Chapter 4 ~ Time Frames

"Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art" by Scott McCloud

Relate what is said in this chapter to a work/artist/designer you have seen in lectures. Image, brief description, link to a source of information on the web.

In this chapter, McCloud explores the concept of time in comics.

"...words introduce time by representing that which can only exist in time--sound" [p.g.95]



[Ref: http://www.comics.com/creators/bc/archive/bc-20080517.html ]

McCloud introduces the importance of the "Panel" itself as the most important icon in the vocabulary of comics.

"The panels acts as a sort of general indicator that time and space is being divided" [p.g.99]



[Ref: http://kotaku.com/gaming/metroid/metroid-flash-manga-163315.php ]

Another important point made is how the manner in which time is 'depicted' in comics is related to the way time is 'perceived' by a reader. The length of the panel could be made to feel like time is "stretching" (if the panel were more elongated than the rest!), alternately by using single frame panels that take up half a page; this could give the panel a feeling of timelessness or a "frozen in time" feel to the story.

An interesting way to look at the way time is made use of during the creation of a project was discussed in class during the week 2 lecture. The lecturer showed us a video of a popular song called "Come into my world" featuring Kylie Minogue. In this video, Kylie is walking around an intersection while in the background people are engaged in their daily activities. However, once Kylie circles the square (pun intended!) and returns back to her original starting point, she multiplies! To further complicate matters, the people in the background all multiply too! So the first circle of the video continues playing while Kylie takes a second walk around and the second set of people in the background start doing things slightly differently to the first set!



[Ref: http://ezivideoklip.blogspot.com/2008/04/kylie-minogue-videography.html ]



[Ref: http://www.director-file.com/gondry/kylie.html ]

This video conveys a sense of time overlapping, and although I found it slightly boring, it was a very impressive and elaborate effort that definitely has my admiration!

Chapter 3 ~ Blood in The Gutter

"Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art" by Scott McCloud

Relate what is said in this chapter to a work/artist/designer you have seen in lectures. Image, brief description, link to a source of information on the web.

In this chapter, McCloud explores the idea that the world as we know it is only what our five senses report it to be.

"All of us perceive the world as a whole through the experience of our senses. Yet our senses can only revel a world that is fragmented and incomplete." [p.g.62]

Putting this into the context of a comic, for every gap between panels of a comic, and for every part of the story that is not draw out; the parts that are left up to the imagination of the viewer/reader, we commit a phenomenon called "Closure".

McCloud has defined 'Closure' as "..observing the parts but perceiving the whole"[p.g. 63]


[Ref: http://www.student.ipfw.edu/~osbodr01/hallmarks/hallmark00.html ]

The 'gutter' of a comic is the space that exists between panels of a comic. McCloud makes a very interesting and true statement about it: "Here in the limbo of the gutter, human imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea" [p.g.66]

In the lecture we had in week 4, the concept of the Japanese influence on western art was discussed. One of the main and most interesting and controversial issue discussed in class was the similarity between an animated series called "Kimba, the white lion" made by a Japanese artist called "Osamu Tezuka" and the animation feature film "The Lion King" by Walt Disney Films. In class we were shown multiple images of frames captured from both the animated series and the american animation movie, and there were striking and unmistakable resemblances between the two! For example:


[Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion_King#Controversies ]

There are many ways in which Japanese art (comic books are also know as "Manga") has influenced Western art. Some key ideas were the importance of the journey, rather than the destination, when it came to portraying plots in comics, as well as the minimal use of elements to convey relationships between different aspects of the picture.

"Traditional western art and literature don't wander much. on the whole, we're a pretty goal-oriented culture. But in the East, there's a rich tradition of cyclical and labyrinthine works of art" [p.g.81]

This promoted a strong awareness in the western culture of comics/art about the importance of fragmentation and time frames as well as the use of intervals to build on the visual impact on the viewer. There was a new awareness of the picture plane as another dimension rather than as a flat surface to be 'marked'.



[Ref: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/held_al.html]
"The Big A" by Al Held