Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland (Rewrite)

Looking back at one of the first comics that I had read in this class I can simply say that this comic had a lot of influence as to how I based my posts and my understanding of the comics that I was reading.  When I first read the comics I reminisced back to when I was a child and where my imagination took me.  As a result I began to ask myself in every comic or graphic novel if I could find myself relating to that story or find myself placed directly in the story.  After an entire semester of reading comic I do not think that I could name a comic that better placed me in the mindscape of my childhood and my relationships with what was around me.

Artistic the comic is not one that gets very high recognition and most people would not tell you that this is a comic that has changed their life dramatically.  I for one am not a follower, and can honestly say that this comic was an eye opener to many things.  The comic opened my view on comics to not that just of context but also the staging quality and the application of my lessons in my concept class to the reading of a comic or graphic novel.  It also opened my eyes to why I am here studying Computer Animation and what were my goals in life and how would I get there. Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland most people would ride off as just another comic but for me this comic was in a way life changing.

Nemo in Slumberland was not the most artistic or concept applied piece that I have read in this class but it was one that held it own and fought for appreciation.  If the images had been more glamorous or if the characters actually had character I do not think I would have related as much as I have with it.  With the character conforming to the other around them and little action being taken paralleled what I had been doing all semester and it way a huge wake up call for me.

Nemo in Slumberland is by far not recognized for its relationship with the audience but instead is recognized for its lack in the image department.  But its lack is what makes the piece such an asset.  It allows the viewer to relate without all the jumbled mess of the extra stuff thrown into most animatics. Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland is not one of my favorite comics but I can honestly say that reading it has been a life changing experience.

Promethea

I was a little distant to read this comic for some reason.  Just hearing the name gave me flashbacks from Greek mythology lessons in high school and I was not sure if I really wanted to go through that experience again.  After starting that comic I could not put it down.  That piece was an absolute masterpiece!

This piece was one of my absolute favorite pieces to read this semester and I really and enjoyed the graphic images present in it.  The staging alone was so magnificent to study, but within the pictures but also between the images in relationship to the page itself.  That has to be my absolute favorite part!  The choices made to place the images and have them interact with one another are truly magnificent and beautiful.  The staging was not the only thing that appealed to me.

Some other things that were just simply icing on the top include: anime influences, and the graphic quality of the text.  Some influences of anime that I recognized are the silhouetted characters, strong poses and the facial expression that carry the story at times.  The text in the story was a bit lengthy at times and created this graphic mass, but the images spoke for themselves to in a sense that was the best way to include the text.

My final note on the piece is the orientation of the viewer in perspective to the actual comic.  A lot of the images are in a long panel format, which allows the view to feel like they are actually in that space.  The span of ones eyes is much like the long panel in the comic, which allows the audience to directly relate to the scene and the characters in the scene.

Simply amazing!

The Adventures of Jimmy Corrigan

 

This graphic novel was both beautiful and hard to read.  A lot of times I found myself confused as to weather the character was an adult or a child and the titled assisted in my confusion greatly.  The main character looks like and adult and some points but then resembles a child at others, but his face and wrinkles stay the same throughout the piece.  It was hard to stay with the story.  Other than my confusion of the orientation of the character the presentation is beautiful.  The images are very posterized and flat.  The transitions between images are unique and work to the advantage of the story.  One can’t rely on the emotion and gesture of the character to spill out what they are feeling; it is the staging that surrounds the character that makes it work.  Some images are tight around the character that give a claustrophobic feeling where as other are very spaced out isolating the main character.  The use of many close up images would be hard to communicate in an animatic or just big images one page at a time.  But the way that multiple images are staged onto one page allows for the establishing shot to be included but not.

I had a love hate relationship with this book and maybe if I read through it a second time I will get a better understanding of it but that is something I will need to explore in the future.

Asterix

This piece was interesting to read mainly for its graphic qualities.  It heavily resembled the recognizable form and style of the super hero comic.  The characters are very exaggerated and there is a heavy uses of motion lines and blur.  The poses are very clear and silhouetted.  The text coming from the character is complimenting of their thoughts and actions.  It is a little wordy with the explanations and the characters thoughts.  The background is given just as much attention to detail and accuracy as the characters are.  But because the characters are so diverse we can still point them out in the image. 

The style of the piece reminded me a lot of the Looney Toons and the Smurfs.  The designs are very bubbly and exaggerated.  The poses are defined well, and there are many arcs followed through the actions.  The styles believably take you to a surreal world.  The imagery was the highlight for me of this book and I do not know if I really want to go back and read it again to focus on the text.  I think the images speak enough for themselves.

