COMIC TRAGICS
the exploding language of contemporary comic art
An Art Gallery of Western Australia
Education resource for
middle and secondary school
After your visit
Comic Tragics: The
exploding language of
contemporary comic art
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.
Use of this education resource
• 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?
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.
• 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:
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.
• selection of artists
• selection of works
Read the relevant references to content covered in this
• layout and flow of exhibition
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.
• effectiveness of signage and didactics
• choice of wall colours and lighting
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.
2
Anders Nilsen Captain American resting 2008. ink on paper, 125.7 x 95.3 cm. Collection the artist. © Anders Nilsen
3
Introduction –
Comic Tragics: The
exploding language of
contemporary comic art
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.
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).
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 classroom
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.
Using 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
4
Technical
Codes and conventions
of comics, comic books
and graphic novels
• 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.
Conventions – the traditional or culturally accepted ways
of reading, responding and perceiving based on audience
knowledge and expectations.
• Gutters – the space between the panels, used to punctuate
the narrative, delineate time from one moment to another
and provide closure.
Both comics and graphic novels can be analyzed in much the
same way as traditional literary forms, using conventions such
as:
• Angles – high/low/close up angles function the same way as
in film and photography.
• Setting
• Pointer/tail – the point at the bottom of a speech or thought
balloon to indicate who is talking/thinking.
• Themes
Symbolic
• Point of view
• Motions and speed lines – used to indicate action.
• Symbols
• Characters
• Semiotic indicators such as lightbulbs for ideas, musical
notes for song, zzzzzz for sleep.
• Props
• Colour.
• Narrative and plot
• Costume.
• Style
• Setting.
• Props/ objects.
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.
5
Adventures of Tintin series was created by Georges Prosper
Remi known by the pen name Hergé.
How did comics
come about?
June 1938
The first Superman Comic was produced by DC Comics.
We can examine a time line to discover the history of comics and
how they developed over time:
March 1940
1070 A.D
The first Batman comic was published, although Batman had
appeared the year before in the pages of Detective Comics.
The Bayeux Tapestry – possibly the first comic-like artwork
made.
December 1941
Wonder 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.
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.
1945 onward
In 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.
1440
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press allowing
everyone access to printed material, not just the rich and
powerful.
2 October 1950
The first Peanuts comic strip, written and illustrated by Charles
M. Schulz, was printed.
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.
April 1952
The first Astro Boy comic was produced in Japan, signaling the
international popularity of Japanese Manga style.
1954
1732 – 1735
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.
William 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.
March 1963
The first Spiderman comic was published in America.
1790-1830
October 1968
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.
Robert 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.
1880
1970-1991
British 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.
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.
December 1897
The 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.
April 1972
Issue 1 of Tarzan was released by DC Comics in America.
To view an original copy of the book Max und Moritz in pdf
format, visit:
1977
American 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
1929
The first Tintin comic, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets appeared
in the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. The
6
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.
2010 onward
The 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.
July 1980
Comics as a mirror
to society
Art 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.
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.
18 November 1985
The first Calvin and Hobbes comic, produced by American
cartoonist Bill Watterson, appeared.
12 August 1986
Pantheon Books published the first six chapters of collected strip
from Raw as Maus I: My Father Bleeds History, bringing the work
to mainstream attention.
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).
1998-1999
Canadian 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.
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).
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.
Popular examples of
early comic history in
America, Britain and
Japan
1989
Fantagraphics 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.
USA
George Herriman’s Krazy Kat 1913-1944
Russ Westover’s Tillie the Toiler 1921-1959
Chic Young’s Blondie 1930-present
Rudolph Dirks’ The Katzenjammer Kids 1897- present
UK
Alfred Harmsworth’s Comic cuts 1890-1953 and Playbox 19251955
British comic magazine Whizzer and Chips 1890-1953
British comic book Film fun 1920-1962
Long running children’s comic The Dandy 1937-2012
1993-2004
From 1993 to 2004, American cartoonist and illustrator
Charles Burns serialised the 12 chapters of his Harvey Awardwinning graphic novel Black Hole (12 issues from Kitchen Sink
Press and Fantagraphics Books). The series was collected into a
single volume in 2005.
Japan
Katsuji Matsumoto ‘s Shōjo Manga series Kurukuru Kurumichan 1938-1940, 1949-1954
Shosuke Kurakane’s Shōjo Manga series Animitsu Hime 19491955
Machiko Hasegawa’s Sazae-san 1946Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy 1951-present
Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight 1953-1956
1994
American cartoonist Franklin Christenson “Chris” Ware began
his Acme Novelty Library series. His works explore themes of
social isolation, emotional torment and depression. 2000
Chris Ware published the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the
Smartest Kid on Earth.
2010
Digital comic sales experienced a dramatic boom.
