Monday, March 28, 2016

Decompressed Storytelling and You

In recent years, a plague has infested the comics industry and has even moved into screenwriting. That plague is decompressed storytelling, which essentially using prolonged segments of dialogue in the bulk of the narrative to evoke a more emotional response. The norm, before this trend, was to have a meaty chunk of dialogue contained in one panel or to use very snappy and concise dialogue sentences that got the point across with a few jokes, or emotive phrases. The dialogue would then be followed by a hearty serving of action to keep the reader in the moment. Rinse and repeat through the three arcs of a 20-page issue.

The compressed method would pound out the plot rather quickly and in an easy to follow manner then reward the reward the reader with some sweet eye-candy and art focused panels that evoke emotions themselves. While the decompressed method drags the reader through a muddied or often over-simplified plot through two pages for details that could be established in one panel.

I have recently noticed that season two of Daredevil uses a decompressed method which actively detracts from the dopeness that is Jon Bernthal's Punisher. I really want to like this show, but the pacing is making it real hard.

This is my call to action. If you are a writer and you want to tell a decompressed story, don't. - Cheers.

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