Perspective

Page from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33
by Jamal Campbell (art) & Benjamin Percy (words)

I find it difficult to articulate what I like in comics without the words & images right there to which to make reference.

Articulating what makes some artwork exceptional compared to others is even harder.

I tend to err on the side of explaining what I think has been done really well instead of criticizing what has been done poorly.

Given how personal our reactions are to art, I find it undesirable to try to persuade any reader to take on my perspective; I merely want to share what I enjoy and try to discover why I enjoy it through the sharing.

For example, I love how the "camera" movement between each panel on this page from Green Arrow (2017) #33 flows from Dinah's perspective.

Page from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33 Panel #1

As Dinah looks down on Ollie in the first panel the writer&artist establishes that Dinah is in charge (even while she is care-taking Ollie by cutting his hair). The bolded text in her dialogue balloon reinforces the idea that Dinah is using an authoritative tone with Ollie while she is essentially "in control" of him from above.

Page from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33 Panel #2

The camera then moves in for a close-up as Dinah moves around Ollie and squats in front of him. In this profile shot, Dinah ends up slightly below Ollie. While the scissors could look like a threat (positioned on Ollie's face as they are with his chin tilted up), Dinah's dialogue talks about knowing who Ollie is underneath the "prickly" surface. She is literally getting underneath Ollie and grooming Ollie's surface to reveal the man she knows.

Page from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33 Panel #3

Then the camera moves with her (though now behind her) as she makes eye contact with Ollie, and we get to see the soft expression on his face as he responds to the intimacy the shift in her dialogue and actions in the move from panel 1 to panel 2 indicates.

Again, Deron Bennett's choices as letterer (this time shrinking the words while leaving the speech balloon a little larger) suggests the words are spoken softly and deliberately.

This perspective and movement of the "camera" are elements exceptional artists (or artist teams, really) create when designing the logic flow of their story.

This page has been taken from dinah-lance's Tumblr which excerpts more panels from this issue:

An Excerpt from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33

Another Excerpt from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33

Yet Another Excerpt from Green Arrow (2017) Issue #33