Episode 52: Miss Endicott

I wrote up a script for this one. I stuck to it vaguely. Mostly. Here is how it all started:

Imagine Mary Poppins with a killer set of knitting needles.  That’s Miss Endicott, a conciliator from Ye Olde London Town. 

And this is the Pipeline Comics Podcast.

Hi, I’m Augie De Blieck Jr., and welcome back to the Pipeline Comics Podcast, looking at European comics from a North American perspective, and a whole lot more.

I want to admit something right away — that teaser at the top isn’t exactly a fair description of “Miss Endicott.” Yes, she has the knitting needles and she’s quite confident with them. But that’s a very tiny portion of the book. 

This is not, by any means, Mary Poppins Punisher.  However, I’m game for that book, and I’ll just leave that idea out there for you.

Miss Endicott is a two book series that’s available today, digitally, through our friends at Europe Comics.  It’s written by Jean-Christophe Derrien, and drawn by Xavier Fourquemin with colors by Scarlett Smulkowski.

I’ve only read the first book so far, but it’s a master class in comic book storytelling.  That whole “Master Class” label was way overused a few years back and people seem to have backed off it.

But I’ll gladly bring it back for this book.  Fourquemin does stellar work in this book, and any aspiring comic artist should study this book to see some of his tricks.  Fourquemin’s has a photographer’s eye for the composition of his panels.

I’m working on my review of the book — and more that I’ll talk about shortly — and that’ll be up early next week.  I’m targeting June 1 or 2. But in it, I mention The Matrix.  I remember seeing the movie the first time and thinking that it made a great comic book movie. The shots were so well composed.  Nothing was accidental. Everything was clearly planned, shot by shot.  It wasn’t until much later that I learned that that wasn’t an accident, not when you have comic book artists Steve Skroce and Geoff Darrow doing storyboards for you….

I felt that way with this book.  I flip through far too many comics these days where it appears the artists just threw panels up on the page.  They go the job done.  They followed the script. But there’s little that’s inspiring.  There’s little that looks pre-planned to maximum effect.  Nobody took the time to try a second layout option. And, my least favorite, there are random dead areas on the page because the panels were odd shapes drawn to fit just the piece of art and no thought was put into designing the page.  Stuff just gets thrown up on the page.

I know some people find tiers of panels boring, but the backlash to that is often self-defeating. I’ll try to find some examples for that for a future article.  It’s worth talking about.

But today, I just want to praise Fourquemin’s artwork in this book, which is a funny thing to do on an audio podcast.  Again, wait for the review and accompanying article that I’ll be posting next week.  For now, I’ll just say that Fourquemin pulls out every trick in the book to guide your eye through this story. He frames his subjects with fences, tree branches, doorways, other people, etc.

He uses my favorite foreground technique, putting things right up in the reader’s face to help create extra dimensions as you look into the panel.  His inks show depth — thicker lines stand out, thinner lines recede.  He uses guiding lines to lead your eye.

And credit to colorist Scarlett Smolkowski, who complements his art beautifully. She’s in on his tricks.  She uses her colors to guide your eye, just as well.  And she does it with a style that includes plenty of details, but doesn’t look overly Photoshoppy, if you know what I mean.  Miracle of miracles,she does all of this with a very muted color palette — it’s old London.  It’s brown and dirty and gloomy looking, with distinct punches of colors from the candle and the fires that keep bedrooms and bars lit at night.

Fourquemin’s art style is cartoony.  It’s more of a long nose style than a big nose style, but his style gives extra flair and movement to the characters.  Miss Endicott’s coat is as much a cape as garment.  It’s also a shade of blue that pops off the drab brick and stone work of the buildings as she walks through the streets or into the park.

I haven’t read the second book yet . I suppose it’s possible this thing will fall apart completely in the back half.  I hope not. I love the character and the art.  I want this book to finish as strongly as it’s started.  I’ll soon see, I suppose…

I thought Venezia and the art stylings of Fabrice Parme would be my biggest discovery of May, but it looks like Xavier Fourquemin’s work in Miss Endicott might just top it.  And the good news is, he’s done a lot of other work.  And some of it is available in English. Sadly, it looks like one four album series only ever saw its first book translated.