Okay, I've invited everyone in this group, hopefully. When you sign in (if you can) just do a quick post to confirm all the publishing rights are in order. If you have an issue you can email me.
Ho-kay. I guess I'll start this talking about comics things going here.
So, Wordless Books looked like my cup of tea and I really wish I could look at a printing of the actual book now. The printing process with the stark black (or color) and white is much more eye catching and easy to read. Without words the artist really has to use every detail about the layout and linework in the scenes to tell the story and it's just beautiful. I like the positioning of the characters on the pages, and the wonderful flow created through the image by the placing. The scratched rendering style is also very emotive and powerful, again making me not want to turn away from the image. Another point I enjoyed about the Wordless books is the idea of book layout itself. Instead of scrunching the images in small panels the images get to take up almost the whole page if not the whole page letting you really take in the beauty of each image. This probably slows down the story, but the whole thing feels like a larger moral epic type of story. Each image has a depth to it that contains a moral or various other thoughts and ideas that the reader should contemplate. In these stories you not only imagine the actions and what happens between images, but what the characters are things, what they mean to you, and who they are to you. It's just very open and beautiful.
As for Popeye.. reading it was really slow and really annoying in that format. I assume that each line of panels were displayed week by week in a newspaper so the recap text might have been helpful but all together read one after the other, it about drove me nuts. Also, the point of many of them seem to just tell a joke, sometimes the same joke, over and over. You can really see how passing is important by reading them. As, for the characters, most of them are really bland. The chicken is great in its strangeness, and the uncle was fairly interesting because of the chicken, and his awkward name. No wonder Popeye became so popular next to those snores. In fact I think the character were possibly the most annoying part of the strips. They were all very repetitive and flat, saying the same catch phrases, and doing the same one of two things it is established for doing. Again, I know flat characters are probably another product of the strip medium, you have to allow the audience to be able to jump into it right away and know what's going on, so simple characters help. But then, Garfield is easy to fallow and not so horribly boring to me. Why is that? John is definitely as flat as some of the Oyles, but Garfield isn't quiet in the same boat for me. Possibly this has to do with Garfield breaking the ideas of what a cat is and being.. well kind of an ass hole. Is that why Popeye is popular? Cause he isn't just a boring wise old man, or a helpful seaman, but a trouble-making wiseass?
I agree that the wordless book is a slower comic to read. It made me really focus on the pictures and what is happening inside the drawing than it being told straight out to the reader. I also enjoyed looking at the detail that was put into each picture.
In my opinion though, I do prefer comics with story lines better. While reading Popeye, I realized that they do repeat a lot of their material. Some of the frames are similar and many of the conversations are similar too. Popeye is a simple slapstick comic though, and it seems they don't have to look far in order to make people laugh. Reading about the magic hen and her marvelous escaping abilities made the comic really enjoyable. The simple story line made the crazy antics more ....comical.
Context, people! The Popeye strips appeared daily. Recaps were necessary! And Alli, I have to call you out on the "comics with story lines" comment. You may be referring to multi-issue plots, and not to the story itself. Possibly there's a difference of terminology here, but there's a definite story in all of the wordless comics!
Uh, hi. I never got an e-mail from you btw.
ReplyDeleteHAI GUYS
ReplyDeleteIt's working. XD
ReplyDeleteKatrin- You didn't? I'm sorry, maybe I mistyped your address. Sorry about that!
ReplyDeleteHo-kay. I guess I'll start this talking about comics things going here.
ReplyDeleteSo, Wordless Books looked like my cup of tea and I really wish I could look at a printing of the actual book now. The printing process with the stark black (or color) and white is much more eye catching and easy to read. Without words the artist really has to use every detail about the layout and linework in the scenes to tell the story and it's just beautiful. I like the positioning of the characters on the pages, and the wonderful flow created through the image by the placing. The scratched rendering style is also very emotive and powerful, again making me not want to turn away from the image.
Another point I enjoyed about the Wordless books is the idea of book layout itself. Instead of scrunching the images in small panels the images get to take up almost the whole page if not the whole page letting you really take in the beauty of each image. This probably slows down the story, but the whole thing feels like a larger moral epic type of story. Each image has a depth to it that contains a moral or various other thoughts and ideas that the reader should contemplate. In these stories you not only imagine the actions and what happens between images, but what the characters are things, what they mean to you, and who they are to you. It's just very open and beautiful.
As for Popeye.. reading it was really slow and really annoying in that format. I assume that each line of panels were displayed week by week in a newspaper so the recap text might have been helpful but all together read one after the other, it about drove me nuts. Also, the point of many of them seem to just tell a joke, sometimes the same joke, over and over. You can really see how passing is important by reading them.
As, for the characters, most of them are really bland. The chicken is great in its strangeness, and the uncle was fairly interesting because of the chicken, and his awkward name. No wonder Popeye became so popular next to those snores. In fact I think the character were possibly the most annoying part of the strips. They were all very repetitive and flat, saying the same catch phrases, and doing the same one of two things it is established for doing.
Again, I know flat characters are probably another product of the strip medium, you have to allow the audience to be able to jump into it right away and know what's going on, so simple characters help. But then, Garfield is easy to fallow and not so horribly boring to me. Why is that? John is definitely as flat as some of the Oyles, but Garfield isn't quiet in the same boat for me. Possibly this has to do with Garfield breaking the ideas of what a cat is and being.. well kind of an ass hole. Is that why Popeye is popular? Cause he isn't just a boring wise old man, or a helpful seaman, but a trouble-making wiseass?
Hey does anyone here have the four immigrants book? thats one of the last books I still haven't got to check out yet.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the wordless book is a slower comic to read. It made me really focus on the pictures and what is happening inside the drawing than it being told straight out to the reader. I also enjoyed looking at the detail that was put into each picture.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion though, I do prefer comics with story lines better. While reading Popeye, I realized that they do repeat a lot of their material. Some of the frames are similar and many of the conversations are similar too. Popeye is a simple slapstick comic though, and it seems they don't have to look far in order to make people laugh. Reading about the magic hen and her marvelous escaping abilities made the comic really enjoyable. The simple story line made the crazy antics more ....comical.
Context, people!
ReplyDeleteThe Popeye strips appeared daily. Recaps were necessary!
And Alli, I have to call you out on the "comics with story lines" comment. You may be referring to multi-issue plots, and not to the story itself. Possibly there's a difference of terminology here, but there's a definite story in all of the wordless comics!