Week of 9/16/09 – Wednesday Comics #11
September 17th, 2009
Finally, Wonder Woman breaks free of her tiny-paneled prison and starts smashing stuff. When I heard that DC comics was going to put out a giant tabloid book, ‘Wednesday Comics’, that unfolded to huge newspaper page sized issues I was really pumped. Then I saw some of the creators and I got even more pumped. I happen to really like Ben Caldwell but I have been disappointed in his Wonder Woman strip in ‘Wednesday Comics’.
Where most artists in the other strips have used the huge canvas to really flex their splash page muscles Caldwell went the other direction. He chose to test the limits of the page by creating dozens of small, cramped panels and it just broke my heart to see them.
Caldwell is best known for his ‘Action! Cartooning’ instructional books where he shows off a deep understanding of human anatomy by hyper stylizing it into very dynamic characters and poses. 11 weeks after its debut Ben finally gives Wonder Woman some room to breathe in this shot and all I could think was “Finally!”. As a matter of fact I think this Wonder Woman story should have been a whopping 12 part fight scene, sans narration, where the very last panel is her remarking to no one in particular “I wonder who those jokers were?”
Aaaaaaannnnnd, scene!
