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The nature and origins of
Comix/Comics Or: A definition, for my own
purposes, of Sequential Narrative Art [ what I do ] Sequential Narrative Art: Art that contains a
narrative communicated to the audience by a sequence of images (2 or more)
delineated by space, structural elements, or composition so that
viewers/readers are led through the narrative in a specific manner. The
images must exist in their own space, rather than all appearing in sequence
in the same space, so that there may be a moment of Juxtaposition between
given images. Whether they may do both though, say, as in multiple screens
relaying a series of images in panels that change over time, is possibly open
for debate. [see my reference to Michal Rovner's work at the end of
this] The Narrative is contained in
both the images shown, and those implied to the audience by the juxtaposition
of the images/ideas shown. In this way Sequential Narrative
Art is made up as much by what is not show as by what is. What happens
between the panels in the readers mind. Without this juxtaposition, the work
is not Sequential Narrative Art. I should stipulate here that if
two images are placed side-by-side juxtaposition occurs naturally; it simply
becomes a question of whether or not the relationship is planned or
accidental. A gallery showing where the curator has placed the individual
images on the wall in such a way as to create a relationship between them
becomes a planned example of Sequential Art, a narrative can be created where
one may not have existed previously. Posters randomly plastering a wall can
become a spontaneous unplanned narrative if an audience is willing to do the
story telling. I'll explore this idea a bit more under the heading of
Abstraction later on in this text.
The introduction of text is
simply another layer of meaning added to the narrative using Linguistic Icons
[symbols that represent spoken words and sounds]. For most Sequential
Narrative Art in the sub medium of Comics, text is incorporated using the
aforementioned balloons and boxes, integrating the text into the image field
and making it a part of the art. This is often furthered buy the use of
specialized fonts or lettering done by hand. In some instances the text is
integrated completely, laid directly into the artwork with no segregation of
structure by balloons or boxes. From many creators
perspectives, Text is seen as part of the Art, rather than a
companion element of the Art - The opposing convention being that comics are
the marriage of text and art, a POV that I think is wrong in it's basic
order, I see Sequential Narrative Art as older than the former and the
natural descendant of the later.
There is a fair argument for
this in the fact that text itself is simply a highly abstracted set of icons that
has specific meaning in the context of a given language - And many creators
treat the art as a form of text, sighting that the usually more
representational images of Comics have many potential encoded meanings that
can be tapped and utilized in storytelling. IE: A gun or fist pointed at
the viewer often equates a potential for violence, a smile happiness, and so
on. There are plenty of exceptions, gaps and disagreements between the
different perceived meanings found by individuals in any given image. Far
more than with written language. But specific meaning can be built out of a
set of icons like this. The more involved the icons, and the more layers of
juxtaposition, the more involved the narrative tends to be. The encoded meaning, natural or
introduced, in images is a major component to the function of Sequential
Narrative Art. The lines between text and Sequential Narrative Art further
blur when you take into account works that use such a high degree of
abstraction that the art only bares a passing, group-consensus built
resemblance to what it represents, a easy ready example being stick figures. While they have two arms, two
legs, a body & head, they look very little like people, and nothing like
a specific person. Yet there is enough information encoded in their simple
form that almost universally they will be recognised as people. Given a few
alterations, hints at hairlines or other iconic bits of specific information,
they can be made to represent specific people; Assuming the iconic bits are understood
by the viewers.
A much more refined example can
be found in Manga [the Japanese name for Comics]. Some Manga authors use
almost standardized highly refined icons in the art and lettering of their
stories. Specifically, stylized speed lines, character mood signifiers and
pictograms, and even specialized sound effect pictograms. Not quite truly universal,
some of them can take some explaining for foreign readers. But for those who
are Manga literate they are highly effective. For these reasons and more I
see Sequential Narrative Art as kissing cousin to written language, with more
in common with literature than any other medium of communication.
