heltskelt wrote:
Excessive use of language but more backstory? To quote John Heard in Big: I don't get it! I don't get it!
What i do get is that you demand a lot out of a five panels.
What's at stake? What's always at stake for Decepticons: energon.
You would prefer them to just take what they wanted silently, and have no witty line as the Decepticon gets his comeuppance?
That would be a boring mosaic.
There's an arrogant tone in your final sentence, but i'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
This mosaic may not be the best any of us have ever read, but the art is great, and it led to some fun facts.
You want more backstory and character development: buy a comic.
To elaborate:
The use of different language, Spanish, for instance, does nothing in this mosaic. We can have "Latin America" or "Argentina" as a line to denote location--having the radio broadcast be in English will not change the meaning of the piece, having it in Spanish, Arabic, or any other language won't change anything--although I'd challenge you to prove otherwise.
Hemingway wrote a short story in six words (entitled Baby Shoes, I suggest you look it up); in contrast, five panels is a lot.
Clearly, energon is at stake, bravo, you win. Except, I ask this to the point of seeing what is at stake for these characters outside of this mosaic, beyond this very moment. Of course energon is at stake, but there is no reference to an existence outside of this piece--which makes this piece singular and short of depth. To reference Hemingway's piece, baby shoes are being sold, which of course is similar to the effect of energon being taken. Yet, what Hemingway does (which the writing in this mosaic does not) allude to, is death of an infant. The story functions on multiple levels, while "The Farm Report" remains superficial.
The idea of what is witty is subjective. You can try to convince me that making jokes based on auditory functions are funny because Radio AM-Robot is, well, a radio, I get it. Is it witty? For me, no. It seems perfunctory. Does it need to be silent? No, but can there be a better way to make this joke? Certainly.
Take for example this Mosaic:
http://transformers-mosaic.deviantart.c ... /#/d39ii0uThis is a great example of multi-level story telling.
But let's focus on this for the sake of paralleling obscure characters:
http://transformers-mosaic.deviantart.c ... -147023719Under-3, among other McDonald's toys are characters in this mosaic. One receives the interiority of Under-3, which not only characterizes him but also serves to break down the action sequences of the story. Further, Under-3 alludes to the relationship between he and Blackarachnia beyond the scope of this fight. Not exactly the most brilliant script either, but it's better executed and gives more meaning and life to these characters. One has a glimpse of how and what happened prior to this scene. There's tons of story here.
Finally, the point and purpose of the mosaics, seen on the TF Mosaic FAQ states: "All Mosaics must be self-contained on a standard comic page (more about exact dimensions later). Each piece must tell a coherent one-page story." Just how coherent or complex this story is depends on the author. "The Farm Report," as it were, is not that complex. Does it make it a bad story? Not necessarily, but for me it doesn't make it all the more compelling. The story starts on that one page and it ends there. Where "Meals of Sin" succeeds is that there is a life before it starts and after the Mosaic ends.
Given that the restriction of one page to combine art and script is a difficult endeavor, there are people who can certainly place huge amounts of significance without exhausting a single page. Yet, there are masterpieces that span hundreds of pages. Is this a great mosaic? To me, it can be done better. To you it might be the most brilliant thing. By all means, stand by that, but there are greater examples out there.
