Sunday, February 03, 2008

The Redundant Dialogue Files: "Attacking me!"


OK, so maybe my first installment of The Redundant Dialogue Files wasn't the best example. Dave's Long Box reader Paul rightly pointed out that the dialogue in the first entry actually served a legitimate disambiguating purpose. Way to bring reason into the whole thing and spoil my fun, Paul!

So we'll try again - here's a panel from Wonder Woman (vol 1) #276, which I have discussed previously here. Yes, I know I'm kinda cheating by posting a panel I have previously featured, but that's the kind of guy I am - a big goddamn cheater.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think this art is good enough to make the dialogue redundant. The big white square door in the cave wall doesn't look hidden, and no one's shooting at her in the first panel.

Is she crawling on her hands and knees in the second panel, or lunging forward into the path of the darts or what?

Anonymous said...

Reason?! Now everybody knows there's no place for that sort of thing in comic book bloggery.

Are those red headphones she's wearing? Because if they're earrings, they're goddamn huge.

I bet when the Lord Naga-Naga's not around, those Kobra Cult guys like to play with that secret door and say, "Put. Ze candle. Back."

John said...

Should not the Redundant Dialogue Files already be filled to overflowing with just about every issue Warren Ellis has ever written?

If there was ever a master of dialogue delineating what you're looking at, surely Ellis is it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they probably threw in that dialogue 'cause it looks like those Kobra goons are moving a mattress in the first panel.

Fringe benefit of working as Kobra henchman: lots of people to help you move out of your apartment and into secret HQ.

Anonymous said...

Sorry. Logic is a character flaw of mine. I keep sticking it in places, whether it belongs or not. Like a clueless tourist on his first trip to Europe, trying to get things to plug in whether he's got an adapter or not.

And now you've gone and rewarded me for it, too. For I am no longer just Paul, but officially recognized as Dave's Long Box Reader Paul and mentioned by name in an actual post. WTG, Dave. Encourage my bad habits.

But this panel... wow, that's redundant. Redundant enough to be worth mentioning twice!

That's a lot of info she's pouring out there, and every last bit of it looks pretty danged obvious to me.

And the one part where it's vague is the one part that needs explanation. Yes, we see they're attacking you. But with what? How? As Scott said, there's no evidence of weaponry in their hands in the first panel. So where did all those dart things come from? And how did there get to be six of them fired simultaneously from multiple angels when we can only see four guys rushing straight at her from one door?

I only see one possible explanation... while she was standing there staring at them and narrating their actions out loud, they must have had time to spread out, take out their dart guns, and fire.

Anonymous said...

If I was Director of Serpentine Marketing for Kobra--and you just know he has one--I'd call them Fang Guns. Because the likelihood of me dying in some horrible, venom-related fashion would depend on my ability to work in a snake motif whenever possible.

If the good guys were smart, they'd stake out companies that make snake-motif furniture and accessories. Kobra has to buy that stuff by the semi-load every time he equips a new secret HQ.

Anonymous said...

Why do Kobra cultists wear the orange togas? Is it because their green chainmail jammies have an embarrassing butt-flap?

SallyP said...

"Argh! Poison Darts! Flying at my face! Oh, if only I didn't have to explain what is happening all the time, I might have been able to avoid them!"

Anonymous said...

Redundancy is one of the things that make comic books great. I love it when they say redundant things in comics. It just makes the comic more genius!

Also, hi Sallyp.

Anonymous said...

"Agh! Press-on nails! Flying at me!"

K. D. Bryan said...

Nerd Wonder Woman: "Oh, no! The green things from Arkanoid! Flying at my face!"

Anonymous said...

I bet Kobra cultists hate it when people ask them, "Aren't you guys racists?" And the Kobra guys grimace with chagrin and frustration and say, "No, that's the Sons of the Serpent--um, I mean, the Sssonss of the Ssserpent. They're over in Marvel. We kill and terrorize everybody equally."

Or they just shoot the questioner with their Venom Blasters or Fang Guns. That works pretty well, too.

Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator said...

Holly cats, I'm sitting at my desk and reading Dave's Long Box!

Unknown said...

Excuse me guys, but does that count as "dialogue"? In both this installment and in the previous, the redundant speeches are more like "monologues" (especially in this one with WW).
Dave, you should change the title to "Redundant text files".

Anonymous said...

i know it is off comics, but the greatest redundant moment may be in Dario Argento's INFERNO, in which two characters are on an international phone call. on one side of the call, a title on the bottom of the screen reads "ROME". when it cuts to the other character, the title reads "NEW YORK-SAME TIME".

Anonymous said...

I think an awesome moment of redundant dialogue came in that famous Steranko Captain America, where Rick Jones/Bucky got gassed by Hydra and started tripping balls. Steranko does this very psychedelic artwork and then it goes back to Stan Lee for scripting and ends up with all these narrative boxes that say "Now I'm running across a giant clock...There's a skeleton who wants me to open a door..." I don't notice it as often in DC, and so I assumed it was a product of the outline-art-script process where the last guy's like "I gotta write something or I don't get paid."

Chris Arndt said...

How gay is it to be "tripping balls"?

Evie said...

Duh, Bugles are not going to kill Wonder Woman. Maybe the barbecue flavor, but probably not.

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Anonymous said...

http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com/2005/05/mighty-thor-362-marvel-comics-1985.html

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