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COMIC TRAGICSthe exploding language of contemporary comic art

An Art Gallery of Western Australia Education resource for

middle and secondary school

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Comic Tragics: The exploding language of contemporary comic artUse of this education resource

This education resource has been developed to support

teachers and students who visit the Art Gallery of Western

Australia’s exhibition Comic Tragics: The exploding language

of contemporary comic art. It contains information about the

exhibition and the nine contemporary comics artists featured,

and includes discussion questions for secondary students

that focus on one key work by each artist. It also includes

activity ideas and a gallery sheet that will enrich the learning

experience of the exhibition before, during and after a visit.

The content of the resource and the exhibition links to the WA

Curriculum learning areas of The Arts – Visual Arts and Media

Arts through the strands of Responding and Making and also

to English through the strands of Language, Literature and

Literacy.

Read the relevant references to content covered in this

exhibition in the WA Curriculum Visual Arts, Media Arts and

English syllabuses (specifically Year 9) and consider the

following pre- and post-visit activities, adapting them to suit

your curriculum needs.

Before your visit

• Adapt the information in this resource to suit your learning

area, curriculum requirements, and to focus your students’

learning experiences.

• Trace the history and development of comics and graphic

novels through examining the timeline included in this

resource.

• Discuss the glossary meanings at the end of the resource to

deepen student engagement with the exhibition.

• Analyse examples of comic art with the class, discussing

elements such as layout and design, time, motion, mood and

emotion, angles and viewpoints and symbols.

• Explore student knowledge of comics and graphic novels

and encourage them to share their own collections with the

class.

• Encourage students to research the work of the artists in the

exhibition on the Internet and discuss what they might see

and learn as a result of their visit to the exhibition.

After your visit

Select several activities for the students to complete:

• Think about the work you liked best in Comic Tragics and

write an evaluation of the work in your journal. Consider the

artist’s style, technique and subject matter and discuss what

you liked most about it.

• Think about the exhibition as a whole. Consider the title

Comic Tragics – is it appropriate? Why/why not? What is

your overall conclusion about the exhibition – what did you

like/dislike about it? If you were the curator, what would you

do differently?

• Choose and complete some of the responding and making

activities in this resource.

• Imagine yourself an arts reviewer and write a review of the

exhibition. Include your overall impression of the show and

the curator’s success in telling the story of The exploding

language of contemporary comic art through the:

• selection of artists

• selection of works

• layout and flow of exhibition

• effectiveness of signage and didactics

• choice of wall colours and lighting

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Anders Nilsen Captain American resting 2008. ink on paper, 125.7 x 95.3 cm. Collection the artist. © Anders Nilsen

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Introduction – Comic Tragics: The exploding language of contemporary comic art Comic Tragics features considerable selections of original

comic pages and art work from nine artists from around the

world: Gabrielle Bell (United States of America), Stephen Collins

(England), Aisha Franz (Germany), Anders Nilsen (United States

of America), Tommi Parrish (Australia), John Porcellino (United

States of America), Ron Regé Jr (United States of America) and

Emma Talbot (England).

This group represents a broad range of approaches to comic

production and to the combination of word, image and story.

Together, their work reflects the essential ambiguity of the term

‘comic’ and the various ways that its traditions can be used and

reinterpreted as the foundation for explorations of the space

where the interior and the external worlds meet.

The exhibition’s material focus is largely on original pages

produced by artists that are then photographed or scanned

(and sometimes “perfected”) and finally reproduced in printed

form. While there are numerous full sequences and stories, much

of the show is composed of fragments from larger wholes; this

provides a focus on the materiality of image and language

the artists generate. In turn, this allows us to appreciate the

intimacy of the practice of comic making, evoking the highly

individual relationship each artist has with their medium. Each

work provides rich evidence of the hand of the artist pulling a

character or a scene into being. So, though often pulled out of its

original context each work in this show is a work of art unto itself,

a perfect and complete artistic statement.

Through these works, therefore, we gain direct insight into the

way language and pictures emerge from particular bodies.

We witness the comic come into being as a kind of immensely

powerful and resonant hand writing, a writing that communicates,

with directness, with poetry, with feeling that is the amalgam of

the unique, idiosyncratic nuances of the maker’s mind and body.

This personal tone is at the heart of the exhibition as each of

the artists foregrounds strongly emotional content that ranges

from explorations of love and loss, to the struggles of daily life, to

parables about the human condition as such.

In these ways, Comic Tragics presents works that compel,

intimate one-to-one experiences; they cultivate the sense of

a fundamentally direct feeling of one person transmitting the

complexities of their experiences and thoughts to another.

They open out the tragedies and the comedies (painful and

otherwise) that animate all of our lives. In doing so, these artists’

visions reflect much about the difficulty and pleasure of being in

the world, putting words and image together in ways that are as

sophisticated as they are humorous, as wise as they playful, and

as imaginative as they are honest.

Robert Cook

Curator of Contemporary Design and International Art

Art Gallery of Western Australia

What are comics, comic books and graphic novels?The Comic is a medium of visual communication used to

express ideas principally through juxtaposed images in

deliberate sequence, often combined with text.

The Comic book is the term usually used to describe collections

of comics published as stand alone entities.

A graphic novel is a book made up of comics content.

Comics and graphic novels in the classroomUsing comics and graphic novels in the classroom is about

harnessing students’ natural interests. The clever, often

humorous and sometimes touching story lines in each short

strip draws young readers in. Much can be conveyed through

illustrations with just a few words and this economy can

cleverly reveal complete stories. Comics and graphic novels do

not require long sentences or paragraphs to relate captivating

tales or communicate a powerful message.

