Week3) Comic scripts

Some people or maybe most of people in the USA have good memory with the comic script or at least the memory playing with the newspaper. The comics comes with the newspaper might increase your interest on the newspaper. However, I personally do not have any memory with the comics or newspaper because my family did not subscribed any of newspaper. The only time seeing newspaper was when my dad brought the newspaper from his workplace. And even if my family subscribed the newspapers, it cannot be that big part of your life compared to people living in the USA because the comic script is not big thing in my country.

It was refreshing and exciting to see really entertaining comics around those period. The characters in the comics they were dreaming, going to the adventured, making unexpected friends, something you could hardly imagine at that time. It would be wonderful to have these media in my country at same period. It still has really basic forms but it works perfectly well. The each stories fit for the daily newspaper sized and it carried pretty well. I could see people waiting the next episodes to see where or what would happen next. Also now I finally can see this would work as my childhood TV shows to children too!

Mainly I was amazed by was Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.  The costumes, design, characters and the contents itself are so beautifully done. It was hard to believe that it was published on just newspaper. Also this comic script required to used its own technique to print it out, and many people dedicated on this. This fact blew me out. 

Week 2) Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

In the Understanding Comics by McCloud it not only explains the definition of comics but also let the readers think what is the comic as an art. In general idea, the comic has been known for the kids or underrated than the text formed book, although the images helps people to get the concept of the idea without any education, ages or social status unlikely the regular book. As an artist, this reminds me the importance of the core idea, the form of the art and how I could make the reader perceive my work. 

This books starts with telling the differences between the other forms of the arts; illustration, movie, animation etc., which I’ve never thought deeply enough although I am studying the animation. As defining the comics in the context form, I re-realized that comic is not just sequence images. This is more complex form of images.

The interesting part was when McCloud compared Japanese comics and western culture based comics, how they approach to the story. The differences were too obvious by just seeing how these cultures constructed the panels and how they use it. As showing the techniques of storytelling of the comic; moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subjective to subjective, scene-to-scene, aspect to aspect, and non sequitur McCloud says that scene-to-scene, slow cinematic movement, was applied in Japanese comics more compare to western culture. He added that it must be based on the how they do the storytelling not only just for the techniques. The western culture tends to straightly go to the goal or the point what they are trying to say while the eastern culture usually implies the point, circling around. Simply, if the main point shows on the beginning of the context, it is western, if on the last, it is eastern.

As an artist, and as a person who already has the experience making the comics, the context of this book was not new to me. However, it would be better he explains or compares more about the panel/ frames because this is most of people having problem. I do not know much about the American or European comics but Japanese manga has the more complicated techniques of using panels. Therefore although many artists have story, concept, characters etc. they are in panic just seeing empty white space. 

Week 2) The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The essential way to narrate the story in the graphic comics usually considered with the combination of nice drawings and the words. In this way, the characters think and communicate each other. This is how the author develops the story in the comics. In Shaun Tan's work, The Arrival, however, he shows only drawings could effectively tell the story without the any words.  Personally I got shock on the quality of the each drawing with no words in there. It feels like watching movie without the sound. Automatically this music played in my head. It helped me to read the mood better and focus on this book more.
 

The comic I have read through my whole life is a basically Japanese comic, manga, which has the so many techniques on it. Compare to the manga, this work is very simple; mostly equal mount of space for each drawing, no bubbles for the words, no sound effects, no tones etc. Literally it was continuous nice drawings. This is why I had trouble to get the idea what Shaun Tan exactly tried to show. I was confused until the ending came out that the daughter helped other immigrants in the town. To read the real story, I needed to go back and forth to get the Shaun Tan’s idea. At the beginning, when his wife reaches out the hand over the husband’s hands, I thought her hand is husband’s. It would be clearer if the drawing were with the sound effect. On the recalling scene of the old man who shared the food with the husband, it seemed currently happening in there.

However, without the other techniques, he did amazing job through smart way. In the scene of the days passing by on the ship, he only drew the clouds and it works really well!

Also when the husband confused with the new world, language people, it visually shows the character's strange and weird feeling about the new things.