Prince Achmed, many say is the first full length animated film, made in 1926. Through the use of shadow puppets, lines and silhouettes convey the entire story. The story is very easy to follow because each puppet has its own personality, shown through their movement rather than their face. All of the action is through the body language, how they move and what they chose to do throughout the film. This is one of the basic theories of comics, to look at the body language and read the situation through this.
Proto-comics date back thousands of years, from cave drawings to scrolls to the bayou tapestry are all early versions of comics. All of these have characters, a story, a narrative that one can read from one end to another and understand what the medium is trying to convey. Panels, speech balloons, and graphic drawings were all first shown in wood block prints. The idea that comics were developed in the United Sates in the early 19th c, it just is not true. Everything an artist would need to create comics, from sequences to characters had been developed long before in many other countries.
Comics and graphic narratives are virtually internal, meaning that your mind will create the world you are reading in your mind, connecting the words and images. Even with just two images, one can put together a story, like with Hogarth's paintings. The first painting, the girl appears to be apprehensive towards the man's advances, and he does not seem to care. In the second painting, their clothing is messed up, britches on the floor and the man seems to be trying to get away after having his fun. Hogarth started off as an engraver of silver, like peoples coats of arms or initials on silver watches or other items. He had sisters who opened a hat shop. Hogarth had bigger ambitions though for he wanted to become a historical painter for the court, but this would be very difficult not being royal. Yet, he found a teacher who worked for the court and married his teachers daughter. He was able to show his paintings and people would come in and subscribe to paintings that they wanted a print of. He was a very savvy business man, like making lotteries to win a print. Then he started to play with sequential pieces, like the Harlot's Progress.
From the title one can tell that the image has something to do with prostitution, and in the image one can see a young woman who is being looked at by a much older woman. Mother Needham, the older woman in the drawing, was stoned to death during the time for being a well known prostitute "wrangler". The setting is in central London, by the bus terminal, where everyone enters the town. Pimps would wait for young run away women to make them into prostitutes. The young woman in the painting is holding a bag of seamstress tools, which shows her trade. She also has her luggage next to her with a dead goose whom she is suppose to give to her cousin who would be taking care of her. This shows that she is from out of town and a bit out of place. Colonel Charteris and Trusty Jack are creeping in the corner, and during the time he was a well known rapist. The man on the horse is a clergyman and he is reading off the letter from the father of London. There are also a series of visual puns, the bell of the yard with the bell sign and the girl and there are the falling buckets and the girl is falling too. There is also a man in the back on the balcony whom is unconcerned with what is happening.
In the next image, she has become a successful mistress. She is kicking over the table to distract her husband from her lover sneaking out the back door. The next image shows police entering her room due to her stolen goods. She is forced to her work house due to these charges and eventually becomes very sick. In the last image, she is dead in a coffin surrounded by people payed to morn her life.
In Understanding comics, my favorite part of it was how we see ourselves through cartoons. I loved the idea because I am a sap when it comes to movies in general and cry too easily in sad moments. Yet, I think I relate to cartoons more and have cried in more animated films than any other genre of films. When he talked about how we know when we smile and how we see ourselves, I found this to be very interesting for I have never really thought about it before. I don't see myself as my reflection but rather almost a caricature of myself. When I smile I imagine a half moon or when I am mad I see myself with the cartoony angry brows.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Literature of Comics - Day 1
Literature of Comics - Day 1
Page 1 - A rooster balancing on a spherical ball approaches a woman who is dancing for coins. She has set a basket on the stone ground in front of a building and seems to be gathering quite a lot of coins for her dancing. It appears that she has not noticed the rooster, or she may not be able to see him, but the rooster is intently watching her. there also appears to be a homeless man or a drunk sleeping behind her on the stairs. The woman could possible be a gypsy.
Page 2 - There is an angel looking down on a woman laying on the table, most likely dead. With his body language, he either feels remorse over her death or he has arrived to bring her to the after life. The rooster is still there watching next to the angel. They also appear to be in a study of some sort rather that a church. The dead woman my be the one from the previous page.
Page 3 - There are humanized roosters looking down on a woman dead in a coffin. Above her is a sculpture or goddess of a woman holding cloth. They may feel remorse over her death.
Page 4 - There is a woman laying a a slab of stone, dead or resting, with a male and female humanized rooster who appear to be wrapping a child or bread. There is also a tree or antler coming from the ground. There is also a smoking top hat. This page is the most surreal to me.
Page 5 - A woman has fallen out of bed, dead or murdered with a humanized male rooster who is either yawning or cheering over her death. There is also 2 normal roosters in her room.
Page 6 - There is a man who is awkwardly dancing for a woman, possibly trying to seduce her, while a male humanized rooster watches them from behind a door.
Max Ernst, the artist of these pages, a surrealist and inventor of collage. He does his work without intention, he wants to get into his unconscious brain to let his work be unintentional as much as possible. Much like dreams, there is usually no meaning, and trying to remember when one awakens, it is impossible to retell completely. Authors intentions are not always the measure of what is true about the work or not. One's brain is hardwired to find stories within images that may not even be there, but one tries to make sense of everything even if there is no sense to be had. Your experience play a major part in how you would interpret a piece of work, which is why everyone could interpret a work differently and they would all be right.
