UNDERSTANDING COMICS - THE INVISIBLE ART

CHAPTER TWO - THE VOCABULARY OF COMICS

Comics deserve a lot more credit then what people give. I should know because i never used to be interested in comics at all. To me they were to hard to relate to probably because back then i used to just read the words and not briefly look at the pictures. I mean i would see the picture but not really see it.

After reading Chapter two of "Understanding Comics - The Invisible Art" Scott McCloud gives a clear understanding of what your brain actually sees when reading comics or looking at sequencial art. He explains how you dont have to see really detailed pictures in order to understand what they are. For example he shows a picture of a detailed picture of a guys face then a picture of a circle with two dots and a line (which represent eyes and a mouth). Although the second picture is much more simplistic we still recognise it as a face, possibly our own.

(Picture was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka)

Also in this Chapter Scott McCloud talks of the work of many artists including Osamu Tezuka (picture shown above), famous in Japan for his comics as well as his hit television cartoon series Kimba the White Lion.

(image taken from http://www.kimbawlion.com/)

Kimba the White Lion was the first coloured animation on tv and it was so popular that it was bought by many other countries. This cartoon series was created mainly for the younger viewer. You can tell this from the way the characters speak to each other as well as looking at how the characters are created. Osamu orginally took his inspiration from other famous artists work, for example Walt Disney's mickey mouse character, but he created his cartoons using a style known as Manga. Its a shame to know that Walt Disney's - "The Lion King" was a rip off from Osamu Tezuka's famous series "Kimba the White Lion". But "The Lion King" has been produced in a different way. The storyline is still similar but the overall target audience is both children and adults alike. Walt Disneys animations are much more detailed and flow much like a movie.

(Picture was taken from www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/lion-king-DVDc)

This takes me back to "Understanding Comics - Chapter 2". McCloud mentions the fact that Disney have been producing animations for over 50 years with a lot of detail in backgrounds and less detail on the characters themselves. This has been done so that the viewers attention is shifted. Obviously the more detailed the background/object or character the more the artist wants us the viewer to know about that particular thing. If a character etc is created with little detail then the artist wants us to make that character or thing our own. They want us to not so much put ourselves into that position but give us more possibilites for what could happen. This can also be found in many Japanese cartoons as well (they do this very well).

Therefore after reading the second chapter to McClouds "Understanding Comics" i have come to realise that if there is more detail either in a peice of art or a movie or a comic, its there to draw us in. We need to focus on that detail as its an extremely important thing. Also its the same for less detail. There is less detail because we must create that detail ourselves in our minds.