Comics are sluts!
The comic form is a slut, she'll take it from anyone.Been trying to wrap my head around this one for the past few weeks. Whenever I think of the comics form, I think of an odd combination of three media: music, film, and literature.
The relationship between comics and film is probably the most obvious, and one that any comics artist is probably well-aware of. Both are a series of images presented sequentially on a picture plane. The primary relationship of the two, I think, is one of composition-- how things are arranged across the picture plane to present the information to the viewer/reader. Both media borrow on rules and guidelines that have been developed over the history of cinemacraft-- continuity, camera angles, balance, etc. I won't go into it so much, because there're other (better written) resources available on-line about this topic.
Meanwhile, the relationship between music and comics is much more vague. In fact, I only know of two authors who admit to borrowing concepts from music and applying it to their sequential work: Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison. Both these gentlemen are quite mad, which could explain why they even try to marry these two media. Personally, I've always thought that the sequential nature of both music and comics is what allows for the influence of one into another. Any time you've got a sequence of ANYTHING, you're going to unavoidably form relationships between them. Patterns.
With comics, an artist's job is too manage these patterns through the use of contrast, panel manipulation, panel content, and even composition. A well-paced comic will establish a stable bass line, and then change rhythms as the plot progresses in accordance to the needs of the story. Alan Davis is actually pretty good at this-- he switches things up, making the actual events in the book more powerful as a result.
Finally, there's the literature influence, which is the most difficult to define, because its so... elemental in nature. Comics are books, that's why they're called comic books (duh). People don't ask you if you've "watched" the latest issue of Stray Bullets; they ask if you've read it.
There are two things that music and movies don't have that books do. One is the concept of pages, which is way of delineating space (as opposed to time). Another is the fact that reading implies giving the consumer an active role in the transfer of information.
With film and music, everything is spoonfed to the audience. But the comic form requires more of its reader. The reader is expected to fill in gaps in between panels (concept of closure), and the simple act of turning a page is an action that can be used to involve a reader more closely into the story. How many times have you turned a comic page and been surprised by a big, cool-looking splash page? That was by design, y'know!
Also, artists are trained to make things easier to read by controlling the movement of the human eye, which is similarly trained to move from left to right (vice-versa in some cultures) and up to down. We read art the same way we read letters-- they're both icons, anyway.
Note that the three influences aren't mutually exclusive. Comic creators borrow from all three quite freely. In fact, every comic page probably has an element of music, film, and literature on them. If you see a panel, that's cinema. Two panels, that's already rhythm. Words and pictures, that's literature.
In the end, its all about telling the story as best you can.
posted by butch @ 7/24/2005
1 Comments:
Nice critique, Butch!
I'd argue though that one of the things that music & comics have in common and is the reason I like listening to music when I write, is the way that good music flows and absorbs you into the experience.
Great comics, IMO, don't leave you questioning where to go next. Your eye is naturally drawn from one panel to the next, drawing you into the story. You don't think about it or have to go looking where the next panel is at. Have you ever noticed when listening to great music you are instinctively pulled in and start bobbing your head or doing some other action that you don't necessarily think about? It's the same thing. You just feel it and don't question anything. Bob Dylan's music is perfect at this. Some of his songs have virtually no coherent point when you listen to the lyrics, but it doesn't matter because his music flows so well that you get absorbed into the experience. Just like great comics.
I've read comics that have virtually no plot or the logic is flawed, the plausibility of the happenings in the comic could never happen in a million years, but it doesn't matter because the flow is great... its just fun and you're drawn in.
I would argue that not everything in movies is spoon-fed (granted, most of what Hollywood puts out is tripe, but I can argue that for music and comics), in terms of content, at least. But in terms of participation, movies are easier in the fact that with those you just sit back, watch and listen.
Personally, what makes comics interesting is that it is really a mesh of books and movies. It gives people who have trouble visualizing complex worlds such as the LOTR books, Dune and other works of complex fiction an escape because someone else does the visualiation (the artist) but they are still able to get in and get invested in the story themselves (reading and interpreting things rather than have a director and actors do such).
Above all else, though, I agree... it's all about telling the best story you can!
But having great on it doesn't hurt :-p
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