"We can still work it out"?

Let's start 2011 off with a bang, straight onto the first page of the 2nd instalment of Outland

And it's a rather jarring bang as well…

For starters a whole 2-3 minutes have just been lost from the movie with no explanation, There was a entire scene where Montone tries to console O'Neil following the departure of his wife and child gone…

But more telling is that in this one page there is probably more story packed in than any two page spread to date 

The speed and action pace this page sets up, definitely drops off as soon as the two page spreads are returned to on the next page

A lot of urgency and even fluidity in terms of standard comic book story telling happens on this page, but there is still half a page dedicated to locked in cold hard master shot as Steranko seems to be the absolute master of, you can almost imagine a poster book of each of these big panels without any dialogue..

Well the balloons are still there I guess...

But the coldness and the commodity of the io is about to be put into very sharp relief, we have already seen that the air and food is recycled (probably endlessly) and that the whole place is a contusion of a ducting nightmare almost on the level of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and we have just seen the only expression of love seen by the person its supposed to be effecting at such a distance that it makes no discernible impact at all, completely lost within a stylistic statement of utter form over function

So if there is no real love on io (only via video message after leaving it behind) what is left?…

stay tuned to find out...

And in conclusion

Let's go back to the Outland movie before moving on…

The point of this particular part of the story one guesses is to "destroy" our hero, to put him through an ordeal that challenges his entire state of mind, that leaves him with no reason to continue his quest, in short to make him a true hero he has to loose everything dear to him

But even the movie fails to make that very clear, it's missing some scenes that could have established the family and the difficulties they was having on io, yet another one of a seemingly endless tour of inhospitable places - it wouldn't have taken much extra

So is it fair to wonder why such things are missing from the comic adaptation?

Well, let's take a step back and see everything that has been highlighted as setting the scene in the art and see what out of that is unique within these pages..

It definitely cant be use the of shadow, one could not really say that this was being used to set a mood, without immediately wondering precisely what mood or message is trying to be conveyed in every other page, equally soaked in shadow

It cant be the focus on unimportant things (the apartment) and lack of focus on what is supposed to be the focus (the tiny figure of O'neil) as there has already been inexplicable focus of pipes fixtures and fittings before this double pager..

It cant even be that o-neil is tiny, as elsewhere figures are disproportionate in relation to their actual importance

I think this double spread really probably tells you all you need to know about whats going on in the comic, basically that each double spread will be a abstract study on a particular part of the movie, drawn in a bold and evocative way, but with little actual substance underneath it, particular if it gets in the way of the stylistic depection

until the whole thing becomes almost an abstract study of art that is just kind of related to the movie itself

Is this comics? Only by including the smaller panels actually showing any sequential movement does the art actually hang onto this category, albeit with an uneven sense of time, with a second stretched out, and minutes compressed down depending on where you look

the whole adaptation basically ending up as bold statement, this is Steranko, like or leave it -- I can't get enough of this personally..

so here we go with the pages together..

A nice place to wrap up the year -as this concludes the first episode of Outland as published in Heavy Metal

Of course I will be carrying in the New year or possibly even before then, but just in case ..

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year and a special thank you to everyone reading this for doing so, I hope it's been at least marginally entertaining

Up close and personal

Up close and personal

Now let's "compare the meerkat" between the Comic and the Outland movie for a moment…

This particular scene is markedly different in the movie as O'Neil and his wife are face to face but separated by her being on a video screen as a message and the movie alternates between "talking heads" shots of O'Neil and his wife

In short he goes through this emotional upheaval full on, not at anything like the same distance at all and its made all the more painful and real for doing so (or at least that's the intention)- now there is another scene in the movie, where O'neil replays the video message again (apparently to underline how much the loss means to him) and he occasionally looks at it - this time at a bit more of a distance..

But this scene is not in the comic adaptation either and there are also some other key moments missed

Find out what they are soon… and what this is all building up to...

She just called to say...

So offsetting all the darkness and distance between o'neil and his family portrait is a video call from what can only be his wife..

(quoting from memory the movie dialog)..

"I hate these things" (referring to the video answer machine) "but I couldn't face you and say this…"

"but i'm leaving. "

Sounds very much like O'neil's being dumped…? But, wait there is more…

"it's not you" she says, "it's Paulie" (their child) who has never had a normal environment, never seen Earth

She goes on to describe Earth which in a twist from the usual science fiction story, sounds like its all in one piece as she talks about breathing real air and seeing blue skies (no dystopia here)… and pleads with o'neil to come to earth with them

and says she loves him (from the bottom of her heart?)

In the movie this scene amounts to the only real bit of character moment for o'neil as a person

Why would he stay behind in the perpetual shadow on io when his family and earth awaits him

His wife says he is stubborn but there must be more to it than that? Or is there?

And does this 2 page spread convey the feeling that should be here or say something else entirely…

Find out tomorrow

From a distance..

As we continue our exploration of O'neil's "Bachelor pad", we pass a wardrobe / closet with drawers open, a couple of food shelfs, an unused sink and then get drawn down (by spot lighting - indicating the way to look) a increasingly narrow corridor to see o'neil for the first time as a very tiny figure, slumped in the chair reacting to something… which can only be a video call..

All the proceeding darkness and distance between o'neil and his family portrait and his tiny appearance here telling almost everything you need to know - the family has gone - but how and why…

Tune in tomorrow to find out more

Family Portrait…

"In our family portrait, we look pretty happy, Let's play pretend, Let's act like it comes naturally"

So go the lyrics of the song "Family Portrait" by Pink…

She could well be singing about the Portrait you can see here, next to the bear…

As here we can see O'neil has a family who was happy, before O'neil got his current assignment (as he is not in uniform here) and when he was a bit younger (no beard or moustache though thats rather harder to see)

Here is an example of the overwhelming amount of shadow being used to actually tell the story or set the mood for the story, as O'neil's whole apartment is in almost total darkness and this is one of the few bits of light both in the apartment and in o'neil's life…

But what has happened since and where are the family now?

Next page will bring the answers…

Please, do not adjust your set

Here we go - a lot of lines on the page now…

Speaking of which, have a look at the 4 panels at the bottom, now unless you had really looked closely at Steranko's original, you probably did not notice that these panels had lines across them to represent the fact that the they are being shown on a old "computerised" monitor screen

Mostly because the lines are so small, they almost disappear - but they are uniform on each panel and completely straight as well which just about makes them visible

But I figured that not only would I make these lines a lot bigger but I would not have them in the same place from panel to panel to give it a bit more of a "rolling" look…

how well this will turn out post rollerball is anyone's guess..!