COMICS JOURNAL 09: Maus (Ch 1, 2)
Title: Maus: A Survivor's Tale
Author: Art Spiegelman
Pages 1-40: Chapter 1 The Sheik, Chapter 2 The Honeymoon
On the other hand, if there are only pictures, either the author has to provide more pictures for transitions including moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, and aspect-to-aspect, or the readers use more imagination to guest the missing parts between panels. If the author failed to anticipate the readers response and ability to understand the transitions, or the readers failed to commit the closure the author expected, the story may be misinterpreted or looks confusing.
Spiegelman used a combination of words and pictures, and a standard format throughout the book to make the story easy to understand and smooth. For instance, on page 38, the square text box is a description of the situation and background details so that the readers know why and how the conversations happened. The circular text cloud represents the conversations happening between the characters inside the panel. The picture shows specific characters in a specific environment so that the comics creator do not need to use lots of words to describe who involved in a conversation and where the conversation took place. This standard format throughout the book helps readers read the story smoothly in an easy and fast way. The combination of words and pictures saves lots of graphic works for the author and reduce the readers' energy to interpret every panel. In addition, the right proportion of words and pictures, and the clear format of separating description text and conversation in Spiegelman's Maus help the readers saves lots of time.
As McCloud mentioned on page 85 of his book Understanding Comics, "finding the balance between too much and too little is crucial to comics creators the world over", Spiegelman is successful in creating such balance.
Do you prefer novels without any pictures, wordless novels, or the comics with combination of words and pictures?
Author: Art Spiegelman
Pages 1-40: Chapter 1 The Sheik, Chapter 2 The Honeymoon
(Page 85) McCloud says, "The art of comics is as subtractive an art as it is additive".If only words are used to describe the story, the readers have to imagine the screen, and it requires more text description of the situations. This made the story less smooth and harder for the readers to feel attached to the story at a short period of time. This is because readers must understand the setting of the environment and conditions before they understand why and how the conversations happened.
On the other hand, if there are only pictures, either the author has to provide more pictures for transitions including moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, and aspect-to-aspect, or the readers use more imagination to guest the missing parts between panels. If the author failed to anticipate the readers response and ability to understand the transitions, or the readers failed to commit the closure the author expected, the story may be misinterpreted or looks confusing.
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Page 38, Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman |
As McCloud mentioned on page 85 of his book Understanding Comics, "finding the balance between too much and too little is crucial to comics creators the world over", Spiegelman is successful in creating such balance.
Do you prefer novels without any pictures, wordless novels, or the comics with combination of words and pictures?
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