Paul Pope thinks fight sequences are vexed by page limits. In Battle Boy, Pope is devoting about 50 pages to a single fight sequence.
In Batman Year 100, I had room for a couple of long fight sequences, but I felt cramped even with 200 pages. This fight scene from BATTLING BOY alone is about 50 pages. It’s liberating to have no page restrictions. I wish Kirby could’ve had 50 pages for one fight scene, imagine what he would’ve done.
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
1 Comment
I think there is a lot of potential in longer fight scenes. The best fight scene I’ve yet seen in a comic was (keep an open mind) a Naruto fight that lasted around 100 pages. Granted, that one had a lot of padding via other characters’ commentary, but the sheer length allowed for clearer artwork (through larger panel size), intricate strategy, and interesting twists within the fight. Often a fight scene is so short that it’s reduced to a single twist rather than any kind of interesting series of events and clever strategies.