Week 14: Webcomics

For this week on webcomics, I chose to read Ava’s demon. My roommate donated to the kickstarter a while back and I really enjoyed the art from what I saw so I sat down and read a good deal of it. Unlike many webcomics, which are just like single gag strips, Ava’s Demon is a huge sweeping space epic with a continuous story told panel by panel. What is especially interesting is that each chapter ends with an animated video complete with its own soundtrack to really give those moments of the story their own climatic feeling.

Just like Gingerhaze, also known as Noelle Stevenson, Michelle Czajkowski started off more as a fan artist before creating her original work. The fandom she was the most popular in was  Homestuck, which some may call a webcomic, but it would have to be a very loose form of the media. Homestuck also featured these flash animation segments and clearly Michelle was inspired.

Ava’s Demon is a very interesting story and the art is amazing. Each panel is a beautiful digital painting and even the word bubbles fit seamlessly into the composition. Its astounding to me the very length of the comic as well as the attention to detail. Somehow a single artist was able to create all this, only having to hire a composer when needed, is something I find remarkable, especially considering I barely have the attention span to work on my thesis. 

The plot itself begins with a young girl named Ava, who unknown to others, is possessed by a demon who takes joy out of taunting her and getting her in trouble by making her say things she would never say. Quickly, she gets sent to the principal in what is apparently a futuristic school. The demon possessing her makes her an outsider and other kids consider her an outsider and it even is revealed to have ruined her former friendships. She is promptly expelled, but before this seems to have any drawback, she has to flee from the planet with two other kids as the planet is attacked. The end of the first chapter is that planet literally crumbling. Definitely interesting stuff. 

Week 13: Superheroes Reconsidered

When I saw the topic for this week was Superheroes reconsidered, I became very happy, especially after seeing that I had read much of the suggested reading list already and it featured some of my all time favorite comics.  I first read through Watchmen, Sandman, Arkham Asylum, and Promethea all when I was in the 9th grade, so I was eager to reread some of these titles to refresh my memory of them. 

While Watchmen is amazing for completely pushing the boundaries of what superhero comics could be, my favorite is definitely Sandman. Sandman, when it was first printed, was just another DC comic. This predated the Vertigo imprint that it would later be placed under. This makes the first volume particularly interesting and shows that Sandman actually takes place within the wider DC universe. In the first volume alone, Dream interacts with several notable DC characters including John Constantine, Martian Manhunter, and Jonathan Crane (better known as the Scarecrow). None of these characters have any business being in a comic together, yet somehow Sandman made it work. It treats each of these character interactions in a very un-comicbook-like way. There is little action, no wham bam pows, and Dream is a wholly neutral being, talking to Jonathan Crane, one of Batman’s more popular villains, the same way he talks to Martian Manhunter, a member of the Justice League. 

The comic even features Lucifer as a character but unlike most forms of media, he is not treated as a villain, but rather someone who has an unpleasant job. In fact, the antagonist of this volume is a former Justice League villain, but the confrontation between Dream and Dee is unlike anything I have seen from a comic. Dee basically just comes to a conclusion he has no hope of comparing to an entity like Dream and stops fighting. 

My favorite issue of this first volume is perhaps one of the most horrific things I have read in comics. Dee takes over a 24 hour diner and treats everyone inside as playthings, and as the hours tick by, things become worse and worse for those trapped until there is no one left. This issue contains some of the best writing in comics in my opinion and a few quotes have stuck with me. Notably, the diner waitress considers herself an author and through her, Gaiman states, “If you go on far enough, all stories end in death.” From a philosophical stand point, especially to my 9th grade self who was reading this for the first time, this line was like nothing I had seen in comics before and definitely shaped my view of the medium.

After the first volume, Sandman takes on a life of it’s own, practically never revisiting the rest of the DC universe until the final volume when Superman and Batman appear in a small cameo panel. The majority of the 10 volume series contains an interesting mythology of its own. It is more derivative of world mythological stories and even the bible than it is the DC universe it is set in. Gaiman even has fun with the idea of mythology, creating one of his own. That would be the central set of characters known as the Endless, a family who’s names all begin with the letter D and they each represent a concept such as Death, Dreams, Desire, Despair, Destruction, Delirium, and Destiny. 

