THE LANGUAGE OF COMICSIt Takes Two to Tango

How do we read comics?

“The thing that comics do that no other graphic art does is to weave word and picture together to achieve a narrative purpose . . . Not a simple coupling of the verbal and the visual, but a blend, a true mixture."

~R.C. Harvey

Image & Text

•describe/reinforce •clarify/amplify•contrast•counterpoint•contradict

Image is primary . . .

•pace•characterization•setting•tone•perspective

Objective

Subjective

Reality

Abstraction

Abstraction

•symbolic = universal•emphasizes fiction•emphasizes artist's distorted view• lines = distortion• less distortion = less universal

Poetry = Time

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro"

Painting = Space

Comics = Space & Time

•convey images and objects in space

•communicate impressions & psychological states via language

Which do you read first?

How long do you “read” a panel?

What if there is no text?

Dialogue controls time

Single Panel = A Moment in Time & Space

Two Panels = A Gap in Time

Gutter = The Pregnant Moment

Panels + Gutters = Space & Time

Panels + Gutters = Space & Time

The Reader = The Co-Author

•panels circumscribe space, not contain it

•comics omit more than they include• require leaps of imagination on behalf of the reader

Artwork(in order of appearance)

• Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California

• David B.: Epileptic• Jan Vermeer: The Milkmaid• Peter Kuper: Give It Up• Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World• Alex Ross & Mark Waid: Kingdom Come• Chris Ware: Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth

• Alan Moore & Brian Bolland: The Killing Joke• Skottie Young: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz