Lainey has opinions on comics

Scott McCloud's comic about comics not only taught me how comprehend graphic narratives, but media in general. Words and pictures in combination are such a part of our daily lives that we hardly ever take a second to analyze them. A lot of what I read seemed obvious as I read it. He dissected the basic building blocks of comprehension. How we create closure when part of the image isn't there.  We infer not only time but motion and action between panels. We see a raised axe with motion lines juxtaposed with a scream over a skyline, it's us who decapitated him. I'm currently reading Chew, a comic series about an FDA agent who can detect the entire history of every bite of food he eats. He uses this to solve crimes and often is forced to eat human flesh. Murderous sadists and cannibals abound, it can be kind of a gorey ride. The artist often uses this subject-to-subject transition technique to get around showing the super-violet details. In once scene, a raging canniba

I first learned about Windsor McKay while writing a paper on early animation in high school. I was mostly fascinated by Gertie, something about her character was so appealing and timeless, like the land before time dinos I loved as a child. We discussed him more in my History of Animation class last year. Little Nemo in Slumberland was high quality character animation, I was astounded that it was one of the first ones ever. I mentioned how striking of an experience reading graphic novels was after Understanding Comics in my last entry. This awareness of form and ahah moments continued into my reading of Peanuts. The four panel strip is a perfectly synthesized contained form of comics. A simple cause and effect with only images can be hilarious and ironic. The dialogue often opposes what's going on in frame. This strip works on so many levels, and the first three panels basically show the same action. I found my self laughing out loud, reading alone. The strips perfectly capt

The Arrival is a graphic narrative that is told without dialogue or captions. We read the story through a series of juxtaposed images. These range from tiny cubes that fill up a page to giant double page spreads with sweeping vistas of jarring settings. Boiled down to the essence, the story is an allegory to immigration. A loving family lives in an inhospitable place. The father has to leave them in pursuit of a better life. The family and their original home has a similar visual language to what we are used to. Their home is a modest city dwelling with teacups and table clocks sitting about. Father wears a suit and a bowler hat. This serves as a basis for the immense contrast that's about to come. The visual language of the new city is vastly different and completely new to us, however it remains consistent and logical. Cones and spherical shapes dominate rather than square. There are sculptures bigger than buildings, and bird/bugs that fly in swarms above. It's fantastic