From
The NY Times:
The fight for justice
can wear on the body. That is something that Clint Barton, the member of
Marvel’s Avengers known as the archer Hawkeye, is going to have to
learn to cope with. In issue No. 19 of “Hawkeye,” which arrives in
stores on July 30, the writer Matt Fraction and the artist David Aja
show the aftereffects of a battle that has left their hero with profound
ear damage.
The story strives to
connect readers with what he is experiencing: when he can’t hear, the
word balloons on the page are blank. The comic also makes extensive use
of sign language, but provides no key to interpreting them. “If nothing
else, it’s an opportunity for hearing people to get a taste of what it
might be like to be deaf,” Mr. Fraction said.
Drawing the issue was
“very difficult,” Mr. Aja said. Without the traditional dialogue, his
ability to convey gestures was even more critical. Mr. Aja also had to
devise ways to depict certain signs that required multiple movements in a
clear way. “There’s so much subtlety and expression on the page,” said
Sana Amanat, the book’s editor. “You can understand what’s going on
even without the balloons.”
The story builds on
past adventures,
including one where Hawkeye inflicted ear damage on himself to defeat a
foe. (The hero’s reluctance to let on that he relied on a hearing aid
once led him to demand interview questions in advance of an appearance
on “Late Night with David Letterman.”)
The idea of using sign
language came from a source closer to home. “When my wife and I had
children, we taught them to sign,” Mr. Fraction said. “It cut down on
their frustration immensely because they can tell you want they’re
thinking.”
He consulted with Rachel Coleman, who founded
Signing Time,
which sells instructional programs aimed at infants and children
learning to sign, on how to approach the story’s use of signing. “There
was a different grammatical and idiomatic structure,” he said. “Facial
expressions were very important.”
