Will Eisner. Comics and Sequential Art. Tamarac, Florida: Poorhouse Press, 1985.
The format of the comic book presents a montage of both word and image, and the reader is thus required to exercise both visual and verbal interpretive skills. The regimens of art (eg. perspective, symmetry, brush stroke) and the regimens of literature (eg. grammar, plot, syntax) become superimposed upon each other. The reading of the comic book is na act of both aesthetic perception and intellectual pursuit. (p.8)
The panel as a medium of control - The viewer of a film is prevented from seeing the next frame before the creator permits it is because these frames, printed on strips of transparent film, are shown one at the time. So film, which is an extension of comic strips, enjoys absolute control of its reading - an advantaged shared by live theater. In a close theater the proscenium arch and the wings of the stage can form but one single panel, while the audience sits in a fixed position from which their view is contained therein. (p.40)
Where the super-panel purports to be a page - that is, to make the reader concious it is a page - it serves as a containment withou perimeter. It is best employed for parallel narratives. This narrative for or device is not often explored in comics. The printed form lends itself to this because, unlike the transitory nature of the film medium, i can be referred to repeatedely through the reading. (making the panel that controls the total narrative the entire page itself). The result, a set of panels, attempts to control the reader's line of reading so that two storylines may be followed synchronously. (p.80)
The primary function of perspective should be to manipulate the reader's orientation for a purpose in accord with the author's narrative plan. For example, accurate perspective is most useful when the sense of the story requires that the reader know precisely where all the elements of a drama are in relation to each other. Another use of perspective is its employment to manipulate and produce various emotional states in the reader. I proceed from the theory that the viewer's response to a given scene is influenced by his position as a spectator. Looking at the scene from above it the viewer has a sense fo detachement - an observer rather than a participant. However, when the reader views the scene from below it, then this position evokes a sense of smallness which stimulates a sensation of fear. (p.89)
Expressive anatomy - the human body, and the stylization of its shape, and the codifying of its emotionally produced gestures and expressive postures are accumulated in the memory, forming a non-verbal vocabulary of gesture. They are part of the inventory of what the artist has retained from observation. (p.100) the language of the human body becomes one of the essential ingredients of the comic strip art. The skill with which they are employed is also a mesure of the author's ability to convey his idea.
A gesture, generally almost idiomatic to a region or culture, tends to be subtle and limited to a narrow range of movement. A posture is a movement selected out of a sequence of related moments in a single action. (p.105)
Writing and sequential art - the writer must be at the outset concerned with the interpretation of the story by the artist, and the artist must be allow himself to be a captive of the story or idea. Unlike theatre (including cinema), in which the tecnology of its creation demands by its very nature the coordinated contributions of many specialists, comics have a story of being the product of a single individual. (p.123)
The panel as a medium of control - The viewer of a film is prevented from seeing the next frame before the creator permits it is because these frames, printed on strips of transparent film, are shown one at the time. So film, which is an extension of comic strips, enjoys absolute control of its reading - an advantaged shared by live theater. In a close theater the proscenium arch and the wings of the stage can form but one single panel, while the audience sits in a fixed position from which their view is contained therein. (p.40)
Where the super-panel purports to be a page - that is, to make the reader concious it is a page - it serves as a containment withou perimeter. It is best employed for parallel narratives. This narrative for or device is not often explored in comics. The printed form lends itself to this because, unlike the transitory nature of the film medium, i can be referred to repeatedely through the reading. (making the panel that controls the total narrative the entire page itself). The result, a set of panels, attempts to control the reader's line of reading so that two storylines may be followed synchronously. (p.80)
The primary function of perspective should be to manipulate the reader's orientation for a purpose in accord with the author's narrative plan. For example, accurate perspective is most useful when the sense of the story requires that the reader know precisely where all the elements of a drama are in relation to each other. Another use of perspective is its employment to manipulate and produce various emotional states in the reader. I proceed from the theory that the viewer's response to a given scene is influenced by his position as a spectator. Looking at the scene from above it the viewer has a sense fo detachement - an observer rather than a participant. However, when the reader views the scene from below it, then this position evokes a sense of smallness which stimulates a sensation of fear. (p.89)
Expressive anatomy - the human body, and the stylization of its shape, and the codifying of its emotionally produced gestures and expressive postures are accumulated in the memory, forming a non-verbal vocabulary of gesture. They are part of the inventory of what the artist has retained from observation. (p.100) the language of the human body becomes one of the essential ingredients of the comic strip art. The skill with which they are employed is also a mesure of the author's ability to convey his idea.
A gesture, generally almost idiomatic to a region or culture, tends to be subtle and limited to a narrow range of movement. A posture is a movement selected out of a sequence of related moments in a single action. (p.105)
Writing and sequential art - the writer must be at the outset concerned with the interpretation of the story by the artist, and the artist must be allow himself to be a captive of the story or idea. Unlike theatre (including cinema), in which the tecnology of its creation demands by its very nature the coordinated contributions of many specialists, comics have a story of being the product of a single individual. (p.123)
