Friday, November 28, 2008

Scott McCloud - The invisible Art

According to this US (or something) Comics drawer, the art of comics is invisible, like the film; the movement, what really matters, goes on between the pictures, in your brain.

This led him to an interesting classification on relations between two consecutive picures in a comic:
  • - "years later"
  • - scene to scene (of which "years later" would really be a species)
  • - actor to actor (like he to she when describing a date or protagonist to antagonist when describing a battle)
  • - action to action (like one picture he has hands in pocket, next he has cigarette in hand ready to light it)
  • - micro-second to micro-second (like slow motion in a picure)
  • - non-temporal, change of perspective on a room or a storm or ...
  • - unrelated, unconnected (at least so far, at least in time and space) *


He also has an interesting observation on which kinds of transitions Hergé would make a priority, and which kinds get more attention in the manga.


Scott McCloud in Comiclopedia

Scott has a homepage too ...

Panel on theme: My Dad Makes Comics (feat. two daughters of Scott McCloud)

* This led him to an interesting classification on relations between two consecutive picures in a comic (follows the correct list):
  • 1 Moment to moment (within an action)
  • 2 Action to action (same subject and within scene)
  • 3 Subject to subject (within a scene)
  • 4 Scene to scene (within story)
  • 5 Aspect to aspect (within "moment"/non-moment/mood)
  • 6 unrelated and unconnected

Tintin-style - heavy emphasis on 2-3-4.
Manga-style - more of 1 and 5, less heavy emphasis on 2-3-4.
Absurdism - uses 6.