For good readers, comics and graphic novels can be a

challenging and sophisticated medium that can help to develop

and extend graphic intelligence and literacy. For students who

struggle with visualising as they read, they provide scaffolding,

bringing together visual and text based learning. They are an

excellent vehicle for teaching writing as a comic or graphic

novel can be seen as a short story, pared down to its most basic

elements that has a beginning, middle and end. It is relatively

simple for students to look at a short comic strip and identify

story elements. Further to this, comics and graphic novels can

teach about making inferences, since readers must rely on

pictures and just a small amount of text.

Visual arts students who are particularly interested in drawing

can be encouraged to use comics and graphic novels as a

medium through which to express their creative ideas.

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Codes and conventions of comics, comic books and graphic novelsConventions – the traditional or culturally accepted ways

of reading, responding and perceiving based on audience

knowledge and expectations.

Both comics and graphic novels can be analyzed in much the

same way as traditional literary forms, using conventions such

as:

• Setting

• Themes

• Point of view

• Symbols

• Characters

• Props

• Narrative and plot

• Style

Codes – the signs and symbols used to convey meaning

Codes used to convey meaning in comics and graphic novels:

Written

• Dialogue.

• Monologue (Gabrielle Bell’s Cecil and Jordan Go to New

York) or non-verbal thoughts (Jim Davis’ Garfield).

• Speech / thought balloons – spaces for the characters

conversation and thought.

• Narrative / storytelling.

• Image – the line, colour, style, shading used by the artist

create a narrative, to which dialogue or captions may or

may not be added.

• Caption – used to narrate the story from the third person.

Technical

• Panel/cell/frame/box - these contain the artwork. Their size

and fullness determines the speed at which the comic is

read.

• Sequencing – creates continuity/disjunction/an episodic

nature within the narrative.

• Gutters – the space between the panels, used to punctuate

the narrative, delineate time from one moment to another

and provide closure.

• Angles – high/low/close up angles function the same way as

in film and photography.

• Pointer/tail – the point at the bottom of a speech or thought

balloon to indicate who is talking/thinking.

Symbolic

• Motions and speed lines – used to indicate action.

• Semiotic indicators such as lightbulbs for ideas, musical

notes for song, zzzzzz for sleep.

• Colour.

• Costume.

• Setting.

• Props/ objects.

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How did comics come about? We can examine a time line to discover the history of comics and

how they developed over time:

1070 A.DThe Bayeux Tapestry – possibly the first comic-like artwork made.

A famous length of embroidery over 70 metres long which represents a chapter of history through images stitched in chronological order. The images depict the Norman conquest of England, unrolling as a continuous narrative. Trees and buildings often demarcate the end of a scene, just as comic strips are sectioned into cells.

1440Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press allowing everyone access to printed material, not just the rich and powerful.

Over the next century the machine became hugely popular, publishing became a booming industry and the printing of broadsheets or broadsides was common. These were large sheets on which woodcuts and typography were printed, and sold very cheaply. Woodcut designs were made on one panel of wood divided into squares, resulting in images contained in cells.

1732 – 1735William Hogarth produced several series of paintings that told stories (The Rakes Progress, The Harlot’s Progress), designed to be hung side by side and read sequentially. These became so popular that they were reproduced extensively and sold as portfolios of engravings. At this time political cartooning exploded. Hogarth’s work is an example of artists using combinations of images and text to make satirical jokes and to critique society and their leaders.

1790-1830 Artists such as Thomas Gillray and Rodolphe Töpffer started using speech bubbles in their cartoons and strips. Speech bubbles had been preceded by banderoles, which could be considered proto speech bubbles and had been employed since medieval times (For example, Saint Anne and Angel by Bernhard Strigel, 1506). However the consistent use of the bubble with a tail by artists such as Gillray and Töpffer helped make it a convention of comic strips and cartooning.

1880British comics began being printed in penny dreadfuls and were created using woodcut panels. Comic Cuts and Chips were aimed at children. The cuts in Comic Cuts was a reference to the woodcut tradition.

December 1897The Katzenjammer Kids, one of the first American strips was born. It is the longest running comic in history and was inspired by Max und Moritz, a bilderbogen produced by Wilhelm Busch in 1865 and seen by American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst whilst he was travelling in Germany.

To view an original copy of the book Max und Moritz in pdf format, visit:

1929The first Tintin comic, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets appeared in the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. The

Adventures of Tintin series was created by Georges Prosper Remi known by the pen name Hergé.

June 1938 The first Superman Comic was produced by DC Comics.

March 1940The first Batman comic was published, although Batman had appeared the year before in the pages of Detective Comics.

December 1941Wonder Woman first appeared in the pages of Sensation Comics and later went on to have her own series in All Star Comics. Wonder Woman was created by psychologist William Moultain Marston.

1945 onwardIn the post-war era, the popularity of comics boomed and they went from being a newspaper supplement to being published as books in their own right.

2 October 1950The first Peanuts comic strip, written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, was printed.

April 1952The first Astro Boy comic was produced in Japan, signaling the international popularity of Japanese Manga style.

1954 Frederic Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a book that claimed comic books were a harmful influence on children and would result in juvenile delinquency and illiteracy. The same year the Comics Code Authority began. It was a self-imposed regulatory body for the comic book industry. The authority published guidelines for acceptable content.

March 1963The first Spiderman comic was published in America.

October 1968Robert Crumb, creator of Zap, distributed his first Zap comic on the streets of San Francisco.

Like any art form, there were different movements and collectives in the comic world. The Underground movement was mobilised in San Francisco by Crumb’s controversial Zap, which contained sex, violence, adult humour and political narratives.

The comic was now recognised as a complex and legitimate art form for youth and adults and not just children.