Even beyond this myth, Sandman also is a rather progressive comic for its time. In the suggested volume for this week, a character Wanda, a trans lady, is one of the major characters. At the time I first read it, I had little knowledge about transgender people. Though the way Wanda is portrayed may not be the greatest example of transgender portrayal in media, she is still shown in a positive light and the reader really feels for her struggle to be accepted for who she is. The reader, even my unknowledgeable younger self, hates's Wanda's mother for misgendering her, and if more examples of media openly brought transgender people into light as Gaiman does, trans people would hopefully be more accepted in time.

Sandman is highly praised, and someone wants to change someone’s mind about what superheroes and comics are, there is nothing better than it in my opinion. 

Week 12: Women in Comics

For this week about Women in comics, I chose to read Lumberjanes.

Oh wow I didn’t realize I knew who the author was until the cover loaded. I have been following Gingerhaze (Noelle Stevenson) for a few years on social media but I never realized she was actually a published comic author. I first followed her for some silly lord of the rings fan art so I assumed her blog was filled with fan art.Occasionally I’d see something tagged as Lumberjanes, but I didn’t think she was the author.

This is making me realized I’ve created some weird bias to downplay artists I enjoy on the internet, mostly because they are usually young artists who do fan works as opposed to original content. This is proving to me the importance of women comic artists and authors because there is so much talent out on the internet. Young artists all across the country, most of who I believe are female, are so extremely talented and yet you rarely hear about them outside of small fandom circles. They all work so hard on their art for no profit. Its just seen as a hobby to express an interest in something they love. Its a hobby I actually share. I spend much of my free time drawing characters that aren’t my own, filling sketchbooks with them because when I’m juggling schoolwork, original ideas are stressful and I just want an escape. Seeing Noelle Stevenson be so successful while she’s still seen as a fan artist gives me home for the future.

I researched her further and saw not only did she work on more independent published comics like Lumberjanes, but she’s also writing for Marvel on their Runaways series as well as a recent issue of Thor. Considering she graduated from MICA only two years ago, she has a long list of accomplishments, especially since Fox started working on a live action adaptation of Lumberjanes. Seeing a young female artist be so successful so early on is a huge inspiration and I only hope more and more role models will start to rise up in the coming years.

The comic itself was great. It was nice to see something with an entirely female cast and no one seemed stereotyped. All the characters had distinct personalities and were all interesting. They also had different body types and interesting character designs, something that is often lacking within the comic medium. 

Week 11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

For this week on comics as contemporary literature, I read Daytripper. From the very first page until the last page of the final volume I was hooked. I went in knowing absolutely nothing about the comic, having chose to read it only because I found the cover art absolutely gorgeous. Sufficed to say I think that was the best way to approach this book.

The end of the first issue shocked me, as the protagonist who we had been introduced to was brutally shot and confirmed dead. What was even more shocking though, was the second issue, where the reader follows the same exact character but during what is an earlier point in his life. Yet, just as I was assuming this was a story that would be told backwards, Brás de Oliva Domingos, the protagonist, dies yet again.

It was only by the third issue that I realized a pattern was forming. All but the final two issues are snippets into various parts of Brás life. What make up the most significant events though the story of him become our ‘plot’ and yet the end of each issue, with again, the exception of the final two,  Brás dies with an obituary seemingly written by  Brás himself, but the following issue acts as if nothing happened. Its an interesting storytelling device and it was very refreshing to read something with this non-linear style. I feel telling stories in such a fashion always brings an extra layer of depth to the writing and has the reader on the edge of their seat waiting to see how it will all unfold.

Considering the format, Daytripper deals with very heavy topics. Despite a few of the ways  Brás dies and a plane crash, Daytripper isn’t exactly action packed. It mostly relies on the surreal way its telling what would otherwise be a very average story to be interesting.  Brás is an author, but he’s also the son of a very successful Brazilian author and he wants to be free from his father’s shadow. We learn of how he met the love of his life and the birth of his child and how he came to find success. But Daytripper isn’t about all of this. Every issue seeks to remind us that life is fleeting. Death could come at any time as it is just a natural inevitable part of life so enjoy life while you can.

