best action examples

[gloomly]

hi guys, I was just wondering if you could give me, what in your opinion, are some great examples of action, (comics, movies, cartoons, books, etc.). I just wanted to study up on some good examples to learn and as comic fans, I thought our tastes might be more in align. I'm also having trouble getting past the usual examples (ie. Matrix, dark knight). Any visual medium is probably best, but I don't mind good action books either. Any input would be appreciated :)

[50%grey]

IMHO can't beat the japanese anime directors for pure action.

They are definitely the masters when it comes to that. It's almost staggering how good they are with a camera.

[NickRocks]

ultimates 3

[Chris Major]

ultimates 2
Fixed that fer ya.

My favorite, pure, sheer action works:
- Anything with Gordon Liu...
- ...which includes Kill Bill (just a gigantic homage/rip-off piece, but it makes for a nice all-in-one)
- McNiven is a pretty good action penciller these days, all things considered.
- Equilibrium, for gunplay.
- The sword fighting in The Last Samurai is very spot-on, that's been said before but it bears mentioning again.
- Laugh it up all you want, but back in the days Van Damne was a very good Western martial arts action film star. I always preferred his flicks to Steven Seagal, because Seagal never got hit (except that one time in Under Siege with the grappling hook) and that's boring.
- For some reason I like Billy Tan's pencils during fight scenes. Ed McGuinness', too.
- In gaming, Prototype as well as Virtua Fighter, Assassin's Creed and Tekken. That last one has especially well-researched martial arts moves.
- And I second 50%grey with Anime directors. Jesus Christ these guys hold the monopoly for animated action.

I can't come up with anything else right now.

[Inkthinker]

In comics you're hard-pressed to beat Yukito Kishiro (Battle Angel Alita), Ogure Ito (aka "Oh! Great", Tenjho Tenge and Air Gear) or Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal). Those guys have the skills for illustrating explosive motion.

The best car chases are done by Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats). He probably does the best gun fights as well, but Rei Hiroe (Black Lagoon) and Miwa Shirow (Dogs) give him a run in that respect.

What I've learned from all of them is that line-of-motion is key. Establishing dynamic composition and defining contours that support the line-of-motion go a long way towards describing effective action and impact. There's a lot to study in their works, and best of all you should be able to find any or all of those books in a Borders or B&N.

In novels, Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn) is very good at describing action. In movies, I think Tony Jaa is currently king of crazy stunts, since Jackie Chan is more-or-less taking it easy in his dotage.

[NickRocks]

matrix reloaded is my favorite action movie of all time, if you want awesome action scenes

[Chris Piers]

Hard Boiled by John Woo, with Chow Yun-Fat. Fist of Legend with Jet Li.

Why? Because the action is a consequence of characters' desires coming into a conflict and the action advances the story instead of being isolated. Just two movies with wall-to-wall action that's very entertaining.

[WillTurner]

Depends on what kind of action you're after- The Matrix is a fine example indeed, though I also think Akira's light trail bikes are cool examples.
In terms of zany action, I love Kung Fu Hustle, something a bit different.
In terms of emotional context with action, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

[Johnny Blaque]

Chocolate has to go on the list as being probably the best female action movie in a loooong time.

[F!]

Equilibrium's Gun Kata. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tINWl0gzQWI)

[NickRocks]

Equilibrium's Gun Kata. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tINWl0gzQWI)

the music killed that clip for me

[eyedrawthings]

Am I the only guy that finds gun kata lame? it's like kurt wimmer's never fired a gun before. or experienced human emotions.

Can't lie. I'm just an equilibrium hater.

[Chris Major]

He refined it in Ultraviolet. The story is that he and the fight choreographer had interpretative differences as to what Gun Katas were supposed to look like. Wimmer wanted a fluid, organic style and the other guy wanted something tough and to-the-point.


Depends on what kind of action you're after- The Matrix is a fine example indeed, though I also think Akira's light trail bikes are cool examples.
Coipel's been using the headlight trails in recent comics. It looks very good. I'm surprised it wasn't done to death in print after Akira, too.


the music killed that clip for me
I agree. Total mood killer. Typical "angry white male who thinks this is what badass sounds like" music.

[Deth]

Drunken Master 2 by Jackie Chan. (Not the U.S. release)

Ong Bak

Dragonball movie 7

definitely Hard Boiled

[RavioliDog]

Depends on what kind of action you're after- The Matrix is a fine example indeed, though I also think Akira's light trail bikes are cool examples.

The Akira manga does a better job in my opinion.

