Some of my favorite moments in V For Vendetta were moments in which no dialogue was occuring. In Understanding Comics, McCloud discussed having to read between the panels through recognizing different types of transitions, and Moore uses a number of these transitions in V for Vendetta that I believe added to the overall enjoyment I took away from the graphic novel. Unlike Blankets, which used a variety of creatively drawn panels to create meaning, the majority of panels in Moore's book are rectangular in shape, so it is easy to read the lettering while ignoring the visual aspect of the text. However, when no lettering is present for pages at a time, the reader is forced to try to understand the story solely from a visual standpoint, something a graphic novel can acheive that many other modes of writing cannot.
Page 77 of V For Vendetta is a page without lettering that uses multiple types of panel transitions. The page starts with a moment-to-moment transition in which the first two panels are nearly identical drawings of a gun. The third and fourth panels contain a subject-to-subject transition, and the rest of the panels are action-to-action transitions. The uses of these transitions in this order builds a momentum throughout the course of the page without the use of dialogue. Also, the very last portion of the book, entitled Vincent, contains no lettering at all; the entire four pages tell a story through drawings only, and it could be argued that every type of transition McCloud discusses is used other than non-sequitur transitions. It's cool moments like these that really make graphic novels stand out as a legitimate art form.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
A Rant on Ranting
Ok, so I just finished writing my manifesto, and I have to say it was an extremely enjoyable experience. Ranting is something I love to do in my spare time anyway, so having the opportunity to do it as an assignment was fun indeed! Normally it takes me a long while to write essays, but the manifesto encourages a sort of stream-of-consciousness that essays do not permit, and I finished the assignment in record time, feeling like I could have ranted for at least a few more pages.
Having the opportunity to write in a number of formats has been a fairly rewarding experience. The blog, the wiki, the manifesto- while I am used to writing critical essays, I have found experimenting with these other modes of communication to be a good experience overall. In my manifesto, which discusses comics in relation to the writing process, I make the claim that students should be required to make comics of their own in order to think critically about using multimodal formats to create meaning that words alone cannot. For this reason, I am looking forward to the upcoming comic-creation assignment. Hopefully it will be as rewarding as I claim it will be in my manifesto.
Having the opportunity to write in a number of formats has been a fairly rewarding experience. The blog, the wiki, the manifesto- while I am used to writing critical essays, I have found experimenting with these other modes of communication to be a good experience overall. In my manifesto, which discusses comics in relation to the writing process, I make the claim that students should be required to make comics of their own in order to think critically about using multimodal formats to create meaning that words alone cannot. For this reason, I am looking forward to the upcoming comic-creation assignment. Hopefully it will be as rewarding as I claim it will be in my manifesto.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
A Short Observation on Color
I guess I never really thought about it until McCloud mentioned it in Understanding Comics, but I don't think I ever fully realized how important bright primary colors are to comics. This is probably because I spent my entire childhood obsessing over Spawn comics, which tend to be very dark, but even Spawn has his iconic bright red cape. Looking back over the old Wonder Woman comics on our wiki, I am noticing that bright reds, yellows, greens and blues make up the primary color scheme of the comics. I find McCloud's argument that these bright color schemes work to promote comics over the numbing black and white newspaper print interesting, but I can't decide if I completely agree. It must be more complicated than that considering the two genres are being tailored to two different audiences. However, I have to admit that the bright primary colors used in some comics have probably significantly helped some super heros (Superman for example) become the cultural icons they are today.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Wonder Wiki
I must admit that the reason I was so quick to raise my hand and volunteer to be in the Wonder Woman wiki group was because I thought it might be easier than some of the other categories. Detective Comics seemed to carry a pretty large scope of material, and there are so many primary characters in X-Men that I figured it would take forever to provide information on all of them. I figured Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is only a single character, so maybe it wouldn't be too hard to grasp all of the information related to her. I was wrong.
First of all, I had no idea before working on the wiki that Wonder Woman is related to Greek mythology. Trying to remember all of the Greek Gods, immortals, and their stories was hard enough in previous classes I have taken, but having to remember them as being part of the backstory to a very complex comic book series is definitely difficult. Previously, I had no idea that Wonder Woman was an Amazon, or that a number of individuals had taken on her role, Hippolyta and Diana being the most prominent. My concept of "the super hero" up until this point (the main references for this concept being Spawn and Batman) had been that "he" was a single individual looking to do harm to villains.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is very different in what I believe is a positive way. She carries no weapons that would inflict harm upon her enemies. Rather, she uses "tools" such as her bullet-deflecting bracelets and lasso of truth to promote honesty, empathy, and peaceful coexistence among all people and nations- not something I expected to find in a comic, especially since violence has been so prominent in the comics and comicbook movies I have seen. Despite the fact that I am not accustomed to such material, I find it very admirable and enjoyed researching it very much.
First of all, I had no idea before working on the wiki that Wonder Woman is related to Greek mythology. Trying to remember all of the Greek Gods, immortals, and their stories was hard enough in previous classes I have taken, but having to remember them as being part of the backstory to a very complex comic book series is definitely difficult. Previously, I had no idea that Wonder Woman was an Amazon, or that a number of individuals had taken on her role, Hippolyta and Diana being the most prominent. My concept of "the super hero" up until this point (the main references for this concept being Spawn and Batman) had been that "he" was a single individual looking to do harm to villains.
Wonder Woman, on the other hand, is very different in what I believe is a positive way. She carries no weapons that would inflict harm upon her enemies. Rather, she uses "tools" such as her bullet-deflecting bracelets and lasso of truth to promote honesty, empathy, and peaceful coexistence among all people and nations- not something I expected to find in a comic, especially since violence has been so prominent in the comics and comicbook movies I have seen. Despite the fact that I am not accustomed to such material, I find it very admirable and enjoyed researching it very much.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Understanding Comics: Chapters 5-6
Chapter 5 of Understanding Comics begins with a number of somewhat abstract illustrations meant to suggest various emotions. However, I wonder if I would have picked up on the same emotions if McCloud had not labeled them. The frames conveying serenity, pride, intimacy, and anxiety were especially confusing, so I’m glad McCloud decided to add question marks after all his proposed emotions and senses.
Chapter 6 gave me a better understanding of what McCloud was doing with his emotion and sense panels. He seems to be using duo-specific panels in an attempt to make his representations of nonphysical characteristics clearer.
When McCloud first discussed duo-specific panels, I figured there was little or no artistic use for them. I’ve taken a number of creative writing workshops, and “show, don’t tell” is always one of the primary rules discussed by instructors. Naturally I was inclined to believe that showing and telling at the same time would influence the comic in a negative way (I was definitely annoyed by the examples McCloud gives on page 153). However, when it comes to senses and emotions (as it does in chapter 5), duo-specific panels do seem like they can be justified. I will be interested in seeing if any of the graphic novels we read use this specific combination in a particularly effective way.
Chapter 6 gave me a better understanding of what McCloud was doing with his emotion and sense panels. He seems to be using duo-specific panels in an attempt to make his representations of nonphysical characteristics clearer.
When McCloud first discussed duo-specific panels, I figured there was little or no artistic use for them. I’ve taken a number of creative writing workshops, and “show, don’t tell” is always one of the primary rules discussed by instructors. Naturally I was inclined to believe that showing and telling at the same time would influence the comic in a negative way (I was definitely annoyed by the examples McCloud gives on page 153). However, when it comes to senses and emotions (as it does in chapter 5), duo-specific panels do seem like they can be justified. I will be interested in seeing if any of the graphic novels we read use this specific combination in a particularly effective way.
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