Week 10: Manga

For this week on Japanese Manga, I read the first volume of Tezuka’s Buddah. I’ve always been very interested in Japanese manga, having spend many a long nights during middle and high school working my way through several hundred chapter series. Even in 9th and 10th grade I chose Japanese as a foreign language to learn, a choice that I am positive was inspired by my love of these comics and the culture behind them. I read everything I could get my hands on, from more ‘shojou’ titles such as Ranma 1/2 and Clamp series to action packed Shonen. I will even admit to having looked up a few yaoi comics out of curiosity. 

However, I never read any Tezuka before now. I was amazed by how I was sucked into the story and I definitely see why he is considered the father of manga. There were definitely distinct differences between Buddha and the more modern manga’s I have read, but that was expected considering the volume I read was released in the 1970s. The style was very different from the typical ‘manga’ style that developed in later years. This was actually more reminiscent of Disney or Comic strip styles. 

The artistic style was actually rather misleading to me. Here were these rather cutely drawn characters, but the story itself was very very violent and sad. The ending where both Chapra and his mother are killed together was completely shocking to me even if the book had already been full of death. Chapra and his mom had basically been the protagonist throughout the first volume but yet by the final chapter, they were slain together in a way that would have fit right at home in Game of Thrones.

Considering the title of the book, it wasn’t surprising to see how much this book dealt with eastern cultures. Tezuka is Japanese, but Buddha is set in India. Buddism is the 2nd largest religion within Japan so it does make sense for a Japanese author to basically retell the origin of the religion even considering the geography distances. There are a lot of interesting parallels though with this story and the bible. The one that popped out the most was the swarm of locus. I also noticed Chapra asking Tatta to be his brother, just like in Barefoot Gen when Gen asks Ryuta to be his brother. I wonder if this is a common thing in Japanese culture.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and will probably find time over Christmas break to sit down and read past just volume 1. Considering this isn’t even Tezuka’s most popular work too, I will definitely be reading other titles by him. Wasn’t what I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Week 9: Wide World of Comics (Tank Girl)

For this week on the wide world of comics, I read the British comic, Tank Girl. This was an easy choice for me to read as it had been on my to read list for years. One of my friends in high school absolutely loved it so I was familiar with the title and figured now would be a good time to read it. 

Sufficed to say, it was definitely not what I was expecting. I knew it was based in a post apocalyptic setting, but that lead me to expect a far more ‘serious’ story. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy it, because there was a definite delight I had in its absurdity, but the first few pages took some adjusting to. It had a strangely light hearted tone about what would normally be a very serious topic. Its full of sex, drugs and violence, but all of this is just treated as ‘part of the fun’. 

When I realized this was written in the late 80s and 90s I wasn’t surprised. Tank girl is practically a love letter to punk culture. Both the fashion and topics contained are very much reminiscent of punk. The punk movement was sweeping apparently leaking into Europe and comics were full of these ‘darker themes’. Characters like Lobo and Spawn were popping up and more and more comic characters were carrying huge guns. These dark themes were no longer ‘underground’ like they were in the 70s during the Underground Comix movement, and were now practically main stream. This punk movement was at its high wen comics were selling better than they ever have at any point in their history.  It was now ‘cool’ to be gritty. 

Tank Girl itself seemed to just have fun with the whole punk concept. The actual plot was practically nonexistent, events happening so randomly. Like one second she’s on the moon stopping an apocalypse and the next she’s giving birth to a half tank/ half baby child who has a mutant kangaroo for a father. The whole experience of reading it was really a wild ride like no other. 

Week 8: Stereotype and Representation

My opinion of stereotype is perhaps not as negative as many people’s, but I don’t see it as a positive either. How I view usage of stereotype is that it is simply lazy writing. It’s short hand so people don’t actually take the time and effort to actually work on developing characters. I however do think it is good to be aware of these stereotypes when creating a story so a writer can avoid falling into these pit falls.

