Making Comics - Moving Pictures

On Page 184 of "Making Comics" Scott McCloud teaches us about tools, techniques and technology. We learn about the different tools that comic book artists use, the techniques they employ and the technology they take advantage of to make their comic book more pleasing to the viewer and ultimately more successful. This page from "Moving Pictures" is a good example of these things. From the panels and the artist's use of high contrast and positive and negative space and shapes we can conclude that if this page were done traditionally it was mostly likely layed out in graphite pencil, then inked with a pen and ink. If the page was made technically it was most likely layed out in graphite then scanned into a computer and inked using one of many multimedia programs available, like Photoshop for example. But without these tools and techniques the artist would not be able to successfulyl depicted the narrative for the reader.

Making Comics - Heavy Liquid

In Making Comics there is a lot of discussion about the importance of the background, especially establishing shots. Here Paul Pope uses 3 panels to set the scene of the crowded bar, in a busy city. The panels all bleed off the page, and there is very little framing giving the reader the feeling of being immersed in the crowd. There is minimal use of word bubbles so that the focus is on the scene itself.

Making Comics - Tout Seul - Aileen Thomas

(Pronounced "Too Sell.")

In Making Comics this week I read several chapters in order to finish it so I plowed through a lot of really great information. But I want to talk about the tools an artist uses. Armed with the basic information given by the writer I tried to guess what kind of tool Chaboute used in Tout Seul. Judging by the coarseness of the drawings, the little thickness variety and the fierceness of the detail I guessed he used nib pens of different sizes.



Then I saw this video where Chaboute himself was talking about the inspiration behind Tout Seul and you see a shot of him using those tools. I made a lucky guess.

As for the video, it's all in French, so I'm sad about that.

Making Comics – Moving Pictures

Speaking in terms of perspective, “Making Comics” explains that consistency will communicate the environment to the reader (page 171, last panel). If the style of perspective is interesting, then the reader will accept the chosen style. Pages 100 and 101 really portray the general perspective style choice of “Moving Pictures. It’s fairly flat throughout, but it can also have depth as seen in panel 3 of page 100. The consistent simplicity really makes the environment read emotionally and still stays believable.

Making Comics - MEKA

In Making Comics, page 160, McCloud introduces the "establishing shot." In MEKA, this scene of a sprawled out mech in a war-torn and demolished part of the city is visited and referred back to many times throughout the remainder of the story. Often the time of day has changed, and there are some alterations to perspective, but it is always this same "Ground-Zero" were are shown to bring us back to what has happened.

BTW, this uses 3-Point Perspective, which McCloud also discusses within the same chapter.

Making Comics, 100 Percent, Chad Ruger

"Sound Effects are one shot inventions you can IMPROVISE like crazy."

The page in which the comic receives it's title, it was such a cool concept I had to post it.  What I noticed was how Paul Pope did not use noise words.  It seems like sound effects would fit right in on this page but instead, he relies on the reader to be smart enough to understand the sound from the visuals as well as the dialogue.   He lets the art speak for itself.  He doesn't do this all the time, but I just thought the lack of words fit rather nicely here.

Gesture, Making Comics, All-Star Superman, Chad Ruger

"There are a few basic kinds of RELATIONSHIPS between our physical actions and the messages they convey."

I love Gesture and what it can communicate.  The perfect example is how in All-Star Superman, Clark and Superman have the same mass but are looked at by characters and the readers to appear very different.  Just by adding a simple slouch to superman's physique(and a big coat) Clark becomes a chubby clutz, completely contrasting his true self and securing his secret identity.

Making Comics - All Star Superman

On pg 130 of Making Comics it goes over the different types of word/picture combinations. The top 4 panels on pg. 136 of All Star Superman are a good example of picture-specific panels. If you take out the word bubbles you still understand that Superman is playing catch with Krypto. The picture tells you all you need to know, the words just add some extra interest.

Making Comics - Nausicaa

I felt like Nausicaa demonstrated excellent world building, which is what I read about in Making Comics.  The world is established and expanded on.  It isn't always explained, but instead is left up to the readers to figure out, which is very appealing.  It seems to add believability to the story

Making Comics - Blue Pills

On page 138 Scott McCloud talks about "The Power of words" in Chapter 3 of "Making Comics". In this chapter we learn the importance of words and dialog in graphic novels. We also learn about word/picture combinations and the different types that are used in graphic novels. This page from "Blue Pills" is a very good example of the use of " Parallel Combinations". In parallel combinations the words and pictures don't really connect at all, though their paths may bend toward each other in later panel. While the main character is riding a mammoth and smoking, they are both talking about his inner conflict with his lover and her HIV virus. Mammoths and smoking have nothing to do with HIV, in fact you could erase all of the pictures and redraw the main character having a conversation with an old wise man or a tree or anything really. The Mammoth has nothing to do with the dialog really it is just aesthetically pleasing and it helps understand that he may be having this conversation with himself or in his own mind and that its not a real mammoth he is talking to.

