Little Nemo was a strange read. I mean, it really could be seen as the origins of American comics, and for that, it stands out as a true achievement. A fair number of standards and portions of uniqueness make this comic great in some ways. However, being used to modern day comics, Little Nemo was a slow read. The repetitive nature of the first 30 comics, ending in the same manner before he finally gets to meet the Princess was... arduous. Granted, after he meets her, his troubles hardly end there. There is plot, but little progression.
I found it entertaining, and kept reading, but the long it went on the less interesting it became. I barely made it through the first year, much less the next 7. McCay was brilliant and there are few that would argue against that... well, brilliant in the way of art. I'm not sure what else to mention about Little Nemo...
Peanuts I have to say is one of my favorite comics. Schultz was also a brilliant man. His characters all seem to remind of somehow of someone we know. His characters have such live, and vibrancy. Here's a comic with plenty of life, and no plot. The comic is all about what is going on and how things progress, but it purposely doesn't have a destination in mind. This gives it a further true to life feeling... all the while, Snoopy brings us out of it. He gives the much needed third person perspective on it that gives it its whimsical feeling.
Reading the interview with Schultz was both entertaining and confusing. He seems like a very intense man, very passionate about his work, and yet... he didn't think much of his work. He could have cared less. He chided the interviewer for making caricatures of his classmates, and always seemed to downplay the role of art in his comics. It makes me wonder if that was because the view of comics as a lesser art in those days. It seems that perhaps the view of the world on the thing he did for a living made him think less of it himself.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Understanding Comics
Despite owning Understanding Comics, I had never actually gotten the chance to read the book all the way through. Scott McCloud is a wonderful writer and comic artist, and it was good experience to read through his comic. I really enjoyed all the talks of time, closure, and emotion. I've realized those elements were there, but have never had a formal talk about the gutter, the closure and imagination that it required. It speaks a great deal about the formal elements of imagination in a comic or book that is lacking in a movie, which is an argument I tend to get involved in. The idea that the gutter represented the time between the frames, both in so much that we fill in the gaps during the gutter, but that the size of the gutter gives us an idea of the pause between the frames.
I feel that the approach that comic isn't accepted as art has slowly faded over the past decade. Though my point of view may be skewed from the aspect of being an art student, I feel as though the world has begun to realize that all the elements of comics make it an art form as much as any other recognized form. That in fact, it draws on more disciplines than most art forms. I look forward to getting and reading Making Comics. Though as a Graphic Design, I never planned on pursuing comics, I have found that in my personal work, I've been commissioned for comics and feel that some education on the elements of building and making a comic would be both worthwhile and entertaining. Granted, my storyboarding education during Computer Animation has established a fair number of the elements mentioned in Understanding Comics.
I like his talks on the elements of time both within a panel and between them. The way our eyesight travels along the page and the time it takes to read represents the motion of time. It was interesting to hear him talk (or not talk, since he's not making sound...) about the fact that composition is a dangerous field in comics due to the nature of the eye and time. I had never really thought about it that way, but it's true that the orientation and direction of the composition has the ability to break the flow and clarity of the panels.
I feel that the approach that comic isn't accepted as art has slowly faded over the past decade. Though my point of view may be skewed from the aspect of being an art student, I feel as though the world has begun to realize that all the elements of comics make it an art form as much as any other recognized form. That in fact, it draws on more disciplines than most art forms. I look forward to getting and reading Making Comics. Though as a Graphic Design, I never planned on pursuing comics, I have found that in my personal work, I've been commissioned for comics and feel that some education on the elements of building and making a comic would be both worthwhile and entertaining. Granted, my storyboarding education during Computer Animation has established a fair number of the elements mentioned in Understanding Comics.
I like his talks on the elements of time both within a panel and between them. The way our eyesight travels along the page and the time it takes to read represents the motion of time. It was interesting to hear him talk (or not talk, since he's not making sound...) about the fact that composition is a dangerous field in comics due to the nature of the eye and time. I had never really thought about it that way, but it's true that the orientation and direction of the composition has the ability to break the flow and clarity of the panels.
The Arrival
The Arrival was an exciting and delightful experience to partake in. A wordless comic, it had a clarity and attention to detail that allowed you to easily enter the world Shaun Tan painted. The Arrival was also exciting as it was a story about exploring a new world. We, like the man who came to a new country and life, are unfamiliar with the world he now inhabits and it makes it easy to follow his attempts to get on his feet in this new land. The whimsy of the language, design, architecture, and creatures of the world in The Arrival is a wonderful commentary on the perceptions of foreigners in a completely alien environment.
The wordless elements allow the comic to become universal, which in itself is exciting, as it rings true with the entire idea behind the story. The different stories of the other immigrants were just as intriguing as the story of the main character. It was further intriguing on the nature of those stories was the mysterious nature of the life elsewhere. These small glimpses into these other worlds was as insightful and heartfelt as the departure and reunion of the character with his family.
The man telling of his escape from the giant vacuum men (least, that's what I got out of it) made me wonder, as he spoke of his wife and himself, and we only see him and his son, I began to question. Did his wife make it? How much does his son remember? It was a happy moment to see that his wife was alive, and how welcoming these people were to an immigrant. My questions wandered father, to who made this country, and what were its ideals? Were they protected from the travesties that affected other countries or was it simply a matter of time until these people's pasts catch up with them, or if a different disaster would find them?
The wordless elements allow the comic to become universal, which in itself is exciting, as it rings true with the entire idea behind the story. The different stories of the other immigrants were just as intriguing as the story of the main character. It was further intriguing on the nature of those stories was the mysterious nature of the life elsewhere. These small glimpses into these other worlds was as insightful and heartfelt as the departure and reunion of the character with his family.
The man telling of his escape from the giant vacuum men (least, that's what I got out of it) made me wonder, as he spoke of his wife and himself, and we only see him and his son, I began to question. Did his wife make it? How much does his son remember? It was a happy moment to see that his wife was alive, and how welcoming these people were to an immigrant. My questions wandered father, to who made this country, and what were its ideals? Were they protected from the travesties that affected other countries or was it simply a matter of time until these people's pasts catch up with them, or if a different disaster would find them?
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