1. THE LANGUAGE OF
COMICS
It Takes Two to Tango

2. How do we read comics?

3. “The thing that comics do that no other graphic art does is
to weave word and picture together to achieve a narrative
purpose . . . Not a simple coupling of the verbal and the
visual, but a blend, a true mixture."
~R.C. Harvey

4. Image & Text
•describe/reinforce
•clarify/amplify
•contrast
•counterpoint
•contradict

5. Image is primary . . .
•pace
•characterization
•setting
•tone
•perspective

6. Objective

7. Subjective

8. Reality

9. Abstraction

10. Abstraction
•symbolic = universal
•emphasizes fiction
•emphasizes artist's distorted view
•lines = distortion
•less distortion = less universal

11. Poetry = Time
The apparition of these faces in the
crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro"

12. Painting = Space

13. Comics = Space & Time
•convey images and
objects in space
•communicate
impressions &
psychological states via
language

14. Which do you read first?

15. How long do you “read” a panel?

16. What if there is no text?

17. Dialogue controls time

18. Single Panel = A Moment in Time &
Space

19. Two Panels = A Gap in Time

20. Gutter = The Pregnant Moment

21. Panels + Gutters = Space & Time

22. Panels + Gutters = Space & Time

23. The Reader = The Co-Author
•panels circumscribe space, not
contain it
•comics omit more than they include
•require leaps of imagination on behalf
of the reader

24. Artwork
(in order of appearance)
• Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California
• David B.: Epileptic
• Jan Vermeer: The Milkmaid
• Peter Kuper: Give It Up
• Andrew Wyeth: Christina's World
• Alex Ross & Mark Waid: Kingdom Come
• Chris Ware: Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth
• Alan Moore & Brian Bolland: The Killing Joke
• Skottie Young: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz