What are Comics?

Hello, this is Iron Chin here AKA Nino Meriano, I am starting a blog about comics!!!

What are comics, I hear you ask? That’s a great question! In essence, comics are a method of visual communication. Comic visionary, Will Eisner, defined them as ‘sequential art’, since comics must be more than a single image to convey a narrative. Expanding on Eisner’s definition, Scott McCloud made a whole novel about the medium; he called it ‘Understanding Comics’. McCloud defines these visual narratives as ‘juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence’.

Comics fall somewhere between the moving image and the written word. They can utilize the whole range of potential imagery of film and painting including the intimacy between audience and creator of the written word.

Comics are a very weird medium. To illustrate, the characters have strange white balloons coming out of their mouths, when they move these weird lines follow them, and sounds are displayed with illustrated text in all types of strange shapes and sizes. Imagine a speech bubble coming out your mouth every time you speak!

Weird stuff, right? But within the weird there is always something wonderful. A form of communication like no other, an incredible, intricate and complex way to communicate, but if done right, an incredibly quick, concise way to tell your audience a story. Well… quick in the sense of reading a comic. Making comics is another story!

Thank you for reading my first post! Join me next time where I will begin to dissect the art of comics.

Your friendly neighbourhood Chin.