7
Comic Tragics
The Artists
DASH SHAW
American comic book writer, artist and animator
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1983, California, USA
Education – graduated from the School of Visual Arts
in Manhattan
http://www.tcj.com/how-can-the-spaces-between-the-pagesbe-as-meaningful-as-the-pages-a-dash-shaw-interview/
http://dashshaw.tumblr.com/archive
Published
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/shaw_dash.htm
• Published comic stories in various US and overseas
publications during college years.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
• 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)
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?
Style and technique
2. How well do the drawings come together as an animation?
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.
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.
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.
10
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.
11
JOHN PORCELLINO
American, self-publishing comic creator
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1968, Chicago, Illinois, USA
http://www.king-cat.net/history/
Published
http://whatthingsdo.com/authors/john-porcellino/
• Self-published since the late 1980s, publishing his own zines,
in the early 90s as the movement boomed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgPuTW2uE7A
http://blogcritics.org/graphic-novel-review-the-hospital-suiteby-john-porcellino/
• Most popular comic is King Kat, one of the longest running
minicomics produced (started 1989).
https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/hospital-suite
Style and technique
http://highlowcomics.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/johnporcellinos-back-pages.html
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.
https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/press/2010/09/johnporcellino-interviewed-comic-book-resources-news
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.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
Responding:
1. Who is the narrator (or the voice) in this one page comic?
Who are the other characters in the story?
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
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?
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.
12
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.
13
RON REGÉ JR
American cartoonist and musician
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1969, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA
http://whatthingsdo.com/authors/ron-rege-jr/
Education – Bachelor of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art
http://www.tcj.com/cartoon-utopian-an-interview-with-ronrege-jr/
Published
http://ronrege.blogspot.com.au/
• Began publishing his own minicomics while at the
Massachusetts College of Art.
http://www.tcj.com/cartoon-utopian-an-interview-with-ronrege-jr/
• Has been published by Highwater Books, Fantagraphics
Books, Buenaventura Press, McSweeney’s and Drawn &
Quarterly.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
Has played in various indie rock bands and is currently the
drummer in Los Angeles based outfit Lavender Diamond.
Responding:
Style and technique
1. Discuss the style and layout of the panels. How do these
contribute to meaning in the work?
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.
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?
Themes/subjects/ideas
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/
14
Ron Regé, Jr. Acceptance 2011. Drawing on paper, 35.6 x 43.2 cm. Collection the artist. © Ron Regé, Jr.
15
GABRIELLE BELL
British born American cartoonist
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1976, London, England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou9u5zeR5-s
Education – Humbolt State University, California; City College
of San Francisco, USA
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
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.
http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/56474899/
gabrielle-bell-clogging-why-comics-make-everythingsmooth-refined
• Has been published by Alternative Comics, Drawn and
Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Uncivilized Books amongst others
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/05/27/gabrielle-bellon-her-book-of-series/
• Two of her most well-known comics are the collection When
I’m Old and Other Stories (2003) and Lucky (2006)
http://wrestlingteam.tumblr.com/post/30500922967/where-docreative-people-come-from-on-beginnings
Style and technique
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/
Bell works in the diary strip format, which suits the semiautobiographical 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.
comics/article/53547-gabrielle-bell-the-unreliable-observer.
html
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/08/04/interview-gabriellebell-pt-2/
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.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
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.
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?
She requires each panel to be perfect - a story in itself that
should be able to stand alone.
3. Discuss the mood of the work. Identify textual and visual
elements the artist employs to help to convey the mood.
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.
4.How effective is the one page format in conveying the
narrative?
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
16
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 TALBOT
British visual artist
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1969, Worcestershire, UK. Lives and works in London http://articulatedartists.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/emmatalbot-talking-to-alli-sharma-at.html
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.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/apr/01/artistemma-talbot
http://www.domobaal.com/resources/emmatalbot/emmatalbot-an-interview-garageland-domobaal-2011.pdf
She is represented by Domobaal Gallery, London and Petra
Rinck Galerie, Düsseldorf.
http://www.domobaal.com/artists/emma-talbot-01.html
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.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
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?
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.
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?
In her 2015 exhibition Step inside Love (Domobaal Gallery)
she moved towards a more comic style, with blocks of text
supporting pictorial narrative.
Themes/subjects/ideas
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).
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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.
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ANDERS NILSEN
American cartoonist who also published
under the name of Abel Brekhus
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1973, New England, USA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPTMvvCVxZ8
Education – University of New Mexico
https://vimeo.com/12984451
Nilsen is co-founder of Autoptic, a bi-annual festival of
independent comics and art culture that takes place in
Minneapolis, USA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgPuTW2uE7A
http://www.tcj.com/an-interview-with-anders-nilsen/
http://www.andersbrekhusnilsen.com/pdf/MOME7-interview.
pdf
Published
• Has published numerous comics, graphic novels and longrunning strips since 2000.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
• 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 creatorowned projects published by larger publishers). An excerpt
from Dogs and Water was featured in the inaugural 2006
edition of the Best American Comics anthology.
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.
• His longest running strip is Big Questions, which features two
birds asking exactly what the title infers - the ‘big questions.’
