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Filip Stojanovski
Contemporary Storytelling: Comics and Animation
Language of Comics: The Vocabulary
According to
Scot McCloud (1993, pp.24-59), the
language that the comics use is the source of their fascinating force.
This language has its own distinctive vocabulary and grammar. The
vocabulary that comics use consists of visual imagery (McCloud refers to
a general class out of which all other pictorial representations,
including letters and other symbols, are derived as icons). Use of
simplified, "cartoonish" drawings allows the reader to
identify with the characters. To put it simply, the more details are
available, the more things are revealed which can exemplify the
difference between the characters and the viewer. So, fewer details
provide less opportunity for obstructions of identification.
From the book "Understanding Comics" (1993) © Scott
McCloud
Use of simplified drawings allows the reader to
concentrate on the action and the presented ideas, rather than on the
visible traits presented. The technique of simplification is used in
other storytelling mediums too, such as the movies. There the
simplification is done by the shallowness of the story structure and
portrayal of the presented characters. This (and effects of marketing)
explains the wide appeal of movies or TV shows that tell simple, even
infantile stories. The reason (which at the same time is the result) is
that the viewer is able to identify with the character without much
effort, to accept a role in the story. When filmmakers use vague or
non-descriptive pieces of data, such as "in the near future,"
dates without a year in them, or avoid mentioning the names of places,
they also try to use this storytelling technique. An obvious example its
application is provided by the popularity of the "first
person" genre of video games. In these games, such as
"Doom" and "Quake," the player does not see the
character, but the computer screen shows the environment as seen by the
character. This provides almost total identification, and accounts for
the high addictiveness of these products.
McCloud (1993, p.30) calls this concept
"amplification through simplification." Elimination of details
that are not essential to the purpose of the work of art is enabling
some other details, which were not eliminated, to step into the
spotlight, with the viewer’s attention totally focused on them. As
McCloud (1993, p.30) puts it, "By stripping down the image to its
essential 'meaning,' an artist can amplify that meaning in a way
that realistic art can't."
This kind of reasoning can be used to explain the
success of Japanese comics, mentioned earlier (McCloud, 1999). Their
drawing style that depicts the characters, especially their faces, in a
very symbolic way (distinctively simple) allows the user to identify
easily with them. The elaborate details of the backgrounds, and the
length of the stories as an influencing variable, support this immersion
of the reader in the reading, because they present elements relevant to
this task. Additional support is provided by the use of visual cues that
involve the reader more, such as the big eyes that trigger the innate
mammal instinct for protection/liking of the offspring (mammal babies,
cuddly or not, have a round head and eyes that are proportionally bigger
than in adults).
Contents
| Foreword |
Glossary |
Works Cited
Comics: Bits of History |
Modern Age |
Great Adventurers |
Vocabulary
| Grammar: Closure
Animation: Origins |
An Early Animator |
Classical Animation |
Making an Animation
| Epilogue
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