Ranma Book 3- Rumiko Takahashi

This graphic novel did not have as much of an impact on me as other anime pieces but it was definitely appealing to read for many reasons.  The book had this special quality to it.  Every so often the page would be collaged together to pass time or to convey deeper meaning to the images.  The way Takahashi did this was so fine and intricate.  It came off as a very unique graphic design quality in the way he allowed his images to flow from one right into the other, and the way he broke that awful frame.  Other than his collage style he also uses a lot strong poses, this reminded me a lot of Battle Angel Alita and the imagery in that comic.  The proportions are also exaggerated and the facial expressions are clear as a bell.  The piece is not heavy on text at all and he complements the imagery with onomatopoeias to help add mood to the piece.  This was a lovely book to read, and reinforced a lot of the aspects I found in other anime pieces.

Ghostworld

We began watching the live action film based off the graphic novel Ghostworld in class and certain things pushed my buttons to take a look and the book itself.  The movie was very upfront and uninviting.  The two main characters were always in a bad mood and seemed to want to cause more troubles than assisting people.  I felt like I was one of their victims in the movie.  This is very opposite from what I practice in my life and it was very hard to get into the movie, for this reason I tried to read the book to see if I could adapt more to that representation.

When I first picked up the book it didn’t look to be so bad, but after reading a few pages it was too hard to continuing reading.  All of the images are very bleak.  The book is printed with three colors: light teal, black and white.  Every image is oriented the same way and there is no variation between two images.  There is an excessive amount of close ups and mid shots that just pushes me away from reading it.  Not really sure what to be focusing my eye on if the dialogue was not there.  Most of the images are very flat and come off as posterized.  There is no variety in facial or body expressions; the characters are very stiff.  With all of this bleak and very uninviting imagery it represented the characters very well, but could not finish the book due to the dryness of the images.

The one thing that got on my nerves the most had to have been the staging of the images.  In concept class we discussed how flat staging is used for comic relief, where as dynamic staging creates drama.  Almost every image was very flat but the idea of that even being comedic contradicted the attitudes of the characters.  I was very lost and was not quite sure how to react.

Battle Angel Alita

Battle Angel Alita was the first piece of Anime that I ever read.  I was very sheltered growing up and was not introduced to anime through comics.  The only show that I had ever seen was Sailor Moon.  After reading this I have been persuaded to read a little more and try to expose myself to the anime culture.  This comic was pure for me. 

The comic presented strong morals but also presented a great quality in the images themselves.  The poses were very story and clear.  They were exaggerated to a decent extent but they were believable.  This is one of the first instances in comics where I have seen characters built to a humanesque form with such strong poses.  There is also a perfect amount of negative space and the characters are staged very well, creating conflict and relationship between character and their environment, and other characters.  Lots of attention was paid to the representation of who is important in the shot.  The close ups are reserved on for the main character so that the audience sympathizes with her.  The non important characters tend to blend in with the background, where as the main characters are contrasted and almost always silhouetted.  The whole piece is very graphic and designed in a clear and welcoming fashion.

The story and images also remind me of a very sci-fi kind of feeling.  Some pieces that come to mind include Battle Star Galactic, Star Trek and the Matrix.  The story and the images that convey this strong story could easily be molded to represent any of the above listed sci-fi stories.

Reading Battle Angel Alita was a very new experience for me, but I enjoyed every moment in getting the chance to read it.  I only have read the third piece of it and look forward to reading the rest in the near future.

Phoenix

The book Phoenix in the Karma series written by Osamu Tezuka was an absolute joy to read and it was another one of those comics that reinforced what I have been learning in my concept classes and my goals in my career.  The book itself went into really deep morals and gave the story reasoning.  I really liked this aspect of it because I am huge about living by ones morals and I tend to write my poetry in representation of different morals and have been trying to transfer it over to my concept boards for class.  This was an amazing piece to work through and study how Tezuka was able to successfully present his morals while not preaching them.  The book also contains a lot of content that is from the background of the his culture and in a sense brings honor to how he lived his life.

As far as the art aspect of the book, it was clear and very well composed.  I loved the graphic quality of the images.  All of the images read clearly almost as if they were part of animatic.  Tezuka use small phrases here and there, but they are not use excessive, just enough to complement the images.  The blocking in the frames was original and flowed with the story instead of a predetermined path.  The character designs were also recognizable and didn’t conflict with one another.  I was so please with Phoenix I just couldn’t put it down and I look forward to reading it again.