I don’t actually think they are intentionally harmful though. For example, some feminists like to talk like there is a collective patriarchy that actively tries to put all women down. I don’t think this is true. Now it is true that there are some idiots on the internet who can’t seem to argue coherently when someone disagrees with them, but as far as actual creators of stories, I believe they just create the same stereotypical woman character designs because it has proven to be a financial success. Yes it isn’t good, but I highly doubt these writers are conspiring against all women kind. Granted as more varied and less stereotypical character designs are proven to be a success, writers in various media will be more willing to spread out.

For example, now Marvels main five characters, with the exception of Tony Stark, now feature a minority holding the identity. The role of Captain America is currently filled by Sam Wilson, a black man, and Thor is Jane Foster. Marvel has even gone further than this. The character of hulk in the new Hulk series is Amadeus Cho, a Korean American and after Marvel combined the ultimates verse with the 616 verse, there are two people as Spiderman, one of which is Miles Morales, a kid of Black Hispanic decent. Practically their entire team from the recent Young Avengers series falls somewhere in the LGBT spectrum. Marvel also had the Netflix tv show Jessica Jones come out recently. That one show is perhaps one of the most progressive pieces of television I have seen, featuring a very strong and un-stereotypical female protagonist, with a wide cast of minorities as secondary characters. The only major white male in that show is the villain and they even swapped the gender of a major male character, Hogarth, and made him a girl, while still keeping the relationships all the same, so it had three lesbian characters. Jessica Jones herself is in a relationship with Luke Cage, a black man, so it gives interracial couple. Yes, the movies are lacking, but in all other forms of media, they are trying hard to push representation.

Its only time before other writers pick up on the example Marvel is leading and follow in their footsteps. Captain Marvel is supposed to be Carol Danvers in that movie and Black Panther will be getting his own movie as well, so there is hope for them. 

As far as if I believe if I have been affected by stereotype, the answer is mostly no. The only time I feel as if I have been pressured by a ‘girl stereotype’ is from my family and mostly that is only from the very conservative side and I feel that stems from more of society expectations as a whole rather than specific stereotypes. As far as outsider expectation, I never have felt pressure to act a certain way based on stereotype. I’ve even spent a lot of time in male dominated areas, via card game tournaments, gaming stores, and of course comic book stores. I’ve never gotten the impression people expect me to act a certain way based on a stereotypical representation.

Transmetropolitan questions

1. Are there any prominent symbols in the story?
        If so, what are they and how are the used?

A prominent  symbol I have noticed is the use of weapons. Though I just barely scratched the surface of the book, I noticed a large amount of usage from the main character, and he seemed to be the only one who used them. Even guards were weapon free. I think this is to really enforce how outside of society the protagonist feels. He hates the world around him and the guns he carries are a physical symbol of his anger.


2. What connections did you make with the story?
         Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.

I guess with being an artist, and thus a story teller, I was slightly able to connect to the main character. I was not a fan of the main character, but even so I've had that feeling that I'd just like to run away from everything and hide away because my craft isn't flowing. Being forced to create when suffering writers block or burnout is one of the most frustrating feelings. I too channel it into an "I don't care" attitude, though granted mine is less violent.

3. What changes would you make to adapt this story to another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

I would adapt this series into a television show. With how unlikable the main character is, I feel like a stretched out show would give the viewer more time to actually grow attached to the main character without being forced to like them and give the viewer time to really try and understand this crazy urban world. Changes I would make would be to more gradually pull the character into the city. In the comic, the viewer is just thrown in and while the jarring feeling may be intentional for the comic, I feel that more slowly revealing what is 'off and futuristic' about this city could be beneficial.

Week 7: Maus

I, like many people, have had to read Maus prior to taking this class, but I find myself getting so much more out of it in this second reading. I had grown up in a house that comics were definitely seen as legitimate media especially considering we had just as many comics on our shelves as we did 'ordinary' books, but even then I found it odd that we were covering a comic in an English class. The moment we started discussing the novel though, we didn't treat it much different than any other book. Honestly I'm not surprised that Maus is considered  to be the graphic novel that really legitimized the medium.

