WEEK 2 assignment : Scott McCloud, Understanding Comic

I’m quite familiar with Scott McCloud’s mindset as I’ve read Making Comics for personal enhancement before. I must admit once again that his observations is impressive and I can relate to him as I also considered my self a dedicated researcher and an observer. 

The subject that always fascinated me the most is the cultural comparison between American comics and Japanese Manga. What I found interesting is not only the different methods of crafting arts but also the different kind of appreciations of beauty that has been embed within mindsets of people from different cultures and how they interchange through time. I think there is some truth in McCloud’s words when he said Western mindset tend to be goal oriented while the Eastern mindset tend to be journey oriented, regarding the superficial level. 

From my personal studies, Japanese arts has a long history of interrelation between things including lives and it’s impermanence. Zen art in general is all about the processes and changes, which explains why Japanese manga often reflect that essence of appreciation to the process of life (as suggested in the philosophy of Wabi and Sabi). In the deeper level, some Chinese ideas of Qi might have inspired the way they look at nature as having it’s own spiritual significance. That is why, like Romanticism, Japanese art including various Manga tend to express the world as being alive or in the state of being a character that progresses in harmony with other living characters (I suggest one of my all time favorite Manga called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou as an example). These are some distinctions between two traditions, although this line tend to become more unclear nowadays. After all, Japanese manga was majorly inspired by American medias and the whole world’s millennial nowadays tend to be inspired by Japanese pop cultures.

Another idea in Scott McCloud’s Understanding comic that I found fascinating and directly related to myself is the stage of growth of an artist. Since I was young I always have a dream of creating things that have a power to inspire audiences’ internal being (McCloud mentioned this trait of Comic artist in his other book). I mostly focuses on Comics, Literatures, Animations and Musics because I’ve been highly influenced by them. At one point I reached what he called superficial stage where I’ve been through many practices but got separated from the very purpose of doing it. I was lost for a while until I started reaching for the purpose again and I seems to find it in the commonality within all of those mediums I mentioned. There is a magical degrees of sincerity and pure inspiration I found within good musics. Now I believe that in all forms of great art I regard to also possesses the same element. 

Response to Max Ernst 'A Week of Kindness'

My interpretation
This work is Surrealist and Political related.

PANEL 1

An eccentric, spiritual and symbolic of higher power such as death.

PANEL2

Either dream state or a reverse idea of human experimenting animal.

PANEL3

Death and transformation. 

PANEL4

After life or karmic related events.

PANEL5

Cosmic punishment, the chicken man seems either happy or doomed.

PANEL6

A fear or guilt that comes after you or creeping you.

PANEL7

A riot toward a higher political class.

PANEL8

chickenzilla-ghost haunting the house.

PANEL9

Death.

PANEL10

The revenge of the chicken tribe.

PANEL11

Animals(birds) humiliating people.

PANEL12

Animals(birds) humiliating people.

PANEL13

Conflict and resistance.

PANEL14

Either the person committed suicide or an auction.

PANEL15

The chicken and the person who was hanged on the last panel are related to each others

PANEL16

Surrealist  chicken french revolution. Rise of the new social class.

WEEK 1 assignment : Shaun Tan, The Arrival

          I like to look at time-based art and literature including comic in musical terms. In Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, without using a single words(except the title), the series of presence and absence of events is what creates the sense of progressing time. When the absence of information between each key actions allows us to understand that there are changes and connected continuity, each key frames works like musical notes that contrasts with other individual notes and in totality creates a completed composition. For a comic like The Arrival, instead of lower or higher pitches the diverse cinematography techniques such as frame proportions, different tones of lighting and gesture/facial expressions make a story when they’re being put together. This particular comic is rather monotonous on the most part because there are lot’s of similar frames with slight variations and subtle signature of climatic acts. Although, that allows the true climatic frames that occupied the whole page to really shine as it creates huge contrasts. Climatic frames often contains a lot of free spaces for audience to perceive the bigger picture of the moment from the perspective that is less connected to characters but more immersed into the world where we can feel the strange connection to it’s mysterious and greater existence. 

         What is missing in The Arrival is the illusion of panning camera or audience’s view. The reason to that might be because such concept didn’t really exists in cinema when this comic was created. However, well composed still shots raises significance of individual subjects and polish there emotional meanings. Stillness is a charm of this comic with an exception to the war scene on page 88 and 89 where motion blur was introduced. Lights and shadows means a lot to this work as there temperatures signifies how each moments feels like. Brightness and the presence of the sun often associates with a lighter emotions when shadows were the opposite and that is why the weather and time of the day is a big part of the story telling. Fantasy elements and animistic creatures brought about a rise in intensity as the story progresses. In the end, the perceivable composition is the most important factor that turns many little events into a story.