The art of Superman is clearly of an inferior quality to the linea claire and the muted, low saturation color palette style that is present in Tintin. Superman's colors are bold and flashy. There are many scenes in which the background colors are so bright that they obscure the action in the foreground of the panels. This creates a weird halo effect that both heightens the tension within the action, and completely flattens the image to the point where the reader must strain their eyes to see what is happening, as if looking into the sun.
The tension in between the color and the figures creates a dichotomy with the negative space, making the negative space itself become an object. The negative space is "loud" and obvious, as opposed to fading into the background like in Tintin. The negative space then effectively silhouettes the characters within the narrative, perhaps making it less important that they have distinguishable features - as mentioned in class, you don't always know who is superman unless you actually read the story.
At the end, the style fits the narrative. Superman's art is in direct relation to it's punchy writing, and parallels the way that Tintin's more sophisticated style also includes more sophisticated themes and writing. It is clear what audience Superman was intended for- young boys who cared more about action than substance.
I too was surprised by the artistic style presented in Volume 1 of "The Superman Chronicles." After engaging with the TinTin comics, I expected to encounter a similar level of artistic depth. Although, Superman lacks the aesthetic grace we saw in TinTin, it seems that the style developed by the characteristics you pointed out, are consistent with that which was developing in art at the time in which Superman was created. There was an ongoing Realism movement, according to which painters sought to emphasize the limitations, most importantly flatness, of the medium. Hence, the flatness, which you acknowledged, is consistent with Realist tendencies. Furthermore, the evocative manipulation of color was relevant in Expressionism, and hence, the use of background color to intensify the drama and action in "The Superman Chronicles," was consistent with this artistic trend. Finally, although Pop Art, arose approximately 15 years later, the Superman images share some characteristics, which suggest a shift in the direction of this movement.
ReplyDelete