The non-fictional nature of the story has a lot to do with how accepted it was amongst general audiences. The subject matter, being a holocaust survivor's tale, is probably about as serious as you can get as far as literary topics. It would be much harder for people to dismiss Maus as being 'a thing for kids' or as 'just a cartoon' since everything written in it is an actual account of one of the most terrible events to occur in human history. The only thing that really 'softens' the account too is the fact that the people are drawn as animals. Interestingly, anthropomorphic characters is very common amongst 'cartoons' but even so its practically impossible to confuse Maus for a cartoon.

While the words of Maus would easily be enough to tell the story and get the mood across, the art adds an extra level of understanding to the mood Art is trying to get across. By casting the groups of people as animals, it helps to express how these people were seen as. Cats are predators so its not a stretch to see why Art portrays Nazis as them. Mice are the usual prey of Cats so the Jewish people as Mice makes sense as well. The Americans rescued the Jewish people from camps so they are Dogs which are usually portrayed as being the enemies of Cats. Pigs are outside this food chain so they represent the Polish people who were overall neutral aside from Germany invading them. Some could see this animal comparison as offensive, but I believe the visual difference of having each 'race' as being a different animal helps to show exactly how they were seen during the time all of these events were going on. Other books have used animals in a similar way, the novel Animal Farm coming to mind, but in Maus it feels more metaphorical.

The way the story is told is also odd. It's not an auto biography at least not in the usual sense. The history in Poland is not Art's but a large portion of the story is just Art talking to his dad, giving the reader a feeling of practically being in the room as Vladek is talking. It's told in the style of an interview but Vladek keeps breaking away the story as he does things like drop his pill bottle and complain. I heard that Art took audio recordings as he talked to his dad. Its interesting that he would keep these distractions and actually illustrate them. These even evolve into an odd 'side plot' that deals with the relationship between Art and his father.

Despite it being a Holocaust survival tale, in the 'modern' story, Art doesn't particularly portray his dad in the best light. He constantly complains and is generally unpleasant to Mala. This is all understandable why he acts this way since Art opens the graphic novel saying how his mother committed suicide and Valdek has suffered two heart attacks.

All this together makes Maus a very raw tale. It has great literary and historical merit while also being a very raw, amazing comic.

Week 6: Underground Comics

I’ve never actually sat down and read underground comix.  I’ve known of them, have even flipped through a few of them to look at the art when I was doing inventory at the comic store I worked at. But this was my first time actually taking the time to read them.

They were basically everything I expected since going into them, I knew they were going to be raunchy and offensive. These comics were made for shock value though so I found it hard to actually be offended since that was the reaction they were going for. 

Knowing the history behind all these, I appreciate how completely over the top they are. The underground comix movement was a counter culture movement created as a reaction against the comics code authority that started in the 50s. Underground Comics started in the 60s and were definitely a product of their time. Counter culture movements were taking over the nation at this point with the hippie movement in full swing. Fashion was changed forever, music was changed forever, and its not surprising comics followed suit.

Art in general has had a long history of being censored from the very material that Underground Comix hoped to bring to light. Things like sex and drugs are so often taboo and forbidden topics and society, so its oddly satisfying to see a group of people so boldly take those very things and shove it unapologetically in people’s faces. Even in media today, its still scandalous to show any genitalia. Underground comix exaggerates these very things that the rest of society tries to hide. Yes they most definitely do it in an offensive way, but I think that it only helps to highlight how prudish our society is. 

Week 5: Blankets by Craig Thompson

I related far more strongly with blankets than I expected to upon first picking it up. The first chapter I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Granted, my situation was by no means as terrible as Craigs, but still, certain parts definitely rang true to me.