[malachimanson]

the music killed that clip for me

QFT I love me some heavy metal but wow did it butcher that clip. People have no idea how to use music sometimes. Its like Oh I like this song here some clips. Why don't put some thought into it and pick a damn song that makes the clips cooler. Mute is my friend for this one.

[autowagon]

i have to mention Last Man Standing because to me it is an example of action with a real tough guy. As the movie goes on the more beat up he gets. That is the way it should be, I love that. It increases the drama i think.

[eyedrawthings]

I'll go a little bit bigger and recommend one of my favorite movies that does a great job with showing strategy: Seven Samurai. I can't think of a movie that does as good a job tracking multiple fronts of a battle. For as much as I love Private Ryan, I get a little lost in the geography during that whole last 30 minute battle.

[Huerta]

Theres a lot.

Predator, Bourne series, Fast & Furious series, New Bond Series, 300, Starship Troopers, V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin, History of Violence, Taken, Vampire Hunter D bloodlust, Guyver anime, DBZ, Bruce Lee movies, Hulk (desert scenes), Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, Naruto, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Ninja Scroll, Blood, Street Fighter 2, Gowcaizer... I can keep going but I'm just naming what influences me. Anything Asian/foreign and not Michael Bay.

Artists who draw action /motion very well, Inkthinker already named a few, theres also MAD!, Lesean Thomas, Travel Foreman, Seung Kim and Juanjo Guarnido.

Many sequential artists can draw well but very few can actually show good motion/action in their work.

[Ra Havok]

Bryan Hitch is the answer to everything.

[Deth]

OMG I cant beleive I forgot Naruto.

[Chris Major]

^Well, I don't blame you. It *IS* a rather forgettable show.

:D

[Inkthinker]

The comics are MUCH better. Good action, but not as good as the artists I listed earlier.

[Lingling]

The Matrix is a fine example indeed,

Speaking of which, Steve Skroce did the storyboards. I don't know what else he did in comics but his action in Amazing Spider-Man and Gambit (the series Fabian Nicieza wrote) was faaaaaantastic.

[NickRocks]

and wolverine

[Solace]

In comics you're hard-pressed to beat Yukito Kishiro (Battle Angel Alita), Ogure Ito (aka Oh! Great, Tenjho Tenge and Air Gear) or Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal). Those guys have the skills for illustrating explosive motion.

The best car chases are done by Kenichi Sonoda (Gunsmith Cats). He probably does the best gun fights as well, but Rei Hiroe (Black Lagoon) and Miwa Shirow (Dogs) give him a run in that respect.


This was my answer, except for Dogs. I liked it initially, but the artist is just so lazy with his backgrounds and line work that it died for me very quickly. Replace that with Vagabond (which is masterful at subdued yet powerful fight scenes, basically the opposite of the others recommended while being just as breathtaking) and you're set.

[Inkthinker]

This was my answer, except for Dogs. I liked it initially, but the artist is just so lazy with his backgrounds and line work that it died for me very quickly. Replace that with Vagabond (which is masterful at subdued yet powerful fight scenes, basically the opposite of the others recommended while being just as breathtaking) and you're set.

I'd agree that Miwa Shirow gets away with muder on the backgrounds, but I still like his figure work and the way he composes an action scene. In between those scenes he can be a bit hard to follow, but when the guns and knives come out to play it's just pure fun.

I don't know what I was thinkin', leaving out Takehiko Inoue. He is outrageously awesome, and Vagabond is beautiful to read. Inoue uses a wide range of tools to capture not just action, but emotion and sensation, and he's easily in the same class as anyone I mentioned in terms of direct motion. Vagabond is highly recommended.

Oh, and a late recommendation for Kazushi Hagiwara (Bastard!) and Kentaro Miura (Berserk). I have a hell of a time following Hagiwara's storytelling, but I love his motion. And I would recommend Miura in the same breath as Inoue if it weren't for the fact that his book is ULTRA-violent gothic-fantasy-horror that should not be recommended to anyone under a certain age or weakness of stomach. Both of them are MUCH better in their later volumes than their early ones, but that's true of just about anyone.

I could also start a suggestion list of contemporary Western comics artists who are deeply influenced by Japanese aesthetics. Bryan O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Dan Hipp (Gyakushu!), James Stokoe (Won Ton Soup), Brandon Graham (King City), or even Adam Warren (Empowered) all bring some hot action to their titles. I recommend all those guys very highly (I buy just about anything they do), but often to learn how to do what they're doing it's better to look towards their influences rather than directly at their work.

Maybe not Warren, he's been at this so long he's in a class of his own. Hell, he has lessons out there already, in the Wizard collections.

