Art & Story 89 – The Big Visual Narrative II

May 6, 2009 by Jerzy
Filed under Art & Story, Podcast, Uncategorized

[private]We return to a topic first broached back in episode 85, where we explored some of the various advanced storytelling techniques available to us cartoonists in creating our narratives through visuals.

Once again we broke the discussion into the following topics, with examples of our own work to show that we practice what we preach:

Information Compression
• Delivers LOTS of story content with visuals–but intuitively
• Usually takes advantage of the simultaneous nature of images on a page
• Can be used to defy “linear” storytelling to deliver a wider sense of story or pacing
Examples:
The Replacements, Book 3, pg 26
Equalizers of the Divide, pg 1
Closing Doors, Part 1, pg 7

Multi-Moment Panels
• Economical–get multiple moments out of one panel
• Can lend a “zoom” to pull back from a subject and regard a larger scene
• Can’t be happening all at once, so the cartoonist must construct the scene to guide the eye through the sequence in proper order
Examples:
Galactic League of Marshals, “The Ballad of Silver & Gold” pg 6
Switch Runners, pg 12

Panel Unity
• Can be used to lend a rhythm to an overall scene through repeated use of similarly-sized panels
• Shape of panels is less about “time” as they are about symbolic and tonal unity
Example:
The Front, Part 5, pg 14

Panel Border Unity
• Can lend tonal rhythms within a page
• Offers opportunity to use the symbol of the panel to communicate the tone
Examples:
The Front, Part 2, pg 10
The Front, Part 2, pg 16

For more comics that use these techniques (much more effectively than we do!) check out the following books:

Links mentioned this episode:
• Basajaun, by Rosemary Van Deuren
• Guy Davis
• Matt Feazell
Another reminder–a new Thankcast, a recording of my presentation called “Why Superheroes Communicate to Us” is available for a contribution amount of your choice. Just check out the buttons on the top left of the site!