1.  CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media Class 4: Representation in Comics: McCloud’s Take

2. Administration  Next week: cancelled  Optional in-class assignment: participate in election day (how to do it?)  Comic assignment due Oct 13 now.

3. A quick first note…  Analysis done by application of all rules = rambling and superficial in 5-7 pages  Your job = critical analysis – what’s important and why?  Consider your comic as a designed text – everything is likely there for a reason.  Your own perspective is acceptable – but not opinion as much as reasoned argument  Outside research not explicitly necessary – but does it ever really hurt? (e.g., guessing what an author might intend by choice of style is one thing – quoting her/him is another!)

5. Comics as Sequential Art  Historical emergence as “bastard child” of words and picture duality  Picture plane – representations of iconography, text and realism a nice breakdown of potential options with a good selection of cases – but why is the question to ask there!

7. Comics as Art Form (Six Steps)  Idea  Form  Idiom  Structure  Craft  Surface  Consider your analysis in same way – surface analysis = surface comics.

8. Representation in Comics  Moment  Frame  Image  Word  Flow (McCloud’s 2006 work, Making Comics)

9. Moment  Comics must represent transition among time visually  Comics must guide the reader’s sense of closure (i.e., leave the reader to fill in the gaps of the story…)  Saturation vs. interpretation similar to hot vs. cool media - comics generally as cool medium

10. Types of Moment Change  Moment-to-Moment  Action-to-Action  Subject-to-Subject  Scene-to-Scene  Aspect-to-Aspect  Non-Sequitur

12. Differences in Representing Moment  North American/European comics vs. Japanese - content analysis shows different ratios of moment transition  Experimental comics also break with “standard” North American ratios  Closure differs with each approach, as does the amount of moment transition

13. Frame  Comics focus reader’s attention on particular elements, creating sense of place, position, focus  Similar to other visual media (e.g., film, photography) - panels as designed, not accidental.  Even more so in comics perhaps – drawing as a deliberate act

14. Framing elements  “Camera” angle  Lighting (or lack thereof)  Closeups vs. wide shots  Distance and perspective  Symmetry and centering  The “gutter” – presence/absence, shape, colour affect both what is seen and transitions

15. Image  Comics as iconic, symbolic medium  Often comics deliberately leave details vague to encourage reader participation in closure – e.g., our ability to see human faces everywhere

17. Image elements  Level of detail - photorealism vs. iconography and effects of each  The role of icon in comics - simple comics evoke interesting emotions (e.g., Peanuts, Mutts)  Relation between background and foreground characters - (e.g., iconic characters and realistic background, e.g., Hergé’s Tintin)  Expression (especially facial expression) and body language  Sound as image  Role of colour – colour as symbol and accent

18. Word  Comics mix visual and literal forms, arguably more so than other visual media  A picture might equal 1000 words, but words can quickly contextualize and represent pictures in various ways  Words as sound effects – representation of aural channel in literal form

19. Word/image interplay  Word specific  Image specific  Duo specific  Additive/intersecting  Interdependent  Parallel  Montage

20. Flow  Comics as sequential art - sequence of images becomes important in representation of time (e.g., photo of family gathering and reaction example)  Moment, frame, image, word choice work together to create (or sabotage) flow  How much of flow to show? Example of multi-panel comics on drunk driving - different stories are told, even with same beginning/ending points

21. Flow concerns  Cultural norms (e.g., North American/European - left to right – manga flows differ, require instructions for non- regular readers)  Pace of transitions - Japanese comics and graphic novels spend more time for fuller exposition and slower moment changes  Breaking norms (experimental comics)  Extent to which creator guides flow - hot vs. cool again