final post

  For me, reading Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” is an experience that helped me learn a lot about how to tell a story using only images without any aid of words or languages. I would even say that the images  that Shaun Tan created are all very compelling storytelling elements. I found that Shaun Tan used a lot of techniques to make his story not only understandable but also engaging to the audience.

    For example, Shaun Tan illustrated as many key poses as he could for the characters in the story. By using this method, he plotted out continuous actions that results in creating an illusion of moving images. He achieved the effect similar to watching a motion picture on paper. The poses and actions are key elements that drive the story. Shaun Tan had drawn the movements in a way that are easy for the readers to understand. The drawings and poses are also very appealing to watch. Shan Tan had also put emotions and expressions into the actions, making the characters very approachable to the readers.

    Another notable technique that Shaun Tan used in this piece is his use of cinematography. He incorporated various compositions of shots, different ways to light a scene that would add to the story, and also “camera movements” in his work.

    His compositions for each picture panels are dynamic. Sometimes he would choose extreme long shots to illustrate this fantasy cityscape that is being portrayed in the story. Sometimes he would choose close ups to show different emotions of the characters. In this particular piece, Shaun Tan drew a lot a close ups of hands. The hands engaging in different tasks also engage the reader into the story.

    Shaun Tan delicately and elaborately pencil-rendered his picture panels so as to achieve a sense of realistic lighting effect that is similar to motion pictures. Shaun Tan also has his own drawing style that makes the whole piece emit a soft and warm quality.

    Achieving “camera movements” with still images is what stands out for me the most in this piece. Shaun Tan would elaborately illustrate panels after panels that mimic the sense of the moving camera. There are a lot of extreme zoom-outs in this piece. At first, the readers empathize with what the characters were feeling with closer shots, and then the camera would gradually zoom out, making the scene into an extreme long shot. This method achieves a sense loneliness of the characters in a vast environment.   

Hellboy Savage Dragon

Hellboy Savage Dragon

I chose to read Hellboy because I have seen a film about Hellboy.

This graphic novel is very cinematic and dynamic in composition of each images, the actions of the characters and the techniques of the storytelling.

In this piece, similar to other super hero pieces, the author tends to exaggerate the anatomy of the characters. The heroic characters tend to be very muscular and the female characters tend to be extremely curvy. This is a stereotype of superhero comics.

There are a lot of stereotypical aspects to this piece. In the story, the evil character is stereotypically of Nazi background, and came to life from the “evil scientists”.

Arabian Nights

Arabian Nights

Acme library

Acme library

I read the acme library. I think the Acme library is in some ways quite similar to Stories from Heavy Metal.

For example, both utilizes limited color palette. Both chose this particular color scheme to reinforce the morbid mood in the stories. One thing that makes Acme Library different from Stories from heavy metal, is that in the Acme library the saturation overall is much lower than Stories from Heavy Metal. This aspect makes the atmosphere of Acme library even more ominous than Stories from heavy metal.

Another aspect that makes Acme Library similar to Stories form Heavy Metal is that both have very dreamlike storylines like surrealists. In Acme Library, the story unfolds by following the protagonist’s thoughts, and often ended in inconceivably morbid scenes.

Another notable aspect about Acme Library is that even though the stories are usually morbid and sometimes violent, the author used a small kid as a narrator as well as using a cute cartoony style for the piece. This great contrast with the childishness against the violence intensifies the sense of  uneasiness in the mood of the piece.

Astroboy

Astroboy

    I watched the anime of Astroboy. I was quite surprised that an anime (limited animation) made such a long time ago, is so high in quality and well made in animation. Also, I think Astroboy is in various aspects quite different from some anime that are being made today.

   

    Some anime took advantage of limited animation to a great extent. They move the characters just enough for the story to carry on, but Astroboy isn't always like that. This piece uses a fair amount of gestures and body movements for the lip sync for more sufficient depiction of the emotion of the characters in the story.

The style is of a typical “Osamu Tezuka” style, with big eyes and roundish-looking body-type characters. There is also a lot of shape variation with different characters in the anime.

   

    Astroboy reminds me of Pinnochio in a lot of ways. Theay are both about a father wanting their creation to become a real boy and a son. Both stories focus on originally lifeless and inanimate objects coming to life, and have souls and human emotions, and were capable of love and compassion.

Stories from heavy metal

Stories from heavy metal

    Stories from heavy metal is a collection of a lot of short comics. Overall, There is a surreal quality to this piece. Not only is the style surreal, it is also quite morbid when it comes to the style as well as the stories.

This piece reminds me of surrealism. It is very similar to surrealism both in the art style as well as the stories. The art style is more realistic compared to some other comics. Surrealist art works are often very highly rendered with realistic details.

Something unique about this work’s art style is that it uses very limited color palette for all of its stories. This helps creates an unsettling mood to the piece while the reader is reading the story.

The stories are similar to surrealism because they have a fantasy quality as if these all came from dreams.  Dreaming and sub consciousness are important aspects of surrealism.

The stories are usually very morbid and usually ended with the main character dying. The art style, the color palette as well as the dream-like quality all contribute the morbid atmosphere of the story.

Persepolis

Persepolis

I watched the animated version of Persepolis in the theaters when I was in high school. The film has a very unique style. It was all in black and white. Also, it has a very two-dimensional quality. I can see that the art style is inspired by Islamic art. I also read the comic recently. I can see that the animated version’s unique style is mostly adopted from the original comic version.

The art style is not the only aspect that is special about Persepolis. The story of Persepolis is also very unique and special. In the beginning, the author used a very childlike tone to tell a serious story about a revolution in which her family took part. In the story, everyday family life seems normal and cheerful for the author, but in reality her parents were under life threatening situations everyday.

The author, being a female, touched upon the issue of female rights in her country as well. For example, In the middle part of the story when the author gets older, her school was trying to restrict the freedom of what the girls could wear. The school ridiculous thought that a certain type of pants was considered too sexually exposed for female students.

This piece, in general, touches upon a lot of issues concerning the violation of human rights in her country. It is a piece worth reading.