Like Professor Serrano, I also gravitate towards the artistic style of comic illustration implemented by Jacques Tardi in Adèle Blanc-Sec. I find ligne claire to be particularly effective in the comic book setting, especially in Tardi's work, which combines both adventure and mystery. One of the most appealing aspects of ligne claire, arises from its use of clear, uniform lines, which simplifies the composition. Given the standard format and size of comics and panels, in many of the other works we have encountered, more convoluted styles result in crowding of panels and pages, which prevents readers from interacting with the imagery as much as they interact with text. Being an Art History minor and a huge proponent of the visual arts, I find that emphasizing image is equally as important as emphasizing text in comics and graphic novels. Perhaps Tardi over-emphasizes the artwork in his comics and as a result the storyline is diminished. Nevertheless, his use of ligne claire successfully evokes a poignant tone and develops a profound sense of place, which I find important to the story. One of the most powerful aspects of ligne claire is that it facilitates Tardi's detailed expression of real-life historical monuments. By including existing buildings, Tardi juxtaposes reality with caricatured characters. The result is a story, which although perhaps too complicated to follow (for both the characters and readers as indicated by the question mark ubiquitous in "Pterror Over Paris"), is captivating in its very direct features of mystery and adventure that results from the art--although it is simple it effectively draws the reader into the story at exactly the right moments.
I agree that Tardis creates depth through his employment and alteration of the ligne claire style. When ligne claire was first developed, stories like Tintin contained art that was visually two dimensional. The lines were clean, straight, and all the same thickness, producing no differentiation between the background and the foreground which contributed to making Tintin a very two dimensional experience. Jacques Tardis uses ligne claire, but makes his lines messier, less precise, and of varying thicknesses which provides the art with more visual depth. This both presents the characters and background as more of a sketch, but it also serves to make the scenes more realistic in depiction, because it adds flaws and abnormalities to what would otherwise be unrealistically perfect characters.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you added. Although Tardi's lines do not vary in thickness, the texture, which he adds by eliminating preciseness, make his art much more engaging than that found in "TinTin." Furthermore, as we discussed in class, as in "TinTin," Tardi juxtaposes detailed settings with blank faces, effectively contrasting the background and the foreground. In my opinion, the blank faces allowed any audience to identify with the characters, thus reinforcing Tardi's theme of ubiquitous corruption, which can arise anywhere. Nevertheless, he still captures the spirit of the city, by developing the setting so thoroughly.
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