Early Comics

After reading earlier comics such as Little Nemo, early Charlie Brown, and Krazy Kat. You can really see the way that comics have evolved both visually and in writing over time. I found trying to read the some of the earlier comics to be quite the task, especially with Krazy Kat. Sometimes trying to understand what words are being said can be quite difficult in such small word bubbles and with hand written text. After reading 20 or so strips I understood the premise of the comic, but the humor was still sometimes a little lost.  It may be because I am not fluent with the popular culture of the time.

            Yet from the other comics I read Krazy Kat was the only one that did not have children as the main characters. I am not totally sure why this is, or if there is a reason, but I do know that there is some appeal to seeing animals and children placed in such crazy situations.  It may be that using Children and animals in comics may bring about a sense of innocents that can seem comical when juxtaposed with serious topics.

            In Charlie Brown we see a cast of children going though everyday anecdotes with no set theme or context between one strip or the next. This is different then Krazy Kat or Nemo, as in those comics we see that there is already a set foundation on how the story of the comic will normally traverse, but in Charlie Brown it was unique every time. You can see many of the same qualities and sense of humor that is communicated through Charlie Brown comics in many of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, which comes many decades later.

Understanding Comics

I believe that Will Eisner’s description of comics as Sequential art fits very well as a simplified way to describe comics. In Scott McCloud’s comic book, Understanding comics he defines comics as, “Juxtaposed static images in Deliberate Sequence”, which he later uses to Segway in to words. This is definition is very specific as a definition should be, but as he explains can also be the definition of the written word.  Such a definition I feel left me unsatisfied as a specific definition for comics as such a definition could in someway be used for almost all visual forms of communication, but I understand his point. 
Understanding Comics provides a enlightening and refreshing take on the graphic medium through the very use of the medium it is trying to explain. I tried to imagine what reading this same information in a textbook would have been like and I don’t think the same message could have come across.  One point that I found extremely interesting was the reason why people are so connected to cartoons.  Scot McCloud illustrates that that by using simplified imagery to represent complex ideas we can connect better to it, because it has a closer resemblance to how our mind’s eye sees things such as our own facial expressions.  This explanation completely rewired how I think about cartoons and why people feel so closely connected to cartoon characters, sometimes even more connected then to people they actually know.

Lastly, the final portion of the book that explained the separation of form and content I believe was extremely well written and had a lot of insight on how greatness is achieved in the graphic medium or any craft or profession as a matter of a fact, but in the end there is a choice that needs to be made between form and content. When people master the 6 tiers of being a great artist they have conquered their medium and are able to use it as a tool to masterfully communicate and deliver a message to its audience. It is obvious that after reading this that Scott McCloud is one of those people and has delivered to us this masterful piece of work, that is Understanding Comics.

The Arrival Reaction

The Arrival is a comic that tells the story of a man who leaves his family and moves to another country in hope of finding prosperity outside of his homeland. It is very appropriate that Shuan Tan decided to tell this story without words, because the audience is then given the opportunity to connect even more with the main character and his inability to understand the language of the new land that he moves to.  The audience is forced to understand the story though the context of each image as well as in the way all the images are ordered and juxtaposed.

            Images are universal and are understood by most humans and can be understood just as clearly as words. We can see that each composition with in the book tells an idea just as a sentence would. When Shaun Tan wants us to understand that the character is going somewhere or doing something he will show us visually what he is doing. We can even get an understanding of what the character is thinking and feeling though his body language and facial expressions.  Our human ability to empathize and piece together visual clues is an extraordinary medium that artists have been taking advantage of for centuries.  Also the environment that Tan puts the character in is very abstract and has to be deciphered by the audience as well as the main character that is lost in the foreign land.

            Just like words though images can be interpreted differently from person to person. And this idea is even shown in the narrative when the main character shows another character a drawing and the other character has a flashback to a previous event that was probably not anticipated by the main character. When people look at the images in this book people will see different symbols and will have different connections to certain images.

            The Arrival is masterly done and conveys the story of the immigrant in a manner that is original and extremely effective. Words simply would have taken away from the emotional impact that Shaun Tan depicts.