Like Craig, my family is religious, though only on my moms side. Recently, my mom actually visited me and while she was here, I realized it is impossible for me to communicate with her. In recent years, she has become more invested in her religion and it has created a huge rift between us. We can start to have a normal conversation, but the next minute, she is doing what I find to be crazy things like sneaking a cross under my bed. Unlike Craigs parents, my mom knows I’m not religious so I find this very confusing. My grandparents though, aside from the abusive father aspect, reminded me of his parents. Every time I see them, I put on a good little Catholic face and lie to them, going to church and playing a part. I don’t tell them how not religious I am because I know it would break their hearts. When I was younger, I even appeared to be going on a more religious path as Craig was. I even volunteered to be an alter girl a few times, though clearly it didn’t stick as I consider myself an Apathetic Agnostic rather than Catholic.

Another aspect of Blankets I could relate to, and I’m sure several people at this school could relate to is how Craig would rather sit and draw than go to a busy party. I’ve never been comfortable around drinking and drugs, though my stance on it is similar to Craigs. Any time I see people around me, especially my friends do such things, I instantly feel awkward. The scene in the cabin where the teenagers were passing around whatever drug that was, is a scene I have been in many times in my life. I’ve sat in a room before several times as the only sober one and wanting nothing more than to leave and draw.

Blankets also perfectly captures that awkwardness of confusing romantic feelings. They can be suffocating and make you act in ways you never thought you would. Back in high school when I had a crush, it took over all I could think about and honestly looking back on it is embarrassing. Romance is not perfect, and as Blankets shows, usually doesn’t have a happy storybook ending.

Week 4: Comic Books

This is a subject I am very familiar with considering from Sophomore to my Senior year of high school I worked in a comic book store. This week, I read several older comics that I had not read yet. Of these included the first issue of Action comics, which I feel any fan of the superhero genre should read considering it sparked the whole genre. I also read a few of Carl Bark’s work on Donald Duck.

With the arrival of comic books, individual stories could be lengthened. And since they were printed as their own thing separate from newspapers, the content became more about the stories. Whereas comic strips have a certain charm to them, I feel comic books truly tapped into a gold mine of story telling. With both of the comics I read, the worlds of these comics are huge and really capture the imagination. The world of the ducks developed into a well beloved series that contained a wide array of characters and was the basis for several cartoons including Duck Tales. 

The world that Action comics created is on a whole different scale. Even though the first issue of action comics had multiple stories, only one of which being about Superman, it was the beginning of a whole modern mythology. One only has to look at the box office to see how well the super hero genre has survived since 1938. Comic books allowed for characters to become so much more than just cartoons. Through the lengthening the stories, comics allowed their characters to become so much more fleshed out, letting them practically become people than just mouth pieces for gags. Through the medium of comic books, our imaginations have been captured by the same characters for over 70 years.

It is interesting to see how the actual art form of comic books has changed since its inception however. Over the summer, I decided to take on the task of reading every issue of the Avengers, starting from issue 1 (1963). Its amazing how much they’ve evolved throughout the decades. Even comparing that first issue to the first Action Comics issue, it seems that with every decade that passes, the characters, the stories, the art styles, the panel layouts, practically every part of a comic have grown.  With perhaps the exception of the 90s, comic books have only gotten better and better. I for one am excited to see what the future holds. 

Week 3: Comic Strips

For this week, we had to delve into the topic of comic strips. I in particular chose to focus on Calvin and Hobbes. This title has always intrigued me but before this, I never found the time to sit down and really read some of Bill Watterson’s works. Considering the sheer amount of people I know who say Calvin and Hobbes is their favorite comic strip (a friend of mine has had a cat for 13 years named Mr. Hobbes), I was happy to finally join them.

What is interesting about comic strips is unlike  the form we typically equate with comics, comic books and graphic novels, comic strips must be accessible to all  and in small amounts. With exceptions to the rule with comics like Prince Valiant where there is a continuous ongoing story, the majority of comic strips must have a very contained story, limited to usually one line of panels or on occasion, a page. They tell their gag or their often humorous message and that is it for that story.

