SHOOTER: In each and every one of these panels, the horizon is level. You're not twisting the camera. This room, in reality... this'd be a vertical line. OK -- it's vertical on this page too, it's not --

Q: When do you decide to turn the panel?

BUSCEMA: I don't know... A lot of this is by feel, really...

SHOOTER: My point is, and I guess you're doing this unconsciously, is that you hardly ever do tilt the panel! I hate tilted panels!!

BUSCEMA: [Laughs] I have nothing against tilted panels. The only thing is, it's really very simple to draw the panel, just draw the panel straight, and then just tilt it! Put it on a lightbox and tilt it!

SHOOTER: It's so much easier to see what's going on... There's not a page yet that has a panel where the tilt...

BUSCEMA: I know what you mean, Jim, yes. That to me is real important. I'll tell you where it does work, Jim, is the superhero stuff. Now, when you have Mr. Fantastic, stretching himself out a window, and you tilt that vertically, you you're tilting it this way so it's kind of coming over you... you get the feeling of height. I don't tilt as much with Conan. But in superheroes you have to have that, superheroes, panel after panel should be angles. All kinds of angles. I love tilted panels -- for some reason, I don't find an occasion to tilt. I guess I could; I could have up-shots, but it annoys me, because I find I lose the figure when I do something like that. I think you should have a reason, yeah -- I don't think you should tilt panels for no apparent reason.

SHOOTER: [acquiescing to a point] Look at Kirby, Ditko and your stuff and you'll find very little of it.

BUSCEMA: I'll tell you, Jim, we're in a position of movie director -- but whereas movie directors have thousands of dollars of tools at his exposure, all we have is two hands and a brain. And it is the toughest thing in the world to say, You used so many tilted panels, or you used no tilted panels, It depends. It depends. I don't think anybody has ever succeeded in telling the perfect story.

Q: When you approach a story, are there any little guidelines you have for yourself about telling it, or do you decide, well, OK, I'm gonna start each scene with an establishing shot, then go to a close-up?

BUSCEMA: No. No. I feel it. If I'm doing a scene with Conan -- all right? -- I had Conan, he stole something, and I didn't show his hair and his body, I just showed his hand, coming through the window and stealing the jewelry. The next scene, he's bought himself a cape, and he's walking through a saloon. And I had him walking very smug, down the street. I thought that was very important to show he's satisfied with what he did. The next scene is the, uh, and I drew a tilted panel to... I drew it from underneath Conan... and he's hunched over this table, eating... and the table was tilted, and he's looking up at the guy... and the reason I did it this way was I wanted to show this guy to be very big. So he stood over Conan, and we looked from under him, he looks even bigger. Now, you see, I had a feeling that I wanted to express: how do I express this guy being big? OK -- I could've done it from above, but I thought if I went under, the guy would look even bigger. So, I feel my way, depending on the situation.

Trimmed from The Comics Journal #226

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