Stepping away from the more obvious Japanese-influenced artists, I'd start with Kirby, of course, especially later-era Kirby like Mister Miracle or New Gods. Will Eisner was always good at characters in motion, and by extension I'd pass that along to Dave Sim or Paul Grist (who's Eisner influences are clearly worn on their sleeves, and why not?). I like the way Azzarello and Risso paced their action, but I don't know who gets more credit for that pacing, and while I dig Risso's depictions they don't have the same "oomph" as most of the Japanese illustrators of whom I am so fond. Rockwell was good at capturing a sense of movement, but he's not a sequentialist. Mike Kunkel was hot at it, but is he still doing comics since Herobear? Don Rosa as well, but he and Kunkel are very "cartoony" and it can be a pain to glean the techniques from the style. I'm also fond of Gil Kane's action, and Buscema (especially when inked by Alfredo Acala) on Conan did some great work.

I think a part of this dichotomy between action as depicted by the Eastern and Western influences has to do with color... in B&W you can create effects that allow for a greater level of interpretation on the part of the reader... the reader "fills in" the gaps between positive and negative space, allowing lines to taper and fade without sacrificing the sense of motion that the lines impart, since that sense is ephemeral anyhow.

With color, there's an additional level of information that's nailed down on the page, requiring the line artist (assuming he's not the painter) to be more definitive in his work, so that general interpretation occurs less frequently. Shapes and contours are more defined, and they blend together less seamlessly. There's a range of tricks that work in B&W but fall apart in color unless cleverly implemented.

I'm kinda sad here that so many suggestions are for film rather than comics. It's relatively easy to suggest good action movies, there's hundreds to choose from. Well-illustrated action is a little less common.

[gloomly]

Looks like I've been missing out, (even though I know a few mentioned). I definitely know what to look for now. thanks :) and let me know if any others come to mind.

thanks for the input inkthinker. Stuff to contemplate.

[CWmax]

Kirby


Look for formulas...Here is an example of how Kirby shows a guy throwing another guy.. Little guy throwing/ The tilted Horizon/extreme foreshortening/..You will see this panel design over and over in Kirby books...Find more examples, cause Kirby knows how to do it.

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t165/cwmax/KirbyThrows.jpg

CW

[Musashi]

For movies, the aforementioned Matrix and Kung Fu Hustle. Not so much for martial arts technique as camera technique such as fight storyline, focus on fight details, control of time, etc. The opening scenes in Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates are great examples of chaotic action.

Vagabond is great but for just depiction of action I actually prefer mangas like Bleach, Tough, Shamo and and manhwas like The Breaker. I actually have been looking at The Breaker quite a lot for its depiction of action.

[Akira X]

I look at a lot of manga for staging and pacing but mainly Shirow (Ghost in the Shell 1 and 1.5, and Appleseed, the Galgrease stuff is where he starts to fall apart) and Otomo (Akira, Domu, anything else he's done)

I don't know that I look at a lot of movies and think of them as inspiration for comics. Comics are still pictures, movies aren't. They'll never be the same and to me there's no point trying to mix the two together. Panels are single instances in time and you can't show singlularly striking images like that in a movie unless you're trying to slow things down all the time like Zack Snyder does.

Also there are certain rules in drawing comic art that seem like they're only there as a crutch to make sure you don't make obvious mistakes while you're still learning. I'm talking about stuff like "you're only supposed to draw a punch at the follow-through, it's the most dynamic, effective, etc." Which is fine, because it certainly reads immediately. But shit, sometimes I LOVE it when someone does point-of-impact shots where you can see the dude's face get all mushed up or his teeth fly out or maybe even explode if he's hit hard enough. It seems like you should be able to pick any moment in that action and make it sing out. How about a fraction of a second BEFORE the punch where the fist is a foot away from the guy or something? And you can really tell that its gonna ****ing wreck that dude.

It just seems like there's so many other ways to depict something, so many shades in the spectrum of what to convey other than "FAPPO wotta sock in the kisser dat was!"

The catch is, I suppose, you really have to know what you're doing in order to pull this stuff off. The Kirby panels are great, they work, and they tell you what you need to know, and they're not that hard to get a handle on. But damn do I ever get bored of seeing that sort of thing so many times over and over.

I just appreciate the extra attention and effort. Sorry I rambled.

[50%grey]

Stelfreeze and Pearson are badass comic book action dudes.

I still remember that motorbike chase scene in The savage Dragon book,and Stelfreeze's Blanc Noir was groovy.

They are heavly influnced by John Woo movies and Anime.

