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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14889
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 Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 2:07 am
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Not surprised AVATAR: LAST AIRBENDER--THE SEARCH PT. 1 is #4.
It's about Zuko's mother, which fans have been clamoring for.
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TitanXL
Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 3:08 am
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I've heard nothing but criticism towards the Avatar comics because apparently they're written by a guy who didn't even work on the show and writes everyone out of character and disregards most stuff that happened in the show and are just in general poorly written. I never liked the show, but it's kind of a shame Nickelodeon just throw out some throwaway comics by a random guy. Probably should have better paced the show so they didn't need comic books to fill in the gaps I guess. I've noticed that a few cancelled shows getting a new 'season' in the medium of comic books.. guess it's cheaper than to make a movie or new season.
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Alsorika
Joined: 20 Apr 2013
Posts: 8
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 3:18 am
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| TitanXL wrote: | | I've heard nothing but criticism towards the Avatar comics because apparently they're written by a guy who didn't even work on the show and writes everyone out of character and disregards most stuff that happened in the show and are just in general poorly written. |
Bleh. I was thinking of getting the comics; primarily for character expansion and filling in some of the details that the series really didn't- more simply because they couldn't cover everything than poor pacing. But yeah, if they're being written by an outsider who isn't really even trying to respect the continuity, I suppose I won't bother.
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Tenbyakugon
Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 800
Location: Ohio, United States
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 11:15 am
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| TitanXL wrote: | | I've heard nothing but criticism towards the Avatar comics because apparently they're written by a guy who didn't even work on the show and writes everyone out of character and disregards most stuff that happened in the show and are just in general poorly written. I never liked the show, but it's kind of a shame Nickelodeon just throw out some throwaway comics by a random guy. Probably should have better paced the show so they didn't need comic books to fill in the gaps I guess. I've noticed that a few cancelled shows getting a new 'season' in the medium of comic books.. guess it's cheaper than to make a movie or new season. |
I've not read them, but it's my understanding that DiMartino and Konietzko supervised the author's writing.
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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14889
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 3:34 pm
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| Tenbyakugon wrote: |
| TitanXL wrote: | |
I've heard nothing but criticism towards the Avatar comics because apparently they're written by a guy who didn't even work on the show and writes everyone out of character and disregards most stuff that happened in the show and are just in general poorly written. I never liked the show, but it's kind of a shame Nickelodeon just throw out some throwaway comics by a random guy. Probably should have better paced the show so they didn't need comic books to fill in the gaps I guess. I've noticed that a few cancelled shows getting a new 'season' in the medium of comic books.. guess it's cheaper than to make a movie or new season. |
I've not read them, but it's my understanding that DiMartino and Konietzko supervised the author's writing. |
Yes, you are correct. It's a collaboration. It's not a throwaway comics by a random guy (BTW, Gene Luen Yang is Chinese American with years of experience already under his belt). We tell people the same about anime/manga - don't criticize it until you're read it. There's a reason Avatar:TLA fans keep buying the comics and put it on the best-seller lists every month it comes out. And it's not a gap of a cancelled show - the original show just glossed over the fact before reaching its predetermined conclusion (before Legend of Korra), kinda like an anime ending without explaining everything. Here's some excerpts on an indepth interview for those not in the know:
- When I first saw commercials for Avatar: The Last Airbender, I didn’t really give it the time of day; I wrote it off as the kind of schlock that was trying to cash in on the anime boom at the time, and doubly discounted it because it was a Nickelodeon cartoon and I’d moved on from Doug and Rugrats to more adult fare. Today, my face couldn’t be covered in more egg; the series is terrific, and I’ve been watching episodes in a manner that can only be called “voracious.” When I was approached by Dark Horse about the release of their new tie-in graphic novel, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search, Part I, I was similarly skeptical, because adaptations of successful franchises – regardless of medium – tend to have a reputation for being lousy. Again with the face omelettes.
With art by series stalwarts Gurihiru, a story written by Gene Luen Yang, and co-developed by Avatar creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the book is a wonderful reintroduction to the world of Aang and his merry band of benders and serves to answer one of the most burning questions for the show’s fandom: What happened to Zuko’s mother?
GLY: The mini-series, to answer that question, the one question Mike [Dante DiMartino] and Bryan [Konietzko] introduced at the end of the last series was, “What happened to Zuko’s mother?” That was in the last ten minutes or so of the final episode. I remember it because when I was watching that episode, I wasn’t connected to the property at all. That was one of the most cliffhangery things to do, especially for the series finale. In the last few moments of the last episode, there’s a scene with Zuko and his dad, and Zuko asks what happened with his mom, and the scene cuts before you get an answer.
N: Oh god, that’s the worst.
GLY: Right? [laughs] I think I screamed some sort of expletive at my TV when I watched. Now, three years later, I’m part of the team that’s going to give the answer to that question. Life is a weird thing sometimes. That’s the overarching purpose, though. We also wanted to dive into the dynamics of Zuko’s family. He was probably my favorite character in the original series. He was so complex and really embodied the struggle between good and evil to the point where he sort of resembled Two-Face from Batman. Half is good, half is evil. Mike and Bryan didn’t create the character in a vacuum; he was part of a family that went back four or five generations, so we’re going to explore some of that. Almost half of it is flashbacks and the other half takes place in present time.
N: How closely do you work with Mike and Bryan on the comics? Is there an editorial edict that you’re given or are you given a set of narrative points to hit and the freedom to tell the story your way?
