"Spike vs. Dracula #1." I finally got my comp copies, only to page through it and discover that page 21 was completely devoid of dialogue. Didn't ANYONE wonder why the ending made no sense? What's really mystifying is that it was on the jpegs that IDW sent me for approval. Somewhere, between the printer and the printing, an entire page of my dialogue completely vanished.
For those who bought the issue and would like to have some idea of what the hell happened at the end, the actual page of dialogue is reproduced below--
UPDATED 4/14: I'd appreciate it if people would stop sending angry e-mails to Chris Ryall at IDW. Chris, who has been nothing but one of the classiest and most supportive editors I've ever worked with, was not REMOTELY responsible for the missing dialogue. Neither was anyone else at IDW; as I noted, the approval material they sent me and the material sent out to the printer all had the material right. Considering that no reader appeared to twig to the fact that the dialogue was missing, or certainly not enough to comment upon it, and it certainly ruined no one's good time or their ability to understand the story, the only one who's REALLY got a reason to be worked up is me, and even I'm not angry at IDW. I've been subjected to far more stupendous, and inexcusable, screw-ups in the past from far larger companies, so cut IDW some slack, would'ja, please.
PAD
PAGE 21
PANEL A: Spike stalks the pub, looking as fearsome as he ever has. The people cringe back.
SPIKE 1: Because our lord and master, Count Dracula, is living up on the mansion on the hill!
SPIKE 2: Yeah, that’s right! The head vampire himself!
SPIKE 3: You thought he was just a pretend bloke in a book?
PANEL B: He leans toward them, shouting.
SPIKE 4: Think again!
PANEL C: People cringe back as Spike’s shadow is cast over them, his arms spread wide. Only Spike’s shadow is in the shot; Spike is off panel, casting the shadow.
SPIKE 5: This is going to be a vampire town in no time! Because as long as the Count’s in residence, everything’s ducky!
SPIKE 6: Because he knows that you people wouldn’t have the stones to…oh, I dunno…
PANEL D: Reverse angle so that Spike, who is now near the door, is pointing at them.
SPIKE 7: Form an angry mob and go storming his place!
SPIKE 8: Right now!
SPIKE 9: Right this very minute! With pitchforks and flaming arrows and torches.
SPIKE 10: But you won’t! ‘Cause you’re spineless!
PANEL E: Closer on Spike, tossing off that British obscene gesture of his with the two fingers.
SPIKE 11: So there!
Posted by Peter David at April 11, 2006 11:11 AM | TrackBack | Other blogs commenting
I feel a little silly now that I never really noticed that. It's a testament to the quality of the artwork, though, that I was still able to understand what was going on even without the dialogue.
By-the-by, I'm really enjoy the Spike stuff you've been writing, Peter.
JAB
Maybe it was a homage to the Buffy edisode "Hush." or not...
Oh, I noticed that but the story kind of told itself anyway. And no I feel a bit daft for not clocking it before. I really enjoyed #2 though, with Lugosi himself putting in an appearance!
LOL! OMG - that's hilarious! My only excuse is that I just bought the comic and haven't actually *read* it yet.
Thank you for this. I'll keep it for when I get to that page!
So, you didn't get the comp meds that went with the copies?
Hmm... I think that I initially thought the page was a bit odd, but for some reason missing dialogue didn't occur to me. I guess I just thought it was an artsy silent page, with Spike going "ooga-booga", and figured that the villagers must have known where and what Dracula was.
Of course, it does make more sense now; and it's very funny the way Spike leads them exactly by the nose.
Again??
Something must have eaten a layer of the image file for that page. Weird!
I guess my old-fashioned hand-lettering skills and speedball tips still have their advantages in this computerized world, eh wot?
Thank you! That had been bothering me. I assumed that is what happened, but didn't realize it was a printer mistake.
Eric
It still made more sense than all those 'Nuff Said issues from a few years back!
Working in book publishing, I've seen files get screwed up while at the printer and drop out text. It's usually a font issue. But normally, we check proof from the printer for exactly this kind of thing. Sorry this happened here, I know how heartbreaking it is.
A few years back there was an entire issue of Avengers with no text. Not even sound effects, just page of silence after page of silence. The Punisher did the same thing, too. There was a Birds of Prey issue with a couple of textless pages a year or two ago also.
I really the hate the "total silence comic" as a device. It sucks the emotion out of the story for me. However, it's being done enough lately that there are probably a lot of people who thought the blank page of Spike was on purpose.
That Avengers issue was part of a month long event at Marvel where every issue was silent. Which was a nice idea, but the idea of forcing everyone to do a silent story no matter how that would impact their ongoing plots really annoyed me.
Captain Marvel 26 was Peter David's Nuff Said issue, if you're curious.
Heh... I didn't even notice. My interpretation was that Spike pretended to be one of Dracula's minons and purposefully scared (and honked off) the villagers so they'd chase him back to Dracula's lair.
Art should be credited for the near-seamless reading of the book (but then again, it might worry PAD since he's a writer heh)
Looking forward to #3 with PAD on words and Corroney & Dabu on pictures 8-)
And before anyone complains- obviously PAD had a great deal to do with the near-seamless effect since it was his plot and his script that Corroney was using to create that page of art.
"That Avengers issue was part of a month long event at Marvel where every issue was silent."
Good grief. I'm glad I wasn't reading comics at the time. I only read that Avengers issue in a trade.
Well, seems there is a simple solution. Have fans post (in the comic stores) a little note by the issue's position in the racks. "Read the missing dialog at..." and give the URL. (And you might want to have the publisher post this so that the comic shops know this isn't a spoof. They ought to. It's their fault.)
Newsarama and other sites post previews of comics sometimes. Maybe the publisher could send out a preview that includes the messed up page.
