It SEEMS to take place in some kind of alternate reality where the bad guys are good and the good guys are bad. However, on the Dick Tracy Fan Club Facebook page, writer Mike Curtis has assured readers that that is NOT what is happening.
Regardless, the story has been remarkably slow-moving and repetitive, with lots of clunky exposition. I posted to the Fan Club page on Wednesday the 21st that everything that had happened in the storyline so far (9 daily strips and a Sunday) could have been covered in 3 daily strips.
Someone disagreed, so in response, I offer these crude alterations, with some re-purposed art and some new dialogue.
Since this, the major developments have been the confirmation that The Chalice is headquartered in the Tower Building (he either lives there or has elaborate offices there), and that another one of The Chalice's associates is The Brow (known in this world as "Al").
Also, the elevator operator in the Tower Building is named Jake. This got special attention.
There's a phenomenon in the world of comic books known as "decompressed storytelling". It results in more attention being given to character and personal interactions, with less focus on splash pages and big action scenes. Some readers complain that this makes comics boring ("It's 10 pages of Power Man just TALKING to Hawkeye!"), or that it artificially extends a storyline to fill more issues.
I think that Midnite Mirror is proving to be very decompressed. We were shown 3 days of a newspaper sales transaction, with a gratuitous "Flash" reference thrown in. All of this is happening while readers are deliberately not being told what is going on, what world this is, and why we're seeing it.
My personal interest in this story is limited to the new light that it tends to shed on what some of the characters' real names might be.
I'll admit, I'm also a bit interested to see what the Midnite Mirror version of Tess is like. She's probably just Texie Garcia (Tessie Garcia?).
Oh, one other thing! If everyone is their opposite in the Midnite Mirror world, then Blackjack must finally be interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment