In these chapters, McCloud builds on his earlier points about the specifics of comics as a medium (vs. a genre) that requires reader participation to construct meaning.
In Chapter 4, he expands upon the notion that comics is a medium of space vs. time. What does that mean? Why is space so important to comics, whereas time is a more important aspect of the craft of other visual media, such as film?
He also talks a lot about how comics convey emotion. What are some of the examples he gives here? How do comics make us feel emotion using a specifically visual vocabulary?
In Chapter 5, he focuses on the uses of the panel. What sorts of panel shapes does he discuss and how do they impact our impression of the story, as readers?
Finally, in chapter 6, he talks about comics as an interplay of words and images. How do words work alongside images to create narrative in comics?
McCloud explains that in comics the sense of space actually equals the sense of time to the human brain. He also explains how changing the size or length of a shape of a panel can give the feeling that the scene is holding longer than the smaller panels. Not only does the shape of the panels matter, but also if there is more space between each panel it gives the illusion that there is more time held for that scene.
ReplyDeleteHe says that the invisible world of senses and emotions can also be portrayed either between or within panels. He explains that synaesthetics is uniting the senses with an art form, much like the expressionists. As an art, he explains the background lighting and setting has a lot of impact on the emotion the panel is conveying. Lastly, the word balloon shapes also impacts the emotion the author is trying to get across.
McCloud gives line illustrations in each panel to represent emotions, like anger, anger, spontaneity, and things like that. He shows us how when we read left to right and the way we are interpreting the lines gets us feeling some type of way.
In chapter 6, McCloud goes through the journey of how language used to be in symbols or a more visual pleasing graphic way and not just letters and words. He explains that printing was a step forward for humankind and for the written word. He feels as though we are forced to "outgrow" images with words/books at a certain age because that is what the world pushes on us. But it makes more sense for books and words to go along with a visual reading as well, i.e. images/graphics. He mentions something great; when a writer exploits both it enhances their stories so much more.
In film, you stare at one panel (the screen), and watch as the frames rapidly change one to another. You see the spaces transform on screen as time takes place. However, in comics there is no time, all frames are laid out on paper at once, like screen shots. In film a writer can perfectly unit space and time, because film uses both of those dimensions. But in comics its up to the writer to convince the reader that time is taking place through space. They due this through the use of hinted motion and sounds, along with the lay out of the page to direct the readers flow.
ReplyDeleteA simple line drawn in different ways can express a range of emotions. when an artist uses a specific type of line to create the art, this can vastly change the mood and tone of the comic. For example, using a dark jagged line might portray a sense of panic, while a smooth flowing line could convey a sense of peace. Many things, like symbols, backgrounds, lettering and words can also help create an emotion for the viewer.
the sixth chapter was really interesting, because it kind of changed the way I thought about words. Mcloud showed how writing and visuals are actually one in the same. We take in both words and images the exact same way; through our eyes. Writing and images are just two visual mediums that we process in only slightly different ways. When people look at images, they look for representation, when they look at words they look for meanings. I think the biggest revelation here is that words are symbols to. In a way, you can think of words as readymades that were each assigned different meanings, so a work of literature is just a set of readymades aligned to portray a specific meaning, in other words; a piece of symbolic art.
McCloud describes time and space as “one and the same” in comics (100). An artist can manipulate a reader’s sense of time by changing the length, repetition, border, or content of panels. Time is a more important aspect of film because viewing a film is akin to being spoon-fed content. The perception of a whole happens much more quickly because a director stitches together scenes at an often much faster pace he can convey changes in motion, time, and scene by displaying them. Comics are constrained by comparatively fewer numbers of frames and rely on readers to understand time, space, and motion in a comics way rather than a strictly photographic, literary, or film sort of way.
ReplyDeleteVisual vocabulary includes things like border shape, line weight, and line style. Many of these indicators are rooted in and can be read like their fine art counterparts. Comics also include cartoony visual indicators to help with signification.
In Chapter 6, McCloud covers the interaction of words and pictures. These elements work together to convey meaning, but if one can “lock in the ‘meaning’” with words then pictures have more freedom to express extra-narrative information and vice-versa (158-160).