The dialogue really wasn't necessary. I had just assumed (and we all know what that does) that Spike was just making all scary with the Vampire thing. I was amused by the "bird-flipping" scene -- after all, the opening credits of Buffy have shown that Spike is no stranger to he guesture. Though I must admit I was also a bit jarred by the scene because I actually had to stop and wonder exactly how old that guesture really is. Was "the bird" really used in that context back then? How does one check the etymology of that sort of thing, anyway. And is etymology event the correct word for a hand guesture?
Regardless, I plan to print out PAD's original posting and include it with the polybag of the comic itself.
Jim "Spooon" Henry
"Though I must admit I was also a bit jarred by the scene because I actually had to stop and wonder exactly how old that guesture really is. Was "the bird" really used in that context back then?"
I actually did some research into that. Near as I can tell, the gesture goes back centuries. Some claim it's traceable to Medieval English bowmen holding up two fingers to enemies (who ostensibly cut the fingers off said bowmen if captured) to show that they have their shooting fingers intact. Snopes feels otherwise, but doesn't offer any really concrete proof of where it DOES come from. Either way, though, it certainly seems safe to say it was being used within the last 150 years.
PAD
I thought it was a little strange, but then again, it seemed kind of straightforward. Spike went down and made it clear vampires were there, and the castle was the heart of them...
Let's not forget JMS' very well executed, dialogue/caption-less issue of SPIDER-MAN which he did to show how a good writer/artist team could tell a story effectively without using the written word.
What about page 15, panel A? D's journal entry says 1989.
Uh, yeah, I figured half a dozen people pointing that out the first time around was more than enough mention of it. Basically it was a typo of mine that I caught when the completed pages were sent to me for proofreading. I pointed it out and asked if it could be fixed. I was told it could be. My fault: I should have said, "WILL it be fixed?" And again, in those same pages, all the dialogue on page 21 was there. For whatever incomprehensible reason, the printer apparently used a much earlier file which featured the typo and no dialogue balloons.
PAD
Speaking of silent (or nearly silent) issues, one I thought rather effective was the first installment of the three-part “Many Deaths of the Batman” in Batman 433-435. A corpse has been found wearing the Batsuit, and throughout that first issue, we reactions from various members of the Bat-cast, sans words.
Until...
On the last, page, Commissioner Gordon, in the morgue, says two words to whomever was with him:
“Get out.”
Then, alone with the body, Gordon removes the cowl.
Those two words carried a lot of weight they might have carried if the whole issue had been filled with dialogue. In a way, not unlike the single word spoken in _Silent Movie_ (though that was more due to _who_ said them).
Again, this was just the first issue. The other two had dialogue and narration as normal.
As to the _Spike Vs. Dracula_ issue, I didn’t read it, so I don’t know what I would have taken away from Spike’s inadvertent turn as a mime; but I do believe that little or no dialogue in an issue can be effective if done well, and not as a gimmick.
Rick
Correction:
"Those two words carried a lot of weight they might -NOT_ have carried if the whole issue had been filled with dialogue"
Rick
The oldest silent issue I know of is G.I. Joe (Marvel) #21, circa 1983, the first of a few ninja-centric Larry Hama stories using the technique.
Wasn't that G.I. Joe issue also a result of a printing error?
One of my all-time favorite "silent" issues is the Silent Night one-shot from Sin City. When Miller is on, he nails it. When he is off...All Star Batman and Robin.
Wow. Thank you for that, it did improve the flow alot, but I never had a problem with the ending making sense. I can certainly understand your concern though, having your creative work mishandled in such a fashion would be disconcerting, to say the least.
"Wasn't that G.I. Joe issue also a result of a printing error?"
Well, the title of the story is "Silent Interlude," the cover proclaims "the most unusual G.I. Joe story ever!!", and there is no letterer credited (someone - looks like maybe Rick Parker - did make a credit box and write the title on page 1). If it was an accident, they must have had time to cover it up pretty nicely. (Could you have heard that it was _inspired_ by a printing error, maybe?)
I was wrong. Here is the skinny on G.I. Joe #21
"The concept of an entire comic without any dialogue was fairly novel at the time (not the first time it was done, but one of the most notable), and on such a popular title!
Rumors have swirled around since then, because the idea was SO weird, that it was not INTENTIONAL, that the dialogue was lost in a printing error, or something like that.
This, however, was not the case.
It is true that the issue was produced in haste, as the book was behind schedule, leaving Larry Hama to not only write the issue, but DRAW the issue as well (behind that awesome Mike Zeck cover).
However, the idea for the silent issue was in Hama's head for awhile. According to Hama (in an interview with Dwight Jon Zimmerman, from David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview #37 & 38),
I wanted to see if I could do a story that was a real, complete story - beginning, middle, end, conflict, characterization, action, solid resolution - without balloons or captions or sound effects. I tried to do it again, as a matter of fact, with the Joe Yearbook #3 story.
So while yes, the genesis of the issue probably came due to Hama's interest coinciding with a need for haste, but the issue was always meant to be dialogue-less."
I remember the issue of GI Joe very clearly. I was working at Marvel at the time, and I remember Larry really wanting me to do a serious push for it because he was extremely proud of it. And what no one is mentioning is the REASON it was silent: The focal character was Snake Eye, the character who never spoke.
PAD
Rick said:
"Those two words carried a lot of weight they might -NOT_ have carried if the whole issue had been filled with dialogue"
I reply:
I remember Byrne saying in an interview that he had originally intended to do a totally silent issue, but he didn't know who the artist was going to be, so he hedged his bets an included the two words. He also said that had he known that Aparro (sp?) was going to be the artist, he would not even have had the two words he did use.
(Though, truth to tell, there was a newspaper headline that, while not "dialogue" still carried a lot of emotional impact and weight).