Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Fun House
This comic went in a completely new direction compared to the previous autobiographical graphic novel read this semester. It's most interesting aspect is also one of its potential weakness'. Its heavy reliance on allusion infuses a meta-fictional consciousness that either connects with the reader bringing them deeper into the many metaphorical elements that are the core of the story's meaning or completely looses weight if the reader is not familiar with the references. The intertextuality includes many mythological references as well as some more modern writers such as James Joyce. While threading a heavy literary based narrative, the structure takes on a cyclical non linear design as the reader continuously circles back on familiar situations as Bechdel flirts with idea of resolution that seems to be just out of reach. These reoccurring images and visual rhymes help solidify an otherwise chaotic narrative. The story though seems to be weighted down by here heavy handed continuous use of metaphor as it overbearing ever present qualities sometimes mask some of the other stylistic elements that are so well done.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Comic Review
“The Nightly News” by Jonathan Hickman.
Whew where to start on such a dynamic Graphic novel. In a nutshell the comic is a commentary on modern media. But it’s far more than that. Hickman tackles the idea of media in a very witty but intelligent way, addressing both contemporary and farfetched conspiracy issues. John Guyton is a radical assassin for a terror group that targets reporters. The story juxtapositions the satirical reaction of well know ‘big wigs’ along with the ‘serious’ element of the terror group. The story line by no means is a work of novelty, although parts may be semi-familiar. In fact the humor and intelligence behind Hickman’s work is astonishing. He imbues theory and current social media with a running commentary that makes the reader question the reliability of the whole thing.
Story aside everything else about this graphic novel is amazing. The most immediate component as you open the book is the image/visual style. The style is nothing short of catching and the intricacy is very apparent. There are panels but not in a traditional way. Boarders don’t always serve to separate visual components instead they often times serve as ‘sub’ panels to nearby content. Let me take a step back and explain further. Hickman’s visual art is unique in that he does multiple layers at once as well as relying on a technique that mimics interactive media such as TV or computers. A good example is a moment that takes place on page 2 which looks to be two distinct panels. Panel 1 is a traditional visual panel in so much that it depicts characters and objects directly relevant to the story. Between panel 1 and 2 is a white boarder that deceptively bleeds into panel 1 yet contains a small script stating “To find out more about globalization read below. However, if you’re like me and only care about your own personal entertainment (certainly not anything like children dying of dysentery in Togo), keep reading on the next page” and an arrow references to move to the next page that continues with similar visual panels. Yet panel 2 below is comprised of dense textual components coupled with spare visual symbolic icons that look to be of a highly stylized PowerPoint presentation describing “globalization” with data charts and other ‘factual’ breakdowns. This is trademark Hickman; a constant flow of ‘media’ and ‘digital’ information within the main story. Yet he passes it off very naturally so that it appears non-intrusive to what is being told ‘primarily’. Which is an obvious ruse being that every component of Hickman’s work only further builds the overall story. When I first opened up “NN” I was a little bit intimidated by these ‘media’ side notes and all the little charts as well as arrows leading to more ‘side’ information. It’s almost like a non digital representation of hypertext. Yet within a few pages I was hooked and the reading became more fluid.
The second part of the visual experience that is striking is the lack of backgrounds. Most of the art takes place in a realistically portrayed but highly shaded (reduces the details of certain objects) style that is presented mostly in the forefront. The back ground, although present occasionally, is typically occupied by arbitrary designs such as repeated horizontal black lines, or a grouping of overlapping circles. This helps to focus the detail on the characters and the dialogue but at the same time refocus when necessary to the background when it’s an important aspect of the story. Hickman is very apt at guiding the reader and focusing on various aspects of his story through his artwork.
And unlike many scholarly journals Mr. Hickman even includes a list of sources at the end of his trade paperback. This is partly done in accordance to the thematic elements of the story. Although the color scheme and the jarring style may put off some readers I highly recommend this. It is currently one of the most underrated modern comics that is nothing short of art beyond what many comic book writers are doing today within content and the visual/stylistic capacity. What Hickman does is fresh in almost every way and for only $16.99 it’s quite a bargain for the depth of the content.