Just as with writing it takes craft and skill to
construct meaning this way successfully, the consequences of not using the
right, truly universal icons, results in the all too frequent occurrence of
cursing due to a model kit or self assembly item's instruction set
frustrating a befuddled user. Sequential Narrative Art can be
both basic and complex at once. By being a complete form of pictographic and
iconic language it has access to the full range of the human species' visual
vocabulary. If you understand your tools it's a medium with immense
potential. Many a creator has been heard to claim that we’ve barely scratched
the surface of what could be done. From our most instinctive innate
understanding of body language, to our most abstract form of language, the
written word it has an awful lot of horse power at it’s disposal. To my mind,
in it's completeness; it is the most facile of the pre20th century technology
(reliant) visual arts or written languages. But it is also one of the most
difficult to master, seldom a stable form of communication if it's
practitioners are not adept in their execution or astute in their
understanding of the mediums working parts. “LIKEMOVESONPAPER” There is a lingering and
pervasive impression in the public mind that sees comics as related more to
cinema via their shared temporal nature, and by their similarity to
storyboards; A tool frequently used by filmmakers in the developmental stages
of their work. I see this relationship as valid, but I suspect from a
different point of view than many: Most opinions on this that I have
encountered fall into the habit of imposing a comparative value judgment on
the relationship. Often that Film is the superior medium, with a fully
developed language for academic criticism. That comics need to learn from
Cinema. Comics creators, who in recent
history have been suffering from a substantial crisis of ego, have retaliated
with the trumpeting of Comics as better than sliced bread. Both are silly over statements
of ego or pride. One is older than the other,
that's all. Comics can learn from film, just as all Art forms can inform
other Art forms. Certainly Film, the younger medium, has learned a thing or
two from Sequential Narrative Art. Filmmakers have justifiably
co-opted the older, pre-existing medium of Sequential Narrative Art for their
own needs; for the same reason it engages me as a storyteller: It is able to
describe just as film can, fully, if not quite identically, the temporal
human experience. It's the perfect tool for
planning a story out, and in its stripped-down limited form as a Storyboard,
it has great strength in its efficient organization of linear or temporal
information; Adept at depicting the passage of time and the events that occur
from one moment to the next as we move through our universe temporally. IMO: So much so that the
depiction of a series of images that represent brief moment-to-moment
transitions tends to universally imply both motion and suggest the ticking of
a clock or beating of a drum. It is also an effective way to build a sense of
tension. Anxiety, shock or pending horror are all easily suggested. Storyboard style Comics have
recently enjoyed a lot of good press, complemented for their excellent pacing
and clean structure. Their proponents
have in some instances been quick to sight their clarity.
Also the presence of Rhythm in the
medium has led me to often contemplate the lessons that music can teach a
storyteller. The flexing of pace, tempo, tone and colour, too invoke an
emotional response in the audience. Stepping back to the big
picture; The possibilities are intriguing. Aside from the
arbitrary boundaries suggested buy some practitioners of the medium; there is
nothing in my perception or definition of the medium that intrinsically rules
out three-dimensional imagery, or states that the imagery be always static,
so long as the existence of juxtaposition occurs to communicate a narrative. In Abstraction the Narrative
itself can be inferred by the reader with open icons and suggestive imagery,
rather than implied with specific words or forms, as is the norm. In it's
most abstract form it might look a lot like noise. But if the readers
participate, finding their own narratives in the juxtaposition of the images
& icons, the Author[s] will have succeeded in creating a conversation
between the audience and the art itself. The Author[s] can attempt to
contrive the abstraction to imply specific meaning or experiment with random
imagery to see what readers invent with it.
Also I see the work of some
Curators as a form of Sequential Narrative Art. Hanging the individual pieces
of work in such a manner as to create a theme or story. Or in the case of a
retrospective, tell the story of a career or movement. The individual images
may not have been originally intended to relay that story but if they are
composed on the gallery walls to do so they become part of a Sequential
Narrative. It has also been suggested,
most notably by Scott McCloud, that the abstraction of a comic
character's features can allow for readers to project their own personalities
onto the characters, allowing greater reader interaction, empathy and
involvement with the story. Just as with an abstracted narrative this
requires a willing reader's participation. But if successful, the author can
create characters who for many readers, become masks through which they can
immerse themselves in the story. In Representationalism:
Sequential Narrative Art can relay stories as well and in as much detail as
any other pre20thC medium; Having at its disposal, all the tools and
accomplishments of written prose, fine arts, photography, and any one or more
of the millions of other ways a mark can be placed or projected on a surface.
In Representationalism, great
specific clarity of event and place can be achieved, as seen in the recent
Journalistic works of Joe Sacco, [Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde.]
