Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 13

Page 20 - A kind of Lady from Shanghai ending - beautiful sad story - kind of Isaac Dinesen - Gene Day, though his career was brief, I think, by synthesizing much of Steranko's cinematic innovations, managed to develop a remarkably sophisticated storytelling approach (something similar to what Frank Miller was doing with Daredevil at around the same time, Miller having considerably more popular success) created here a masterpiece of gothic/expressionist/film noir esthetics.

Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 12

Page 18-19 - The action merges into the vertical panels, no longer used for cross-cutting - the mirrored page structure of previous double pages is reversed on page 19, the vertical panel marking the climax - great use of target, dragon and moon motifs throughout

Page 19, panel 2 - nice use of the August Moon fireworks to punctuate the climax
Panel 3 - nice mood as the threnodic ending slowly unfolds...

Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 11

Page 16-17
2nd part of the sequence - Panels 2-3 of page 16 - the vertical scene merges with the horizontal scene - the vertical panels are cuts to different scene - due to the page design - it's almost a split screen effect with two scenes playing simultaneously.

Page 17 - same 4 panel structure(3 vertical, 1 horizontal) repeated. Moon, target, leaf motifs still present...

Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 10

Page 14 - The page design of these two pages are mirror-like so the vertical panels (which are used for the cross-cut to the target) serve to visually frame the horizontal panel sequence.

Panel 2 - Nice montage sequence as flashback sequence ends.

Panel 4 - Day makes evocative use of silhouettes.

Page 15 - Note use of moon, leaves, dragon, and target images throughout.

Panel 4 - Stairway descent has underworld/death connotations...

Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 9

Page 12-13
Two-page design with great use of perspective and shadows to create ominous atmosphere - visual motifs of moon, leaves, and target are used to good effect - legend retelling segues to personal flashback sequence - insert panels have B&W film strip design, very film noir, with effective montage shots with Fu Manchu...

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Page 10

Panel 1 - Film use of angular perspectives and shadows

Panel 2 - Nice use of tea cup and Chinese architecture

Panel 3 - Film noir double lighting

Panel 4- Nice composition with silhouettes

Panel 5-6 - Nice use of decorated incense holder - images help segue to the ancient legend

Page 11

Nice ancient decorative storybook look, similar to the splash page. The dragon is a recurring motif - The ancient atmosphere goes even deeper as the story evokes a mythic, timeless past....

Gene Day - Master of Kung Fu 7

Pages 9-10

Double-page sequence - has a medieval story-panel look - although the 14-panel sequence is dynamic, using various film noir techniques - the target in the last panel is used as a recurring motif.

The first panel illustrates a specific point of the action, but also serve to frame the overal design and has a semi-montage function of summarizing the entire sequence... the birds are associated with the female character...

Check out the whole deal, here:
http://www.skylark-.blogspot.ca/search/label/Gene%20Day