you said that you and Geoff talk a lot before and during each issue. Did you two discuss the death of Pa Kent a lot? How did the scene evolve as you spoke about it? Were you on the same page with the way this scene should happen?

    GF: Geoff and I are so on the same page with these things that we might need a DNA test to make sure that we are different people.

    An example of the way the process works, though, is the longshot at the end. We talked about it for a bit. We talked about some of the approaches (downshot, side view, close-up, Superman holding Martha, Superman floating at a distance etc) and the last thing we wanted was a kind of stock scene. This was too big a deal.

    Eventually (feeling the pressure!!!) I said to Geoff "You know, there's no way I'm going hit be able to draw these faces in a way which is going to hit a nerve for every reader so the best approach might be to give almost a blank canvas and let them fill in the gaps." Most people have dealt with some sort of tragedy and, if they can subconsciously tap into a little of that, it'll be a lot more powerful than looking at a drawing of a comic character with tears streaming down his face.

    So the longshot takes us away a little from the characters and leaves the reader free to develop a more personal response to what is happening.

Read the complete interview at Newsarama.com.



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