2. Discuss the artist’s use of the design elements line, tone and
space. How do they help to convey meaning?
Style and technique
3. What visual strategies have been used to communicate that
the characters in the story have moved from one location to
another?
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.
4. Why did the artist choose to depict the characters from
behind and from a high viewpoint?
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.
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
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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.
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STEPHEN COLLINS
British illustrator and cartoonist
Background
Suggested web references:
• A self-taught artist who studied English and Philosophy at
university
http://www.stephencollinsillustration.com/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/the-stephencollins-cartoon
• Publishes weekly comics in The Guardian newspaper in the
UK
https://vimeo.com/111734975
• 2013 debut graphic novel The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil,
shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Of The Year award
http://www.imagesource.com/blog/stephen-collins-guardiancartoonist-interview/
• Works also as a commercial artist creating advertisements
for newspapers, magazines, designing book covers and
completing other commissions.
http://stephen-collins.tumblr.com/
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
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.
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)?
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.
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?
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.
4. Discuss the mood of these drawings. What emotions is the
artist evoking and how has he achieved this?
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.
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
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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.
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AISHA FRANZ
German comic artist
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1984, Fürth, Franconia, Bavaria
http://www.fraufranz.com/
Education – School of Art and Design, Kassel
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=57059
Published
http://thehairpin.com/2015/01/aisha-franz/
• 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.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/ca/lp/kul/mag/lit/en13540623.htm
https://www.drawnandquarterly.com/press/2015/01/shamelessinterviews-aisha-franz
• 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.
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
Style and technique
Responding:
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.
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?
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.
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
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Aisha Franz From Earthling 2010. Pencil on paper, 29.7 x 21.0 cm (each). Collection the artist.
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TOMMI PARRISH
(aka Katie Parrish) - Melbourne based comic artist
Background
Suggested web references:
Born – 1990, Melbourne, Australia
http://www.spookmagazine.com/meet-katie-parrish/
Education – Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne;
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. http://katieparrishtime.tumblr.com/
http://cargocollective.com/katieparrish/
Education
http://joy.org.au/scifiandsqueam/2015/02/katie-parrishcomics-art-and-life-the-full-interview/
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.
http://2dcloud.com/katie-parrish-interview/
Published
The following discussion questions relate
to the image on the next page
• regularly published in The Lifted Brow magazine
• Published in Voice Works and The Lifted Brow
Responding:
• Exhibited widely in group shows in galleries in Australia,
as well as a one month residency and solo show in Buenos
Aires, Argentina
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?
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.
3. What has happened in the last panel of the story?
4. To what extent is this comic autobiographical? How can you
tell?
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.
Themes/subjects/ideas
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.
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Tommi Parish Doubt comic 2014 (detail). Ink and fine liner, 21 x 29.7 cm (each). Collection the artist. © Tommi Parrish.
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Experimenting with visual elements:
Ideas for comics in the
classroom
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.
Making
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.
Lines and Shape
In 4-6 panels, tell a story in pen using only lines and abstract
shapes.
Telling stories – themes, ideas, subjects
Text and type
Use unfinished titles as starting points for comic stories. For
example:
Practice communicating ideas through words. Focus on style,
size, colour and shape to communicate things like sounds,
emotions and feelings. 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…
Design type for the word ‘slam’ to indicate a door has loudly
slammed shut
Design type for the word ‘scary’
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:
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.
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.
Experimenting with drawing media
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.
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.
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.
• 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.
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.
• 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
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Glossary of terms:
References
Banderole – derived from the word “banner,” a ribbon of text
on an image which narrates the scene or delivers a relevant
message.
Print
McCloud, S. (2006), Making comics: storytelling secrets of
comics, Manga and graphic novels. New York, USA: William
Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers.
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.
McCloud, S. (1994), Understanding comics: the invisible art. New
York, USA: William Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers.
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.
Web
Bayeux Tapestry
http://www.bayeuxmuseum.com/en/la_tapisserie_de_bayeux_
en.html
Chronological –arranged in order of time.
Codes – the signs and symbols used to convey meaning.
Broadsheet
link 1
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Dissenters
Comic book - the term usually used to describe collections of
comics published as stand alone entities.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus
Context – A set of circumstances that exists and influences
events, ideas, opinions, etc.
Max und Moritz
http://www.deutschestextarchiv.de/book/view/busch_
max_1865?p=12
Convention – a norm, a generally accepted standard, the way in
which something is usually done.
Wimmins Comix movement
https://www.lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm
Critique- a written or broadcast assessment of something,
usually a creative work, with comments on its good and bad
qualities.
Zap
http://zizki.com/robert-crumb/zap-comix-0
Establishing shot usually a long-shot, detailed panel that
provides the reader with a sense of place to begin the story.
See also web references on individual artists’ pages
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.
Cover Image:
Tommi Parrish Doubt comic 2014 (detail). Ink and fine liner,
21 x 29.7 cm (each). Collection the artist. © Tommi Parrish.
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).
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.
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.
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