1970-1991 Founded by Trina Robbins, the Wimmens Comix Collective was a reaction to the “boys club” attitude of the underground movement. Its inception collided with the sexual revolution and women’s movements all over America, and the work of this collective included male/female role reversal, distinctly feminist themes driven by strong female protagonists, and narratives that dealt candidly with the female body.

April 1972Issue 1 of Tarzan was released by DC Comics in America.

1977American cartoonist and author Lynda Barry’s career began when fellow cartoonist Matt Groening and University of Washington Daily student editor John Keister published her work under the name of Ernie Pook’s Comeek in their respective

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student newspapers without her knowing. Barry went on to publish many comics and graphic novels and in recognition of her contributions to the comic art form, Comics Alliance listed her as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition. Barry received the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

July 1980Art Spiegelman, American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate with his wife, designer and editor Françoise Mouly produced the first Raw. Raw was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement in America.

18 November 1985The first Calvin and Hobbes comic, produced by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, appeared.

12 August 1986Pantheon Books published the first six chapters of collected strip from Raw as Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, bringing the work to mainstream attention.

1998-1999Canadian underground cartoonist and artist Julie Doucet published the first 12 issues of her autobiographical mini comic Dirty Plotte. In it she recorded her dreams, fears, fantasies and aspects of everyday life.

1989 The Berlin Wall fell, and in 1991 Spiegelman published Maus in its entirety. It was initially a strip, collected and published as a graphic novel, that functioned as a biographical account of his father’s harrowing experiences as a polish Jew in during World War II and in Auschwitz. The work resounded with the millions of people trying to recover from and cope with the atrocities and losses suffered during the war. It won the author a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and legitimised the graphic novel as a literary genre.

1989Fantagraphics published the first issue of American cartoonist, illustrator and screenwriter Daniel Clowes’ comic book Eightball. On issue #1’s masthead, Clowes described the anthology as “An Orgy of Spite, Vengeance, Hopelessness, Despair, and Sexual Perversion.” Eightball lasted twenty three issues, ending in 2004. One of the most widely acclaimed American alternative comics, it won over two dozen awards, and all of Clowes’s Eightball serials have been collected and released as graphic novels.

1993-2004From 1993 to 2004, American cartoonist and illustrator Charles Burns serialised the 12 chapters of his Harvey Award-winning graphic novel Black Hole (12 issues from Kitchen Sink Press and Fantagraphics Books). The series was collected into a single volume in 2005.

1994American cartoonist Franklin Christenson “Chris” Ware began his Acme Novelty Library series. His works explore themes of social isolation, emotional torment and depression.

2000Chris Ware published the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth.

2010Digital comic sales experienced a dramatic boom.

2010 onwardThe underground comic scene in Europe and America continues to grow whilst the production of Manga and Anime in Japan is ongoing. Manga has become hugely popular in Europe and Australia creating a fashionable cult scene amongst teens and youth.

Comics as a mirror to society Superhero comics were often created in response to social and political events, and can be seen as reflections of societies’ greatest frustrations, fears and fantasies at the time of their creation. For example, the very first issue of Captain America (# 1, March 1941) captured national sentiment with the cover showing “Cap” punching Hitler in the face. Cap’s adventures related to events at the time, and included escapades such as saving Winston Churchill and breaking into Hitler’s bunker.

The Hulk and Spiderman comics make references to radioactive matter, a concern in society during the nuclear arms race and as nuclear testing took place. Iron Man faces the torment of alcoholism (# 128, Nov 1979); the Green Lantern addressed racism felt by African Americans (#76 Apr 1970) and battled addiction (#85, Sep 1971).

Batman Returns was set against the backdrop of the Cold War, and by the 1990s Captain America was fighting a new war - the ‘war on drugs’ (#1 Captain America goes to War against Drugs 1990).

Popular examples of early comic history in America, Britain and Japan USAGeorge Herriman’s Krazy Kat 1913-1944Russ Westover’s Tillie the Toiler 1921-1959Chic Young’s Blondie 1930-presentRudolph Dirks’ The Katzenjammer Kids 1897- present

UKAlfred Harmsworth’s Comic cuts 1890-1953 and Playbox 1925-1955British comic magazine Whizzer and Chips 1890-1953British comic book Film fun 1920-1962Long running children’s comic The Dandy 1937-2012

JapanKatsuji Matsumoto ‘s Shōjo Manga series Kurukuru Kurumi-chan 1938-1940, 1949-1954Shosuke Kurakane’s Shōjo Manga series Animitsu Hime 1949-1955Machiko Hasegawa’s Sazae-san 1946-Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy 1951-present

Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight 1953-1956

Comic Tragics The Artists

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DASH SHAWAmerican comic book writer, artist and animator

Background

Born – 1983, California, USA

Education – graduated from the School of Visual Arts

in Manhattan

Published

• Published comic stories in various US and overseas

publications during college years.

• Illustrated for magazines.

• Author of the following graphic novels: Love Eats Brain

(Odd God Press), GardenHead (Meathaus), The Mother’s

Mouth (Alternative Comics) and Bottomless Belly Button

(Fantagraphics), BodyWorld (Pantheon Books)

Style and technique

Unlike the format of a traditional comic strip to be read

sequentially from left to right, Shaw’s comics are short, fluid,

interchangeable collages of frames from which the reader can

make meaning in different ways. His style is varied and often

changes, depending on the stories he presents.

He is interested in animation, shading, sequences of movement

and manipulating angles.

Shaw uses crow quill pens (a pen with a metal nib that is dipped

into ink to use) and markers to achieve graphic looking hand

drawings that sometimes have colour underlays beneath. He

also uses animation techniques and Photoshop.

