Understanding Comics

I found Understanding Comics to be an extremely informative, as well as a delightfully charming method of explaining what we subconsciously pick up on. There’s so much that goes into graphic story telling— Specifically comics and graphic narratives, that we simply don’t think about. We go along with the story that the comic has tailored, and don’t think twice about it, and that’s due to the carefully designed structure of how the comic was put together.

One of the points made within Understanding Comics that particularly stood out to me, was the point about icons. In our modern culture, icons have been around for so long, that a great deal of information, and even complex concepts can be conveyed through only a simple image. I find this to be particularly evident in Manga and other forms of Japanese cartoons, such as anime. The icons used within Manga have been used for so long, we are now conditioned to know exactly what is going on in the story, just by seeing them. For example, when a character is angry, we see a red vein pop up on their forehead, but that icon has been around for so long, its gotten to the point where the vein simply looks like a few giant red lines that don’t even have to be on the characters forehead— and we instantly understand, that character is angry.

In western culture, we have our own icons to convey certain concepts and ideas as well. One of my favorite uses of a icon, is in Calvin and Hobbes, and The Peanuts, to name a few. When a character is frustrated, a jagged scribble appears over their head. I find this particular icon to be quite charming, because of how simple and clear the meaning is, as well as the fact that it could almost be considered a self-aware effect. The frustration scribble can be looked at as the place where the artist’s world and the comic’s world connect. As an artist, when I get frustrated with a drawing, I occasionally scribble aggressively, so when I see that icon, I can instantly understand that emotion. It amazes me how we are able to communicate extremely deep and specific concepts even with something as simple as a scribble. 

The Arrival

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is able to convey a very detailed and surprisingly clear story and message of immigration solely through illustrations. The story follows its protagonist on a journey from one country to another, as he searches for a new home and job for himself and his family. The illustrations capture the true feeling of being immersed in a completely foreign culture. By creating a world where strange machines are the primary form of transport, and bizarre creatures can be spotted in every direction, it puts us as the viewers in the same position as the main character. We are just as confused and astounded by this new and unfamiliar world as the main character.

The thing I really appreciated the more I thought about it, was the fact that the people the main character encountered, seemed normal, behaved normally, and did not act surprised by the bizarre surroundings. It reminded me of a time when my friend Mesphin visited America for the first time. Mesphin is Ethiopian, and had never left his home city before then. When my dad and I picked him up at the Chicago airport, he couldn’t stop staring at everything. It was like he had stepped into another world, he was in total culture shock. The Arrival incapsulates this feeling and concept perfectly, and does it without using a single word. It takes away our ability to understand through words, just as if we were placed in another country that did not share our language, and forces us to decipher everything through pure visuals.