GLY: For both The Promise and The Search, the story started with a long conversation between me and Mike and Bryan. During the conversation, we’ll talk about the history of the world they’ve built. They’ve thought quite extensively about the world of the Avatar and how Korra is connected to the airbenders. There are big pieces that are set in stone – like Aang reestablishing airbender culture. In the initial conversation, we’ll talk about the big pieces, some things that might happen around those pieces, and from that conversation I’ll write an outline. Then that goes through several rounds of edits with them, and from there I’ll write the scripts. Then the scripts go through several rounds of edits. Mike and Bryan give a lot of creative input, but we also get input from Dark Horse editors and editors at Nickelodeon, so it’s pretty collaborative. The work on The Search, though, is even more collaborative than in the past. We really went back and forth on the back story.
N: What are the challenges in writing an original, creator-owned project versus writing for a well-established franchise like Avatar?
GLY: It has been quite a challenge to work on it, but it’s also been a real privilege. I think when I’m working on my own stuff, I’m trying to express some sort of vision I have inside myself. When I work on somebody else’s stuff, I really want to try to stay true to what’s been established before. I really want to capture the character’s voices. And with something like Avatar, it’s a difficult thing to do. A lot of people have some deep-seated emotions attached to these characters. When I first started working on Zuko’s mother’s back story, I had a hard time because I found the ending of the original series really emotionally satisfying. I didn’t know how to extend the story beyond that deeply satisfying ending. So, the challenge is how to capture the essence while moving these characters forward.
So hopefully that gets more people informed more than some hearsay.
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lostrune
Joined: 09 Jun 2012
Posts: 313
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 3:58 pm
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| enurtsol wrote: | | There's a reason Avatar:TLA fans keep buying the comics and put it on the best-seller lists every month it comes out. |
Yeah, just like Twilight fans make those books best-sellers. 
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Tenbyakugon
Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 800
Location: Ohio, United States
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:00 pm
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| lostrune wrote: |
| enurtsol wrote: | | There's a reason Avatar:TLA fans keep buying the comics and put it on the best-seller lists every month it comes out. |
Yeah, just like Twilight fans make those books best-sellers. |
And the same for The Walking Dead... 
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TitanXL
Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:49 pm
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| Tenbyakugon wrote: | | I've not read them, but it's my understanding that DiMartino and Konietzko supervised the author's writing. |
I always take those 'creative consultant' positions with a grain of salt since you never know just how much they do. All I've really heard about that subject is /co/ complaining how Nickelodeon executives meddle in it too much.
| Quote: | And the same for The Walking Dead... |
Actaully, that sells because of the show, it happens whenever there's a live-action adaption out there. Not really sure why considering it's nothing like the show. Or to be more accurate, the show is nothing like the comic. Which is a shame because the show seems to have overshadowed the comic.
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Tenbyakugon
Joined: 11 Jan 2012
Posts: 800
Location: Ohio, United States
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Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:03 pm
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| TitanXL wrote: |
| Tenbyakugon wrote: | | I've not read them, but it's my understanding that DiMartino and Konietzko supervised the author's writing. |
I always take those 'creative consultant' positions with a grain of salt since you never know just how much they do. All I've really heard about that subject is /co/ complaining how Nickelodeon executives meddle in it too much.
| Quote: | And the same for The Walking Dead... |
Actaully, that sells because of the show, it happens whenever there's a live-action adaption out there. Not really sure why considering it's nothing like the show. Or to be more accurate, the show is nothing like the comic. Which is a shame because the show seems to have overshadowed the comic. |
I can see that, though I've never had a bad experience. Hikaru no Go is my favorite manga. Anybody that knows the premise of that saw how well Yukari Yoshihara did in advising Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata.
And as far as The Walking Dead and Twilight, I could guarantee that the Twilight graphic novels wouldn't sell as well as they did if it wasn't for the movies. So those two are in the same boat practically.
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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14889
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:49 am
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| lostrune wrote: |
| enurtsol wrote: | | There's a reason Avatar:TLA fans keep buying the comics and put it on the best-seller lists every month it comes out. |
Yeah, just like Twilight fans make those books best-sellers. |
And the same for One Piece fans. Are ya suggesting all those fans are wrong? 
| TitanXL wrote: |
| Tenbyakugon wrote: | | I've not read them, but it's my understanding that DiMartino and Konietzko supervised the author's writing. |
I always take those 'creative consultant' positions with a grain of salt since you never know just how much they do. All I've really heard about that subject is /co/ complaining how Nickelodeon executives meddle in it too much. |
Exactly. Unless we hear from the creators themselves like the interview I cited, the rest we're doing is speculation. How do we know how much the manga anthology magazine editors are meddling with the mangaka? Do we speculate on that, or do we instead wait word from the mangaka? We do the latter, so unless DiMartino and Konietzko have a problem with Gene Luen Yang's comic, why don't we do the same here.
(Oh, and we do know direct examples of Nick's impertinence, back when Jhonen Vasquez of Invader Zim fame used to post on usenet. Happy times.)
| TitanXL wrote: |
| Quote: | And the same for The Walking Dead... |
Actaully, that sells because of the show, it happens whenever there's a live-action adaption out there. Not really sure why considering it's nothing like the show. Or to be more accurate, the show is nothing like the comic. Which is a shame because the show seems to have overshadowed the comic. |
They're almost like 2 different markets. Like the Oldboy manga is almost nothing like the live-action movies, or like the TMNT series; yet people care about them. The live-action stuff functions as its own and as an introduction to the comics. People who like comics and who get introduced to the series, some may stick around and boost the sales. The most significant thing is each is successful to their audience.
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