Themes/subjects/ideas

Shaw’s work is sometimes poignant, tender and meaningful and

other times quite humorous. His stories seem open-ended and

leave the reader to consider the ideas and to make meaning

from the scenarios. His most recent work satirises aspects of

contemporary America, particularly TV game shows such as

Wheel of Fortune and reality TV shows such as Blind Date. In the

video animation work Blind date 4 2011, Shaw has adapted an

episode of Blind Date by drawing a frame illustrating the action

every five seconds and then put the drawings into a timed slide

show, accompanied by the original audio track. The animated,

hand drawn look of the work, paired with the soundtrack, result

in a comical piece that highlights the banal and absurd aspects

of commercial TV.

Suggested web references:

http://www.tcj.com/how-can-the-spaces-between-the-pages-

be-as-meaningful-as-the-pages-a-dash-shaw-interview/

http://dashshaw.tumblr.com/archive

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/shaw_dash.htm

The following discussion questions relate to the image on the next page

Responding:

1. Watch the video and look at the drawings, both titled

Wheel of Fortune. What processes has the artist used

to create this video?

2. How well do the drawings come together as an animation?

3. Discuss the artist’s style and the technique used to make the

drawings. How effective are they in communicating ideas?

4. Discuss the themes and ideas communicated through

this work.

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Dash Shaw Wheel of fortune 2011 (detail 3 of 18). Ink on paper, 21.6 x 27.94 cm each. Collection the artist. © Dash Shaw.

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JOHN PORCELLINOAmerican, self-publishing comic creator

Background

Born – 1968, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Published

• Self-published since the late 1980s, publishing his own zines,

in the early 90s as the movement boomed.

• Most popular comic is King Kat, one of the longest running

minicomics produced (started 1989).

Style and technique

Porcellino spends time visualising his ideas prior to getting

them down on paper. He is attracted to simplicity in all art

forms and this translates into his comics, through which he

communicates so much in a simple, uncluttered, linear style.

He uses notebooks extensively to record thoughts, ideas and

titles for stories. Over time he works back on these ideas, paring

them down until they make sense. He feels he is then able to

write and refine that information, until he finally sits down to

draw.


At times melancholic and heart wrenching, much of Porcellino’s

work is directly influenced by his experiences with depression,

from which he has suffered for most of his life. His stories are

often autobiographical; for example, Diary of a Mosquito

Abatement Man chronicles the artist’s job as a pest control

worker, in which he was exposed to many chemicals that he

assumes led to the benign tumour and subsequent illnesses

he suffered in the late 90s and early 2000s. He even developed

hypersensitivity allergies that rendered him allergic to the ink

he used for cartooning.

Hospital Suite is another autobiographical comic strip in

which Porcellino presents the turmoil of his illness in a candid,

relatable, honest and simple manner. True Anxiety draws on

the artist’s experiences with mental health issues such as

depression and a crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder.


http://www.king-cat.net/history/

http://whatthingsdo.com/authors/john-porcellino/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgPuTW2uE7A

http://blogcritics.org/graphic-novel-review-the-hospital-suite-

by-john-porcellino/

https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/hospital-suite

http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/john-

porcellinos-back-pages.html

https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/press/2010/09/john-

porcellino-interviewed-comic-book-resources-news


Responding:

1. Who is the narrator (or the voice) in this one page comic?

Who are the other characters in the story?

2. What role do both the text and the imagery play in telling the

story?

3. Discuss Porcellino’s drawing style. Can you detect any

symbols the artist has used to signify meaning in the

images?

4. Are there any messages the artist is communicating through

the story?

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John Porcellino The Cat-Man 2001. Pencil and ink on paper with correction film, 27.9 x 21.6 cm. Collection the artist. © John Porcellino.

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RON REGÉ JRAmerican cartoonist and musician

Background

Born – 1969, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA

Education – Bachelor of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art

Published

• Began publishing his own minicomics while at the

Massachusetts College of Art.

• Has been published by Highwater Books, Fantagraphics

Books, Buenaventura Press, McSweeney’s and Drawn &

Quarterly.

Has played in various indie rock bands and is currently the

drummer in Los Angeles based outfit Lavender Diamond.

Style and technique

Regé’s comics have very few traditional conventions of comic

art such as recurring characters, speech bubbles, or captions.

Instead his images are often highly detailed and made up of

masses of block text, fine line work and complex patterns. He is

not concerned with plot structure that makes sense, preferring

exclamations, affirmations, and catchphrases to storytelling

in the traditional sense. By using this kind of style, Regé hopes

to push the comic medium and present a unique and honest

voice that is specifically his own.


Regé’s works appear almost as streams of consciousness, often

esoteric and exploratory in nature and reflecting his interest

in religion, ancient art and ideas, alchemy, mysticism and

mythology.

Ron Regé, Jr. is a very unusual, yet accomplished story teller

whose work exudes a passionate moral, idealistic core that

sets him apart from his peers…Regé’s work exudes psychedelia,

outsider rawness and pure cartoonish joy - Abraxas Journal,

cited in http://ronrege.blogspot.com.au/


http://whatthingsdo.com/authors/ron-rege-jr/

http://www.tcj.com/cartoon-utopian-an-interview-with-ron-

rege-jr/

http://ronrege.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.tcj.com/cartoon-utopian-an-interview-with-ron-

rege-jr/


Responding:

1. Discuss the style and layout of the panels. How do these

contribute to meaning in the work?

2. What is the relationship between the image and the text in

each panel?

3. What messages is the artist communicating and how does

the title convey meaning in the work?

4. Describe the characters Regé has depicted in Acceptance.

How successful are they in conveying the artist’s message?

