On Understanding Comics

Understanding comics

The excerpt of Understanding comics covered a huge variety of topics. For the sake of simplicity, I will only be concentrating on a few of the concepts described in the segment of the book.

The six steps of craftsmanship really spoke to me personally. On a fundamental level, as a practicing artisan, it makes one wonder where on the scale of steps 1-6 I currently am. As many students here experience, there is a sort of anxiety and pressure tied to being a part of an art community, chasing a dream where fulfillment of well-being, financial security and pride take the front seat.

From high school, most students would be mimics of their heroes. Upon entering the school, they are equipped with the tools to get the job done. This means, the first and second year of a student’s life at this college is solely spent upon the refining, and crossing of layers six and five. I realized upon reading, that layer four is an assimilation of six and five, representing a natural step in human progression, after all, besides living well, I think we all want to be good artists, instead of just average.

Beyond this point, however, is where I fear for my fellow colleagues and myself. There is a want to be better than everyone else, even if it is an unachievable goal, as there is always someone out there who is better than you, faster than you, or dead. ‘You can’t beat the dead’ is a rule of thumb left in my memory by a teacher I’ve had a couple years back. But more on the topic of the layers, I find that many of my friends have reached stage three. Idiom, as I see it, is a more general term for style. As I look from side to side, I wonder sometimes, if people are jumping into this too quickly. There are those who have mastered their fundamental skills, and moved onto this step natural, but all too often, I see youngsters seeking style too early on in their development. I fear for myself as well, that perhaps I may have jumped into it too quickly; and for what? Accomplishment? Acknowledgement? Satisfaction?

And finally, Form versus idea. I’ve battled this thought many times over, and even more so everyday after reading Understanding Comics. Who am I exactly? Who am I at my core? Why do I do this? I guess these answers can’t be uncovered as I am still too young. Can I pick both? Should I pick one? Or should I let the future unfold itself? I have no answer, but I do hope I will someday. As Hokusai once said:

“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.”

Maybe I’ll keep going at it until I reach 100, and only then should I ever look in the mirror and tell myself, “Now, I’m good enough.”

Shaun Tan - The Arrival

Shaun Tan

I remember reading about Shaun Tan in high school. Amongst the wild scramble to assemble all the other classes' work together in an attempt of a good grade, I slipped in small research sessions to try and get a good grasp of who he was. Not including Manga, comics were rare in Hong Kong, the only stores holding them were either hidden, or overpricing them. Even then, those stores never had anything on the front shelves beyond the well-known trademarked characters. It was a joy to finally get to open one of his works (albeit digitally), and experience it first hand. 

At first, I found that the story made no sense whatsoever. I realized I was reading it backwards, and so re-read it again, from the correct end.

The work featured no dialogue, and followed, for the most part, a twelve-square format grid. I felt that this gave the book a feeling of familiarity and control; pushed further when combined with the overall brown tinted aesthetic. I believe that the sense of familiarity is intentional, as to evoke a memory like experience in the reader. The reader, then, could more easily project his or her own past and experiences into the work.

Due to the extended input by the reader’s experiences, dialogue isn’t as necessary in informing the reader of what is going on. In fact, the opposite seems to be the case, as the lack of speech generalizes the main character’s experience, and places the reader in the forefront of the experience subconsciously.

More generalization is used for this effect in the subject matter of the story as well; for example, the new land the protagonist arrives at uses a language invented by the author; or even the various attacking giants throughout the story were never explicitly explained or fleshed out; by doing so, the experience the story brings the reader through is more applicable to a wider audience, connecting with the audience emotionally rather than through plot alone.

In The Arrival, Shaun Tan hints at dialogue through body language. Body language is known universally, to a certain degree. While certain gestures, like nodding can mean different things from culture to culture; evolutionary gestures are universally used amongst the human race. Gestures like smiling, frowning and pointing were devices of evolution that kept our ancestors alive, and therefore require no translation.