The Visitor #6 Spotlight: Penciling & Inking

The Visitor #6 Cover A by Amilcar Pinna

 

While I appreciated Soo Lee stepping in to help out with the penciling and inking on The Visitor #5, it is with MJ Kim that this journey began. So, with The Visitor series winding to a close, it's nice to have her back on board for this final installment. This helps immediately root us in our characters, especially with Kubo-sama demonstrating his awesome powers of mind control.

 

 

I'm not a fan of panels without narrative or dialogue. I usually see a series of slow action/reaction panels as an extravagance in comics, given the strict page limits publishers often impose. Yet these three panels on page one of The Visitor #6 are drawn with such a sure hand, and reveal just how hard Talia is fighting Kubo-sama for control of her own body and mind.

Fight Kubo-sama off, Talia! You can do it!

 

 

MJ Kim also utilizes some of the tricks of the drawing trade to amp up the intensity in The Visitor #6. Usually, I appreciate fully drawn-in backgrounds. But the way Kubo-sama emerges from this field of black not only imbues him with more presence, but gives him a 3D look.

 

One area in which Soo Lee really excelled in The Visitor #5 was in her portrayal of The Visitor. I don't know if I can say that MJ Kim tops her portrayal in The Visitor #6. Yet I like the way that MJ Kim gives him a real alien presence in this panel.

If you haven't yet caught The Visitor train, or are reading my blog for the first time, don't worry. The Visitor is really a good guy. And no, he doesn't have a sliding jaw, or implant embryos in Human hosts.

Here's another panel in which Kubo-sama's power is so clearly on display. In addition to employing an inked-in background, MJ Kim also breaks panel boundaries, and utilizes the power of white space. You'll find more inked-in panels that reveal the power arcing off Kubo-sama, and Talia breaking into the white areas of the page, in The Visitor #6.

I'm not necessarily a fan of the direction lines MJ Kim and Soo Lee use in The Visitor. Still, I like how The Visitor leaps into the air here. While he may lack the power of mind control, the way he can summon electrical charges and seemingly defy gravity in this way remind me a little of the Jedi in the Star Wars prequels.

The Visitor, Kubo-sama, and Talia serve as powerful characters on which to support this six-issue series. All of them may not survive to resurface again in later series. Then again, given the revelation in one of the three epilogues that close out The Visitor #6, you never know.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing Kubo-sama take on Toyo Harada, The Visitor face off against Rai, or Talia...well, I'd love to see Talia team up with any Valiant hero, or take on any villain.

Great job, MJ Kim. Thanks for ending The Visitor series in such a powerful way!

Dragon Dave

The Visitor #5 Spotlight: Penciling & Inking

 

The Visitor #5 Cover B by Caspar Wijngaard

In The Visitor, Soo Lee may have created one of the most stunning characters ever. His mask shows a mix of interesting shapes and lines. Combined with the hood, all those shapes and lines mesmerize.

 

Her design for The Visitor doesn't stop at a mask. His black and purple uniform and grayish black jacket offer a multitude of ways to capture shadow and reflect light. Such an outfit makes us wonder what people and culture created it, and why.

Soo Lee displays an excellent grasp of perspective in panel after panel. Consider this one in which The Visitor pulls on the rope to make sure his knots don't come loose.

In terms of composition, Soo Lee tends to respect panel boundaries. But each page is different. Sometimes the panels touch, sometimes they don't. Occasionally they aren't square or rectangular, or a character will break out of his or her panel. 

One interesting feature is how she sometimes insets a panel within another. This gives us a close-up look at the character, while communicating the larger scene.

 

In The Visitor #5, her human characters sometimes seem less detailed and nuanced than in previous issues. It makes me wonder if she spent so much time on the buildings--all that structural detail--as well as her fascinating Visitor, that she had less time to devote to her people. 

Nonetheless, her characters show emotion well. You can see the woman's shock, and the other characters' concern for her, in this panel.

 

Returning to composition and perspective, consider this two-panel shot. You might wonder why she separated the panels, as they show a little more of the same scene. But then you notice that Soo Lee is also separating the panels in time.

What I took for a plane in the first panel is actually revealed to be a bird in the second. 

Note also the background of leaves hanging from the branches of a tree. That sort of embedded panel composition helps us feel as if we are in the forest with The Visitor.

 

 

When our gal Talia Dauber, the United Nations Security Expert, encounters The Visitor, he knocks her to the ground. Then we look down on them. We see the Visitor walk away while Talia recovers.

Is Soo Lee showing us what the bird is seeing from its perch on a tree branch?

 

Interesting characters. Startling perspectives. Classy page layouts. In The Visitor #5, Soo Lee truly presents us with a feast for the eyes.

Dragon Dave

The Visitor #5 Spotlight: Coloring

 

The Visitor Cover A by Amilcar Pinna

In The Visitor #5, Ulises Arreola flexes his coloring muscles on the very first page. You can't help but gasp at this full page shot of The Visitor staring down at this forest-wreathed compound.

