While Hergé clearly likes to focus on the foreground, he cuts it out entirely in many panels. Tintin's and other characters' feet frequently stand directly on the outline of the panel itself, compressing the scene. This technique does several things. First, it allows the background to fade out completely. Second, it allows Tintin to almost step out of the panel and become closer to the reader. And third, it is a subtle way of playing with the panel, and more subtle than what we've seen so far in Krazy Kat and Little Nemo in Slumberland.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The Depiction of Space and Perspective in Tintin
The panels of Hergé's Tintin are plain and unselfconscious. There are several depictions of perspective and space, the first and foremost of which is the use of linear perspective. Two point perspective, while I am sure it is used in some places, would be very difficult to achieve on panels that are so small and so action packed. The usage of only linear perspective allows the reader to infer in extended moment to moment sequences where exactly Tintin is in space, and how he got there, allowing Hergé to drop the sometimes distracting yet necessary detail in the background and focus on the foreground, although in scenes with more than a single human, background detail is usually included.
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I noticed this flattened perspective as well, particularly what you pointed out about the characters seeming to stand on the bottom panel border as though it were the only ground in a space where background is absent. Herge seems to be using the panels in some really interesting ways, such as on p46, where Tintin is seen reaching for a doorknob on the right border of one panel, then in the next panel he is in a separate space where the doorknob is on the left border. It is as though the gutter is not only a conceptual separation of space (and due to the lack of background to differentiate one room from another, this separation is even more necessary); the gutter also functions obliquely like a door. One could even imagine it being a door seen in flat, linear perspective. The linear perspective and fairly uniform panel size also mean that horizontal architectural details, such as walls, railings, or streets seem continuous, even when the action in the panels happens in particular spatial locations. Herge maintains a kind of visual continuity, punctuated by specific action moments, which lends well to the idea of band dessinee.
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