5. Discuss the artist’s drawing style. How does he use line and

pattern to communicate ideas?

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Ron Regé, Jr. Acceptance 2011. Drawing on paper, 35.6 x 43.2 cm. Collection the artist. © Ron Regé, Jr.

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GABRIELLE BELLBritish born American cartoonist

Background

Born – 1976, London, England

Education – Humbolt State University, California; City College

of San Francisco, USA

Published

• Began by self-publishing her comics and from around 1998

published an annual comic book, the title of which began

with ‘Book of’ e.g. Book of Black and Book of Ordinary Things.

• Has been published by Alternative Comics, Drawn and

Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Uncivilized Books amongst others

• Two of her most well-known comics are the collection When

I’m Old and Other Stories (2003) and Lucky (2006)

Style and technique

Bell works in the diary strip format, which suits the semi-

autobiographical nature of her work. That said she tries to

extrapolate ideas and emphasise themes adding an element

of storytelling in the creation of a strip.

Bell has no formal training in art, but cites the book Drawing

on the Right Side of the Brain (1979) by Betty Edwards as an

extremely influential book that changed her approach to

drawing.

Bell uses the process known as black spotting which refers to an

artist finding those areas in the image that require large areas

of black ink and filling them. She ‘black spots’ not to indicate

shadow or light but rather to sculpt space and add mystery,

and create patterns to balance each cell.

She requires each panel to be perfect - a story in itself that

should be able to stand alone.

For Bell, privacy and isolation are an essential part of the

process of making her work and many of her stories reflect

these themes. She emphasises the intensity behind creating,

and the need for being comfortable working alone.


Throughout her life Bell has struggled with depression, but has

been able to use the process of creating comics as a kind of

release. Many of her stories are autobiographical and, like diary

entries, they usually start with something that happens to her,

and then expand to become more like personal essays.

Bell has commented on the difficulty she has encountered being

a woman in a very male dominated field, suggesting that female

artists are often discouraged from working autobiographically.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou9u5zeR5-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3oOLsA3HYI

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/

comics/article/53547-gabrielle-bell-the-unreliable-observer.

html

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/56474899/

gabrielle-bell-clogging-why-comics-make-everything-

smooth-refined

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/27/gabrielle-bell-

on-her-book-of-series/

http://wrestlingteam.tumblr.com/post/30500922967/where-do-

creative-people-come-from-on-beginnings

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/

comics/article/53547-gabrielle-bell-the-unreliable-observer.

html

http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/08/04/interview-gabrielle-

bell-pt-2/


Responding:

1. Discuss the style and layout of the panels. What strategies

does the artist use to indicate the passing of time and to tell

the story?

2. What are the underlying themes of the story?

3. Discuss the mood of the work. Identify textual and visual

elements the artist employs to help to convey the mood.

4. How effective is the one page format in conveying the

narrative?

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Gabrielle Bell One page Comics (detail). Pen on gridded paper (21 pages), 29.5 x 21 cm each. Collection the artist. © Gabrielle Bell.

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EMMA TALBOTBritish visual artist

Background

Born – 1969, Worcestershire, UK. Lives and works in London

Considered more a visual artist rather than a comic artist,

Talbot has held 7 solo exhibitions across England and has

exhibited in numerous group shows throughout the UK and

internationally.

She is represented by Domobaal Gallery, London and Petra

Rinck Galerie, Düsseldorf.

Style and technique

Talbot uses traditional drawing and painting media such as

watercolour and gouache on paper and acrylic on canvas to

produce her darkly haunting and heart-wrenching images that

depict memories and events from her life. Many of her paintings

and drawings are made up of detailed vignettes and comic

style frames with text adding further meaning to the images.

They have the appearance of comic stories and graphic novels

and can be read as narratives.

Despite the fact that many of her stories relate directly to

her life, the characters that inhabit Talbot’s images appear

anonymous and no facial features are ever drawn. The

stylised figures appear doll-like with large heads in relation

to their small bodies. She often draws very delicate, intricate,

decorative borders and frames surrounding the vignettes,

providing a contrast to the sometimes dark and moody nature

of the images.

In her 2015 exhibition Step inside Love (Domobaal Gallery)

she moved towards a more comic style, with blocks of text

supporting pictorial narrative.


Talbot weaves narratives by combining reality, memory and

fantasy, negotiating the struggle of the individual in life, in the

family, at home, and in society through her work. Some of her

images recall childhood memories and chronicle emotions and

traumatic events from her life. Anonymity is central to her work

(hence the featureless faces); though there is often the sense

that much is autobiographical, particularly in a work like Dolls

House (2008).


http://articulatedartists.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/emma-

talbot-talking-to-alli-sharma-at.html

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/01/artist-

emma-talbot

http://www.domobaal.com/resources/emmatalbot/emma-

talbot-an-interview-garageland-domobaal-2011.pdf

http://www.domobaal.com/artists/emma-talbot-01.html


Responding:

1. Consider the medium, style and layout of the work. Is it a

painting or a comic? Give reasons for your answer.

2. Discuss the patterns and designs the artist has used to

frame the panels in the work. Do they remind you of another

art style or culture?

3. What impact do these designs have on the narrative?

4. What story is the artist telling and how does the title convey

meaning in the work?

19

Emma Talbot Before I Loved You, Nothing Was My Own. Acrylic on canvas, 208 x 150 cm. Courtesy Domo Baal and Petra Rinck. © Emma Talbot.

20

ANDERS NILSENAmerican cartoonist who also published under the name of Abel Brekhus

Background

Born – 1973, New England, USA

Education – University of New Mexico

Nilsen is co-founder of Autoptic, a bi-annual festival of

independent comics and art culture that takes place in

Minneapolis, USA.