McCloud argues that though a frame in comics may be simplified into a single moment in a story, the human brain will often times translate that frame into real time. Artists have been taking advantage of the human brains perceptions of shape, lines, and familiarization of conversations to stretch frames into individual scenes sometimes lasting several seconds or more. He goes into detail about how these perceptions are achieved, mostly by spatial relationships between panels. These spatial relationships, boundaries, and shape of frame help determine a comic’s timeline and pacing of the story.
ReplyDeleteComics depend a lot on lines and expressionism to convey emotions and set the mood of a scene. This is achieved in the same fashion it is often achieved in other mediums such as paintings or film. The use of color, lighting, and shape of word bubbles will often guide readers’ feelings. This also plays into panel shapes, something that McCloud touches on in chapter five. When you combine the shape of the panels, timeline and the moods that are within them, you begin to tell a much more detailed story.
McCloud talks about how images predated written language by a substantial amount of time. The perception of many however is that literature should be only words, and that the more pictures a work has in it the more it is intended for children. However, McCloud talks about the evolution of crude images into the modern day written languages. Pictures were used initially because all people universally understand them. So when you take a narrative riddled with descriptive language and pair them with graphic images you are actually painting a more vivid picture for the reader and engaging them more than either could do on their own. Making the comic a very powerful medium
Time is more complicated in comics, especially because the time illustrated within a panel can be shorter or longer than the time it takes to read and see everything with that panel. Comic artists use space and division to allow the reader to space out the time more accurately, or at least in a more intentional manner than however long it takes to read it. Film and video can utilize time to add suspense, quicken a timeline, etc. where as comics cannot illustrate time in real-time.
ReplyDeleteMcCloud explains the wide variety of how styles of line-work and patterns can express emotion visually. He shows us anxiety, warmth, anger, etc. and further explains how this, accompanied by certain treatments of the text can express an endless array of emotions.
He also shows us how words can be additive, parallel, or a montage along with the visuals given. But really both words and imagery are symbols that allow the reader to experience many different kinds of sensations that are given to them merely through their eyes.
I think time is definitely the most confusing aspect of comics at times, but can also be extremely identifiable. It truly depends on the situation. It's true that they are in frames, and therefore chronological, but panels are confusing if you are unfamiliar with comics, as I was when this course began. McCloud talks about time in comics, saying it is equivalent to space. This was hard for me to understand at first, but when McCloud explained perceptions and went on to talk about spatial relationships, it made much more sense to me. In Chapter 5, he also describes the left to right view of panels, and how we can interpret them in ways that makes them carry emotions.
ReplyDeleteMcCloud also discussed the emotion that can be seen in comics, and how it is unique to the art of comics. I believe it's true; that comics depict things in more than just words, and can convey a mood through line strokes and a variety of other artistic strategies.
Lastly, McCloud discusses how the images and words within comics help them to work together to convey the story. The two-in-one ideal of comics helps there to be no gaps; it's visual and mental. However, each individual may get something different out of the pairing, which is a really unique and special thing about comics.
Comics, unlike genres such as film, can have a varying span of time taking up the same space. A frame of a comic can represent a nanosecond or a millennia. What makes a comic is the intersection of space and time into one frame or series of frames. By changing the shape of comic, often the timeframe expressed by that comic is changed. Even the way the frame is represented can cause different depictions of time. In reality there is no real timeline in comics, you can travel through time simply by moving your eyes in different directions. This is a reoccurring theme with comics, often the reader is the one in control.
ReplyDeleteIllustrators in comics can skillfully convey whatever emotions the story calls for. From the intense, manic lines of Kyrstine Kryttre to the calm lines of Schulz’s Peanuts, the full range of emotion can be expressed. By utilizing the commonly known, yet not taught, symbols of a culture, these illustrators can depict any emotions they can dream of. Nobody taught us that a curved line is gentler than a jagged line, but we all know it somehow. This knowledge is exploited by illustrators to allow their comics to express these emotions.
