The Language of Comics

Lightning talk given at #igniteLDN7. Explaining why I like comics, using examples of good comics and features unique to the medium.

Transcript

1. Superhero comics are fine for adolescents and young adults, but they overshadow the image of comics as a whole.
2. Comics isn't a genre, it's a medium. Beyond superheroes there are many fantastic comics for adults. Love and Rockets, Jaime Hernandez, Fantagraphics/Titan
3. Comics have a practically unlimited budget. Imagination can make rich fantasy scenes. Epileptic, David B, Jonathan Cape
4. (The words used to illustrate the rain are from an Arabic poem about rain) Habibi, Craig Thompson, Faber and Faber
5. There are many diverse styles, from the Arabic calligraphy & design of Craig Thompson's Habibi to the faux-woodcuts used by Andre Diniz. R: Picture A Favela, Andre Diniz, Self Made Hero
6. Cartoony styles to give sympathy to difficult topics; Jason's misanthropic animals. Athos in America, Jason, Fantagraphics
7. Art as meta-narrative. Two opposing styles, angular & sketchy, combine to make a whole when the relationship starts. Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli, Alfred A. Knopf
8. Comics allow you to linger in a way film & books don't. A lot of time can pass in a single frame. Like narrating over a photo. Footnotes in Gaza, Joe Sacco, Jonathan Cape
9. Gives good creators scope to try clever things. Chris Ware's work incorporates information design. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Boy on Earth, Chris Ware, Jonathan Cape
10. Things which are impossible in other media, like this infinite loop. Characters can hear themselves elsewhere on the loop. Promethea, Alan Moore & JH Williams III, America's Best Comics/Wildstorm/Titan
11. Although not all creators use it, sound can be vital to comics. Sound treated as a visual. Love & Rockets is up there with the great modern literary works IMHO. Love & Rockets
12. Sound can be used for comic effect, or tragic; a disdainful laugh becomes a physical thing in a failing relationship. Mister Wonderful, Daniel Clowes, Jonathan Cape
13. Word balloons also tell a story, like here where marital status is shown in a state of uncertainty. The Italian name for comics is 'fumetti', meaning 'little puffs of smoke', named after word and thought balloons. Asterios Polyp
14. In this sequence the speech balloon is shown coming from somewhere else, from somewhere dark and elsewhere beyond the body. City of Glass, adap. of Paul Auster by Paul Karasik & David Mazzucchelli, Faber and Faber
15. Panels can be cleverly used like here where toilet pipes indicate panels. Brazilians call comics 'historias in quadrinhos', or stories in little panels. Alan's War, Emmanuel Guibert, First Second
16. Large panels slow things down, acting as punctuation at the end of a sequence. Pyongyang, Guy DeLisle, Jonathan Cape.
17. Having the panels also allows you to break them, deconstructing the grid to show a mental breakdown. City of Glass
18. Unique to comics, panel size can vary to signify time and speed. Here a long series of events are compressed into a short sequence, using repetition to convey the story. ACME Novelty Library #19, Chris Ware, Drawn & Quarterly
19. Removing the panels entirely suggests more quiet, easy times. The Little Man, Chester Brown, Drawn & Quarterly
20. To understand the language of comics as a unique medium, this is the place to start. Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, HarperCollins.