It's worth noting that in his books Sacco combined both Abstraction;
most noticeably in the characterizations of his players, and especially in
his own likeness. And Representationalism; in the environment,
describing in painstakingly accurate detail the look and feel of war torn
regions. This balance is often sighted as one of the features of his books
that makes them so compelling. Sequential Narrative Art is
hardly the poor cousin to Literature or the bastard innovation of comic
strips as is claimed so often by it's detractors. Even from the ranks of its
admirers it's often done the injustice of attributing it to so-called 'low
brow' ancestry. In an effort to claim the medium as one of the few uniquely
American arts, the majority culture has for the last 80 or so years ignored
and discounted its rich history that traces the evolution of written human
communication, instead relegating it to recent innovations of children's
literature and pulp entertainment for the masses, trivializing it's
existence. While I have more respect for pulp entertainment and children's
literature than most, this is a wholly erroneous origin myth. Certainly until the advent of cinema it was, in one form or another, a dominant popular form of mass communication. From Narrative Gothic Stain Glass, Hieroglyphs, Illuminated Scrolls, Tapestries, Murals, Sculpture Gardens, Relief Sculpture, Mosaics, Medieval Illumination, Theatre Staging, Chinese Script and Cave Painting, and on and on, Sequential Narrative Arts have always been here.
Modern Comic Books,
as we commonly think of them, have been around for at least 200 years.
Sequential art is considerably older but the ‘book’ incarnation arose with
the development of early printing techniques, first manual, etching by hand,
and then semi-mechanical in the early 1800's. One could easily make the case that some
illuminated texts going back to the early hundreds qualify. Certainly many do
posses most of the general properties. But Those books take forms somewhat
less obviously similar to Modern Comic Books. The works of J.F. von
Goez in 1783 and Rodolphe Töpffer in the 1800's most resembles what
you find in the pages of contemporary Comic Books. These first cartoons were
the natural form of Sequential Narrative Art in conjunction with the advent
of available technology. Just as Web Comics are of the Internet today, the
Egyptian Hieroglyphs of stone and chisel, early cave paintings of pigment and
hands, Babylonian cuneiform of clay and sticks. Cinema, its 20thC
technologically driven cousin, has at times returned to the conventions of
Sequential Narrative Art as a method within the confines of it's silver
screen. Moviemakers have used multiple juxtaposed images in space on occasion
from early on in the medium's history. My favourite modern example is the
1968 film The Boston Strangler by Richard Fleischer, where as a
device it was used throughout the film to depict simultaneous storylines. The
different storylines appeared in shifting panels that were composed against a
black field, creating a negative space for juxtaposition. The shape of the
panels themselves even changed affecting the reading of the film, affecting
mood and tension. When locations overlapped it represented multiple POVs. The
technique enjoyed a renaissance in 70's Hollywood and seems to me to be
recently making a comeback over the last few years. I have even seen one form of Cinema,
a work of Video Art, transform itself completely into a true work of
Sequential Narrative Art.
It consisted of a large
rectangular room with 5 screens down each of the two longer sides. Each was approximately 8ftW x
10ftH, with only a narrow gap of about 2 to 4 inches between them [approximated from memory]. The rest of the room, from
textured river stone floor to cloth-covered wall to acoustic tile ceiling was
black. At the short ends of the room
were long low wide benches [also black], and at one end the entrance. On each wall a sequence of
sampled video loops, very iconic in nature, high contrast and duotone, were
projected on the screens. In Overhanging Images were Juxtaposed against
each other, side by side, and across the room. From the point of view of the
benches the viewer was invited to impose a narrative on a series of meaning
loaded iconic images of figures moving through an anonymous landscape also populated but what looked to be a lot of misquotes. In the center frame on one side an loop of a falcon beating its' wings played much of the time I was in the room. Other similar images were used as well. In addition it incorporated abstracted ambient audio
and the neutral space of the darkness, the result being an instillation that
was quite evocative. It struck me how much it shared
in form with many conventional comics. It struck me that it was in all the
ways that I think count, Sequential Narrative Art. More to come… Max
Douglas is an artist and storyteller often found behind
the pen name of Salgood Sam. He’s worked in the comics industry, film
and animation; and currently wallows in the so called ‘underground’, getting
up to ink or draw mainstream comics for cash from time to time.
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