Maus

The series Maus is a an amazing book from the content that was written about to the images that were presented.  Maus speak about how was like to live during the Holocaust as a Jew.  The was Spiegelman presents the story to the audience is very unique.  He gives each race a different animal type.  The Jewish are represented as mice, the Polish are represented as pigs, and the Nazi are represented as cats.  I love the metaphors that he creates with the character representations.  From this book I was actually inspired to take some of my stories from concept and rework them so they were not so literal but created a deeper metaphor between the characters and how they were represented.

The images presented in the book heavily support the content Spiegelman presents, by making the audience feel very uncomfortable and putting the audience in the awkward positioning observing the brutality of living during the Holocaust.  All of the images are very busy and do not have much blank space within them.  The backgrounds are very noisy with extra lines for shading, where as the characters are very blank and empty.  There are not any facial expressions due to the build of the characters.  The emotion is created through the compositions Spiegleman creates and the staging as well as how much noise and breathing room is given to the audience.  Every once in a while the images break their frame and throw the audience off guard.  Characters are very similar and do not show any variation.  The characters are also never fully isolated on the page.  The picture that Spiegelman has made makes me very uncomfortable to read his book, but in his case it just adds to the beauty of the piece.

My absolute favorite image in the book is when the character is explaining how he has lost two of his brothers and that his family has fallen apart.  The page has multiple images on it, and many of them are actually part of a whole image.  There is a shot where the character is leaning down while sitting and the image has been sliced into five parts.  The character is represented in a broken mess where he is reflecting on what has happened, the image sliced up is the perfect image to get that message apart and it is absolutely beautiful.  This book was amazing and the articulation of the information through images was spectacular.

Eightball

Eightball was extremely different from the comics that I have been reading earlier in the semester.  This is one of the first glimpses that I have gotten in the field of superhero comics.  Throughout my childhood I was never really introduced to comics; the only time I ever saw superheroes was on the television on various channels like cartoon network, or nickelodeon.  Reading Eightball gave me a completely new experience at looking at superheroes.

Eightball’s images and characters appeared very raw, and in some ways not appealing.  After living twenty years and seeing superheroes in their fleshed out designs and bright colors, reading this comic seemed was a bit dull.  Seeing it in a new fashion allowed me to really rip into what made up the style of that comic.  I found many things that were not appealing to the eye unless you looked at it as an artistic twist to the presentation of comics.  Some of things that stood out include the orientation of the characters to the environment and the over look of the piece.  The piece is very boxy in areas.  Sometimes the character appeared to have been drawn with boxes in perspective at first and then never finished.  There is not a lot of detail in the bodies of the characters or the background.  The bodies of the characters are very flat where as the face includes an excessive amount detail.  The details in the face makes the characters all look really old and creepy.  The overall look of the piece looks somewhat posterized.  The look works in some cases but not in others.

Overall the experience I got from Eightball was very unwelcoming and too abstract in character design for me to relate or feel comfortable.  I am glad I got to read Eightball to experience superheroes in their non-television format, but due to my history of seeing them on television I did not enjoy it that much.

Mermaid Forest

Mermaid Forest was not very appealing to me at all, except for the moral behind the story.  The moral was very touching and made me reflect a lot on what a look to in life.  The idea of taking advantage of a situation and begging for more than you need, to then have it nip you in the butt is something that I always try to avoid.  Throughout my life I have made it my mantra to try to help as many people as I can and to be as selfless as I can.  So the moral was the only thing that really kept me hooked in the piece.  As far as imagery I was lost after the first few pages.

Throughout Mermaid Forest the images were very dead.  The facial expressions of the characters were very minimal.  There was never a happy or a sad it was just a slight twitch of the lips up or down.  There is an excessive amount of close up and mid shots and the viewer gets lost rather quickly within a scene.  The only thing that has the slightest bit of detail are the environment shots.  Without their extent of detail the whole piece would be lost entirely.  Mermaid Forest has a good concept as far as story behind it, but personally the representation of it through images was very distracting and did not read well.

Dance till Tomorrow

The graphic novel, Dance till Tomorrow, was both enjoyable and awkward for me to read.  Firstly, it is more geared towards the adult audience and the subject matter wasn’t one that I enjoy reading about.  I felt like I was intruding on someone’s personal business and didn’t feel comfortable having to become an observer in the main character’s personal and social battles.  What I did enjoy was how much it paralleled my Concept Development’s class lessons.