The Arrival - When I read through this my first initial thought was when everyone was immigrating to America in hopes to earn money to send back to your family and they they would hopefully be able to send them there too. This made me remember when I went to a world market and I found so many foods that I had never seen before, but were very common to others. I can relate with the man, it is a lot like moving to college, though not as foreign, it can be overwhelming at first. In the novel, he keeps enough earth like things to make the audience feel that we are still on earth, even with all of the strangeness of the town. One can feel the weight of the story, specifically through the detail of the drawings, each is just as important as the last. The Arrival gives you a clear picture of what it is like to go through the immigrant experience, not knowing the food, language, or the overall layout of the town. He had words though out the novel, but it is in a completely foreign language, but one sees that it is labeled which gives the reader a clue about what that object or place is.
I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid back in 7th grade with in a 10 day school trip. This novel made me remember experiences that I had back at that time, for example the food. One night we got to eat at the Eiffel tower, and on the salad there was a whole prawn, head an all. This freaked me out, but to others in the restaurant it was completely normal. They also did not know what ranch was, which baffled me at the time, but now I understand that ranch is largely an american product. Another example was the transportation. There were way more people who travel by train or bus compared to where I lived, a lot more bikes and mopeds too. Many of their building were much older too, making the whole city look like an ancient town I had seen illustrations of in history books. The last thing that really stood out to me was the clothing, all dark muted colors, compared to what I would normally see at home, colorful pants, shirts, and shoes. Many wore large jackets and always had an umbrella for it seemed it would rain at least once every three days, which is very different compared to Texas.
Page 1 - A rooster balancing on a spherical ball approaches a woman who is dancing for coins. She has set a basket on the stone ground in front of a building and seems to be gathering quite a lot of coins for her dancing. It appears that she has not noticed the rooster, or she may not be able to see him, but the rooster is intently watching her. there also appears to be a homeless man or a drunk sleeping behind her on the stairs. The woman could possible be a gypsy.
Page 2 - There is an angel looking down on a woman laying on the table, most likely dead. With his body language, he either feels remorse over her death or he has arrived to bring her to the after life. The rooster is still there watching next to the angel. They also appear to be in a study of some sort rather that a church. The dead woman my be the one from the previous page.
Page 3 - There are humanized roosters looking down on a woman dead in a coffin. Above her is a sculpture or goddess of a woman holding cloth. They may feel remorse over her death.
Page 4 - There is a woman laying a a slab of stone, dead or resting, with a male and female humanized rooster who appear to be wrapping a child or bread. There is also a tree or antler coming from the ground. There is also a smoking top hat. This page is the most surreal to me.
Page 5 - A woman has fallen out of bed, dead or murdered with a humanized male rooster who is either yawning or cheering over her death. There is also 2 normal roosters in her room.
Page 6 - There is a man who is awkwardly dancing for a woman, possibly trying to seduce her, while a male humanized rooster watches them from behind a door.
Max Ernst, the artist of these pages, a surrealist and inventor of collage. He does his work without intention, he wants to get into his unconscious brain to let his work be unintentional as much as possible. Much like dreams, there is usually no meaning, and trying to remember when one awakens, it is impossible to retell completely. Authors intentions are not always the measure of what is true about the work or not. One's brain is hardwired to find stories within images that may not even be there, but one tries to make sense of everything even if there is no sense to be had. Your experience play a major part in how you would interpret a piece of work, which is why everyone could interpret a work differently and they would all be right.
The Arrival - When I read through this my first initial thought was when everyone was immigrating to America in hopes to earn money to send back to your family and they they would hopefully be able to send them there too. This made me remember when I went to a world market and I found so many foods that I had never seen before, but were very common to others. I can relate with the man, it is a lot like moving to college, though not as foreign, it can be overwhelming at first. In the novel, he keeps enough earth like things to make the audience feel that we are still on earth, even with all of the strangeness of the town. One can feel the weight of the story, specifically through the detail of the drawings, each is just as important as the last. The Arrival gives you a clear picture of what it is like to go through the immigrant experience, not knowing the food, language, or the overall layout of the town. He had words though out the novel, but it is in a completely foreign language, but one sees that it is labeled which gives the reader a clue about what that object or place is.
I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid back in 7th grade with in a 10 day school trip. This novel made me remember experiences that I had back at that time, for example the food. One night we got to eat at the Eiffel tower, and on the salad there was a whole prawn, head an all. This freaked me out, but to others in the restaurant it was completely normal. They also did not know what ranch was, which baffled me at the time, but now I understand that ranch is largely an american product. Another example was the transportation. There were way more people who travel by train or bus compared to where I lived, a lot more bikes and mopeds too. Many of their building were much older too, making the whole city look like an ancient town I had seen illustrations of in history books. The last thing that really stood out to me was the clothing, all dark muted colors, compared to what I would normally see at home, colorful pants, shirts, and shoes. Many wore large jackets and always had an umbrella for it seemed it would rain at least once every three days, which is very different compared to Texas.
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