Words and images are woven together in comics like the instruments of a symphony. While every symphony is different, most use the same instruments yet in dramatically different ways. The same is true for words and images in comics. As an instrument can overpower and ruin a symphony, words or images can overpower a comic and dilute the other which can take away from the goals of the creator. When done masterfully the words and images will flow together, creating a scene that would not be possible with simply words or images alone. The words should enhance the images, and vice versa. The placement of the words and images in a comic are sometimes even more important that the words or images alone.
Comics, unlike genres such as film, can have a varying span of time taking up the same space. A frame of a comic can represent a nanosecond or a millennia. What makes a comic is the intersection of space and time into one frame or series of frames. By changing the shape of comic, often the timeframe expressed by that comic is changed. Even the way the frame is represented can cause different depictions of time. In reality there is no real timeline in comics, you can travel through time simply by moving your eyes in different directions. This is a reoccurring theme with comics, often the reader is the one in control.
ReplyDeleteIllustrators in comics can skillfully convey whatever emotions the story calls for. From the intense, manic lines of Kyrstine Kryttre to the calm lines of Schulz’s Peanuts, the full range of emotion can be expressed. By utilizing the commonly known, yet not taught, symbols of a culture, these illustrators can depict any emotions they can dream of. Nobody taught us that a curved line is gentler than a jagged line, but we all know it somehow. This knowledge is exploited by illustrators to allow their comics to express these emotions.
Words and images are woven together in comics like the instruments of a symphony. While every symphony is different, most use the same instruments yet in dramatically different ways. The same is true for words and images in comics. As an instrument can overpower and ruin a symphony, words or images can overpower a comic and dilute the other which can take away from the goals of the creator. When done masterfully the words and images will flow together, creating a scene that would not be possible with simply words or images alone. The words should enhance the images, and vice versa. The placement of the words and images in a comic are sometimes even more important that the words or images alone.
Space is important in comics, because it is up to the reader to fill the gaps in the spaces in comics. Visual media does not have this issue, because it is happening in a sequence that people can easily understand without the need to put things together. Comics are basically a collection of single pictures where as visual media is a collection of multiple pictures with hundreds of pictures being taken every couple of seconds. To easily covey emotion comics will typically show emotion to more of an extreme level so that someone can understand the emotion a character is feeling in a panel. This can also be done through text so the reader can pull the emotion from what is happening in the panel. It can have different bubbles around the text so the reader can easily figure out what is going on. It is a lot more general so some people may convey different emotions than others.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 5 he mentions the Classic rectangle panel that is used as a standard in comics. The size of the panel can allow the reader to get an idea of time in a series of panels. The size of panels and how they stretch across the page can give readers a better understand on what is occurring on a page.
In chapter 6 he discusses how as children we use words and images together to express our ideas. This is done through life and while reading books as well. He explains that as we grow up we are expected to read with more words and less pictures and so on until we reach the point where it is just words. Words are important in working with images today, mainly because of advertising. It allows for an idea to get pumped out quickly so a person can understand or feel a certain way when they see the image alone, or in some cases the word alone. The combination of words and images allows us to more quickly decipher an idea and move quicker through a story or an idea.
Space is so important for comics because as the reader you are dependent on the spacing of the panels and the scale of the panels for getting a sense of the passage of time in comics. It's interesting how simply making one panel longer than the others can give the reader a sense of the time lapse that has taken place. The time is dependent on words that signify actions or more importantly, sounds. A panel in comics rarely captures a single moment in time, time is always in flux.
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting how McCloud gets at emotion in comics. It never really occurred to me that simply how a line is drawn can impact the emotional weight an image carries. Every line has what McCloud calls, "expressive potential." He uses examples of Dick Tracy comics and 60's marvel comics (amongst many others) to illustrate his points. The Dick Tracy comic uses heavy, bold, black lines to signify a mature and serious world. Whereas Jack Kirby uses "dynamic but friendly" lines to convey a sense of adventure, but keep it welcoming to young readers.
Words and pictures play an interesting role in terms of which has the greater focus and how that affects the finished product. There are a large variety of approaches that can be taken. There are word specific combinations of words and image that the pictures are simply a backdrop for the words. The duo-specific method is where the words narrate exactly what the pictures are showing.