In the second of our occasional series four more comics creators tell us why they think the form is special.
Richard McGuire
Comics can do things other mediums can't. In the case of my book Here the reader/viewer is in one space, a room, and experiences the narrative through multiple windows of various times. Each window, or panel, has a little box in the upper corner of its frame indicating the year. The story stretches far into the future, and way into the past, and many points in-between, often simultaneously. I can't think of any medium where you could create that kind of simultaneous view within a narration. Comics are in a way more like maps or diagrams, they can be read in nonlinear ways. It's one of the unique strengths of the medium.
There is a connection between comics and music, both are 'time based'. There is a beat to the frames in comics, they both move through 'sequences'. The structure of my book feels very 'musical', it has rhythms, crescendos and still moments. I had the entire book up on the wall of my studio and I was constantly juggling the panels and the sequences around until it felt right instinctually, so much of it was getting the flow to 'feel' right, the same as in music, it's about 'the feel'.
I have a lot of respect for the form of the book. I used the architecture of the open book to reflect the corner of the room, so you feel you are 'inside' the space. Although the story is nonlinear I felt the book needed to stay true to it's form to feel satisfying, so there is an arch to it, it has a beginning and an end.
The e-book is not just a straight 'electronic version' of the book, it takes advantage of the possibilities of the new medium. The e-book version deconstructs the book, it can randomise the panels, and with the new combinations new connections are created. This app-like functionality only works with the iPad version unfortunately. I think in the case of Here it was the perfect story to tell this way, and the improvisational randomisation is really fun and exciting. I was also able to add animated gifs. I wanted to highlight little moments; a petal falling from a flower, or a breeze blowing a curtain. These are timed so they will not animate every single time you see them, when they do happen it's a special event and they feel more important.
Richard McGuire's book Here (Hamish Hamilton, £25) was one of Graphic Content's choices for Best Graphic Novels of 2014. He is best known as an illustrator of children's books and is also a regular New Yorker contributor. He was also once bass player in the early eighties post-punk, itchy-disco band Liquid Liquid whose track Cavern was sampled by for Grandmaster and Melle Mel's rap classic White Lines. Oh and Chris Ware thinks he's great.
Graphic Content: the best of 2014
Philippa Rice
I love looking at artwork and I love stories too and with comics you get both! I especially like reading a comic that uses art to create an atmosphere or an emotion that you couldn't get from just words.
Philippa Rice was only here last week answering Five Questions for us but she was so kind and polite we invited her back again. We're hoping she'll bring cakes this time. Her book Soppy (Square Peg, £10.99) would make a very nice Valentine's Day present, we reckon.
Graphic Content: five questions for Phillipa Rice
Will Morris
I've never really thought about why I like comics as a medium, I was just lucky enough to start reading them and haven't stopped. Really, all it boils down to is that I love stories. Film, books, comics, they've all got unique qualities to pull you into the lives of the characters. Comics are incredibly immediate and encourage great leaps of imagination. I know for sure that with prose alone I couldn't conjure the vivid images of Joe Sacco's Palesteine or Moebius's sprawling sci-fi landscapes. There's also something in having the people and places described visually that helps bring the character's actions to the fore. This can make for compulsive reading (I'd challenge anyone to put Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis down). Comics come into some criticism for being a quick read, but if this means I can enjoy more of the great stories that are out there then I'm not complaining.
Will Morris was one of the contributors to last year's Scottish science fiction graphic novel IDP:2043 (Freight Books, £14.99). He's also the creator of The Silver Darlings (Blank Slate, £9.99), but you've already read that, haven't you? Haven't you?
Graphic Content: Demise Mina's comic view of post apocalyptic Scotland
Kate Charlesworth
It's true, first love really never dies - DC Thompson's output is hardwired into my cartoonist's brain - but I callously dumped my teen obsession, DC Comics, for art school and soon abandoned comics altogether as scales fell from my eyes - where were women in comics? Mostly prone.
Eventually the affection rekindled - I contributed to indy comics, read the likes of Love and Rockets, and now it's pretty full-on.
I love the constantly shifting range of styles and genres, and the totally immersive process of creating comics from script to finished artwork is completely consuming.
Bit hard on the nearest and dearest though…
Kate Charlesworth had a very busy 2014 as a contributor to IDP:2043 and working with Mary and Bryan Talbot on the graphic novel Sally Heathcote, Suffragette (Jonathan Cape, £16.99. Born in Barnsley, she's lived in Edinburgh for 12 years but still hasn't picked up the accent.
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