[50%grey]

Now that I think about this.

Editors always write in books on how that is sooooo hard to draw the quiet scenes,and the action scenes are the easy ones.

Man F that. How many American comic book artists draw good action scenes??? I mean amazing sequentials that you remember for years like in a movie.

Not many,maybe a handful tops...


The super hero books should demand awesome action imho.

So Editors wise the F up,and find people that can wow us!

And writers learn how to write complex action/fight scenes PULEEZ. Dialogue is definately king,but we want to see some cool stuff happen as well.

/rant off

[Stark Raving]

And writers learn how to write complex action/fight scenes PULEEZ. Dialogue is definately king,but we want to see some cool stuff happen as well.
So you mean "For the next 4 pages, our Hero issues his opponents a deft thrashing" isn't good enough?

:D

[krikkit13]

Film: Michael Mann is a master of realistic action scenes that maintain geographic clarity. This is especially true with Heat, Collateral, and even Miami Vice. I also really dig the action choreography in The Way of the Gun (not a Mann film).

[Akira X]

And writers learn how to write complex action/fight scenes PULEEZ. Dialogue is definately king,but we want to see some cool stuff happen as well

The only good examples I can think of are when the writer and the artist are the same person. Unfortunate. Thats probably the problem with American comics then, yeah? Comics by committee.

[Inkthinker]

The only good examples I can think of are when the writer and the artist are the same person. Unfortunate. Thats probably the problem with American comics then, yeah? Comics by committee.

Ain't that the truth. Assembly-line production rarely matches focused crafting directed by a single hand

[NickRocks]

I look at a lot of manga for staging and pacing but mainly Shirow (Ghost in the Shell 1 and 1.5, and Appleseed, the Galgrease stuff is where he starts to fall apart) and Otomo (Akira, Domu, anything else he's done)

I don't know that I look at a lot of movies and think of them as inspiration for comics. Comics are still pictures, movies aren't. They'll never be the same and to me there's no point trying to mix the two together. Panels are single instances in time and you can't show singlularly striking images like that in a movie unless you're trying to slow things down all the time like Zack Snyder does.

Also there are certain rules in drawing comic art that seem like they're only there as a crutch to make sure you don't make obvious mistakes while you're still learning. I'm talking about stuff like "you're only supposed to draw a punch at the follow-through, it's the most dynamic, effective, etc." Which is fine, because it certainly reads immediately. But shit, sometimes I LOVE it when someone does point-of-impact shots where you can see the dude's face get all mushed up or his teeth fly out or maybe even explode if he's hit hard enough. It seems like you should be able to pick any moment in that action and make it sing out. How about a fraction of a second BEFORE the punch where the fist is a foot away from the guy or something? And you can really tell that its gonna ****ing wreck that dude.

It just seems like there's so many other ways to depict something, so many shades in the spectrum of what to convey other than "FAPPO wotta sock in the kisser dat was!"

The catch is, I suppose, you really have to know what you're doing in order to pull this stuff off. The Kirby panels are great, they work, and they tell you what you need to know, and they're not that hard to get a handle on. But damn do I ever get bored of seeing that sort of thing so many times over and over.

I just appreciate the extra attention and effort. Sorry I rambled.


Now that I think about this.

Editors always write in books on how that is sooooo hard to draw the quiet scenes,and the action scenes are the easy ones.

Man F that. How many American comic book artists draw good action scenes??? I mean amazing sequentials that you remember for years like in a movie.

Not many,maybe a handful tops...


The super hero books should demand awesome action imho.

So Editors wise the F up,and find people that can wow us!

And writers learn how to write complex action/fight scenes PULEEZ. Dialogue is definately king,but we want to see some cool stuff happen as well.

/rant off


The only good examples I can think of are when the writer and the artist are the same person. Unfortunate. Thats probably the problem with American comics then, yeah? Comics by committee.


Ain't that the truth. Assembly-line production rarely matches focused crafting directed by a single hand

agreed with all of these posts, and id like to add that part of the lack of action is a 22 page monthly format compresses everything. the current format forces shorter fights.

FIGHT THE FORMAT

[Johnny Blaque]

Not that it compresses everything exactly, people just won't stand for it. Like Invincible vs Conquest. We got like 2 full issues basically focused on that fight and people complained about it.

[Inkthinker]

I think Invincible is more consciously paced with the understanding that the trades are the enduring format (especially since that series prints in both soft and hardcover trades) and that particular fight had a lot of significance. It needed to be more brutal than any fight he'd had up to that point, including his fight with Omni-Man.