Widescreen Revolution And the Subordination of Mainstream Comics Narrative

Shaw, Geoff

Savannah, Ga. : Savannah College of Art and Design

2011-11

Thesis (M.F.A.) -- Sequential Art

Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Sequential Art

Includes bibliographical references (p.24-27).

Film and comic books have always shared an intrinsic narrative relationship. In the late nineties, technological innovations gave filmmakers the edge they'd been waiting for to successfully depict the spectacle of super heroics. With the immediate success of films such as X-Men (2000) and Spiderman (2001), the comic book source material soon began an aggressive surge in aligning themselves with their more lucrative live action progeny. The most evident result being the proliferation of pages comprised almost entirely of wide screen panels. Such panels are rectangular frames, usually page length and twice as long as they are tall. Wide screen panels have always had a place on the page of a comic book, and play an important role in describing graphic beats, as well as inscribing the page with an overall visual rhythm. As artists attempt to mimic the cinematic scope of wide screen film, they subsequently negate many of the storytelling rules that involve very closely, the shape of each panel on the comic page. This thesis aims to explore those rules, how they are applied properly and more importantly, how the improper use can and has in many instances, hindered the reader's full immersion into a well-designed comic book narrative.

CHAIR: Fisher, Anthony

Duncan, David

Kneece, Mark

English

Sequential Art

Text

PDF : 55 p. : ill

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