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Filip Stojanovski
Contemporary Storytelling: Comics and Animation
The Great Adventurers
 Because selling comics proved to be such a good
business, many other publishers and artists followed in Outcault’s
footsteps, and by the thirties the market expanded in the direction of a
younger audience. Although daily or weekly newspaper comics and cartoons
continued to make social commentaries, the subject of this new
generation of comics was not the present. Most of them told stories
about places far away, and about larger-than-life heroes. Americans, in
and out of the Great Depression, needed a relief from the crude reality.
The genre of adventure novels came to age with Edgar Rice Burroughs as
its foremost writer.
During this time, a new kind of publication emerged,
totally devoted to comics: the comic book. With the help of skilled
artists such as Harold Foster and Burne Hogarth, Burroughs’ stories of
Tarzan were adapted for comics, marking the beginning of the era of
adventure heroes. Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford, Fill Corigan, Rip Kirby,
Superman, Batman, and a throng of other comics heroes soon followed
Tarzan’s footsteps.
 Foster later created "Prince Valiant" (Jakupovic,
1999), an epic story set in the Medieval Europe based on the legends
about King Arthur of Camelot, and strongly supported visually by imagery
that "resurrected" the feel of that time period. It marked the
height of "photographic realism" in comics, where each image
was drawn in a way to resemble the reality in as many aspects as
possible. Foster believed in doing extensive research to the point of
going on location in England to draw the scenery authentically. In
"Prince Valiant," Foster did not use the usual bubbles to
store the text, but put it in boxes below the pictures (Goldberg, 1994).
This was possibly done because he tried to represent the scenes as
completely as possible. Although personally successful, with
"Prince Valiant" being considered a masterpiece in a class of
its own, Foster did not have many heirs among his colleagues who would
continue to use his style of storytelling.
Somehow, most of the other comic authors moved away
from realism, in the direction of exaggeration of physical traits (the
superhero comics) or more stylized (seemingly simpler) drawings. The
reason for this departure from realism goes far deeper than the need for
investment of less effort and time in the production of the comics,
tackling the very nature of this medium. But, in order to be understood
at the core, comics had first to survive in the world at large.
Over the years, the spread of comics was sometimes
obstructed by censorship. Censorship was sometimes politically
motivated, as in Mussolini’s Italy (Castelli at all, 1999, pp. 3-4),
where comics as a medium were banned because of their link to America.
Although not done by the state, censorship existed on
the other side of the Atlantic, too (Kamalipour & Carilli, 1998).
Its main proponents were the publishers, making it connected with the
"market forces," and only indirectly with politics. The big
distributive syndicates "advised" authors to make comics that
would not endanger the intellectual status quo; if they would like to
see them be published. The idea was to keep a low profile on sensitive
issues, in order that the mainly white, middle class audience, already
conditioned to receive "just entertainment" from reading
comics, would not be disturbed. Thus, comics that did not support the
worldview (including the prejudices) held by the majority, had less
chance for publishing, and becoming popular.
As a reaction to this situation, a whole genre of so
called "underground comics" sprout in the sixties, with
authors such as Robert Crumb, who openly challenged and ridiculed the
values of American society. This movement, although significant as a
historical example and inspiration for future artists, did not impact
the mainstream American comics industry of its time. This is analogous
to the way the flower power "rebellion" hindered the
expansionist course of U.S. foreign policy only in appearance: in spite
the loud domestic opposition to involvement in wars, the U.S. Army
continued the bombings in South East Asia, just was more covert about
it.
Mainstream comics did not feature non-white
characters as protagonists for quite some time. Before World War II,
colored people were often portrayed as ignorant savages, servants,
villains or targets of ridicule. Alex Raymond, the author of "Flash
Gordon," portrayed Ming, the main villain, an Asian. Lee Falke, the
author of "Mandrake the Magician," made Lothar, who had
supposedly been a prince in his African country, a servant to his hero.
Right after the Second World War, colored people were mostly ignored as
characters. This situation persisted until the seventies. Although today
there are comic strips from and about people of African Americans
("K-Chronicles" by Keith Knight, "Boondocks" by
Aaron McGruder), a glance on the comics page of any contemporary
newspaper still reveals a dominance of white comics authors and
characters.
Censorship may have slowed the evolution of comics,
but did not limit its spread in the long run. Comics found their way, or
re-emerged, in most of the industrialized world. Three distinct comic
"cultures" are present today: the American, the European, and
the Japanese.
The American comics, based on short adventure
stories, often with the same set of characters, but without much
characterization and repetitive plots, became famous for the superheroes
of the publishing houses of Marvel and D.C. The European comics were
also serialized, but with longer episodes, which presented more details
about the characters (SE-G, 1999). The main European comics centers were
France, Italy and Belgium. American and European comics used different
styles of drawing, from realist to very stylized and grotesque, but did
it with consistency once a particular style was chosen. By the end of
the 20th century, this practice was contrasted with the
international introduction of Japanese comics.
Japan, as a country and a culture, draws its comics
roots from its rich visual arts tradition. Comics ("manga") in
Japan were and are not just "kids’ stuff," but an integral
part of everyday life (HIES, 1999). The same goes for Japanese
animation, called "anime". In the recent years, they were
widely recognized and sought out outside Japan.
Japanese visual storytelling media cover wide range
of uncensored topics with their own distinct style of drawing. The
peculiarity of the Japanese drawing style is the mixture of realistic
elements (such as the backgrounds and the depiction of movement) with
simplified features of the main characters. The growing popularity of
manga and anime may serve as an example that can help us understand the
nature of the appeal of comics and animation in general.
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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