In reading Dance till Tomorrow, I was able to find proof that all these rules and guidelines I have been taught in my classes actually can be applied to create successful and clear representation of a story.  The characters are isolated in order to put the focus on them rather have them be confused with the backgrounds or less important characters.  Facial expressions are very clear and allow the reader to emote or have empathy for the character.  There is a lot of emphasis on the clear staging that is presented in the story.  There is no confusion as to where a character or is or what is their importance to that scene.  The images are very appealing and do not force to viewer to not interact with the story.  The images also use a lot of the guidelines used in visual development or story boarding.  Some of these include shot reverse shot, and keeping the characters owning their own side of the image.

 

This book was a delight to study as far as how to properly use the rules learned in my concept class, but the content was not for me.

The Jew of New York

Reading The Jew of New York was a lot like reading King, graphically and through the representation of the story through the images.  I loved opening up that first page to find the map of New York City covered by the body system of a human.  It was the opening mark putting a message out about the interaction of the human race with others but also with the city atmosphere.  Once I moved on to the actual comic I began to feel very uncomfortable reading it and I could not understand why.  Finally I came to the conclusion that the images themselves were oriented to make the audience feel uncomfortable while reading to mirror the emotions and situations that occurred in the comic.  For instance, the way the images were staged made me feel very claustrophobic.  There barely any breathing space, empty space, and everything in the image seemed to be fighting for attention.  The use of value gave off a mood like a piece by Caravaggio with the intensity of chiaroscuro.  The piece is very wordy and the text blends right in to the busyness of the images.  Also, all the characters look the same, even though they were introduced in the beginning of the book.  After reading this book I felt like I had inserted myself into something I was not meant to see.  I felt as if I intruded on somebody’s inner thoughts.

 

Reading The Jew of New York allowed me to learn how powerful images can truly be.  The composition forced me right out of the book. I have learned from this book that if one strategically or absent-mindedly fills the space up and makes the image busy the audience is doesn’t get the proper time to enjoy the work.  Instead they just close the book or feel guilty for continuing forward.

King

King was ridiculously amazing to read.  The use of graphics in the comic was unique and very intriguing.  I took a good half hour to look at just the cover.  It was so eye popping and enjoyable to look at. I could barely continue on to the inside of the book.  Eventually I did get to the inside and it was just as interesting as the cover.

 

The inside of the book was like a marriage between beautiful design and graphics.  Each page was unique compare the ones before it.  All of the images gave off an abstract feeling but the reader was welcomed.    Most of the images were in shadow, which made me want to further investigate that image, even though it’s a two dimensional space.  The book itself was a bit text heavy and the text for me became more of a distraction than something complimenting the images.  I felt that the images spoke very well for themselves and a few explanations hear and there would have sufficed.

 

My favorite part of this book was not the content of the book but how the images and the composition supported the content.  Each image has their unique qualities but they all share the common idea of piecing things together almost like a collage.  This aspect of the book really helps to bring out the message of trying to make opposites fit peacefully.  The styles used on each page change frequently and one could almost think that it was a different book that they were looking at.  The images used range from boxy, to photo realistic, to scratchy looking.  A lot of times one character will appear in multiple styles throughout the book.  It is from my observance that I came to the idea that the change of styles reflects the vantage point of the African Americans in that part of the book.

 

This is definitely one of my favorite comics that I have read in this class.  The content was very meaningful, and powerful but the images just drove the story for me.

Popeye

Reading the Popeye comic for the first time was the most fun I have had reading a comic all semester.  I used to love watching the cartoon when it came up on television.  The idea of somebody eating spinach and then growing muscles in that very instance was just hysterical to me.  But that is not at all why I enjoyed ready the comic version.

 

The comic version of Popeye is very simplistic, and the way that it is composed allows the audience to have a good chuckle.  With all the comics that I have read in the past few weeks, none of them allowed me to think for my own.  Most of those comics staged you to have a specific feeling or set you up so that you sympathized with the character.  Popeye, on the other hand, does the complete opposite.  Popeye is very simplistic in both images and action.  The character designs are very basic shapes but the characters themselves are very diverse.  The diversity of the characters allow the character to be readable even when the 180 rule is broken in an images or there is no follow through to the next image.  The backgrounds are also very simple, most of them being a few simple lines.  My favorite small body movements the characters make.  The body remains the same while the character’s appendages move ever so slightly.  But even with simple actions the situation that they are placed in makes the whole thing believable. Finally there is no dynamic staging.  Most of the staging for the images is very flat.  In concept I learned that flat staging usually adds a comedic flair to an image.  This leaves the door wide open for a viewer to have a good laugh or two.  With all of this simplicity, viewers are given the opportunity to think for themselves and not be bombarded by the imagery and underlying meaning of an image.  This book was AWESOME!

