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Comic talks 1- Narration
Dec. 21st, 2008 09:18 pmOMG! I realized I should talk about comics more! I know this journal wandered off into dolls and begging for money. Oh well. I doubt you've seen the last of doll angst or pleas for money, but I'll try to make it worth your time. Or rather, I'll put something in between.
NARRATION.
Comics as visual medium DO NOT need narration. If you NEED narration in a comic then you have failed to tell the story. Large blocks of text explaing the plot absolutely kill me. First of all, if you want to write prose, write a book. If you have to explain the plot before the story even gets going then the plot has failed.
I'm talking about big chunks of text which a lot of are guilty of. The occasional box that gives a time and place or a date or even 'meanwhile' is fine. But I'm sure we've all seen the comics with huge narration boxes that go on page after page. When I shop for comics I look at the art, but I also look at the amount of text. If there is too much text I put it back without reading it. Perhaps it's laziness, but if I'M that lazy then so are a lot of other people. If I wanted to read a book, I'd read one. But if I'm buying a comic then I want a comic!
There are of course exceptions to every rule. Some comics have lots of text that is worth reading. BUT what seperates these is the quality of the text. Neil Gaiman can do it, Alan Moore can do it. The essential question to ask yourself when sitting down to script is "Am I Neil Gaiman?" If the answer is NO figure out how to tell the story visually.
Also, a good plot will reveal itself over the course of a book. It's unnecessary to load all the plot and the backstory of the main character into blocks of narration in the first issue. If the script is well crafted then we'll keep reading even if we don't know the entire life story of the main character within the first five pages.
Anytime you have to explian in a comic it's an automatic fail. Comics should be the absolute essence of "show, don't tell" and comics have one up on novels this way. Sadly it isn't taken advantage of enough.
NARRATION.
Comics as visual medium DO NOT need narration. If you NEED narration in a comic then you have failed to tell the story. Large blocks of text explaing the plot absolutely kill me. First of all, if you want to write prose, write a book. If you have to explain the plot before the story even gets going then the plot has failed.
I'm talking about big chunks of text which a lot of are guilty of. The occasional box that gives a time and place or a date or even 'meanwhile' is fine. But I'm sure we've all seen the comics with huge narration boxes that go on page after page. When I shop for comics I look at the art, but I also look at the amount of text. If there is too much text I put it back without reading it. Perhaps it's laziness, but if I'M that lazy then so are a lot of other people. If I wanted to read a book, I'd read one. But if I'm buying a comic then I want a comic!
There are of course exceptions to every rule. Some comics have lots of text that is worth reading. BUT what seperates these is the quality of the text. Neil Gaiman can do it, Alan Moore can do it. The essential question to ask yourself when sitting down to script is "Am I Neil Gaiman?" If the answer is NO figure out how to tell the story visually.
Also, a good plot will reveal itself over the course of a book. It's unnecessary to load all the plot and the backstory of the main character into blocks of narration in the first issue. If the script is well crafted then we'll keep reading even if we don't know the entire life story of the main character within the first five pages.
Anytime you have to explian in a comic it's an automatic fail. Comics should be the absolute essence of "show, don't tell" and comics have one up on novels this way. Sadly it isn't taken advantage of enough.
