page 09 - action, what action?

pup thinks. this was mentioned in mccloud's presentation i posted some entries ago.

pages, what pages? use what browsers give you. use them scroll bars.

page 08 - the art of falling

drawing style differs from each artist, that's obvious. but, as i've mentioned in previous post before, there are a set amount of storytelling techniques. alright, maybe not a set amount, i'm sure there are a lot of it out there that i've yet to discover.

these are two pages of completely different artists telling the same thing: falling.

these are just two samples that made me go "HAH!" since it's just about a dude falling over something or other, right? exactly. but there's completely two different event here. one is trying NOT to fall, one is... simply falling.


first here is done by bernie krigstein (LOOK HIM UP). these four panels depict a man falling backwards over an edge (of a subway platform, but i'll leave that detail out). first panel, excuse the small scan, is of the man just starting to fall and he's in mid-air; he hasn't realized he's falling yet, until... the second panel! where his expression changes to pure shock, arm raising up still in his motion of falling. third panel, BAM, he's grimacing, he's clenching his fists, he's bringing his arm down, he's trying to regain his footing back on the platform. fourth panel, his left hand is reaching out to grab something, but there's no hope. these are illustrations of a man trying not to fall.


second one, style should be familiar, come on guys, by CLAMP. another falling sequence. but can you already tell the difference from krigstein's? first, second and third panels of these just depict the shocked and surprised expression and showing moments of falling. there's not much to say of this one other than the stylistic flat renders of window panes and hallway lights, as these illustrations only show a falling moment, no attempts of regaining his balance or footing (which is actually part of the story now that i think about it).

so there you have it. same moment, yet, already showing completely different personalities between two characters.

page 07 - drip, drip, drip

ah, yes, i cannot not mention manga in this blog. and CLAMP is one of my favorite artists to date. so there will shameless plugging of their work here. with good reason.

i'm having trouble trying to choose a good sample for this, because i pretty much view each page of their work as a superb work of art. talk about putting them up on a pedestal.




i don't need to go into details as images above should be clear enough showing what's going on.

alright. if not, keep reading.
there's another page before and after these sequences, but i felt these ones are the main focus.

we read this starting from the top thumbnail. within this first page, start from the right top panel, showing the lady looking unhappy, clarified with the slanted eyebrows we all get when we're frowning. the middle stand alone panel, shows a close up on her face and framed, not only with the octagon-shaped frame, but also with the scattered-flying leaves around her, starting from the top right and across to the left bottom side of the frame; and these leaves are outlined thickly and hatched, emphasizing on their weight and still moment in time. this sad expression stays on her face and is exaggerated even further on the last panel; showing her closing her eyes, as we all do when we're very very disappointed in something.

the second page beneath, starting from the top. this shows her form a side view, we now see she is sitting along on a bench (this is actually clarified in the pages before the previous page). the second frame after that shows the same view only it's completely blurred with a small hint of recognition with her same pose. these frames are blurred and seemingly smudged together. and while there is no white between this frame and the most bottom one, the smudged and organic white shape melting from the second frame stands on its own as some sort of liquid, which is then clarified in the last panel to be a tear drop on a cheek.

there will be more pages from their work to come, i assure you.

page 06 - ways ways ways

an essay on storytelling and comic books.

page 05 - hergé

come oooooooooon, don't tell me you don't like tintin. it's only one of the iconic characters ever.

for your viewing pleasures: tintin online.

page 04 - talking pages

another scott mcloud's. i can't seem to stop plugging the dude, but this time. if you're too lazy to read his book, check this video out where he spoke at TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference way back when.

page 03 - past&present

http://superdickery.com/ is perhaps one of the most amusing collection of comic covers ever. should go see this website for humor and not seriousness. a lot of the things they have there make me chuckle.

it archives a bunch of comic covers from the past and few in recent years, i think most are way back when and gives more attention to superhero comics though.

page 02

this is an excerpt from understanding comics by scott mccloud.