Published

• Has published numerous comics, graphic novels and long-

running strips since 2000.

• In 2005 his graphic novel Dogs and Water won an Ignatz

Award (awards that recognize outstanding achievements

in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-

owned projects published by larger publishers). An excerpt

from Dogs and Water was featured in the inaugural 2006

edition of the Best American Comics anthology.

• His longest running strip is Big Questions, which features two

birds asking exactly what the title infers - the ‘big questions.’

Style and technique

Nilsen’s drawings are skilfully rendered, often detailed and

many appear as stand-alone illustrations.

His work starts in a pocket-sized sketchbook, which is portable

and always with him, allowing him to record sketches, thoughts

and inspirations or to fill in moments of boredom. By constantly

using this book, he gives his preliminary ideas the potential to

evolve into something greater.

Nilsen draws directly, rarely using pencil, preferring the

immediacy of pens and using ‘white-out’ where required. He

keeps the colour palette simple and restrained, mostly limiting

himself to black and sometimes adding red. He uses pens of

different thicknesses to create complexities and textures in his

images. The artist works rapidly but takes likes to spend time

evaluating and refining what he has created.


Nilsen’s themes are varied and include existentialist ideas

and philosophical musings (as expressed in Big Questions), as

well as the acknowledgement of ordinary everyday moments

of wonder and humour. Some of his work expresses sadness

and grief for example his book Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow,

which chronicles the illness and eventual loss of his partner,

created as a way of working through the immense grief he was

experiencing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPTMvvCVxZ8

https://vimeo.com/12984451

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgPuTW2uE7A

http://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-anders-nilsen/

http://www.andersbrekhusnilsen.com/pdf/MOME7-interview.

pdf


Responding:

1. These two panels form one page of a graphic novel created

by the artist. Discuss the relationship between the text and

the two images and what the artist is revealing through this

relationship.

2. Discuss the artist’s use of the design elements line, tone and

space. How do they help to convey meaning?

3. What visual strategies have been used to communicate that

the characters in the story have moved from one location to

another?

4. Why did the artist choose to depict the characters from

behind and from a high viewpoint?

21

Anders Nilsen Don’t go where I can’t follow [page 79] 2006. Ink on paper, 30.5 x 40.9 cm. Collection the artist. © Anders Nilsen.

22

STEPHEN COLLINSBritish illustrator and cartoonist

Background

• A self-taught artist who studied English and Philosophy at

university

• Publishes weekly comics in The Guardian newspaper in the

UK

• 2013 debut graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil,

shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Of The Year award

• Works also as a commercial artist creating advertisements

for newspapers, magazines, designing book covers and

completing other commissions.

Style and technique

It was during a work experience placement at a newspaper

that Collins discovered his ability and interest in comics.

Grabbing an opportunity to do some illustration, and finding

that he enjoyed it, he realised that comics were the perfect way

to combine the two things he loved- illustration and writing.

Collins’ process begins with drawing a rough copy with a

creative pen tablet, then printing it and tracing it onto paper by

hand. He then paints this with gouache and watercolour which

infuses the image with life and gives it a more hand-made

finish as opposed to what is produced by a computer.

He likes to include ‘silence’ where possible – cells without words

and little action, which he feels serves to slow down the pace of

what is happening, making the sequence of the events appear

more natural.

Contrary to this working method, however, the artist’s first

graphic novel The Gigantic Beard that was Evil was executed

entirely in pencil, a medium in which he felt he could achieve

the most variance in shades of grey possible. The drawings for

the book took two years to complete, much longer than if he

had worked in another medium.


The themes and ideas represented in Collins’ comics are

diverse, but most have a humorous edge to them, presenting

his quirky, personal take on life. Some are completely hilarious

like the series Pigeons of New York where the artist draws

pigeons having conversations and delivering monologues that

parody human absurdities.


http://www.stephencollinsillustration.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/the-stephen-

collins-cartoon

https://vimeo.com/111734975

http://www.imagesource.com/blog/stephen-collins-guardian-

cartoonist-interview/

http://stephen-collins.tumblr.com/


Responding:

1. What visual strategies has the artist used to keep the story

flowing from one frame to the next and from one page to the

next without using text (consider panel shape and content,

types of transitions (McCloud, 2006, p. 15) and the views

within panels)?

2. Discuss the artist’s use of the design elements line, tone and

texture. How do they help to convey meaning?

3. Consider the depiction of space and the use of different

angles in these drawings. What effect do they have on the

way we view and interpret the characters in the story?

4. Discuss the mood of these drawings. What emotions is the

artist evoking and how has he achieved this?

23

Stephen Collins The Gigantic Beard that was Evil 2014 (detail). Pencil on paper (20 drawings comprising 23 sheets), 42 x 60 cm. Collection the artist. © Stephen Collins.

24

AISHA FRANZGerman comic artist

Background

Born – 1984, Fürth, Franconia, Bavaria

Education – School of Art and Design, Kassel

Published

• Wrote her first comic book Earthling as her final project at

the School of Art and Design, Kassel. This was published in

English by Drawn and Quarterly in 2011.

• Published her second book Shit is Real in 2015.

• Franz illustrates for journals and magazines such as MIT

Technology Review, the New York Times and Russian Esquire.

Style and technique

Franz’s drawing style is simple and stylised with a distinctly

‘hand-drawn’ appearance. This is particularly evident in her

graphic novels such as Earthling and Shit is Real where the

majority of pages are divided into 12-panel grids made up of

square boxes without dividers or borders. Within each box,

the drawings are simple images, a bit like rough sketches in

notebooks, made up of a tonal range of greys rendered in soft

graphite pencil.

