How Greg Rucka Creates Emotion in Scripts | Strip Panel Naked

This time we're looking at something I noticed in Greg Rucka's work, where a similar page layout is used throughout many of his stories and series. There are slight changes in each, but looking at Black Magic, Stumptown, Lazarus, Gotham Central and others, I found a specific page layout used in a similar place and in a similar way, regardless of the artist. So I wanted to take a look at what function it seems to have, and how it appears to be built.

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[GLAD]

Holy crap, that comparison with poetry blew my mind

[TheDrawingOne]

Greg Rucka's one of my favourite comic writers, so very glad you did this episode on his style. I think it was something i subconsciously noticed, but am happy someone articulated both what he was doing, and why. One of my favourite moments from Gotham Central (when Renee reminisces on the first time she saw the Batsignal) also uses a variation of this technique, it does a good job of counterbalancing the character's internal emotions with the environment around them (which Rucka is always interested in exploring)

[titanjoc]

There needs to be a Strip Panel Naked community make your own comic contest! I'd love to see what the other members of the audience have learned.

[LandELiberation]

one point i think you miss is how he shifts the balance of the composition from the outer edges leaving column of negative space in the center before reversing the balance in the last panel, guiding the eye across and leaving us to linger on the last moment

[SaintOrCinema]

Oh wow. This was great. Thank you so much

[gonesnake]

Another great episode. I noticed in the first example that the two characters are hemmed in by the tight framing. In the final panel (when they're shown full body and the scene is concluding) with the wide vista windows in the middle ground it almost looks as if they've moved outside the panels themselves.

[dantecrottogini]

this has nothing to do with the video but i was wondering if you'd do a Chris Bachalo episode. I noticed he often uses the same technique you explained in the Joe Benet Inmortal Hulk video and he also usually shows fighting from really up close, like you'll only see the hands or the face getting punched.