Comic Book Dictionary
Comic Dictionary - The Progressive X-Men Era
- by Brian Cronin
- Saturday, December 17th, 2005 at 9:40 AM EST
Joe Rice came up with this term recently, and I really liked it, so I am offering it up to you folks here now. Rather than saying “Morrison’s X-Men,” the Progressive X-Men Era is expanded to include all the titles from the X-Line of the time, which marked a specific tendency to try new, progressive […]
Comic Dictionary - The Ron Frenz Rule of Costume Design
- by Brian Cronin
- Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 10:07 AM EST
I thought I had this up here, but apparently, I only had it posted on Snark Free Waters, so I figured I might as well post it here, too.
The Ron Frenz Rule of Costume Design is a simple one. Don’t design a comic book costume too ornately. With every costume you design, always do so […]
Comic Dictionary - Mary Sue
- by Brian Cronin
- Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at 10:04 AM EST
I did not come up with this term, but it is such a useful term in comic critiquing, I think that it is worthwhile to post it.
Here is a good definition that I found of “Mary Sue”: MARY SUE (n.): 1. A variety of story, first identified in the fan fiction community, but quickly recognized […]
Comic Dictionary - Uncolored
- by Brian Cronin
- Sunday, May 22nd, 2005 at 10:01 AM EST
“Uncolored” is a phrase used to distinguish between books that use black & white as an artistic expression and those books that use black & white just because they cannot afford to color the book.
For instance, Kane is a black & white book.
Worldwatch #1 is an uncolored book.
It seems silly to me to refer to […]
Comic Dictionary - Paternalistic Continuity
- by Brian Cronin
- Thursday, May 19th, 2005 at 10:00 AM EST
Paternalistic continuity is what you call it when a writer/editor gets protective (or paternalistic) of the continuity of a particular character, and goes out of his/her way to control the history of said character.
The first notable example of this that I can think of is when John Byrne decided that Dr. Doom (”his” character, as […]
Comic Dictionary - Snowball Idea
- by Brian Cronin
- Sunday, February 27th, 2005 at 9:58 AM EST
A snowball idea is based on the premise of a snowball, rolling down the hill. It starts off as a tiny little snowball, but as it keeps rolling and rolling, it keeps adding more and more snow, until it is one gigantic snowball, and when it hits, it is a big mess.
It applies to comics […]
Comic Dictionary - Cousin Larry Trick
- by Brian Cronin
- Thursday, February 3rd, 2005 at 9:57 AM EST
If you ever watched the show “Perfect Strangers,” it involved two cousins, one a urban man named Larry, and the other, a foreigner named Balki.
Larry was the kind of guy who was always trying to take the easy way out, to say stuff like “but EVERYbody does it, so it’s okay!” and always trying to […]
Comic Dictionary - Nepotistic Continuity
- by Brian Cronin
- Saturday, January 15th, 2005 at 9:56 AM EST
This is when a writer uses strong continuity in his or her comics, but only when it is in reference to something (a work or a creation) that THAT writer did in the past.
Chuck Dixon was big on this, having minor characters from one of his four Bat-books show up constantly in his other Bat-books.
The […]
Comic Dictionary - Outside Writing
- by Brian Cronin
- Friday, January 14th, 2005 at 9:53 AM EST
Outside writing is what you call it when outside influences, like editors, influence the way a story is written, not the natural flow of the story.
For instance, in the Superman titles awhile back.
“Lois and Clark need to break up!”
Then, a few issues later, “No wait, they have to get married tomorrow!”
See?
Silly nonsense like that makes […]