Making Comics - Heavy Liquid

On Pages 100 to 115 Scott McCloud goes over the importance and use of Body Language in the panels of graphic novels. He teaches us how to use body language to relate feelings, moods, ideas and situations through the poses of our characters. How with just the way the character is standing or moving, we as the reader can tell what he is feeling, thinking, or wanting. Through body language we can tell things about a characters personality, their health, their situation and many other things. This page from "Heavy Liquid" is a good example of this. Through the characters stiffness and static posture we call tell this is a serious situation they are in, they are both standing firm on their positions and actions, and it gives us as the readers a very awkward and uncomfortable feeling. We as the viewer can feel the tension between the two characters without even reading the what the characters are saying. This is a good use of body language.

Making Comics - Blue Pills - Aileen Thomas

This week in Making Comics there was a lot of discussion on emotions and how to portray them. With the use of body language, facial cues, dialogue and symbolism you can communicate to the reader what the character is feeling.




In blue pills a lot of the emotion was helped by symbolism and juxtoposition. For these two panels they were neither on a raft nor in a hairy darkness, but this was how the artist depicted their feelings. One doesn't have to read what is going on to get the gist that in one they are happy and carefree and in the other she is feeling surrounded and frightened.

Making Comics-Meka -Megan Lloyd

This book was in French. (Still is in French) I took a year of french in te 7th grade which was little to no help. However, it turns out body language is universal. These two pilots are stranded inside the Mecha with no hope of rescue. Although they've been angry with one another and fighting, his body language shows that he really does need her--care about her.

Why use words when you can get the job done with a look?

Making Comics - Solanin

I love this page (specifically the top panel) for the body language.  I feel like this comic and this page does a great job of telling the story, and what the characters are feeling and thinking through their body language, which is what I read about in Making Comics this week.  The top panel is especially clear.  The audience knows immediately that Meiko is in extreme emotional pain from her body language while her friend is trying to help her but doesn't really have much power to do so.

Making Comics - Powers: Psychotic

On page 107 of Making Comics, McCloud is deep into the principle of body language, compounding it with facial expression to create mood. Specifically he discusses the spatial relationship between characters, how closeness indicates familiarity and distance the opposite. Used to great effect throughout, Oeming adds familiarity to the relationship between Calista (the new Retro Girl) and Walker by minimizing the space between them.

Making Comics - Hell Boy: Conqueror Worm

Mike Mignola greatest clarity comes from how well he stages his characters. The body language always communicates the emotion with strong silhouettes. These pages are somewhere in the middle of the comic book.

Making Comics - Tout Seul

In Making Comics Scott McCloud talks about the importance of facial expressions that your character shows. On this page in Tout Seul everything you need to know about the intereaction of these two characters is shown in their facial expressions. The words here just add extra clarity. If your character's interaction is not clear in their facial expressions it will be much harder to make it convincing through words alone.

Making Comics - Moving Pictures

In Making Comics, Scott McCloud discusses body language and its relation to, and difference from facial expressions: "expressions are more surface-oriented... while body language is more silhouette-based, all about how our limbs, hands and head are positioned" (pg 103).

In the 2nd panel (pg 93 of the novel) you can see the basic shapes of eyes and nose and how they communicate an attitude of the woman. Much stronger in mood communication however are the 4th and 5th panels. Even though little of each character's bodies are shown, their relation to each other and the gesture, simple as it is, establishes the feelings right there in that scene.

Making Comics - The Sandman: Season of Mists

On Page 99 of "Making Comics", Scott McCloud Advises us that "If Emotional Changes are the Focus of a given scene, devoting a panel to Each Change Of Emotion might achieve the Intensity the scene requires. The page above from "The Sandman: Season of Mists" is a great example of this technique. Each panel gives the viewer an understanding of each different emotion lucifer is experiencing. This gives more intensity to each separate emotion that he has in the page, a subtly leads us into the extreme emotion in the final panel.

Making Comics - Moving Pictures

The principle of Emotion and Facial Expression was talked about in Making comics from this read. Although the Moving Pictures has very little of this principle, (most faces drawn with very dramatic shadow and lighting), Immonen (author) does draw emotions where it seems necessary, and it actually seem to emphasize the emotion because it’s not shown often. On page 23, on the first panel we can see the lowered eyebrow representing a hint of suspicion and hint of resentment; on the third panel we see slight variation on the angle of her eyebrows denoting annoyance and confusion.