"most panel to panel transition in comics can be placed in one of several distinct categories. the first category– which we'll call moment-to-moment– requires very little closure. next are those transitions featuring a single subject in distinct action-to-action progressions. the next type takes us from subject-to-subject while staying within a scene or idea. note the degree of reader involvement necessary to render these transitions meaningful. deductive reasoning is often required in reading comics such as in these scene-to-scene transitions, which transport us across significant distances of time and space. a fifth type of transition, which we'll call aspect-to-aspect, bypasses time for the most part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place, idea or mood. and finally, there's the non-sequitur. which offers no logical relationship between panels whatsoever."

page 01

overrated scott mccloud's understanding comics is overrated. but damn does it actually make a lot of sense.

he explains a lot of things that comes to storytelling and paneling and angles. ranging from various historical comics and some of the evolution through time. most important (to me) he mentions in his book is the different ways of telling a story from "panel" to "panel". panels is a word used loosely since it ranges from a whole page, half page, a wall, a web click away, a web scroll away. i don't have the book with me right now but he explains in details six ways of telling a story. i'll edit this post with that explanation later.

cover page

this may not be the blog for personal feelings, but shit it's my blog.

my interest in comics, or if we're going into details, manga, stemmed when i was six years old, and my older sister brought home this oddly bound book titled "dragon ball." granted i also had "tintin" in my possession as well, but that didn't attract me as much as dragon ball did. maybe it was the fact i could relate myself to lil goku since i was that short and wished i had a tail like his. maybe because dragon ball didn't had much dialogue then. and even though tintin had full color print big pages for ease to read, i was more inclined to hunch down and huddle the palm sized little manga in my chubby hands.

so ever since then i've been fixated on manga solely. big eyes are cool to me. i couldn't wait to be fourteen because apparently that's when magical things start happening to you, as per the magical girl rules they set in mangas. i was waiting to find some ancient artifact or a talking animal or a secret book that will sprout wings and throw me off into some magical land. obviously none of those wishful hopes happened as i'm still here, being a cynic as ever.

i moved to the states at the age of twelve, and discovered to my disappointment, what i had been calling a comic back home, does not equate to what they call comics here. i was instead bombarded with super overly muscled men and women in brightly colored spandex with capes. sure i've known them before, but i knew them as cartoons, not as comic book characters. i was stumped, unable to find any of my beloved manga in any bookstores. that was more than ten years ago.

then through the years in my sadness of lack of manga, i've tried numerous times to get in with the webcomic fad they had booming back when the net started. i was only a youngun when that happened. time flies. but i've never managed to keep loyal to any ideas i had floating in my head, or i get intimidated by other webcomics that are so famous and wonderful. now i just don't give a crap and do whatever the hell i want. though i still need to update it more often. i digress.

so i started to nod my head and think to myself, "so maybe this comic thing isn't that bad after all." and few years later, i enrolled a summer class with an instructor whom i still herald now, bernard chang.

the class was 'introduction to graphic novels' or something along that line. i don't remember the name really, just what i learned.

i learned that comic, manga, manhua, manhwa, sunday strips, webcomics are different of each other. completely in their ways of telling a story and even their style, however, the theme they all retain is they are telling a story in their own way. comics are more action packed, more emphasis on actions, dramatic angles, money shots and they have to keep everything consistent and short. comic books in america don't have the luxury of spanning to 140+ pages like manga do (the mangaka do work per chapters and publish it on a monthly basis with other series, but they get to gather up all the chapters into one bound book later on). comic books get 30 pages (around there somewhere) and they even have to be bombarded with advertising, so they aren't free to have a lot of empty space with just one dialogue bubble or two as in some manga. and i thiiiiiiiiink comics are published weekly? or is it monthly as well.

in any case. i learned to appreciate them spandex people through this class, and appreciate more the way they use a different way of storytelling.

i think i have more ramble to ramble on, but i can't think of anything.