Comments on: WHY I LOVE ONE-DIMENSIONAL VILLAINS http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/ Comics, Design, Film, Literature & Pop Culture Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:04:10 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Strip News 7-10-9 | Strip News | ArtPatient.com | ArtPatient.com http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/#comment-1283 Strip News 7-10-9 | Strip News | ArtPatient.com | ArtPatient.com Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:05:04 +0000 http://mpd57.wordpress.com/?p=3500#comment-1283 [...] a post on Vexel Art and Tutorials. Comic Related has part four of Self Publishing up. Rodney Brown loves one dimensional villains and El Santo cleans up nicely in the [...] [...] a post on Vexel Art and Tutorials. Comic Related has part four of Self Publishing up. Rodney Brown loves one dimensional villains and El Santo cleans up nicely in the [...]

]]> By: El Santo http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/#comment-1238 El Santo Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:09:09 +0000 http://mpd57.wordpress.com/?p=3500#comment-1238 Skipping aside the "we are more mature than our predecessors" argument, which I never found all that convincing, here's what I think it boils down to: Older people are reading comics these days. Silver Age and Golden Age comics? The primary audience were pre-teen kids. For them, good vs. evil does not need to be more than two warring factions. That's where we got some of the best one-dimensional villains like The Joker, Red Skull, etc. etc. etc. Thing is, those kids don't read much comics these days. So what are they doing? Playing video games. Reading Harry Potter & other fantasy. The villains of these escapist fantasies are pretty much pure evil. Skipping aside the “we are more mature than our predecessors” argument, which I never found all that convincing, here’s what I think it boils down to:

Older people are reading comics these days.

Silver Age and Golden Age comics? The primary audience were pre-teen kids. For them, good vs. evil does not need to be more than two warring factions. That’s where we got some of the best one-dimensional villains like The Joker, Red Skull, etc. etc. etc.

Thing is, those kids don’t read much comics these days. So what are they doing? Playing video games. Reading Harry Potter & other fantasy. The villains of these escapist fantasies are pretty much pure evil.

]]> By: delos http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/#comment-1235 delos Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:22:53 +0000 http://mpd57.wordpress.com/?p=3500#comment-1235 I'm of the hero=good guy and villain=bad guy school of thought. I'm all for understanding a villain's motives and personality but he fails to be perceived as bad when you sympathize with him. When you do that, you are siding with him and you can't be with the hero if you side with the villain. There is, of course, room for grey ranges for characters but I think we've lost sight of what makes a hero and a villain. You might appreciate what goals a character has but the extremes they go to in order to accomplish them might be bad. Like those tv ads for medicines whose cure is not worth all the extra side effects (Nausea, ringing ears and loss of coordination just so you don't get a cold sore? No thanks.) I’m of the hero=good guy and villain=bad guy school of thought. I’m all for understanding a villain’s motives and personality but he fails to be perceived as bad when you sympathize with him. When you do that, you are siding with him and you can’t be with the hero if you side with the villain.

There is, of course, room for grey ranges for characters but I think we’ve lost sight of what makes a hero and a villain. You might appreciate what goals a character has but the extremes they go to in order to accomplish them might be bad. Like those tv ads for medicines whose cure is not worth all the extra side effects (Nausea, ringing ears and loss of coordination just so you don’t get a cold sore? No thanks.)

]]> By: Bryy http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/#comment-1227 Bryy Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:55:42 +0000 http://mpd57.wordpress.com/?p=3500#comment-1227 Sure, if you want your villain to be utterly devoid of any kind of connection to the audience. But you and RKB are talking NICHE VILLAINS here, and trying to apply that to EVERY villain. Therein lies the problem. Even the most complex villains of all time (Khan, Captain Hook, Se7en) are pretty damn simple. I don't think that you and RKB have problems with villains with human emotion. Rather, you seem to have a problem with pretention. Sure, if you want your villain to be utterly devoid of any kind of connection to the audience. But you and RKB are talking NICHE VILLAINS here, and trying to apply that to EVERY villain. Therein lies the problem.

Even the most complex villains of all time (Khan, Captain Hook, Se7en) are pretty damn simple.

I don’t think that you and RKB have problems with villains with human emotion. Rather, you seem to have a problem with pretention.

]]> By: saulone http://mpd57.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/why-i-love-one-dimensional-villains/#comment-1222 saulone Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:34:18 +0000 http://mpd57.wordpress.com/?p=3500#comment-1222 "On the other hand, for single character motivation for villians like Electro, what have you – your street villains, we live in an age where we’re all so de-sensitised that to truly get across that your villains are evil, you probably have to depict them doing things that you couldn’t get away with in a comic book right now. Unless you’re Vertigo. " - yup. Maybe that's why I dig Vertigo so much, and has a good deal to do with Vertigo's success from the onset. “On the other hand, for single character motivation for villians like Electro, what have you – your street villains, we live in an age where we’re all so de-sensitised that to truly get across that your villains are evil, you probably have to depict them doing things that you couldn’t get away with in a comic book right now. Unless you’re Vertigo. ”

– yup. Maybe that’s why I dig Vertigo so much, and has a good deal to do with Vertigo’s success from the onset.

]]>