Calvin and Hobbes I found very interesting. It definitely played into the basic comic strip formula of small stories on a daily basis. The overall idea of the strip is its just following the adventures of Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, who he sees as a real friend. What I noticed was how many of these strips didn’t rely on that gimmick to be entertaining. While an original idea, to have a small kid talking to his plushie as if it were real, one would think that the stories would get old over time. However, Calvin and Hobbes is about more than that. It’s more of a slice of life story about this little boy’s childhood, and Hobbes just happens to be a part of that. In several strips, Hobbes isn’t even in there.

Calvin and Hobbes also showed me that comic strips didn’t need constant light hearted gags. On several occasions, it was bringing up rather large topics for a comic mostly about a kid playing pretend. One sticks out in my mind where he and Hobbes are racing in his wagon and are wondering about very complicated subject matters like fate.

Being a daily strip, the writer no doubt had to pull from a variety of sources to find inspiration. Strips like the one mentioned above could just be the writer’s commentary on such topics, a random thought that popped into his head turned into a strip. Other strips include subtle political commentary, comparing Calvin saying ‘no girls allowed’ in his tree house to full sex discrimination. Its a rather dark comparison, but it adds to the humor. Some strips I couldn’t even guess where they got the inspiration from, the ideas seeming so random, but I suppose when you need to make a strip a day, there’s no harm in it.

Week 2: "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud

Reading the book “Understanding Comics” brought to light several interesting concepts dealing with the comic media, many I had never actually thought of before. In particular, I found it intriguing how he brought up the idea that even in a single panel, there is passage of time.

Normally when thinking of comics, the time passes between panels. However the image, unlike single images of other media where the image is taken as a snapshot of an event, within comics, time can pass even in that single frame. I think I was always semi aware of this, but I didn’t even register the difference until this book pointed it out. Comics have their own flow, one thats so different from non comic illustrations and even from movies. Its like they are their own moving picture on a page.

How is this possible? Well as McCloud brings up, the inclusion of speech bubbles to an amazing job separating the events. We read it like a book where we see the flow of time through sentences. Reading draws the time out for our brains, and due to regular sentence structure, reading from left to right (or right to left as seen in manga), it allows us to follow the speech bubbles. Because of this odd delay due to the words, we have context for the art and are able to read it just as we are a sentence in any other book.

I do find it interesting that the term for enjoying a comic is to ‘read’ it, just as you would a book. Some would say comics are almost closer to illustrations or even movies but you ‘read’ neither of those. Instead you ‘look’ at a painting and you ‘watch’ a movie. Even wordless comics, such as “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan, we read them even though there are no speech bubbles. 

Week 1: "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan

The Arrival is a beautiful example of why stories can be told purely visually. The art itself, each image contains a narrative and due to the clarity words become unnecessary to get what needs to be said across. This combined with the flow of the panels help paint a larger picture. If the art itself are words, then the panel layout could be akin to punctuation.

The art, despite being very surrealist in places with creatures and buildings that look like they came from a Hieronymus Bosch painting, maintains a surprising level of realism. The people are all drawn in a very realistic style, perhaps letting the reader have a easy time identifying and understanding both their facial expressions and their actions. There is little room for guess work with these. Our protagonist is drawn scratching his head, looking just like a normal guy performing this same action. It is easily understood he is confused.

Another cue for what is going on in the story is far more subtle. The novel, despite containing only sepia tones shows an impressive display of color. It differs from scene to scene, which helps the viewer understand that we have moved on. It goes from being nearly grayscale in some scenes to being a much warmer very yellow tone in others. In the page with the clouds all in different colors and the flowers going through the seasons, it is a great way to show passage of time. 

The panel size is also an important story telling device you really can only get from graphic novels. The smaller the panel, typically the less important. The viewers eyes skim through them fast and collect the details needed in a pretty cursory way. Because of this, the time between smaller panels is represented as less. The huge page spreads often have huge amounts of detail and story contained within a single image so we can take in much more information. For each immigrant, a single large page is given in explanation for what was wrong with their old home. No words are needed but we understand what they are running from, no matter how surreal.

All these things carry emotion and despite not knowing word for word what was going on, we are still able to take in the full picture of this strange story. If anything, its more akin to how we take in information on a daily basis as opposed to reading a book.