Reposted by 66ALW99
I’m doing a talk at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media, and Culture on October 14 at 5.30pm. It’s open to the public and tickets are free. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-news-i...
eventbrite.co.uk
The News is Dead: Why the media is broken and what you can do about it
Journalist and author Mic Wright on what's really going on behind the headlines, why we don't get the news we deserve.
![Excerpt from intro to the MASTER RACE anthology:
holds the jeweler’s magnifier, and the foreshort- ened fingers two panels later as he inspects the tiara. A pivotal point is reached in page 5’s sec- ond panel (p. 89), as the hand cradles the stolen key — the only panel in the story with a solid black background, underscoring its importance. Lastly, behold the composition commencing that remarkable final page: a collage of hands frantically trying key after key.
Like Unger’s desperate need to escape the locksmith’s shop, Krigstein sought to break free of the limitations inherent in commercial com- ics. During his peak EC period he approached comics as a fine artist approached a blank can- vas — a problem to be solved to the utmost of one’s training, ability, and imagination. If that meant drawing hundreds of keys, he took to the task with courage, skill, and passion.
But once Krigstein began challenging EC’s prefabricated breakdowns, the situation grew more complicated. “I wanted panels; I was desperate for panels. And [more pages] is what they didn’t give me, so, out of despera- tion, I began subdividing the panels. The point came where it was simply absurd to have six panels for a certain amount of text. I began to see twelve panels, eighteen panels, in the same amount of text. I began to see people doing all sorts of things, and it became ridiculous to have them doing all this stuff in six panels.”
He came closest to fulfilling his ambition in his next story, the work in which he felt he
“reached a high point in developing my break- down ideas.”
“Master Race” (p. 91) was originally a six- page story, but when Krigstein read the script he immediately realized that the page count wasinadequate. “What happened was I received this ... story and read it, and it was just the most explosive story that I had ever come across in my work in the field. I called up Bill [Gaines] and told him that I wanted to do it as a twelve- pager, and he immediately said, ‘Twelve pages, i…](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:itcqruu6tvm4sjbzffscuao6/bafkreidje6flmrflpjxrgwbehkvg5jcg25xcivpw3nyhpqs53upv6mxyli)
