adamwarrencomics:Two very different approaches to a...

adamwarrencomics:

Two very different approaches to a “slow-motion” action scene, one from Kenichi Sonoda’s Gunsmith Cats (top) and the other from Shirow Masamune’s Appleseed Databook (bottom); both techniques have been huge influences on my own action storytelling.

Sonoda uses a lower panel count and big, open, at times background-free panels for his slo-mo depiction of Rally’s wacky reloading stunt with the dropped and kicked-up magazine. Some folks decry open, “easy” panels like these, but I think they suit the action flow far, faaaar better than, say, bande-desinée-style panels laden with full, detailed backgrounds. (Gotta say, never did care for B-D‘s often literalistic approach to panel backgrounds; I prefer a more flexible approach, myself.)

Shirow, by contrast, uses a flurry of small, dense panels for his own slow-motion sequence. Arguably a similar effect, but achieved by very different means. Problem is, his storytelling approaches can be tricky to emulate, thanks to a maxim I think of as “Shirow Does S**t You Just Can’t Do.” (To see what I mean,  try using tiny figures in wee panels for an action scene like the famed Appleseed vol.4 knife fight; odds are, you can’t get even remotely the same energy and kineticism as he achieves.)