Whew where to start on such a dynamic Graphic novel. In a nutshell the comic is a commentary on modern media. But it’s far more than that. Hickman tackles the idea of media in a very witty but intelligent way, addressing both contemporary and farfetched conspiracy issues. John Guyton is a radical assassin for a terror group that targets reporters. The story juxtapositions the satirical reaction of well know ‘big wigs’ along with the ‘serious’ element of the terror group. The story line by no means is a work of novelty, although parts may be semi-familiar. In fact the humor and intelligence behind Hickman’s work is astonishing. He imbues theory and current social media with a running commentary that makes the reader question the reliability of the whole thing.
Story aside everything else about this graphic novel is amazing. The most immediate component as you open the book is the image/visual style. The style is nothing short of catching and the intricacy is very apparent. There are panels but not in a traditional way. Boarders don’t always serve to separate visual components instead they often times serve as ‘sub’ panels to nearby content. Let me take a step back and explain further. Hickman’s visual art is unique in that he does multiple layers at once as well as relying on a technique that mimics interactive media such as TV or computers. A good example is a moment that takes place on page 2 which looks to be two distinct panels. Panel 1 is a traditional visual panel in so much that it depicts characters and objects directly relevant to the story. Between panel 1 and 2 is a white boarder that deceptively bleeds into panel 1 yet contains a small script stating “To find out more about globalization read below. However, if you’re like me and only care about your own personal entertainment (certainly not anything like children dying of dysentery in Togo), keep reading on the next page” and an arrow references to move to the next page that continues with similar visual panels. Yet panel 2 below is comprised of dense textual components coupled with spare visual symbolic icons that look to be of a highly stylized PowerPoint presentation describing “globalization” with data charts and other ‘factual’ breakdowns. This is trademark Hickman; a constant flow of ‘media’ and ‘digital’ information within the main story. Yet he passes it off very naturally so that it appears non-intrusive to what is being told ‘primarily’. Which is an obvious ruse being that every component of Hickman’s work only further builds the overall story. When I first opened up “NN” I was a little bit intimidated by these ‘media’ side notes and all the little charts as well as arrows leading to more ‘side’ information. It’s almost like a non digital representation of hypertext. Yet within a few pages I was hooked and the reading became more fluid.
The second part of the visual experience that is striking is the lack of backgrounds. Most of the art takes place in a realistically portrayed but highly shaded (reduces the details of certain objects) style that is presented mostly in the forefront. The back ground, although present occasionally, is typically occupied by arbitrary designs such as repeated horizontal black lines, or a grouping of overlapping circles. This helps to focus the detail on the characters and the dialogue but at the same time refocus when necessary to the background when it’s an important aspect of the story. Hickman is very apt at guiding the reader and focusing on various aspects of his story through his artwork.
And unlike many scholarly journals Mr. Hickman even includes a list of sources at the end of his trade paperback. This is partly done in accordance to the thematic elements of the story. Although the color scheme and the jarring style may put off some readers I highly recommend this. It is currently one of the most underrated modern comics that is nothing short of art beyond what many comic book writers are doing today within content and the visual/stylistic capacity. What Hickman does is fresh in almost every way and for only $16.99 it’s quite a bargain for the depth of the content.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Persepolis
Where Palestine (in my opinion) was lacking, Persepolis on the other hand was successful. Satrapi creates a very intimate retelling of her life in such a way that she appears not to have an agenda even though at times she is critical of the country she lives in. Much of how she presents information is done in a way that the personal aspects specifically the negative light she at times sheds on herself allows for the commentary she has on both the people around her and her government. Much of the negative critique is done as a response to how it directly influences her family, friends and herself so that the reader accepts the information that is presented. Beyond this however, Satrapi does a good job with the visual format. Although it is not drawn realistic and is done in black and white (which is something that I more often dislike then like) the style seems to match the content. The ‘cartoony’ drawings allow Satrapi to retell, at times, disturbing content without overwhelming the reader. The tortures aren’t graphic to the point of horrifying, the God detail is believable, and the unrealistic panels become acceptable. At the same time this quality amplifies thematic elements within the story such as the consistent use of the endless stairs, the self beating on 95, and the historical recount done by her father. All in all the visual and contextual content of Persepolis create a very believable autobiographical story as well as being an enjoyable read.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Response to Class Mini Comics
Comic 1: Latency by Jason Christianson.
