[ MAUKA MAKAI ]
From crime One of the pleasures of reading comic books is, well, actually READING them -- appreciating how the writer transforms words into dialogue balloons, interior monologue clouds, expository captions, or knows when to turn off the gab and let the action play out with illustration.
to comics
Novelist Greg Rucka's style is
well-suited to the visual mediumDRAWN & QUARTERED
Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comBoth mainstream and independent comic books are experiencing a revitalization of fine writing, and one of the best is from crime novelist Greg Rucka. Rucka made his reputation as a popular PI (police investigation) author of a series of books featuring his protagonist, professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak. His spare style, blending the best elements of Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Ernest Hemingway, would seem perfect for the comic book medium.
And it's a genre that Rucka, like other noteworthy wordsmiths currently working in the field, doesn't cut any slack in as part of his work. "I'm a professional writer," he said in a profile interview on the PopImage.com Web site. "Part of that implies a willingness to try writing anything that comes my way -- screenplay, stage play, novel, short story, whatever. ... Comics writing is just another facet of the career."
What comics offer to Rucka as a writer is "the opportunity to tell different stories in different ways. Comics, as a medium, are a beautiful balancing act between words, image and imagination and, as a result, may be the only means for telling certain kinds of stories.
"In general, I try to picture all of my comics work visually as I write, meaning I'll pace it as I imagine it'll work on the page," Rucka said.
With the help of then-editor Bob Schreck of Oni Press, Rucka's debut in comic books was a sensational one. "Whiteout" (and its subsequent sequel, "Melt") took place in freezing Antarctica, where U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, a plain, no-nonsense, freckled brunette, is jolted out of her unremarkable jurisdiction duty by an unexplained murder, committed by one of five men scattered across the continent. The literally black-and-white realism of the story, as rendered by artist Steve Lieber, successfully combined action and intrigue into a well-told thriller.
That work got numerous industry-award nominations, with the "Melt" sequel winning a "best limited series" accolade. Since then, Rucka has done the bulk of his comic book work with DC Comics, specifically revamping yet another iconic superhero. Or, more accurately under Rucka's retooling, the super-detective and masked vigilante known as Batman.
Once again following Schreck, this time to mainstream comics, Rucka wrote some of the better stories revolving around the dark knight of Gotham City in his now-decimated urban home, left in an especially anarchic state after a devastating earthquake (Rucka would even adapt this "No Man's Land" story line into a novel).
His work on the long-running "Detective Comics" series is one of the better of several related Bat-titles, and his use of one of the supporting characters in a miniseries, "Huntress: Cry for Blood," a collaboration with artist Rick Burchett, was an unexpected hit last year.
But Rucka's best work has been saved for the independent Oni Press -- and he's using a character first introduced in the "Whiteout" story.
She was known as Lily Sharpe, an alias for Tara Chace, a British special operations officer (read "spy") on assignment in Antarctica who helped Stetko with the murder case. Now she's starring in her own series, "Queen & Country."
Only in its second issue, this series is shaping up to be an excellent one. With what Rucka calls Steve Rolston's "open, hyper-iconic and cartoony" style of illustration, it really does complement Rucka's realistic take on the international espionage game.
This time, Chace is starting to feel the repercussions of an unauthorized hit she did on a Russian mobster running guns for a guerilla group in Kosovo. While the two "Whiteout" story lines have been collected in paperback, "Queen & Country" is just starting and is worth following in its current single-issue form. Other artists will continue the collaboration with Rucka once Ralston finishes this current story arc.
And, not surprisingly, all of these stories may hit the movie screen sometime in the future. Director Wolfgang Petersen's production company has purchased the option to "Whiteout," and Betty Thomas' own company is close to optioning "Queen & Country," which she will develop and direct, with Rucka doing the screen adaptation.
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