Ya'll, apologies for not posting this last night-- the internet went down in my apartment building Sunday evening...
Reading a longer, larger, more detailed comic like Heartbreak Soup has really pushed me in terms of my reading skills are far as comics are concerned. It is such a different process than reading a book. In fact, I've had a lot of trouble following heartbreak soup and making sense of what is happening from page to page. I'm trying to break down what makes reading comics so challenging for me, and I've managed to identify a couple of things so far.
1. Character identification. Even though each of the characters have identifying characteristics (body shape and size, clothing, haircuts, etc) I still have a hard time immediately recognizing the characters. It really takes conscious effort on my part to figure out who is who, and that interrupts my ability ti receive informations seamlessly when looking at the pictures, and makes the narrative feel a lot "choppier" to me. Some of the characters in Heartbreak Soup are particularly hard for me to identify, especially the guys!
2. Passage of time and changes in location. I had a really tough time with this in Heartbreak Soup, particularly in the fight between Soledad and Manuel. I had to read it many times in order to figure out what was happening when and where. I think that analytical texts that we’re reading on comics will help me to continue to learn how to acquire this information.
3. Keeping track of characters and storylines over time. Especially when a serialized comic is compressed into a compiled addition, it’s hard for me to hold onto all of the different threads, characters and subplots!
I think a lot of this comes down to reading codified poses and setups for what they are meant to convey. It's clear that, in comics, certain poses and angles indicate certain situations or moods-- a close in angle- for example, indicates on oncoming kiss on page 33. All literature has an internal "cue language" thorough which the author speaks to his or her readers, but it's different for comics, and I'm still trying to figure it out.
1 comment:
This course is my first introduction to graphic novels. Therefore, I can easily identify with the three issues you chose to address in your post. I've had some of the same problems myself. While reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," I really began to grasp how to "read" a comic. I put read in quotation marks because I've begun to understand that reading a comic requires much more than reading a novel for instance. McCloud goes in too much more detail about this idea. There is an active participation to reading comics. The reader takes on just as much of a role in the comic as the characters do. So, as you are reading and trying to figure out and work through those three issues think about McCloud. Reading comics is an active sport. I think you are on the right track when it comes to reading. You are participating in the graphic novel as you should be.
I realized that for all of us first timers, its hard to seperate the way we read a book for instance from the way one reads a graphic novel. It is a different reading experience, it allows you to be more personally involved in the work. Just like reading other types of literature, it's a very rewarding experience if not more so!
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