Week2 Understanding Comics

 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.