Comics make the reader a part of the story

Given our readings this semester, what can a comic or graphic novel do ‘better’ than a traditional story or novel? What are its (comic or graphic novel) limitations?

To answer broadly, comics are a combination of graphics, text, and structure. It's a fusion, and fusion is always interesting and new. To answer more specifically, comics combine literary and artistic genius to create an atmosphere and story that's very unique to its medium, and is often something that is easily accessible yet complex. Take Watchmen: a fairly straightforward story: anyone can follow the basic gist. But like people mentioned in class, you can read it many times and still find new things. Why, this is the same in novels, you say? That's true. But while you can analyze the texts, or the image, what makes the comic special is the relationship between each other. Taking it back to Scott McCloud, it's the juxtaposition and the movement from image to image, or subject to subject. Whether it's within one panel or several, the relationship between all of the pieces is what makes it interesting. In Watchmen, the panels are often very symmetrical, but the color contrasts bring it together. In the end, the text hidden in each of the splash pages aren't necessary to understanding the story, but give it background and make it more interesting. In Little Nemo, it's the combination of images, of different shapes together. I think comics have a sense of exploring, and are a bit self aware, where they specifically draw the reader into the story and include them in it.

Something that is both a limitation and an advantage is the usual short length of chapters and stories. Even if the comic is included in a series, there are chapters that are shorter than most novels and t.v. shows. How does this affect the comic? Well, the comic is forced to put a lot into a very small space, which means that stories progress rather fast; they need to have a beginning, climax, and resolution. To put all of this in a chapter means that comics oftentimes dump the reader in the midst of a story- there isn't anytime to give backstory. The focus is on the action, the text must be minimal, and the drawings overall should be clear. In most of the comics we've read, there has never been an "introduction", per say. Backgrounds are rarely given: in Watchmen, we learn about the world, the characters, and the story as we read along. Other times, comics sacrifice character development for setting, or background for personality- in Superman, we are given a brief explanation as to who Superman is-- but then we are thrown right into the action and Superman as a character never really changes. One exception to this is Tatsumi's Goodbye collection. From the very start, we see the setting very well: after the atomic bomb, with an atmosphere of despair and loss. Even this, however, relies on the reader's knowledge of history. We also get a sense of the characters, what they are feeling and what they are going through. This ties into what I mentioned earlier of how comics specifically draw the reader into the comic. The comic, because of its limited space, must draw upon the reader's experiences and knowledge to get them to understand the complex characters and story despite the lack of clear explanations. I think this forces comics to always be in touch with current society, and branch out to new modes. The readers, as well, are usually much broader in the sense that they consist of both children and adults, from different background and classes.