The Arrival

The Arrival is an amazingly beautiful and conceptualized book.  This book has everything that a coming up artist would look for in a graphic novel.  Even though there is a lack of words throughout the book, the beautiful images crafted on each page speak for themselves.

 

Each image offered in The Arrival is a small piece that adds to the big picture of the story, but be looked at as a separate image all together.  Every image that Shaun Tan has presented executes one thought in his entire story with little to no flaws.  The staging and the lighting create emotion for each image and it carries throughout the book making it seamless.  On each page there is a plethora of information awaiting the reader to take in.  Some pages include numerous breakdowns of one action or thought.  If those images were shown in sequence in an animatic or short animation they would be seen as a montage.  Both ways work to create a deeper meaning than just the printed images by themselves on the page.  Finally the use of line and creative landscapes is simply breathtaking.  The use of abstract shapes to create an abstract environment/atmosphere mirrors the emotions and situation that the main character goes through when venturing into this unknown land.

 

In conclusion, this book is a magnificent piece of work that leaves me in awe every time I pick it up.  The images are clear and the tactile quality just breathes its beauty.  Amazing book and would highly recommend it!

Week 6 Underground Comics

This week reading the Underground Comics was definitely a change from what we have be reading a lot lately.  During this week I read some Air Pirates Funnies and it was definitely not what I was expecting.  These comics are written and drawn for an adult audience rather than the child/everyone audience.  The content was definitely polar opposites from what was in Little Nemo and Calvin and Hobbes.  The story that I read in the Air Pirates Funnies is Dirty Duck.  The drawings themselves are not even that welcoming.  The drawings are very scratchy and seem quite dark and gloomy on most.  The story that Dirty Duck partakes in is about him trying to get laid by this woman.  He goes into great extent to win this girl over for a one-night stand.  But in the end is rejected.  The story is definitely not child friendly but it does hold some morals to it.  At first I thought I was reading a comic that was going to highlight the stereotype that women are fools and blind to what is in front of them.  For a decent part this was the case.  But then the woman figure fought back and put the men in their place.  So the underlying moral would be not to fall into stereotypes and allow one to think for themselves.  This comic was definitely not as strong for adults as other were graphically but I still would not recommend it for children.  I would say that in creating this piece it was probably the artist thought to dial down the piece from what it could have escaladed to in order to produce sale numbers.  The piece does not look that harmful to the eye and in some cases is welcoming but the content holds it back to be viewed by the adult audience.

One thing that is definitely appealing in this comic is the gestures that are used in each shot.  In every frame there is an iconic gesture that is exaggerated to make it believable for the reader.  The lines of actions for the characters are clear and allow the reader to follow them through each frame.  This comic was interesting to read, but it is not quite my style.

Week 5 Body Talk

Blankets by Craig Thompson is a piece that reminded me who I am and where I come from.  Blankets is a book that is proof that using ones experience and past to better enhance a piece is sometimes not the easiest but the most successful way to connect to an audience.  Craig Thompson composed this book from his experience and relationships with family members and his first love.  Most people can relate back to when they had a crush or when they made the first steps into a relationship.  Thompson took experience that was relatable and began to draw and since then this book has become a major icon to those who have read it.  For myself this book is where I hope my goals will take me.  All of my life I have been putting myself out there and trying to gain as much experience as I can and observe everything as well.  This all gets put into a pool of knowledge that I can later reflect on when I am working.  Thompson succeeded in pulling the moment with his first love out of the pool of knowledge and placing the viewers in a position where they feel integrated into the piece.  The ability to integrate or transform people into believing they are actually partaking in the story is my goal, and Thompson accomplished it beautifully.

Blankets is not only composed very well but the drawings are heart-stomping.  The use of positive and negative space creates this surreal but realistic moment.  In a sense it is like a black and white movie.  It allows the reader to become involved and believed they have entered the piece, while taking them back in time to when they can relate with the content.  The contrast also creates space and gives the reader walking room for when they enter the piece-  it is more welcoming.  The positive and negative space is only one of the many things that I love about the construction of this book but it is by far my favorite.  Blankets was simply a mind-blowing piece to read and I highly recommend it!

