literature of comics and the graphic narrative: amira shaer

To begin to explore the nature of early comic books, I turned to a classic that I never really got into, for whatever reason-- the Legend of Batman/Batman #1, by Bob Kane. It makes sense that it hits all the marks that classic comic books tend to; one of the first of these qualities that struck me was the use of color. Bright, saturated colors are used consistently throughout the comic, and the color blue is present in nearly every panel, whether used sparsely or not. Perhaps this is meant to bring everything back to our protagonist, Batman, as the main color used to render him in his costume-- and even outside of it-- is a rich, bright blue. Another notable quality about Batman is the way the story seems to draw so heavily on earlier Pulp fiction works. The presence of gangsters, violent criminals, etc., and a sense of self imposed vigilante justice are consistent themes in Batman that were also used often in Pulp works. Specifically I'm seeing influences from characters like Di

I'm particularly fond of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland comics. Visually the style is so spot on in how it relates to the content of the piece; the colors, composition, and the overall quality of the images immediately-- at least for me-- evoke the feeling of a dreamlike state. We also see McCay employing some of the concepts of abstraction and simplification of characters and environments that Scott McCloud touches on in his Understanding Comics. The main character, Nemo, is not terribly complex in regards to his visual design, making him easy for viewers to project onto/identify with to some extent. In comparison, the various characters he meets in his dreams are often rendered with more complexity-- a choice likely necessitated out of wanting to emphasize the otherness or outlandishness of these characters, and to push the idea that Nemo has left his known reality and entered Slumberland. McCay also consistently places Nemo in lavish, more complexly done backgroun

The concept of varying the level of a character's visual complexity in the interest of achieving a certain affect on the reader was a very interesting point brought up by McCloud; the idea of iconic abstraction aided in the understanding and expanding of this subject. I had never really considered how the simplification of a character or even an object could affect the involvement of the audience, as obvious as it seems now having read McCloud's take on this concept. I considered the abstraction of a character a stylistic, aesthetic choice, and not so much something meant to engage a reader on that sort of psychological and personal level. I also found it important that McCloud went on to point out that while characters in comics may be simplified or heavily abstracted for the sake of "viewer-identification", viewers are not as engaged when these simplified characters are placed in a visually plain environment. With this in mind, it makes sense that audiences fin

Having completely brushed aside the written word, The Arrival makes its efforts at communicating by means of the utilization of a number of visual storytelling elements. The use of body language, gesture, and an overall mastery of rendering the human figure is used throughout the work to wordlessly communicate the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of the characters. The fact that this piece is free of text also feels like it pushes the reader to identify more so with the main character. Given that the protagonist is in a new place-- a migrant, essentially-- we see him struggle with communicating with others, the language of the land new and foreign to him. His wordless attempts at asking for guidance drive home the feeling of unfamiliarity as well as the importance of the body language used to communicate, as it is relevant to the understandings of both the reader and the protagonist. The absence of words works in the piece's favor.  The Arrival also manages to push its