Latency caught my eye immediately for multiple reasons. This mini comic’s content is the first element that is easily seen. I play online games and I appreciate what the mini comic is doing. Beyond just the content, Latency is very appealing in how it is presented. It has a dualistic overlay in that there are 6 separate panels yet they are linked globally by both the back ground visual of the circle that overlaps the separate panels as well as the panels themselves interacting with one another. In this way the visual and the content parallel each other. Even though it seems as though this panel can happen as a singular moment, the MS numbers (aka latency) in the corners of each panel show that there is in fact a time differentiation between each of them. As the panels get further from the first the latency gets higher until the final member of the group of players receives the ever dreaded disconnect message, halting the progression of his fellow gamers. I felt that Jason’s use of connecting the panels in such a way as to create both the aspect of singular moment yet have it in a way that can be read as a progression was very creatively done.
Even though the assignment could be argued as a single panel and not fulfilling the requirement of the assignment, for the above reasons I would say that in does in fact meet the expectations laid out. There are many main stream comics that deal with singular moment in such a way that there is a subtle shift in time and done across multiple panels. A singular panel usually consists of a singular event within one scene. The fact that Jason includes multiple scene to scene transitions defines this as going beyond a comic such as Family Circus. Also there is a sense of motion; something is transpiring across the panels instead of a snap shot of a motionless one panel comic. This motion, I would argue, is another aspect defining this as a multi panel comic.
Comic 2: Roy the Roach Rides Again by Claire Moles
The aesthetic quality of Roy the Roach was a quality that wasn’t easily missed. Living up to the name of the title, the mini comic is shaped creatively like a roach. Beyond the binding, the inside fits the shape of the roach but follows a more traditional layout with the three pages following a 5, 5, 4 sequence. This comic has a sense of tabular involved in it, although maybe not to the extent that Latency did.
Page one varies between action to action and subject to subject, however there are a few interesting transitions involved beyond these moments. Panel 2 and panel 5 are connected through panel 6’s shared dialogue, breaking the time sequence and in essence making panel 2 a double panel whose events happen twice with different dialogue.
Page 2 has more of these connecting movements and also includes a tabular effect. Panel 1 and 2 are connected by Roy the Roach who overlaps both panels. At a closer look however it could be seen that these two panels are actually one scene but the split accompanied by Roy who is of neither panel, allows for his action of flying toward the reader be accepted as flying at the characters. I found this trick to be well placed on the page. The second quality is Roy again overlapping panels 3 and 4 while panel 4 and 5 share another common dialogue bubble. Page 3 ends with a 4 panel, independent layout, ending in a more traditionally aesthetic way.
Comic 3: 8 of the Worst Things to do Alone by Anelle K.
This mini comic was by far the most disturbing of all the mini comics, although not in a bad way per say. At first it seemed to be a humorous commentary on a person being single but reading the final panel seemed to leave this ominous lingering tone that didn’t easily dissipate after finishing the comic. I found this to be an interesting cathartic moment insomuch that the characters drawn were very simplistic, again not a bad thing, but I find that typically when I read more detailed comics the more I find I have a reaction to them. It’s very rarely that any form of emotion is sparked through reduced drawings. Although McCloud argues that the simpler the drawing the more universal, I find there’s a point where this no longer becomes necessarily true and can distract from thematic because the content isn’t taken as seriously. Here the word combination with the pictures does a successful job at relating the thematic content.
The only issue that this comic brought up was how closely it achieved its goal when compared to the assignment. Beyond the character being female and being consistent throughout the two pages, I was confused if this character was supposed to be relating a real story about the author’s life being single and the final panel being her fear beyond this or if the story was exactly what the title states, that of being the 8 worst things to do alone. This could be easily fixed with a simple dialogue box or word indicator attached to the character so I feel this is a minor consideration due to how easily it could be adjusted however it is something that came up as I read it.
