The Comic Strip

After reading some of Winsor McCay's comic strips including Little Nemo and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, I can say that I found it incredibly insightful.  It's interesting how these strips capture the time period in regards to the style and the text.  It's also cool to see the difference between Little Nemo and Dream of the Rarebit Fiend when taking a look at things like the art style and inclusion of color.   They are both fairly realistic when it comes to style, though both seem to favor having the classic black button like eyes.  This, however, doesn't mean the characters are not expressive.  Winsor McCay does a great job with drawing emotions on characters that help amplify the reading experience.  I also like his line quality a lot as it comes off as a bit sketchy.  It's not messy but it looks like it was drawn pretty quickly, this is especially true for his Dream of the Rarebit Fiend comic.

These comics are like a time capsule for what the world was like and how art was perceived back then.  The problems and situations as well as the dialog pulls you into this world.  The art style even reflects the art of the time period, as this is the type of work one would think of when asked about early 1900s comics.  It's interesting to see how comics have evolved as time goes on, especially when you compare Little Nemo to something like Archie, which is still around today.    I really enjoyed exploring these older comics.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

One of the most interesting insights that Scott McCloud introduced in his comic was how we as humans see and recognize human faces in cartoons vs in real life.  It's interesting to see how the human brain can recognize a face in common object you see everyday.

I never thought about how, when talking to others, we're always slightly aware of what ourselves look like during the conversation.  I also never realized that we over simplify our faces in our heads, since we never actually seen our own faces in person (aside from reflections but that is much different then seeing yourself in conversation without staring at yourself in the mirror.)  This makes a direct connection to cartoons and how we see them as ourselves.

  Scott also goes into other reasons we see ourselves in comics through simply-made characters that pull themselves away from realism.  It makes a lot of sense, since comics and cartoons are often used by readers/viewers as a form of escapism from real-life.  People don't always want to see a highly-realistic story, but something more light-hearted since it is easier to listen to and absorb.  Scott states that, "When you see a realistic face drawing of a face, you see it as the face of another.  But when you enter the world of a cartoon, you see yourself."  Being aware of the 'messenger', or author, can take a reader out of it and make him/her less likely to take in the story or lesson.  It's really fascinating to understand the science behind why people are so interested in the cartoon/comic world.

The Arrival

The Arrival by Shaun Tan shows an interesting take on what a family can go through when in the process of immigrating to a new place.  The comic has a realistic style but throws in a mix of very stylized locations and creatures to add to the concept.  The story follows a father who travels separately from his daughter and wife to a new location that comes off as very alien and strange.  Along with learning how to cope with this new environment the father struggles to find work and to communicate with locals.  Common obstacles that real immigrants face.

The comic depicts the plot in a way thats easy to read and understand, despite having no dialog whatsoever.  I believe this is done successfully because the characters come off as so realistic that you can easily relate to them and understand their struggles, even if you have never experienced moving to a place thats new.  Without any words the comic has to depend solely on the acting of the characters as well as the designs of people and creatures.  There is also many side characters (who are also immigrants) with their own stories on how they have come to be in this new place, which adds more weight to what our main character is going through.  These side stories add a certain tone that only intensifies the struggle that many people go through, and gives the reader the same feelings in a sense.

This is done throughout the comic, the author taking situations that are strange and unnerving and translating them in a way that makes sense to the reader and gives you a taste of what the characters must be feeling.