comics. gorn. and analysis

this is me nerding over the nuts and bolts of making comic pacing work more than hellsing specifically but i do think hirano-san’s action-drawing skill (and the layering of storytelling) is

o b s c e n e l y underrated. 

especially since it’s seen only as gorn porn (which it is, don’t get me wrong) and not that and a delicate understanding of clarity, beats, how to rip at your heart while alucard’s still guninng down mooks like no tomorrow, the fuckkin detail in general, the clarity again.  like - take it from someone who does the same medium -  action scenes are fucking nightmarish to draw. 

(-gestures @ self with a ‘kill me now’ expression lmao-) (analysis doesn’t count as procrastination right)

take these pages from the brazil fight: this whole thing is a start-to-finish slaughter when the paramilitary force finds alucard.  from a ‘how do i execute this visually’ standpoint, it’s a man vs nature fight, you are required to dial up the intensity a bit.  there’s some lovely set-up with alucard emerging from already being gunned down once, so the stakes are pretty high - first blood has been dealt and you know this monster’s just itching to be let loose.

and so he does.

most of the paneling is literally just three or four rectangular pages a pages, no fancy dynamics, no interruptions - it’s literally like screenshots from a movie right in a row.  partially because with the amount of blood/dynamicism, things can get complicated as shit visually, and hirano’s strength is bold ball-bustin’ delight in horror, so the framing is simple to let it shine.

note too how he plays on negative shapes in the first two panels - inversing alucard’s face goes a hell of a long way towards a not-quite jump-scare but close. 

before i mention the exquisite way how the blood trails lead the eye to the next panels, also note that the first entire page is just alucard chompin’ down on a neck; manga tends to be slower in pacing than western comics (not unheard of western comics to have 10-12 panels in a page) - which works in favor of scenes like this. more drawing, yeah, but reading it is hella easier.

second page is a classic (action > (close up for shock effect) > wide pan of a reaction set of beats) - the whole spread deliberately moves from uncomfortably close up shots > wide pan, like the chaos is spreading outwards.  classic movie cinematography.

third page is another beautiful 3-beat-setup like mentioned right up above.  again, hirano knows his cinematography what with alucard’s face being placed in the same screen real estate for a delicious ‘oh-shit-i’m fucked-eyes-meet-eyes’ moment.

fourth page seems a little unnecessary at first glance (there’s nothing he’s doing there that he’s not doing in other panels) but it’s telling if you line up these pages and delete that page, something feels off about the pacing; it doesn’t quite feel like alucard’s gone through the whole group before facing down the last soldier (below).  again, spreading the chaos outwards.  

you know what I love about these pages too? one of the only times alucard’s not using his guns in the whole brazil episode.  it’s a beautiful visual underline towards that ‘man vs nature’ skewed power balance; he’s a terrifying monster that is perfectly willing and able to shred apart trained military men with guns, and that fact doesn’t matter to the point it’s laughable.

- drags fingers down face - ART!!!!!!!!!!

now this moment could be really complex to draw from a series of ‘how thefuck do we hint that alucard’s used his weird ass telepathic powers to lock the dude in without showing door mechanisms or loosing the pace of this whole thing’

fear.

raw primal scrabbling-at-the-door-terror at being locked in with that. i’m honestly in awe at how hirano shows that clarity of expressions even in those butt-uggo ski-masks (though actually the eye-holes tend to make the eyes more circular in fear more, so +1 for deviously brilliant character designs)

i have a theory in general that good comics are made up of nothing but action>reaction pair setups - which is slightly beside the point, but you see it here how there’s one explicit action per panel, it’s very clear - the head drops, swat guy reacts in fear, alucard steps forward, has a second sub-action by locking the door in anticipation of swat guy pissing in his pants and running for it - which he then does. 

(note the panel sizing too; biggest one is the looming malice of alucard with fucking blood and gore dripping from his hands how metal is this.)

i’m gonna say my one critique out of this whole set of pages is hirano goofed by making the hand silhouette on the door not easy to read (personally i’d remove the ‘wha’ speech bubble so it’s clear his whole arm is reaching towards it), so hey, nobody’s perfect.  what i do like on that page is the stark negative (white) space as the swat guy turns slowly in fear again, which pairs -

- really damn well with this inky black dark horror walking forward.

and bam, nothing like a good full-pager to go from ‘teeny tiny corner panel’ to ‘oh FUCK’ in terms of contrast (mike of hellboy fame does the same thing in his comics which tells me it’s a reliable trick).  and i also just noticed how vaguely unsettling it is that alucard’s hinted to be leaning on a wall with the outstretched arm like he just slid in there and the weight of the dead guy pressing down.  brrrr.

i lov lov lov that last page too - another gorgeous if terrifying action/reaction blitz.  boot step action to ratchet up the tension (you know the guy is deader than dead) > paired successive actions as swat guy reloads and falls back against the door, cowering - you can practically feel the pistol shaking in his hand > alucard’s response.

(it’s unorthodox to split the last panes like that but tbh i think it works with the necessary pause as alucard gives the greatest line of all time back.  brilliant multi-level work of symbolism there; note that the ‘i get that a lot’ has his face carefully obscured; it’s like a barb against his back, something he fights off through the whole series, naturally (and naturally for the series that sides with the monsters) he -as the dark mirror to humanity -  turns it around and asks the quintessential existential question in return - what are you?

shit like this?  made hellsing the classic it is.