Lecture4Review

=Class 4: Critical Analysis and McCloud=

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Critical Analysis
• What does this mean? • How does one do it? • “There are no rules…and here they are.” (McCloud, 2006)

Major components
• Clarity • Accuracy • Precision • Relevance • Depth • Breadth • Logic • Significance • Fairness

Good traits to develop…
• Humility vs. arrogance • Courage vs. cowardice • Empathy vs. Closemindedness • Autonomy vs. Conformity • Integrity vs. Hypocrisy • Perserverance vs. Laziness • Reason vs. Unfounded Distrust • Fairmindedness vs. Bias

Representation in Comics
• Moment • Frame • Image • Word • Flow (2006)

Moment
• Comics must represent transition visually • Comics must guide the reader’s sense of closure (or, leave the reader to guess the story…)

Types of Moment Change
• Moment-to-Moment • Action-to-Action • Subject-to-Subject • Scene-to-Scene • Aspect-to-Aspect • Non-Sequitur

Differences in Representing Moment
• North American/European comics vs. Japanese - content analysis shows different ratios of moment transition • Experimental comics also break with “standard” ratios

Frame
• Comics must focus reader’s attention on particular elements • Creating sense of place, position, focus • Similar to other visual media (e.g., film, photography)

Framing elements
• “Camera” angle • Distance and perspective • Detail (or lack thereof) • Symmetry and centering • Others?

Image
• Comics must represent characters, objects, environments, symbols • Or not - sometimes comics deliberately leave details vague to encourage reader participation in closure

Image elements
• Level of detail • Photorealism vs. iconography • Expression (especially facial expression) • Body Language

Word
• Comics mix visual and literal forms • Much more so than other visual media • A picture might equal 1000 words, but words can quickly contextualize and represent pictures

Word/image interplay
• Word specific • Image specific • Duo specific • Additive/intersecting • Interdependent • Parallel • Montage

Flow
• Comics as sequential art - sequence of images becomes important • Moment, frame, image, word work together to create (or sabotage) flow

Flow issues
• Cultural norms (e.g., North American/European - left to right - other cultures differ) • Breaking norms (experimental comics) • Extent to which creator guides flow

Breaking the rules…
• Culture jamming - what it is and what it does • Depends on understanding genre and either subverting 1) message or 2) form • Similar to experimental/alternative work in all genres