{"id":520,"date":"2008-10-04T17:19:36","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T21:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/?p=520"},"modified":"2008-10-08T10:57:56","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T14:57:56","slug":"the-art-of-comics-a-new-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/2008\/10\/04\/the-art-of-comics-a-new-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Comics – A New Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

Until this class, I thought that Choose Your Own Adventure <\/em>books were simple children’s stories, and I thought that comics\/cartoons were the bottom rung of the graphic arts ladder.\u00a0\u00a0 Mapping our books convinced me of the complexity of ergodic texts, and reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics <\/em>has convinced me that comics are multifarious.<\/p>\n

McCloud gives\u00a0relevant examples of the development of comics from the earliest forms, like the record keeping symbols of the Sumerians, and explains how these symbols evolved into language.\u00a0 I didn’t realize that many common symbols actually originated in comics, like @#?!\u00a0 (That one comes in handy on a bad day!), sounds – like ssss and zzzz, as well as commonly recognized representations of facial expressions and gestures.\u00a0 The symbols of comics are an evolved and evolving language.\u00a0 Further, it is\u00a0significant that the language of comics is unique to the culture of the artist(s).\u00a0 To demonstrate the differences, McCloud gives examples of Japanese comics.\u00a0 He attributes the differences to the fact that Japanese comics developed in isolation from the West.\u00a0 This fact is true of other art forms as well.\u00a0 (Now, my recall of Art 101 is coming in handy!)\u00a0 This same isolation is evident in the development of perspective.\u00a0 While the West was developing techniques such as foreshortening and atmospheric perspective, Asia developed isometric perspective. Although not as realistic, this perspective is useful and still applied to video games.<\/p>\n

I like McCloud’s discussion of the versatility of line.\u00a0 This visual element is as significant to comics as any other art form.\u00a0 Directional lines – implying movement, stabilizing horizontal lines, assertive vertical lines, dynamic diagonal lines, and implied lines are powerful tools in any artist’s hand.\u00a0 As McCloud points out, line is so much more than visual.\u00a0 Throughout time, line has evoked an emotional response.\u00a0 McCloud’s examples of Expressionism (“the unseen world making itself visible”), such as Munch’s Scream<\/em> and Van Gogh’s Portrait<\/em>, demonstrate the power of line to evoke a strong emotional response.\u00a0 According to McCloud, comics merge time and space, and unite the senses to evoke emotional and sensual responses.\u00a0 This sounds like a powerful medium to me.\u00a0 Then, I started thinking about comics in my life, my world.\u00a0 Has any comic ever evoked an emotional response from me?\u00a0\u00a0 The answer is yes.\u00a0 For years, my favorite comic strip was B.C.\u00a0 I looked forward to reading it every Sunday in the Washington Post.\u00a0 After so many years of enjoying Johnny Hart’s* creation, I was shocked when the Washington Post banned B.C. from the Sunday comic section.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 Johnny Hart’s use of Christian symbols on Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas.\u00a0 So, McCloud’s assertion is correct.\u00a0 Paper and ink, arranged in rectangular panels, with added symbols, splashed with a little color, evoked the ire of the editorial staff of the Washington Post. Comics are powerhouses, wrapped in the guise of simple ink drawings, word balloons, and symbols.\u00a0 In reality, not so simple after all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0*Johnny Hart died in April last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until this class, I thought that Choose Your Own Adventure books were simple children’s stories, and I thought that comics\/cartoons were the bottom rung of the graphic arts ladder.\u00a0\u00a0 Mapping our books convinced me of the complexity of ergodic texts, and reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics has convinced me that comics are multifarious. McCloud gives\u00a0relevant … Continue reading The Art of Comics – A New Language<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}