Wednesday, March 07, 2007
True Grit
Eric Shanower sure gives a good interview. Here's a highlight, responding to the interviewer's description of his epic swords and sandals comic book Age of Bronze as "gritty and realistic":
Elsewhere in the interview, I dig Shanower's defense of not including the Greek gods or the supernatural in his version of the Trojan War by saying "I don't believe in them and Age of Bronze is my statement about what life is like; not what life should be or what it could be, but what it’s like."
I have trouble with the phrase “gritty and realistic.” Why do people say that? Why don’t they say “beautiful and realistic” or “hilarious and realistic”? Certainly beauty and hilarity are real. Grit isn’t the only realistic thing in life. “Gritty” makes me imagine crunching sand in my teeth, an impression I don’t think I’ve ever gotten from comics.Actually, I believe I had that exact sensation while reading Identity Crisis. If I remember correctly, it also gave me bloody stools and night terrors.
Elsewhere in the interview, I dig Shanower's defense of not including the Greek gods or the supernatural in his version of the Trojan War by saying "I don't believe in them and Age of Bronze is my statement about what life is like; not what life should be or what it could be, but what it’s like."
# posted by Cole Moore Odell @ 3/07/2007 