Week 4 The Comic Book

This week I read a huge amount of Calvin and Hobbes.  I have regretfully never seen this comic strip before, or at least I do not remember seeing it.  As I was reading the comic strips my eyes were just blown away and I kept thinking “Where have you been all my life?”  This comic is amazingly composed.  Each strip is rather short which allows the viewers to not get stuck on the images for too long and in doing so adds to the comical narrative of the images themselves.  This strip brought me back to my childhood like Little Nemo did but in a completely different way.  In this strip I was more of the on looker and Calvin became one of my younger brothers or sister.

Looking back I have a lot of experience observing what little boys and girls do to pass the time and have fun.  I have four younger siblings so I had plenty of subject matter to watch.  My siblings were always doing some of the most ridiculous things, as was I.  Each strip Calvin and Hobbes triggers different memories in my past and allows me to reflect on what has happened over the past twenty years while having a good laugh.  From asking to drive the car at such a young age to playing with food to the little immature antics I was dissolved quickly into my past.  This trip back memory lane allowed me to refresh my awareness as to what has gone on all of the years and put that in a box of treasures.  When I go to work on my animation or an art piece I will refer back to my box of treasures and reflect on a memory from the past to add my experience to the piece.  Calvin and Hobbes is an extraordinary piece and it reflects what a young boy and his stuffed tiger would typically do at such a young age.  Calvin and Hobbes gives the reader short strips that leave them begging for more but also give them a great amount of information to reflect on their own experience.

Week 3 The Comic Strip

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland was an absolute treat to read this week.  I was transformed back into a little girl again, with extravagant dreams of traveling the world.  Each new chapter in this story took me to another place, and I was under the impression I was actually there.  I do not think I was actually paying that much attention to the characters but more to the backgrounds and new places that the characters were going.  The characters were very stiff and were hard to relate to when actions didn’t seem like actions.  But the detail of the background completely pulled me into this new world. I am a sucker for detail and the way McCay structured each of the locations for Nemo to travel was simply fun to explore along with him. The locations were always changing and getting more complex as it goes on.  It was more intriguing to watch the locations then the characters that kept the same identity and profile through each story.  The stories also allowed for my imagination to run wild and really fall into each location and feel with the characters.

As I said earlier, I felt like not only was I taken to a new place but also traveled back in time when  a child’s imaginations is huge and the outcomes of their imagination is even bigger.  This book reminded me why I chose my career in computer animation and why I have an undying love for performing music. When I was a little girl I was so fascinated with movies especially animations and would be stuck in front of the television for hours.  Watching those show movies was my escape from what was normal in my day-to-day life.  After many year of watching movies I was hooked.  I was a huge fan of Disney and animations.  The ability to create characters to pull the audience out of their norm but bring them back down by making those characters believable in their setting I found intriguing.  So I am now studying as a computer animation student in order to one day create these escapes for a future audience.  My performance in music also allows the audience and myself to escape to a different place.  The style of the music sets the mood and the location.  No words are needed.  Just the interlocking sounds and the experience the audience brings with them, creates a the escape.  Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo was an amazing little comic to read.  I never would have though that one comic could take me to all different places and travel time, as well.

Week 2 Understanding Comics

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics was a very interesting book, that I found the theories and chapters to be parallel to many things in life and not just comics.  Chapter Three, Blood in the Gutter, caught my eye as I was reading through because the theory deals a lot with what I work with today.  Blood in the Gutter is a chapter about the space that is left between each image in a comic strip that allows the reader to have closure.  McCloud goes into a great amount of detail about the different types of closure that the reader could be offered to participate in.  In this chapter the seven different types are:  moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect and non-sequitur.  The reader will try to create meaning of two juxtaposed images no matter what their content.  This theory applies to me in many ways including: in animation, poetry, music and design.  In animation each and every image is not drawn, instead the iconic images are drawn and the human brain uses gestalt to fill in the blanks.  In poetry, I tend to write in metaphors; by keeping each statement juxtaposed in the poem the audience will still comprehend it as one piece even if they do not understand the metaphor that has been laid out.  In poetry the metaphors also allow the reader to fill in the blank and disconnections with their experience and thoughts.  In design, artists many times try not to spill out everything for the audience.  Instead the artist will piece together multiple images to push the audience into getting a specific meaning.  This is where the blood in the gutter theory comes in.  Different images juxtaposed creates different meanings, just as each person viewing it will see it in a different light as well.  The content of each image triggers the viewers brain and tries to find connection and hugely influences what the outcome statement is..  As I read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud I was using my experience and knowledge to create closure in what he was writing and it lead me in a complete circle of all my daily practices.