Overall: Taking in each of the mini comics as a whole brought about a few interesting revelations. In sharing as a group in class it seemed that many students shared many similarities in the process of creating each of their individual assignments. Many of us outlined the comics similarly, likewise we shared many issues in the printing of the comic (whether online or in actual print). But despite the many familiar details shared in how we went about approaching, designing and creating the comic, what became the finished product varied beyond what I could have imagined. A previous years assignment was shared with the class before we began our work on our topic and that may have been what caused this shock. That class had to share a common thematic story. Though there were variations in these and lots of differences, seeing the same characters presented tied a common thread throughout them. Our class however produced comics so vastly different in every possible way I was shocked: aesthetically, design, style, content etc… I feel that taking away the common content allowed us to go beyond the limits of that had been possibly placed on previous assignments. I think the challenges we faced as a class are probably those that are shared by any class doing this assignment yet we had more freedom in what our content could be. I don’t believe there is a way to reduce these problems as they are something innate with creating a comic book of this type. The only difference for future assignments of this type would be what or if to change the content limitations. The past assignment of using a fable I believe would have been too limiting wherein our classes limit of having to maintain a story that was real matched the overall class theme of the comics we are studying. Possibly continuing to match class theme to the assignment theme would be an idea to consider.
Latency caught my eye immediately for multiple reasons. This mini comic’s content is the first element that is easily seen. I play online games and I appreciate what the mini comic is doing. Beyond just the content, Latency is very appealing in how it is presented. It has a dualistic overlay in that there are 6 separate panels yet they are linked globally by both the back ground visual of the circle that overlaps the separate panels as well as the panels themselves interacting with one another. In this way the visual and the content parallel each other. Even though it seems as though this panel can happen as a singular moment, the MS numbers (aka latency) in the corners of each panel show that there is in fact a time differentiation between each of them. As the panels get further from the first the latency gets higher until the final member of the group of players receives the ever dreaded disconnect message, halting the progression of his fellow gamers. I felt that Jason’s use of connecting the panels in such a way as to create both the aspect of singular moment yet have it in a way that can be read as a progression was very creatively done.
Even though the assignment could be argued as a single panel and not fulfilling the requirement of the assignment, for the above reasons I would say that in does in fact meet the expectations laid out. There are many main stream comics that deal with singular moment in such a way that there is a subtle shift in time and done across multiple panels. A singular panel usually consists of a singular event within one scene. The fact that Jason includes multiple scene to scene transitions defines this as going beyond a comic such as Family Circus. Also there is a sense of motion; something is transpiring across the panels instead of a snap shot of a motionless one panel comic. This motion, I would argue, is another aspect defining this as a multi panel comic.
Comic 2: Roy the Roach Rides Again by Claire Moles
The aesthetic quality of Roy the Roach was a quality that wasn’t easily missed. Living up to the name of the title, the mini comic is shaped creatively like a roach. Beyond the binding, the inside fits the shape of the roach but follows a more traditional layout with the three pages following a 5, 5, 4 sequence. This comic has a sense of tabular involved in it, although maybe not to the extent that Latency did.
Page one varies between action to action and subject to subject, however there are a few interesting transitions involved beyond these moments. Panel 2 and panel 5 are connected through panel 6’s shared dialogue, breaking the time sequence and in essence making panel 2 a double panel whose events happen twice with different dialogue.
Page 2 has more of these connecting movements and also includes a tabular effect. Panel 1 and 2 are connected by Roy the Roach who overlaps both panels. At a closer look however it could be seen that these two panels are actually one scene but the split accompanied by Roy who is of neither panel, allows for his action of flying toward the reader be accepted as flying at the characters. I found this trick to be well placed on the page. The second quality is Roy again overlapping panels 3 and 4 while panel 4 and 5 share another common dialogue bubble. Page 3 ends with a 4 panel, independent layout, ending in a more traditionally aesthetic way.
Comic 3: 8 of the Worst Things to do Alone by Anelle K.
