Are you asking "Good Questions" or "Bad Questions"?
Comic Reviews for week ending 5/1/2022
Good morning, my friend,
Today’s newsletter is going to be a little bit different. When you read enough comics, you can’t help noticing patterns in storytelling. Patterns that separate a good comic from a bad comic, so today’s newsletter is going to focus on a topic you may have seen peppered throughout several of our reviews as part of the critique - the topic of “Questions”.
“Questions” are the hook that keeps a reader invested in a story once you’ve grabbed their initial interest (grabbing the reader starts with emotion, a topic we’ll cover in a future newsletter). The “Question” in question (*heh*) is created by dropping an incomplete nugget of truth relevant to the story.
The easiest example to picture is the primary “Question” created in a murder mystery, namely “Who is the killer?”. The writer will create the setting, the characters, and then a murder without revealing the killer’s identity. Simple, right? Somebody dies, and if you care about the characters (that’s a hint about the emotion hook we’ll cover another time), your mind naturally wants to know who did it. The writer has created a scenario where a “Question” is introduced into your mind, and your instinctive desire to have the “Question” answered creates curiosity, compelling a reader to keep reading.
Asking a “Question” is not difficult, however, in storytelling, getting a reader to move forward with the story requires creating “Good Questions” and avoiding “Bad Questions”.
“Wait, what?” you wonder. “What’s a Bad Question?”
If you’re still reading, that means I’ve just demonstrated a “Good Question”. That’s a question that compels a reader to move forward to find out how the question will be answered. It’s a forward-thinking question. Examples of forward-thinking questions are “Who is the killer?”, “What happens next?”, or “How will she survive?” It’s a type of question where the future of the story is affected by the answer. In the case of a murder mystery, you’re answering a question about an event in the past but the answer will determine if the killer will get away with it or if the killer will kill again. There are a near-infinite number of combinations, but the point here is the question must compel the reader to look into the future.
However, there is such a thing as “Bad Questions”. Those are questions that keep pulling readers back into the past to explain what happened without a sense the answer will have anything to do with how the story turns out. Using the murder mystery example, if the detective shows up at the scene of the crime with a black eye and a bloody lip, the reader may be mildly curious about how the detective was injured, but barring a connection to the murder, it becomes a distraction. The question of the detective’s injury sits in the reader’s mind, pulling them back to the arrival scene.
In other words, it’s a backward-thinking question. The reader intuitively is dwelling on a past event to get answers, and the lack of an answer inhibits their ability to move forward. If the backward-thinking question is left unanswered too long, it leads to annoyance and frustration unless the writer suggests the answer is relevant to the future of the story.
Let’s recap. “Good Questions” are forward-thinking questions that create curiosity in the reader’s mind and compel them to keep reading. “Bad Questions” are backward-thinking questions that create frustration and hold the reader back from moving forward with the story.
Hopefully, you’ve found this little insight into storytelling useful or at least interesting. If you’re an aspiring comics creator or reviewer, now you see some of the things we look for when rating a review. Tune in next week where I’ll share a little more about the first (and most important) hook - Emotion.
Now, let’s get on with the week that was…
This Week’s [Deals of the Day]
[DotD]Conan the Barbarian: Thulsa Doom 7-in Action Figure
[DotD] Moon Knight Mr. Knight 6-Inch Action Figure
[DotD] Red Sonja: Arthur Adams Black and White Bust
[DotD] Vampirella: Arthur Adams Black & Blood Variant Bust
OZ ANNUAL: DOMINION OF OZMO – Review
BARBARELLA (VOL. 2) #9 – Review
GRIMM UNIVERSE PRESENTS: DRACULA’S DAUGHTER – Review
VAMPIRELLA/DRACULA: UNHOLY #5 – Review
GRIMM FAIRY TALES (VOL. 2) #59 – Review
DRACULINA #3 – Review
RED SONJA (VOL. 6) #8 – Review
LEAD CITY #2 – Review
WE DON’T KILL SPIDERS #4 – Review
THE HARBINGER #7 – Review
SILENCE #2 – Review
CHESS #4 – Review
YOUNG REBELS #1 – Indie Review
BIG BANG ADVENTURES #14 – Indie Review
Carriers #5 (Red 5 Comics)
Belit & Valeria #1 (Ablaze Comics)
The Grunch #1 (American Mythology)
Red Sonja: Red Sitha #1 (Dynamite Comics)
Project Superpowers: Fractured States #2 (Dynamite Comics)
Die!Namite Never Dies #3 (Dynamite Comics)
Pantha #3 (Dynamite Comics)
Blade Runner Origins #11 (Titan Comics)
Swamp Dogs #3 (Scout Comics)
Arthur & Armstrong Forever #1 (Valiant Entertainment)
The Last Days of Us: Forsaken #2 (Second Sight Publishing)
Pinpoint #1 (Second Sight Publishing)
The Thing on the Doorstep, Part 1 (Indie Submission)
That’s the shortlist. We’ll add more as time and resources allow.
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Have a great day!