Reflections on the Comic Medium

          I work in a museum, in fact, I've worked in 5 different museums. Nearly my entire job experience has been giving tours, usually to children or teenagers. Many times it is their first experience in a museum, interacting with artwork. At first, some struggle to understand how to interact with the pieces and how to understand their surroundings. But what I've found, is that all it takes is a story. If you can find a work with an interesting story, their eyes light up and they begin to see through the eyes of the artist, even if just for a moment.
          I think this is similar to the greatest strength of comics. Art is one of the greatest tools for empathy that we, as humans, posses. Emotional communication is difficult, but through art we experience the world through someone else's hand, through someone else's eyes. When that art is paired with a story, we feel that experience in the work; it provokes empathy. Comics allow for this as well. After all, they are pictures with a story, in most cases. Traditional text-based literature allows for the reader to create and imagine their own world (and this is also really wonderful), but it often serves as more of a reflection of the reader's own life-experience than that of the author. Comics on the other hand, really force the perspective of the author into the reader's headspace. The artist brings the reader into their world and bends their mind around new space and new shapes. We see in Adele Blanc Sec and in Goodbye the strength of setting, the transportive quality of the artwork. We are brought into a world we could never imagine through the combination of images and words. There is such insight in comics, such interconnectedness. The power of the image in the comic cannot be underestimated.
          On the other hand, it does limit the imagination in some ways. We are no longer allowed, as the reader, to superimpose our own images onto the text. There is usually less verbose introspection and philosophical musings, as these do not lend themselves well to a graphic style. (I would argue that Watchmen and the like challenge this stereotype, but in general it holds true) However, it can be helpful to push the reader outside of their comfort zone and force their mind into new territory. The verbosity of literature is lost, but it is made up for in the complexity and communicative nature of the imagery. Rather than purely intellectual communication, comics possess a rare ability for emotional communication.