Throughout the chapter, McCloud makes constant reference to the differences between image and illustration. While words are considered to be more abstract art (In static terms) and pictures as more representation, current artistic trends are seeing the development and allowing them to cross into each others fields. And this is where the clash we see within the likes of comics begins. And while images and writing separately can easily be considered ‘high art’, the combination of the two is often overlooked and seen as childish and not seeing how useful it can be. It is in fact the combination of words and image that are propelling comics forward in style and content. Through it ideas can be connected in unlimited ways. Words can reflect or detract from what’s being said in the picture or they can give us storyline, expression emotion or specific detail ultimately rendering them as an extremely powerful tool for shaping the direction of the comic. I’ve got a few examples of some comics that show a successful combination of script and illustration and others that fail when trying to overwork certain aspects.
As I spend a lot of time on the internet I find myself reading a lot of web comics, more so than ones such as Marvel, DC or whatnot. What differs web comics from others is the fact they often focus on humour rather than artistic content or messages within the comic itself. For this reason, they will often allow most of the writing to lead up to the joke, only using images to back up their script or for a visual pun. A clear example of this is my first case in point ‘Control-Alt-Delete’ (http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php) It follows a typical comedic web comic format, an establishment panel, one or two for building up the joke and the final delivering the punch line. I wouldn’t really hold in the highest regard for quality (Yet I still read it for some reason), because it suffers from one fatal flaw. Walls of text. While understandable for web comics to use text to achieve their means, CAD tends to dominate each frame with text that isn’t 100% necessary. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad if the artwork was stylistic or exploratory, but most of his character are simple copy and paste designs who’s same expression can be seen in the past 3 years of his artwork.
Walls of text:
An example directly opposite of the CAD comic would be the ‘Breaking Quarantine’ comic from the Halo Graphic Novel. Look at the page below
It contains absolutely no text apart from sound effect (In Japanese by the way), and in essence they become part of the artwork style. In fact the entire comic has no text at all apart from these effects. And it works. The comic is based upon the action-packed escape of Sergent Johnson from a pursuing, grotesque alien menace called the Flood. It’s meant to be tense and intense, and the vibrant and expressive art style shows this (Kind of gives reference to my last blog with the use of line in an…explosive…sense). But by adding in the sound effects the artist is able to strengthen while adding another sense to the comic, further immersing the reading and adding more tension and emotion to the already startling action-oriented artwork.
While comics like XKCD (www.xkcd.com) or Cyanide and Happiness (www.explosm.net) go for more text and little images but somehow work better than CAD. Example:
The characters are simple, and the text is short and sweet. And the punch lines are always hilarious. The comics themselves are kind of like jokes you tell to friend, but put into a comic format. Yet a lot of the humour comes from the little characters within the comic. They’re so simple, yet can be warped and changed in a number of ways to create hilarious expressions and/or comical stances. And it’s because of their simplistic nature that makes such exotic poses so funny. Combined with jokes that are already funny without images you have comics that cannot fail to satisfy.
By combining two mediums that are already brilliant in expressing the human soul, comics are able to utilise their two spectrums to shift their work in new directions and weave new ways for storytelling and message transmission. And such techniques are certainly having an impact on me, because I to wish to use these mediums to bring some comedy into peoples lives too:
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