FlemingLinportfolio

            I read the “A Contract with God” by the Will Eisner. I am very impressed by the format of this graphic novel. Doesn’t like any comic book I read before, I feel more like reading an actual novel with beautiful illustration. Different the the other comic book story, “A Contract with God” has a more mature core, the story is more realistic and has more depth than other comic book story. And I really love his ‘camera language’, it is just like watching a move, Eisner doesn’t use too much words to describe the scene, instead audiences can somehow sense the atmosphere through the drawing. In other words, Eisner’s drawing has more perspective and details than other comic, he also knows how to use a dramatic lighting to reflects the character’s mental status, which I like a lot. In summary, Will Eisner’s graphic novel can be considering as a milestone in western comic history, since he not only shows us a brand new possibility of comic, but also a well usage of story te

       In the library, I read the Tarzan, peanuts and Li'l Abner, which not only have a vary characterizes in art style, but also in the formatting of comic. The Tarzan is very artistic and illustrated. I was surprised by the fact that it doesn’t have any of those dialogue bubbles, in other words, that is not a conversation between characters. The only way the reader can only what is going on is through the pure-word description on the top. Therefore, I see it more like a novel with beautiful illustration than a comic. But consider the fact it is all in color, I guess it might seem the artist intends to remove the dialogue bubble so the readers can focus more on the image.        For the peanuts, I like it, a lot. The story isn’t that complicate at first glance, but if you think about it from an adult point of view, it is truly stunning and impressive. It’s like the author is giving some simple lesson about being ‘simple’ through these kids’ daily life in the comic. The art style

            I create a 4 panel comic strike base on the inspiration I got from Charles M. Schulz’s peanut .   Different than the other comic strike I read, the peanut has a relatively ‘small’ story compare to other comic. It is not about some cool characters go thought a typical hero journey or as goofy as some teenage comic. it simply depicts the daily life of bunch kids and a dog. It tries to use the innocence of children as a wrapper for a more mature, adult core. In other words, I really like how the kids in the comic talk like an adult sometime and try to teach some simply lesson to the reader. The peanut to me is a good balance between complexity and simplicity. it doesn’t contains as much information as other comic strike per grid, therefore it is relatively easy for read to pick up and concentrate on the story. Reader only need to know a few things from the main plot and then can start read anywhere in-between the story. Therefore, I try to copy the style of it

Lit. of Comics & The Graphic Narrative After reading the Understanding Comics  by Scott McCloud, I was impressed by the differences of time representation in western tradition comic and Japanese manga. It was the first time I know something like the longer the grid, the more time passed in comic. In other words, in western comic, character may need to talk more, give more information to the reader in one single grid to make sure the readers wont get confused even if a huge amount of time passed between two panel. Japanese comic, in the other hand, tend to have more breakdown. It is more like a featured film storyboard to me. However, the disadvantage of this is the story may get too long and reader may get board soon after tons of daily, no-important conversation between character.