Linear Journey & Understanding Comics Response

  • Posted on: February 6, 2018
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Response:

While I already have read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics,  I did enjoy rereading them. Chapters 2 and 3 each cover the vocabulary of comics and perception, respectively.  The second chapter discusses iconography, the relationship between highly-realistic and highly-simplified icons, and the plane of reality, pictures, and language.  The third chapter goes into sequential art, and its relation to representing time in mediums, such as comics and animation.

One aspect I had learned from reading these chapters was the notion of closure; the fact that it is an conscious “connecting of dots” between two sequential images made by the brain. There are 6 forms: moment to moment, action to action, subject to subject, scene to scene, aspect to aspect, and non-sequitur. Each panel to panel transition is used commonly in comics, with the exception of non-sequitur with narrative comics. This explanation cleared up a few misconceptions I had about arrangement and it helped solidify concepts I didn’t fully know about. Another aspect I found helpful was the triangular diagram that showed the blend between the different forms of  reality, pictures, and language.

Summary:

My concept was to photograph a journey I occasionally take throughout my immediate neighborhood.  I initially thought to document my commute to school but seeing as how there aren’t many stops or points of changing movement, I doubted that I could reach 18 pictures. Thus, I thought about taking pictures of my bike ride around the neighborhood, where there are a couple of physical and visual markers I feel that I can employ in my piece.

The first draft of the Linear Journey Book:

test images linear journey -14yc2ih

During class, I received helpful feedback from my peers and changed the layout accordingly. A few pictures were omitted and two were rearranged.

The final book:

 

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