The Graphic Code Of Comics

Lecture Notes: 

Comics are a very flexible and malleable format of storytelling. They can range from a whole variety of genres that span across comedy, slice of life, action, horror, etc. They are very comparable to that of other visual-storytelling media such as film, video gaming, television and more. What sets the comic apart from the aforementioned formats, are it's qualities in keeping our attention throughout a page's spread, and how well the panels, speech/thought bubbles, and overall narrative of the story can engage its readers. The comic can be very intricate in how it is perceived, as it is a well put together blend of both illustration and graphic design.

​The questions a comic book creator will have to ask themselves, would be on where a certain placement of a panel would go on the page, how much negative spacing they will use in the gutter space behind and in-between the panels, thought/speech bubbles, the text that accompanies them, as well as keeping in tandem with the previous and next panels that show moments and integral action snippets that serve the narrative visually. These would be specific imagery and visual cues that would result in action poses, environment changes, colour changes, perspective shifting, etc.

​Other ways in which a story can be visually shown (as that is the golden rule to show and tell very little in illustrative media), is by showing specific elements off screen and what we don't see happening. An example of this could be a character's murder and instead, we may see a city landscape with a large speech bubble of them screaming, perhaps accompanied by onomatopoeia to exaggerate the dramatic weight of what has happened in the scene.

Then we have the encoding and decoding, elements that are encoded into comics, is the base form of the comic strip/book; meaning it is the media you are interacting with, as it is a fully developed and finished graphic novel;  and you are actively reading and engaging in it. Which is where the decoding comes in, which is influenced by how fast you read, where you look, how long you look, etc. 

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David Steinberger, ed. (2023). Comixology. New York City, USA.

During our session with Nick today, we were informed and shown the basics and uses of transitional comic book panels and how to bridge scenes with one another, without the environmental changes being too jarring to the reader, essentially taking them out of the experience and ruining the story.

In Scott McCloud's entertaining tutorial book; 'Understanding comics'. McCloud delves into the intricate details of the creation of comics, like how to picture an angle between two panels that show two angles that spread across by two points of view. This can help give a feeling of depth and an extra dimension to be added to the art of the comic. There are also ways to balance the pace of the story with action and slower moments of downtime with the characters and environments taking place within the story. Its very important to stop and think about these graphical elements, as comics are reliant on them and it can make or break an immersive reading experience. 

Scott. M., ed. (1993). Understanding Comics. Boston, Massachusetts.

Task: Analysing 'The Crow' By James O' Barr

In this task, I have been asked to pick an individual artist and analyse a page of their work in a comic. I have decided to pick the works of a creative man I admire very much, that being the multi-award winning independent comic book writer, and artist/illustrator: James O' Barr. And I have chosen to assess his gothic revenge-fantasy story, as well as my favourite comic book story ever made: 'The Crow'. 

Mr O' Barr faced a very tough time in his life, having been thrusted into adoption very early on in his life, having no recollection of his birthday, and worst of all; having lost his fiancee in a car accident that inspired the development of 'The Crow'. The comic follows the story of a character by the name of 'Eric', (whom James projected himself onto); and Shelly, an accurate depiction of his own late fiancee, Beverly. Eric having been recently resurrected by a crow, giving him a second chance to hunt down his killers who had murdered him and his wife, and return to the afterlife where he will meet Shelly again.

This comic is a very deep, blunt, and raw take on how important the concept of love is, and this comic tells it through a very dark, gothic and bloody lens. The comic was so successful and influential on it's own, just by being sold at local comic shops through the now defunct; 'Calibur Comics'. The comic has been re-released several times and Is still in print today, with more stories being told other than just Eric's, with a monumental film adaptation following the comic in the early 1990's starring Bruce Lee's son, Brandon Lee. Unfortunately, The Crow's tragic background followed into the film's production and Lee had passed away during filming due to a prop gun's blank bullet malfunction accidentally puncturing him in the abdomen. Regardless, they released the film and it was a massive success just like the comic, and is still revered today as a cult classic.

James. O'B., ed. (1989). The Crow. Detroid, USA.

The pages I have chosen to showcase for this task, is the final battle where Eric faces off against the last gang member (T-Bird)  who killed him and his wife on the open road, which is reflected in the right page. 

The reason why I chose the left page, is because there is constant action happening, with Eric taking on several of T-Bird's men. And I feel it applies the same principals as what was described in Scott McCloud's transition chapter in his book. We see Eric constantly keep up the pace by using his bare fists, but also the gangs own weapons against them. Such as the knife he takes from one gangster, and in a cleverly planned out transition, we see Eric go from wielding the knife with a sinister grin, to them seeing Eric throw up another gangster, using the knife to do so. In the left page, it is constant chaos and a very bloody scene.

 In the right hand side however, where we finally get to see the main villain's defeat after causing Eric so much pain, we get to really soak in the notions of the moment as the battles are done, T-Bird and his gang are now finished, and Eric will return to shelly in due time; all that was left was to put T-Bird out of his misery and have Eric poetically monologue to his defeated adversary.

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Link Source:

https://thecrowcomics.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/the-crow-trade-paper-back-version-part-3/

​https://archive.org/details/understanding-comics/mode/2up

​https://www.reddit.com/r/Comixology/?rdt=39469