why words?

Dialogue based - 

'Text  Based

Text Enghanced

Text free 

I have been talking about the semantics of Blankets  in my past three posts but this time I wan to talk about the activity we did in class where we made our own comic out of a series of pictures provided to us. This got me thinking about how the words interact with the pictures and how the language was placed in the work. So I gathered a few comics from Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes to compare. 

The Calvin and Hobbes clip exhibits how text can aid in the understanding of a picture. the conversation that develops throughout the frames is intensified by the lack of words in the 2nd to last frame. Each word enhances the meaning of the work and defines the characters in the piece. 

In the first Far Side image the words create the humor of the work however instead of dialogue there are only two signs that contain text.  These two signs indicate that the man is *gifted* but cannot seem to open a door- with out the signs there would be no understanding and the work would lose meaning. 

In the second Far Side image with the penguins, the words simply add to the humor, for the image could stand alone but the words intensify the image where as in the Calvin and Hobbes case the words allow the reader to understand the piece. 

In the third image there is not text at all and yet the comic still delivers its message. 

By comparing these 4 images one can see how different comics utilize different forms of text and relate it to .. you guessed it. Blankets. Each of these different styles are used in Blankets, dialogue based images, text based images, text enhanced images and text free images to create a mosaic within a story much like the blanket Raina sewed for Craig. 

Blankets 3 - More creative titles to come :)

well in class on Wednesday we talked about paper topics we might write on for Blankets and our group decided to talk about the broad range of visual framing. After we discussed this in the small group as I was reading chapters 6 and 7 I noticed the more subtle variations in framing more so than in the first few chapters. Specifically I took into account the fluidity of the frames that encompassed Craig and Raina, for example on pages 387 and 388. As time wears on in the scene and the situation becomes more emotional for the narrator, Craig, we can find  that the frames begin to blend and break down into a quasi visual representation of how Faulkner's stream of conciseness diction might appear. Moreover the Framing that includes Raina have skewed time lines as can be seen on pages 404-406. The interaction with Raina causes Craigs emotions to break free from space,  in the framing, and time, in the fluid transition into memory. 

These Ideas were talked about  in McCloud in chapter 4, page 103. He states " Time is no longer contained by the familiar icon of the CLOSED PANEL, but instead HEMORRHAGES and escapes into TIMELESS SPACE". This is exactly what is happening to the work when Craig and Raina every experience any emotional growth or trauma together.  

So I had two links to pictures up here.. but its not working... o well.. ill try later 

Blankets 2

Within  chapters 2-5 we meet Raina and her whole family. This opens an interesting dynamic in the book, for as readers we get a full description of her family where as we only sub-textually receive information about the true inner-workings of Craig's family. We encounter  mother/father issues, sibling relations, and many other relationships.  This I found very interesting because the narrator focuses more on the family of his friends  then his own which shows even on reflection he still feels separated from his own family. 

When thinking about the work as a whole i was wondering how the work would present itself if it had been published in color. I found a few comparative pictures online and have posted them here.

I find that the characters are some what lost in the color, although they are the focal point in both images, the black and white frame is more striking . While both pictures have a distracting backdrop the characters in the black and white frame are more intense and central because of the ambiguity of every-other shape. The color gives definition to the other objects in the frame thus distracting away from the central focus. The blanket which is also a central theme in each frame is more important in the black and white frame because it contrasts to the bodies where as the blanket in the color picture us more pushed aside even though it is more defined. 

well more to come later! 

Blankets 1

Well this is my first blog ever, I have never even written a note on Facebook and I do not have a Myspace so this is new to me.  I assume is an informal journal type writing style, here it goes. I am very excited for this class because of  Blankets. I picked it up yesterday to read the first chapter but I found that I could not put it down. The work was engaging and the artistry was never a distraction from the text as I previously thought it might be. On the contrary it complimented the text and made is more approachable and personable. When considering the text its self I think that it is a wonderful coming of age story that in the first chapter alone grabs the readers attention through a strong evocation of pathos for the children. The reader is immediately connected with Craig.  The words alone on the pages could be compiled into a text only narration and stand on their own, but when combined with the images the work is striking. Visualizing Phil being thrown into the "cubby hole" is intense as is, but physically viewing the act, seeing the expressions and thoughts depicted rather than described is very powerful. These images then support the remorseful feeling of Craig as he reflects upon his neglect of his brotherly "protective role". The flash backs in Craig's narration are subtle but make a very clear point and foreshadow what the reader is soon to encounter. One specific flashback/foreshadow on page 18 is very intense because it is an open ended image, but because of the texts it is understood that the older figure in the picture is dangerous which leads to natural negative assumptions.  Another aspect of the first chapter that I found appealing was the artists rendition of the aging process on pages 51 and 52. It intrigued me that instead of accent it was a falling action, this image is later then supported by Craig's religious beliefs supplied later in the book. The development of his beliefs is also a big point of interest for me because I was born a Christan and understand all of the teachings and love to see someones point of view and interpretation of the meanings. Well I think that is it for now before I get to much into the other chapters.