This mini comic was by far the most disturbing of all the mini comics, although not in a bad way per say. At first it seemed to be a humorous commentary on a person being single but reading the final panel seemed to leave this ominous lingering tone that didn’t easily dissipate after finishing the comic. I found this to be an interesting cathartic moment insomuch that the characters drawn were very simplistic, again not a bad thing, but I find that typically when I read more detailed comics the more I find I have a reaction to them. It’s very rarely that any form of emotion is sparked through reduced drawings. Although McCloud argues that the simpler the drawing the more universal, I find there’s a point where this no longer becomes necessarily true and can distract from thematic because the content isn’t taken as seriously. Here the word combination with the pictures does a successful job at relating the thematic content.
The only issue that this comic brought up was how closely it achieved its goal when compared to the assignment. Beyond the character being female and being consistent throughout the two pages, I was confused if this character was supposed to be relating a real story about the author’s life being single and the final panel being her fear beyond this or if the story was exactly what the title states, that of being the 8 worst things to do alone. This could be easily fixed with a simple dialogue box or word indicator attached to the character so I feel this is a minor consideration due to how easily it could be adjusted however it is something that came up as I read it.
Overall: Taking in each of the mini comics as a whole brought about a few interesting revelations. In sharing as a group in class it seemed that many students shared many similarities in the process of creating each of their individual assignments. Many of us outlined the comics similarly, likewise we shared many issues in the printing of the comic (whether online or in actual print). But despite the many familiar details shared in how we went about approaching, designing and creating the comic, what became the finished product varied beyond what I could have imagined. A previous years assignment was shared with the class before we began our work on our topic and that may have been what caused this shock. That class had to share a common thematic story. Though there were variations in these and lots of differences, seeing the same characters presented tied a common thread throughout them. Our class however produced comics so vastly different in every possible way I was shocked: aesthetically, design, style, content etc… I feel that taking away the common content allowed us to go beyond the limits of that had been possibly placed on previous assignments. I think the challenges we faced as a class are probably those that are shared by any class doing this assignment yet we had more freedom in what our content could be. I don’t believe there is a way to reduce these problems as they are something innate with creating a comic book of this type. The only difference for future assignments of this type would be what or if to change the content limitations. The past assignment of using a fable I believe would have been too limiting wherein our classes limit of having to maintain a story that was real matched the overall class theme of the comics we are studying. Possibly continuing to match class theme to the assignment theme would be an idea to consider.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Palestinezzzzzzzzz
There's very few times that I have nothing at all good to say about a comic book or graphic novel. Yet as I sit here trying to figure out something, even a morsel of redeeming value within Palestine by Joe Sacco, I find myself at a loss. Right from the start this text showed it's horrific nature. Now, I'm not opposed to thick blocks of text, in fact I love Hickman who is known for a dense comic/text relationship, yet Sacco fails where Hickman is masterful. I believe the reason to be two part. The first aspect is in the layout itself. Sacco either separates the text almost 100% from the pictures (pg 41-50 being an example) or he overlaps a high amount of text blocks over the panels in such a way as to be highly distracting to the actual content within. In the first case, I may have been able to justify a page or two at the most of complete separation but Sacco creates TEN pages where the panels are secondary to the separate text. It feels as though the comic transition to a book that is illustrated. The second case creates an issue with me being able to connect with the story itself in a way that I normally would with a comic book. This leads to another issue. I didn't care about what was being told. Partly due to the aforementioned portion but also with the way the whole story unfolds. On page 120 I have deja vu of the first chapter's demonstration. It's different but at the same time it's too similar. I feel that the story is highly repetitive. I got to end and thought to myself "I swear if he get's into another taxi..."
About the only interesting portion of Palestine that can be mentioned is the purely superficial aspect with the section REWIND on 208 where the panel transition goes from highly disorganized and random to what we would see as a normal panel lay out on 212. If Sacco had presented a more interesting story I may have taken the time to consider why he made this choice, but unfortunately by that point my interested had died several times. With that, I wish I had more poignant things to say about Palestine but alas I can only find the joy with which selling this book back at the end of the semester will bring.
