The
Comic Book
The comic book is one of my
favorite forms of entertainment, as it allows me to experience stories, without
being completely inactive in the entire process. The joy of reading a comic,
for me, is the experience of seeing the images move, while being able to
dictate what the pacing is like, what the characters sound like, and how the
story unfolds to a certain degree; akin to having a guided tour through a
playground, you play on the apparatus in order, but how you play is it up to
you. The gaps from panel to panel are filled in with one’s imagination, making
it a back and forth conversation between medium and reader.
I joined the comic book train
a little late in the game, having grown up in Asia, I was exposed to manga a
lot earlier than I was to the western world. I read a variety of comics this
week, featuring Captain Marvel, the Marvel Family, Dr. Fate, the Specter, and
Jay Garrick as the Flash…the list goes on. I decided to pick up Tintin in the
light of diversity. I do not regret reading it one bit.
Tintin as a comic features
well-defined backgrounds which allows the reader to enter the world, while
projecting their own identity onto the protagonist Tintin. Tintin, as I’ve come
to realize, has been drawn in medium shots almost all the way through the
comic. Hergé’s use of medium shots establishes a very stable rhythm to the
story, and peppers the strip with close-ups and long shots very selectively. It
is clear from this, that Hergé’s priority lies on the storytelling aspect of
the comic, and allows the art to take the back seat on the adventure.
This is supported further, as
most of the panels, if not all, follow a rectangular grid system, where the
heights of all the panels are either exactly the same, or exactly half in
measurement. Once again, this makes it easier for the reader to follow the
story, placing less emphasis on the stylistic choices Hergé could have made,
and instead, shows the adventure in an almost plain, matter-of-factly behavior.
Another device Hergé employs
is the use of black outline around all the major elements. Clarity over style
seems to be his motto, which seeps into the rest of his comic, including the
speech bubbles. The speech bubbles are outlined, and shaped in a rectangle.
There is a minimum use of stylistic extras. This is not to say that the comic
is dull, as it most certainly isn’t. It wasn’t a comic that made me want to
pick my pencil up and draw right away, but it kept me in for a long adventure
with a sore bum from sitting on the edge of my seat. A mystery as lighthearted
as this is a rare treat in my comic collection, and I would most certainly
consider picking a copy of Tintin the next time I visit the comic store.
Whether you got to comics late in the game or not, it's good you are reading them now. I know that you are a big fan of Modern Batman, so I think it's interesting to see your take on earlier works from other franchises. Not all characters have followed the same path as I am sure you no doubt know. I'm interested in what you'd have to say if you had to compare the Bat-Family of books to the Marvel-Family.
ReplyDeleteIf you go back to the era where just about every DC Character was given some sort of 'Family' as a supporting cast of characters, I think you'd find that at the beginning it was pretty much the same trope. Random personalities jumping into some random variation of the main character's costume, taking part in the adventures in some off the cuff manner. But in The Batman books in particular, I feel like we see many of these characters evolving, and taking on a life of their own, whereas the marvel Family never seems to achieve a level of success that allows them to achieve that same level of independence from the original.
Why do you think Characters like Robin were able to evolve into characters like Nightwing, while Captain Marvel Junior has fallen into relative obscurity?
I never noticed Herge's use of compositional shots and panel ratio. But now that I think about it, it does lend to its clarity and simplicity, ad its over all pleasantry and charm. Thanks for the enlightenment Hugor
ReplyDelete@James: I believe the Batman family's characters eased into the modern age a lot better, due to the more human-nature of the characters themselves. Partially because they're just humans to begin with, in a world full of super-powered beings, it gives the reader a character to grasp onto, because we're just human ourselves. Furthermore, each Bat family character stands for a different stage in life, and each of them hold some kind of underlying conflict or character flaw. It's an attractive quality to have in a character. I'm sure these aren't all the reasons, but it's a start.
ReplyDelete