I have never read a comic book in my life. The closest I have gotten was child story books I read when I was little. So, this book really opened my eyes to the world of comics from the past and modern.
As soon as I started reading it, I was confused about the order of panels I should read them in. But, as I keep on reading, it has became a habit to start reading from left to right, or up and down, or mixed everything up. I got used to it and just figured it out. I could also tell how the story progresses through the layout of panels as well, which mentioned in chapter three and four. People perceive the world as a whole through the experiences of our senses. No one experiences everything or can see all aspects of everything, so we rely on our senses and imagination to complete things. In comics, observing the parts but perceiving the whole is called closure. The space between panels, called gutter, is where our imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a whole. I thought that was really fascinating because I wasn't even realizing I was connecting the panels together while reading. The closures allow people to connect the separate moments into a continuous reality.
Before I read this book, I thought comics are just like cartoon in black and white written forms. My understanding was not wrong, but comics is so much more than just cartoon. It has 3000 years of history, but that depends on how you see it. It's hard to be considered as comics back then because people have narrow understanding. Cartoon is an approach to picture-making, but comics is a medium which often employs that approach. There are a lot of ways to understand comics, but the point is to not limit on the definition because it's still evolving.
There are six steps to create comics, which are purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft and surface. There is so much going into each step that I haven't considered, such as the vocabulary, time frames for each scene, drawing styles and the visible and invisible ways of showing different senses. It's a very sophisticated process. It's just like product development. Characters, their personalities, their emotions and so on are all shown through black and white lines. Sometimes, you could tell what the atmosphere is like without words on the screen. The background can be another valuable tool for indicating invisible elements. Icons can also illustrate sounds or other invisible components. Also, panel shapes can not only reflect time, but also put empathize on the tone of a scene or a moment.
Figure 1
I thought it was interesting how audience perceive the style of characters (Figure 1). It's not just a style of drawing, but also determines how readers receive the message. When the characters are too realistic, people will notice more on the details of the characters and how everything looks. But, when it's in between reality and simplicity, people notice more on the story and what the character has to say. When it's too simple, people find it hard to resemble. At the same time, they can be used in the same comics, which is all depends on the author and story.
At the end, people can define comics how they want. The power of commanding viewer involvement and capture and simplify the visual world is something I think it's really special.
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