I have been reading comics for a long time. However,
I realized that I did not know as much as I thought about comics while
reading this book. Although the style of this book is not new, I learned
how the familiar techniques function. I gained more understanding of comics
with this book.
One of my favorite parts of this book is the
purpose of the space between flame and flame, which is named “the gutter”.
This section reminds me of the great artist, who uses the gutter
experimentally and effectively, Osamu Tezuka. He uses flames and gutter for
multiple purposes.
For example, he uses the flames and the
gutters to show the emotion of the story. This picture is from Black Jack. This is the sequence of
the woman explaining her past life. I could see the emotion of each scene.
Also, he colors the gutter completely black, which can tell the readers to
understand these pictures are a story told by someone.
In another example from Phoenix, he uses the gutter to make several groups and show them
as a sequence. As a result, these several sequences work as parallel editing
in film language. He also puts a line between two flames to show which
picture connects to which.
Phoenix
is also interesting to see as the example of transition between pictures. In
this case, these four characters have different transition types.
The man in the left is the “moment-to-moment” transition, the women and man in the middle is “scene-to-scene” transition, and the man character in the right is
“action-to-action” transition. Therefore, this page is a really great example of
both the use of the gutter and the variety of transitions.
As
the author mentions in the book, Osamu Tedzuka has great variety of his
work. The experience of reading his works help me to understand the instruction
of the book.
I
think you may already know; I am a big fan of Osamu Tedzuka’s
comics. I grew up reading his works. By reading Understanding Comics, I think I find his
work much more interesting for now.
