Neil Gaiman on Alan Moore’s life. Drawn by Mark Buckingham.
(Source: zophop)
The best thing about this book, and it is hard for me to admit this given Tony Harris’s insulting opinions is the fact that Opal City is very unique looking. You know that Starman’s city is very classic yet specific, and I argue that it’s one of the more recognizable cities in the DC universe. To be honest, I couldn’t tell you what Metropolis or Gotham City is supposed to look like other than the Lexcorp and Daily Planet buildings but Opal has amazing classic gothic architecture with 1920s art-deco windows and gargoyles. This double page spread recalls Cleveland especially with the green circular building on the edge of the first page, the center building and the clock tower recalling elements of Tower City.
The rest of this trade separates into Sins of the Child, a confrontation between Jack and the Mist’s daughter Nash, a story that is formatted into a twenty-four hour period and takes on the perspective of several main characters. The delivery of this story arc is something that has always stayed with me. I like multiple focuses of one narrative coexisting, stories within stories within stories like a nesting doll. This arc is probably where I grew interested in that device.
This is the best Grundy ever.
That’s quite a kick, Jack Knight. This Sally Purple story is perhaps where the influence came for the characters Red Pete and Blonde Andy in my first and only novel, Worthy’s Cause.
When Jack goes into the sewer after Grundy at Jade’s request we have this outfit. A leather vest, jeans, and his pretty sick star tattoo. In the fourth panel, we get confirmation that Jack Knight is a man’s man, and can just grin and bear it.
This Jade sequence is neat in its Hitchcockian style, the still narrative that Harris would later go on to continue to do in Ex Machina.
The Shade is great. This is perhaps my favorite issue of this trade, because of the literary references and this was really the first place that I became interested in literature and comics, because I read Starman right around the same time as Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns.
I love this Dorian Gray allegory.
So maybe I’ll do this thing on Tuesday and Thursdays…
Anyway, tonight’s notes come again from the Starman trade Night and Day, and this singular story puts Jack on the trail of Solomon Grundy and the Shade talks about a Dorian Gray-like menace threatening Opal City.
Jack Knight is a collector, and is a methaphor for the culture of comic book speculators that was running at the time of this comic (1994). He buys old things at bargain prices and revels in the minutiae of those things, which is something we all do as comic book readers. More than anything else, this book got me curious with investigating old things.