Her commercial illustrations feature flat, simplified figures in

cartoon-like, fantasy worlds. The majority of them are bold and

eye-catching, with vibrant colours and strong lines.


Although always interested in drawing and telling stories, Franz

was a relatively latecomer to comics, only discovering them

while in art school. She liked the immediacy of the medium

and the way it allowed her to tell stories using mainly pictures

rather than words. She has said that her tendency to escape

into fantasy worlds in her early life now manifests itself through

her comics and stories. She avoids recreating real people and

places; instead the action takes place in imagined worlds,

allowing her to focus more on communicating feelings and

emotions.

Her graphic novel Earthling explores feelings of anxiety

and alienation, fear, love and dreams all played out through

three women at very different stages of their lives. In parts,

autobiographical, the story also includes an alien creature,

derived from a sketch in a notebook, which was also the trigger

for the story.

In writing her stories, Franz begins with characters and likes to

let the story evolve without having a predetermined path for

the narrative to follow. In this way she is able to maintain her

own interest in the work, allowing it to morph and change as it

progresses.


http://www.fraufranz.com/

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=57059

http://thehairpin.com/2015/01/aisha-franz/

http://www.goethe.de/ins/ca/lp/kul/mag/lit/en13540623.htm

https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/press/2015/01/shameless-

interviews-aisha-franz


Responding:

1. Look carefully at this image which is one of the pages from

Earthling. Discuss what is happening at this point of the

story, beginning with the top panel.

2. Identify the different types of transitions (McCloud, 2006, p15)

the artist uses to progress the story. Does it flow successfully

without text?

3. Describe the character’s facial expressions and body

language in each of the panels. How do they contribute to

the narrative and to the overall mood of the image?

25

Aisha Franz From Earthling 2010. Pencil on paper, 29.7 x 21.0 cm (each). Collection the artist.

26

TOMMI PARRISH(aka Katie Parrish) - Melbourne based comic artist

Background

Born – 1990, Melbourne, Australia

Education – Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne;

RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

Education

Art editor of The Lifted Brow, an organisation that publishes

magazines and books for both Australian and global

readership. They produce a quarterly magazine, also called

The Lifted Brow.

Published

• regularly published in The Lifted Brow magazine

• Published in Voice Works and The Lifted Brow

• Exhibited widely in group shows in galleries in Australia,

as well as a one month residency and solo show in Buenos

Aires, Argentina

Style and technique

Parrish draws constantly, carrying sketchbooks with her

everywhere she goes. She begins with an idea, thinks and talks

with others about it and sketches thumbnails before immersing

herself in the process of making the artwork. Recently she

has been consciously trying to slow her process down prior to

making the work by more carefully considering the look of the

characters, how the scenes flow, the colour palette and lighting

and the correct narrative tone.

The resulting comic drawings are meticulously rendered using

pencil, pen, ink, watercolour and gouache paint. The artist is

very concerned with composition and balance and utilizes

colour harmonies and contrasts of shapes and colours to create

visual interest. Her use of vibrant colour and depiction of space

in her images make her works quite unique amongst other

artists. The characters she creates to play out the narratives

in her comics are proportionately large, often with small heads

and limited facial features.


For Parrish, drawing is important, serving as an escape from

things in everyday life that are troubling. She was always good

at drawing, finding that it was the only thing that held her

interest for any period of time. Her comics speak of universal

human themes such as the search for love, relationships, fear

and stress, self-doubt, depression, and are presented in unique,

quirky ways.

As art editor of the magazine, she is concerned that it provides

equal representation of all comic artists be they women, men,

gay or not, and from all different races and cultures.


http://www.spookmagazine.com/meet-katie-parrish/

http://katieparrishtime.tumblr.com/

http://cargocollective.com/katieparrish/

http://joy.org.au/scifiandsqueam/2015/02/katie-parrish-

comics-art-and-life-the-full-interview/

http://2dcloud.com/katie-parrish-interview/


Responding:

1. The panels in Doubt increase in size as the story progresses.

How does this reflect meaning in the story?

2. Discuss the artist’s use of visual metaphor. How effective is

this strategy in telling this story?

3. What has happened in the last panel of the story?

4. To what extent is this comic autobiographical? How can you

tell?

27

Tommi Parish Doubt comic 2014 (detail). Ink and fine liner, 21 x 29.7 cm (each). Collection the artist. © Tommi Parrish.

28

Ideas for comics in the classroomMaking

The best way to learn about comics and graphic novels and how

to create them is to be exposed to them in all of their different

forms. These are just a few suggested activities and starting

points for creating comics that can be used in the classroom.

Telling stories – themes, ideas, subjects

Use unfinished titles as starting points for comic stories. For

example:

A funny thing happened while…

I had a strange dream last night…

A day in the life of…

My crazy family…

A journey of a lifetime…

Research Scott McCloud’s 6 transition types (2006, p 16).

Choose one of the following plots and create a rough, one-page

comic about it, using only one of the transition types:

The princess finds the sleeping prince, kisses him, he turns into

a goat.

Girl meets boy, girl loses boy.

Parrot eats a seed, seed grows inside parrot, parrot turns into

a tree.

Starting with the same establishing shot (usually long-shot,

detailed panel that provides the reader with a sense of place,

telling them where they are) (McCloud, 2006, p. 22) make a

number of other comic panels to complete a story.

Link the creation of a comic to curriculum learning areas such

as History. Rather than writing a summary of a particular

historical event e.g. the arrival of the First Fleet, instead create

a comic strip, summarising the events. Summarise content in

other learning areas such as Health education, by creating

comics.

