Making Comics - The Sandman

- I wanted to talk about the different panel transitions from Making Comics as it relates to my reading of The Sandman before talking about other connections between our readings.

There are all sorts of transition devices being used. I don't know if the series as a whole favors one kind over another or not (because I haven't read all of them yet), but I was able to pick out when one kind was being used in a given "episode" and the effect it tended to have. There isn't a huge need to blow through the story, since there's a lot of room to tell it, and so there are a number of instances where images are being shown without time passing quickly, or with no reference of time at all. You can notice an aspect-to-aspect transition in the page shown below, where Hell is depicted, but there is no clear sequence of happenings. It's just showing different scenes and landscapes with some narration occurring to give a sense of the vastness of the place.

This technique fits in especially well with this part of the story (which you'll just have to read).

And here is an example of moment-to-moment transition, used to draw out an action for emphasis, which compliments/mirrors the thought process of the character involved.

- Choice of Image is also significant in this body of work. The group of contributing artists change throughout each episode, and so some incarnations of characters warp slightly. This is fitting considering the ethereal nature of some of them, but I also felt that in many instances, the image existed solely as an expression of that artist's personal taste. By far the most important "Choice" though is Choice of Word. The language and story as represented by words is the true strength behind this series, and is what motivated me to keep reading, as I often found myself at odds with the art direction.