Notice the glowing lights of the security vehicles? Can you hear their sirens?  

WEE-OOH-WEE-OOH-WEE-OOH!

While penciler and inker Soo Lee likes to draw in her shadows, Ulises Arreola has enhanced them. I also like how he's aged the top of the air conditioning unit, and scuffed its sides. Somebody ought to send a custodian up to clean that air conditioner.

Artists work hard to get their light sources right. In the next panel, the evening sun shines down from low in the sky, brightening up the trees in the distance. The colors, still washed in yellow, grow darker as the light approaches The Visitor. Ulises also adds a few glints of reflected light to The Visitor's jacket.

Ulises then shows us The Visitor's perspective from down in the round planter bed. Interestingly, the sky mimics the color palette he uses for the grass, trees, and bushes. I'm guessing he's also swooshed-in the white contrails of the planes. 

 

 

The white glow, enhanced by blue, adds personality to the strange mask The Visitor wears. The glow reminds me of the way Shadowman's power dissipates off him, only in black.

I also like how the edges and folds of his jacket are highlighted by the horizontal rays of the setting sun. 

Okay, get up, Visitor. You can relax when your chores are done!

Tired of The Visitor hogging the spotlight? Well, he is the title character. Still...

Here's a sneak peek of our gal Talia Dauber. In this scene, she's literally glowing from within. Even her pupils are obscured! To find out why (and how) the United Nations Security Agent is having this illuminating moment, stop by your local comics shop and pick up The Visitor #5.

Or maybe I'll mention something about it in my review. You know, when I get around to writing it.

In The Visitor #5, Ulises Arreola uses color and light to add depth and interest to Talia and The Visitor's story. Could this comic be told in black and white? I suppose. Still, it would be so much less without the beauty Ulises contributes to each page.

Dragon Dave

The Visitor #5 Spotlight: Lettering

 

The Visitor #5 Cover B by Caspar Wijngaard

In The Visitor #5, Paul Levitz writes in largely visual terms. This leaves Simon Bowland with less lettering to do than in more recent series like Savage and Shadowman. Still, Simon enhances the story with expressive and emotive lettering.

Simon shares The Visitor's thoughts with us through blue narrative boxes outlined with yellow, and white lettering. While the character's past--at least in the beginning of the issue--are unknown to us, these narrative boxes give us insight into how he perceives the world, as well as what's important to him.

 

I particularly like this scene when a woman, wrapped up in her spiel, catches a glimpse of The Visitor. With a spiky balloon and red lettering, Simon shares her shock at turning around, and seeing this strangely clad figure falling past. Whether or not she's aware of the security threat to her company, seeing someone fall off a multistory building is guaranteed to frighten anyone.

As she no doubt realizes a second later, the figure is sliding down via a cable. He's unlikely to die from his fall. So we can smile, even while we know how much it would throw us for a loop if the same thing happened to us.

 

In fact, The Visitor does fall and hit the ground. At least, he does at one point in the story. When he does, Simon Bowland shows us the impact he sustains with a sound effect that pairs well with the motion penciler and inker Soo Lee tries to capture.

 

You may recall that The Visitor has the ability to interface with circuitry. The blue lettering of this sound effect--outlined in white--combines well with the way Ulises Arreola's colors the sparking electricity.

I hope The Visitor doesn't get electrocuted!

When people shoot at The Visitor, Simon Bowland relates the sound of the bullets' impacts with simple white block lettering. They help us realize that, while bullets would stop you or me, they probably won't stop The Visitor.

Also, consider how the BLAMs are smaller than the WHAMMM when The Visitor falls. This suggests that, while The Visitor was hurt in neither scene, perhaps the first one bothered him more due to its unexpected nature.

Perhaps, for a moment, the impact of his fall shocked him as much as seeing him fall shocked the woman.

 

Simon Bowland's most inspired work on The Visitor #5 could be the way he relates the title character's thoughts to us. These tri-colored narrative boxes merge well with his appearance.

As they relate his inmost thoughts, Simon Bowland's blue, yellow and white narrative boxes make The Visitor seem more approachable. They help us feel--and care--for him. That's a welcome contribution when dealing with a mysterious figure like The Visitor.

Dragon Dave

The Visitor #5 Preview Pages

 

The Visitor Cover A by Amilcar Pinna

After a long wait, we're all looking forward to the two final issues of The Visitor. What exactly have the Japanese researchers created? Who is the being known as The Visitor? And how will his plans clash or align with those of the Japanese scientists?

Perhaps in the inside front cover and the first four pages of The Visitor #5, we'll get a hint of where writer Paul Levitz, penciler and inker Soo Lee, colorist Ulises Arreola, and letter Simon Bowland are taking us with this beautiful and intriguing series.

I hope you enjoyed this preview of The Visitor #5. So what happens next? Who will live in this issue, and who will die? And how will the actions of Talia, the Japanese scientists, and the Visitor affect the future of the Valiant universe?

Drop by your local comics store today and pick up this penultimate chapter. I promise you: some of your questions will be answered!

Dragon Dave