About the only interesting portion of Palestine that can be mentioned is the purely superficial aspect with the section REWIND on 208 where the panel transition goes from highly disorganized and random to what we would see as a normal panel lay out on 212. If Sacco had presented a more interesting story I may have taken the time to consider why he made this choice, but unfortunately by that point my interested had died several times. With that, I wish I had more poignant things to say about Palestine but alas I can only find the joy with which selling this book back at the end of the semester will bring.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Self Reflection (mini comic)
The Minicomic assignment went through many phases in order to come to a completed work. However the hardest portions I found were the start and end of the process, although the middle was time consuming due to my lack of skill at drawing, it still lacked the ‘issues’ the bookends caused. All together it was an assignment that I have never experienced before on an academic level which provided moments of fun with moments of equal frustration.
As I mentioned the beginning portion was difficult for me. At first I wasn’t even able to come up with a personal story that I thought I’d be capable of drawing. Then when I did start coming up with ideas, I discarded a half a dozen before I came up with one that I felt was interesting enough and at the same time matched my skill set. Up to this point it may not have seemed like much but this actually took me quite some time to figure out as well as a lot of paper as I was mock sketching ideas as I went to try and focus on one plausible story. Once I did had what I thought would be a good idea, I started to doodle once again to try and make a frame for the beginning and end of the story so that the mini comic would not turn into a full on 32page with ads comic (I can be longwinded at times). I did a few pages of very, very rough sketching as well as some paragraph sketching for the details that I wasn’t quite sure how or what to draw. This process was fairly quick and then, as I do with most projects, I set it aside for a few days just to let the idea simmer to see if I could mentally structure the comic book in my mind before I started. This was probably one of the best things I could have done because the next day Professor Hatfield mentioned that for students who have never done a comic before, it is a good idea to lay out the structure as a rough draft before actually attempting the final version in case we ran into problems mid way. This comment saved me two plus hours of work for the reasons that will follow.
I began to take all my doodles and written description and laid out a roughly drawn page of nine panels. I decided on a fairly standard layout because I felt the structure matched the topic and that if I had gone with something that blended the panels or overlapped it would become overly complex. There may have been some moments that I could have considered overlap or blending but I don’t have the talent for something that advanced. So the layout I went with served its purpose. From here I began to fill in the panels with tentative sketches and word balloons and text panels to give me an idea of where the elements would fit the best. This part went fairly smoothly until I got mid way through my second page. I realized at this point that I had inverted some of the panels and that they distorted the story in the order I had drawn them in. This is where Professor Hatfield’s comment came in as an echo in the back of my head. If I had done this as a final draft I would had to have completely tossed the two pages I had nearly completed. But since it was a preliminary ‘dirty’ draft, I had not invested much time in the art work process.
The correction of the structural problem I ran into was as easy as redrawing one panel and using some arrows to indicate where I needed to place them for the final version. Once I had the two pages filled and was satisfied with the draft I went into the final phase of drawing. I drew in pencil. As bad as I am with pencil I’m even worse with a pen so to me that wasn’t an option. Yet this came back to haunt me after I had finished the process of converting my draft copy to a final version. I decided, last minute, to make my comic a digital rendition as opposed to a hard copy. This was a choice to save me money as well as possibly to make the drawings look better as a digital high quality picture instead of a photocopied piece. However this end process proved to be quite frustrating as I ran into issues at every step of the way. My first attempt to scan the hardcopy to my computer showed that half the drawing to be unscannable due to the lightness of the pencil as well as the fact that words at the top and bottom were cut off. This forced me to move some words on the panels as well as retrace half my work. It probably would have been better to have traced in pen but the finality of this option made me go with pencil again. This left me with a scanned copy that was half really dark and half normal but at least this time I could see the pictures and words. Once I had rescanned both pages and found them to be acceptable I attempted to upload them onto Blogger. Again I ran into more issues. The first three attempts left me with out of order miniature renditions of my scans. Once I sorted out the inversion and size, I ran into an issue of linking the two pages. After nearly forty minutes of repeated failure, I settled with two images on the same blog page that only required a single click to access.
