The main thing I feel like commenting on about today's page is that it is a Dreaded 9 Panel Page. I've been doing the 9 panel page for a long, long time. It's my go-to page when I've gotta do a lotta dialogue and/or plot exposition in a small amount of space. The 9 panel page was a given in a lot of older comics, as well as comics from the fondly remembered 80s. Watchmen excessively used the 9 panel structure, as did the Dark Knight Returns. The 9 panel has a more cinematic feel to it, and, again, you can cover a lot of ground narrative-wise with this structure.
It's also a boring pain in the butt to draw.
As I do every six months or so, I was perusing my copy of Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus, and I noticed something: No 9 Panel Pages! I think there's some pages in Mr. Miracle that are 7 panels, but the bulk of the Panel count is 6 or less. It got me thinking that, if I'm trying to build this big, epic, cosmicrazy book, I need to cut back on my panel count. Give it that big feel, instead of this tiny, intimate 9 panel nonsense.
Now, the script for this issue has at least 3 more pages like this (Groooooooan), but after this issue, I'm gonna see if I can avoid the 9 panel page for all future issues of HFSAC. See how that goes.
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