Off-Topic: What Is "Pacing"?

You may notice that when I write or talk about comic books I'll often mention 'pacing'. What is 'pacing'? Pacing is the rhythm and beat of the story as it proceeds. It is particularly important in comic books, because comics are both a visual and literary art form. An example of bad pacing is when you move from one set of panels to another, and in the latter set there are all sorts of things going on that you don't understand because the artist has skipped some of the details of the back story. Often, the back story is replaced in long dialogue, editorial boxes, or thought bubbles. This can lead to rambling monologues and can rob the sense that the character has genuine motivation. Often in a badly paced comic book you have no idea why anyone is doing what they are doing.

Sometimes the extra text can be so well done that the pacing issue becomes less important. TIME LINCOLN is one of my favorite limited-run comic books, but about half of the comics were badly paced, and long explanations of back story by particular characters made for a lot of text that hurt the aesthetic of the book, but what they said was often so damned interesting, it didn't matter much. However, even in the case of TIME LINCOLN, improved pacing could've helped the book.

A book can be badly paced in other ways by going too far the other direction. For instance, a superhero book that spends ALL of its time with the hero out of costume suffers aesthetically, and kind of misses the point of the art form. Some books have been able to pull off stories with little or no action, but they are rare. AMERICAN SPLENDOR is one prime example.

Generally speaking, a good comic book 'moves' without feeling rushed. It has action but the characters are sufficiently developed to give their actions some sense of being properly motivated. Great comic books include plenty of back story without FEELING like there is plenty of back story. The writers of SPIDER-MAN used to be absolutely expert at this, especially in the beginning of the book and in the 90s. The first 25 issues of the second volume of GHOST RIDER also accomplished this beautifully.

Some might include a third aspect in good pacing: making sure the individual books are not too long. This seems to me to be an unfair way of judging good comic books, as big publishers have more leeway to have more pages in their books. Smaller publishers like Big Dog Ink or Antarctic Press need more books to make more money, and if they need more books to tell their story, that is fine with me. I make no judgements on comic book length. Big Dog Ink's LEGEND OF OZ: THE WICKED WEST is one of the best paced comics I've encountered in recent times. But the individual books tend to be rather short. If this is a problem, buy trade paperbacks, but I'll not take off points for it when reviewing.

In general, most comics, and I mean MOST, suffer from bad pacing. A good idea can be completely destroyed when executed with the wrong rhythm. Rhythm and beat matter in comics like they do in music or movies, there is no way around it. Other factors like great dialogue can help make up the difference, but still, a well-paced book is a gem, and in my experience it takes great pacing to make a book truly successful.