For the most part, the end result came out better than I had expected. The story itself was fairly cohesive and the art work fairly recognizable although my choice of style helped aid this. Even though this was a nonfiction assignment, the art work did take on surrealistic qualities while still telling a real event. The anthropomorphizing of certain objects help me lower the detail that may have been needed for a real event as well as adding some hopefully humorous elements to the story. Likewise I was able to project ideas, emotions and thoughts onto the objects this way which helped relate the story better than realistic images could have. Beyond the few frustrating moments, this project wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it would be.
As I mentioned the beginning portion was difficult for me. At first I wasn’t even able to come up with a personal story that I thought I’d be capable of drawing. Then when I did start coming up with ideas, I discarded a half a dozen before I came up with one that I felt was interesting enough and at the same time matched my skill set. Up to this point it may not have seemed like much but this actually took me quite some time to figure out as well as a lot of paper as I was mock sketching ideas as I went to try and focus on one plausible story. Once I did had what I thought would be a good idea, I started to doodle once again to try and make a frame for the beginning and end of the story so that the mini comic would not turn into a full on 32page with ads comic (I can be longwinded at times). I did a few pages of very, very rough sketching as well as some paragraph sketching for the details that I wasn’t quite sure how or what to draw. This process was fairly quick and then, as I do with most projects, I set it aside for a few days just to let the idea simmer to see if I could mentally structure the comic book in my mind before I started. This was probably one of the best things I could have done because the next day Professor Hatfield mentioned that for students who have never done a comic before, it is a good idea to lay out the structure as a rough draft before actually attempting the final version in case we ran into problems mid way. This comment saved me two plus hours of work for the reasons that will follow.
I began to take all my doodles and written description and laid out a roughly drawn page of nine panels. I decided on a fairly standard layout because I felt the structure matched the topic and that if I had gone with something that blended the panels or overlapped it would become overly complex. There may have been some moments that I could have considered overlap or blending but I don’t have the talent for something that advanced. So the layout I went with served its purpose. From here I began to fill in the panels with tentative sketches and word balloons and text panels to give me an idea of where the elements would fit the best. This part went fairly smoothly until I got mid way through my second page. I realized at this point that I had inverted some of the panels and that they distorted the story in the order I had drawn them in. This is where Professor Hatfield’s comment came in as an echo in the back of my head. If I had done this as a final draft I would had to have completely tossed the two pages I had nearly completed. But since it was a preliminary ‘dirty’ draft, I had not invested much time in the art work process.
The correction of the structural problem I ran into was as easy as redrawing one panel and using some arrows to indicate where I needed to place them for the final version. Once I had the two pages filled and was satisfied with the draft I went into the final phase of drawing. I drew in pencil. As bad as I am with pencil I’m even worse with a pen so to me that wasn’t an option. Yet this came back to haunt me after I had finished the process of converting my draft copy to a final version. I decided, last minute, to make my comic a digital rendition as opposed to a hard copy. This was a choice to save me money as well as possibly to make the drawings look better as a digital high quality picture instead of a photocopied piece. However this end process proved to be quite frustrating as I ran into issues at every step of the way. My first attempt to scan the hardcopy to my computer showed that half the drawing to be unscannable due to the lightness of the pencil as well as the fact that words at the top and bottom were cut off. This forced me to move some words on the panels as well as retrace half my work. It probably would have been better to have traced in pen but the finality of this option made me go with pencil again. This left me with a scanned copy that was half really dark and half normal but at least this time I could see the pictures and words. Once I had rescanned both pages and found them to be acceptable I attempted to upload them onto Blogger. Again I ran into more issues. The first three attempts left me with out of order miniature renditions of my scans. Once I sorted out the inversion and size, I ran into an issue of linking the two pages. After nearly forty minutes of repeated failure, I settled with two images on the same blog page that only required a single click to access.
For the most part, the end result came out better than I had expected. The story itself was fairly cohesive and the art work fairly recognizable although my choice of style helped aid this. Even though this was a nonfiction assignment, the art work did take on surrealistic qualities while still telling a real event. The anthropomorphizing of certain objects help me lower the detail that may have been needed for a real event as well as adding some hopefully humorous elements to the story. Likewise I was able to project ideas, emotions and thoughts onto the objects this way which helped relate the story better than realistic images could have. Beyond the few frustrating moments, this project wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought it would be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)