I am going to write my essay paragraph by paragraph. I have made an overview plan for the essay as a whole, and I will do the same thing for each paragraph, keeping each topic clear and focused.
The first paragraph into the discussion involves how comics function, what makes it engaging:
Closure - "seeing the parts but perceiving the whole"; it is the heart of comics, and the language of comics is built upon it.
Panels - a defining feature of comics, the panels have various styles and purposes. It does not merely separate the images of the comics, but it can also be used to set the timing, spacing, location and even mood.
Speech Bubbles/Balloons and Lettering - the texts in comics not only provides more insight for the comic, but they are essentially extensions of the images. Different types of speech bubbles can convey the type of sounds and voices in the comics. Miscellaneous styles of texts can represent onomatopoeia, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. The comics itself is silent, but through the use of these speech bubbles and texts, and the reader's participation, comics are given a voice, unique to each individual reader.
Cartooning - simplified characters in lush, rich environments (e.g, Bone, Tin-Tin) enables the reader to situate themselves within the setting and story of the comic. This is not a necessary trait of all comics, but it is worth mentioning as a way of immersing the reader within the comic.
Here is what I have of the first paragraph so far:
Many may consider comics as a hybrid of word and
image. A breed of art and literature that utilizes both but belongs to neither[1].
This form has been named “sequential art”, by the great comic artist Will
Eisner. Through existing as a combination of the two, comics has developed its
own “language”, one that “…relies on a visual experience common to both creator
and audience.”[2]
It will be necessary then, to discuss
and evaluate what makes up the vocabulary of this unique language, and what
makes it effective. An emphasis on “reading” when the action of “reading
comics” occurs, this term has been long established that it is not confined to
the deciphering of text. Scholar Thomas Wolf explains that: “The reading of
words is one manifestation of this activity; but there are many others ---
reading of pictures, maps, circuit diagrams, musical notes…” [3]
Reading encompasses the decoding of both the written and the visual. The
pictures of a comic are not merely “looked” at, but “read”, interpreted and
understood. Reading in its entirety is an active behaviour.
It requires input from the reader, and when the reader participates, they
become engaged. How then, does reading comics differ from reading text or
imagery alone by themselves? A vocabulary of comics has been mentioned before,
and this vocabulary cannot function unless the reader contributes to the comic.
Comics’ vocabulary is built on the foundation of closure. Eisner has attempted
to explain this by showing different framings of a character: “When the full
figure is shown, no sophistication is required of the reader. The entire image
is complete and intact… In the close-up, the reader must supply the rest of the
picture in conformity with what the physiology of the head suggests.”[4] This
sophistication and supply required of the reader, is better summarized by
McCloud: “This phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole…it’s
called closure.”[5]
[1] Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (New York:
HarperPerennial, 1994), 17.
[2] Will Eisner, Comics And Sequential Art (New York: W.W.
Norton, 2008), 1.
[3] Thomas Wolf, "Reading Reconsidered", Harvard
Educational Review 47, no. 3 (1977): 411-429.
[4] Eisner,
Comics And Sequential Art, 43.
[5]
McCloud, Understanding Comics, 63.
Two pictures in one post?! Whaaaa?? Haha, I just really wanted to show this drawing. I was quite happy with how it came out. I think I might do more of these if I find the time. Line art on paper and colours in Photoshop is actually quite an enjoyable and quick process to get artworks looking pretty.
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