Start with black markers and paper. Working in groups, each

person writes a short, succinct title at the top of their page

e.g. Renovator’s dream or Night on the town or Out to lunch or

New horizons (nothing too descriptive or specific). Swap pages

with others in the group and create simple, one page comics

to illustrate others’ titles. A timer could be used to restrict the

time spent on each and to allow for further swapping amongst

the group.

Experimenting with visual elements:

Angles, distance and cropping and drawing figures

Work in pairs to photograph each other taking close-ups,

medium and long shots, high angle, canted (sloped), low angle,

foreshortened, centred, off-centred, cropped. Make sketches

from these photographs to practice drawing figures, exploring

a number of different kinds of drawing media.

Lines and Shape

In 4-6 panels, tell a story in pen using only lines and abstract

shapes.

Text and type

Practice communicating ideas through words. Focus on style,

size, colour and shape to communicate things like sounds,

emotions and feelings. For example:

Design type for the word ‘slam’ to indicate a door has loudly

slammed shut

Design type for the word ‘scary’

Design type for the word ‘cold’

Sequencing

Find a comic strip in a newspaper or magazine, cut up the

panels and group them together randomly. In groups, rearrange

the panels in the correct order. Then rearrange the panels to

create a new story, taking some panels out if desired. Share

with the class.

Experimenting with drawing media

Set some graphics activities and experiment with different

drawing media to get different visual results.

• Experiment with line e.g. use bold lines to outline objects and

finer lines for interior details and to indicate objects in the

distance.

• Use different sized pens to create different thickness of lines.

Bear in mind that some tools are versatile, having the ability

to vary line width.

• Play with positive and negative space, noting the effects

created by blacking out sections of images.

• Try using colour in comics, with markers, coloured pencils or

watercolour paint. Think about using colour symbolically to

express emotions and amplify thoughts.

Going digital

Experiment with image manipulation and creation software to

create art work. Drawing tablets can be used to directly draw

images onto a screen and programs such as Adobe Illustrator

and Photoshop can be used to create the comics.

Use online sites to create comics:

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

To create panels or grids for comics, draw your own or access

web pages such as Printable Paper:

http://www.printablepaper.net/category/comics

29

Glossary of terms:Banderole – derived from the word “banner,” a ribbon of text on an image which narrates the scene or delivers a relevant message.

Bilderbogen – German word literally meaning “pictorial broadsheet,” a large piece of paper with images. Bilderbogen were large sheets of funny pictures designed for German children.

Broadsheet/ broadside - a large piece of paper printed on one side only, which, in the past, was hawked on street corners very cheaply. Broadsheets were the forerunners of printed newspapers.

Chronological –arranged in order of time.

Codes – the signs and symbols used to convey meaning.

Comics - a medium of visual communication used to express ideas principally through juxtaposed images in deliberate sequence, often combined with text or other visual information.

Comic book - the term usually used to describe collections of comics published as stand alone entities.

Context – A set of circumstances that exists and influences events, ideas, opinions, etc.

Convention – a norm, a generally accepted standard, the way in which something is usually done.

Critique- a written or broadcast assessment of something, usually a creative work, with comments on its good and bad qualities.

Establishing shot usually a long-shot, detailed panel that provides the reader with a sense of place to begin the story.

Feminist – someone or something that recognises women being equal to men and thus advocates women’s rights.

Graphic novel – a book that follows comic strip format, which may or may not include text.

Gutter – the space between the panels in a comic or graphic novel, where the reader makes connections to make the story flow.

Penny dreadful - newspapers that mocked the week’s actual news with sensationalism, lewd jokes, and a bogus air of respectability (Example – Punch and The Illustrated Police News).

Protagonist – the main character in a story.

Satire – using irony, sarcasm, ridicule etc. to make a criticism.

Transitions – how the reader’s eye is guided from panel to panel allowing sense to be made of the story. In Making Comics; Storytelling secrets of comics, Manga and graphic novels, Scott McCloud lists 6 different transitions used in comics as moment to moment; action to action; subject to subject; scene to scene; aspect to aspect; and non-sequitur (2006, p15).

Woodcut – A technique used by artists to make multiple copies of their work. The artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood and then covers it in ink and presses it to paper (or another material) to create the image, similar to the way a stamp is used.

ReferencesPrint

McCloud, S. (2006), Making comics: storytelling secrets of

comics, Manga and graphic novels. New York, USA: William

Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers.

McCloud, S. (1994), Understanding comics: the invisible art. New

York, USA: William Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers.

Web

Bayeux Tapestry

http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tapisserie_de_bayeux_

en.html

Broadsheet

link 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters

Maus by Art Spiegelman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus

Max und Moritz

http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/busch_

max_1865?p=12

Wimmins Comix movement

https://www.lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm

Zap

http://zizki.com/robert-crumb/zap-comix-0

See also web references on individual artists’ pages

Cover Image:

Tommi Parrish Doubt comic 2014 (detail). Ink and fine liner,

21 x 29.7 cm (each). Collection the artist. © Tommi Parrish.

Inside Spread

Stephen Collins The Gigantic Beard that was Evil 2014 (detail).

Pencil on paper (20 drawings comprising 23 sheets),

42 x 60 cm. Collection the artist. © Stephen Collins.

http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tapisserie_de_bayeux_en.html

http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tapisserie_de_bayeux_en.html

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=hans+paur&rlz=1C1JPGB_enAU655AU655&espv=2&biw=1045&bih=951&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBsQsARqFQoTCJCK7d6n_ccCFaTopgodW9IGfA#imgrc=HIHk2t5xM_IU2M%3A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus

http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/busch_max_1865?p=12

http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/busch_max_1865?p=12

https://www.lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm

http://zizki.com/robert-crumb/zap-comix-0

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