Sequential vs. Cumulative Art
Here is one of my earlier posts about comics and sequential art. Apologies for the rather academic approach: I tend to get a little theoretical with my musings. :)
The art of comics has been around for over a century, and sequential art is far older than that. Traditionally, comics were presented in print media, and had to submit to the limitations of such media.
Will Eisner wrote in Graphic Storytelling that his definition of comics is “the printed arrangement of art and balloons in sequence, particularly in comic books”. Scott McCloud followed suit in Understanding Comics with his definition: “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer”.
For print media, these definitions may be accurate. However, the advent of digital media offers a slew of new possibilities regarding the presentation of sequential art. Narratives can be non-linear, dynamic and/or spontaneous, even random. Artwork can change before the viewers’ eyes; grow, change and animate, even build upon itself. Other elements can be added, such as audio or interactivity. (If a panel is animated, or even contains video, but is presented in a sequence…is it still sequential art?)
In essence, through digital media these definitions can be changed and refined, or even shaken up and shattered. But even so, how does one explore the possibilities of this new medium without selling out the essence of sequential art?
To add animation to a comic is easy, but if all you are doing is animating frames or the content within frames, why not simply turn the narrative into an animation? To add music or audio is easy, but wouldn’t it simply feel like you’re listening to a well-synchronized CD while reading the strip?
In order to recreate the medium of the comic, you must remain true to the format and essence of this communicative art form, while at the same time stretching its capabilities. So, what is the format and essence of comics?
By my definition, comic art is a communicative art form. It is meant to pass along a narrative or message, or elicit an aesthetic response from the viewer. Traditionally, this is done through the juxtaposition of text and images.
Comic art is also traditionally sequential, meaning that “panels” or images, with or without text, are laid out in a specific order to create a linear narrative. Because one follows another which follows another, the art is sequential.
The essence of comic communication is the choosing of individual moments in time to relate to the user. This means that when one builds a comic, they make a choice as to which moments, which perspectives, which points of view and which imagery to present. The artist must choose a single moment for each panel, because it is the perceived transition of time between each of those panels that builds the story. Scott McCloud elaborates more on this notion in his book Understanding Comics.
The artist, being forced to choose moments out of the time line of their story rather than show the transition between those moments, is to me one of the most important elements that distinguishes comic art from other art forms. Animation, film, single-panel cartoons, etc. all show either only one moment in time…or a sequence of moments that could be viewed as if they are real-time.
Perhaps each panel would begin as a transition into or out of a moment, but freeze at a crucial point in time to illustrate that moment as a fully-rendered and beautiful image. Perhaps the invisible and perceived transition itself is enhanced, though it cannot be given too many rules or formatting, otherwise this crucial element breaks down by being given too much structure.
Now, the advent of digital media suggests that this format of comics being traditionally sequential could be altered. I would propose that there is another format in which comics can be presented, and that is cumulative.
By cumulative, I mean that rather than comic elements being placed in a sequential linear form, they instead build upon one another to create a different element with each new “moment in time”.
For example, let us say that the comic element we speak of is imagery. Traditional comics would flow as follows:
You can see that each shape does not take up the same space as the previous shape. Much like Newton’s laws of physics, an object cannot occupy the same space at the same time as another object. The same laws apply to print media.
Now, if we add another dimension into the mix…time…we come up with a completely new set of parameters in which to work:
This is not to say, however, that cumulative art in this format needs to be overlaid. The above is a conceptual example of the combination of elements in the same space. From a visual standpoint, the images may be laid next to one another over time, yet still create a cumulative picture simply from the addition of each element. For example:
The above could be considered juxtaposed cumulative imagery, whereas the first example would be superimposed cumulative imagery.
Now…what is the difference, you may ask, between this type of art and moving images such as an animation? The truth is that they are not at all the same. An animation works very much like a sequential comic, except at speeds so quick and moments so compressed that it appears to be a moving image. Cumulative art, however, does not follow one panel after another, as traditional print comics and animations do…rather, it combines previous elements with the following ones to build upon itself and “paint an image in time” as the user views it.
Images are not the only comic element that can be presented cumulatively. A good example would be cumulative music, set to sequential imagery.
The above is an example of cumulative audio and sequential panel juxtaposition.Imagine this possible user flow: a viewer is presented with a “page” of comic panels. The images are in black and white, and unaccompanied by music. The user is prompted to click on the panels, or even without animation, the comic “comes to life” and activates on its own.
In sequence, the first panel transforms into a colored image. At the same moment, a musical element is added, such as a melody loop. This sample will loop indefinitely until the next panel is activated, either by the user or of its own volition.
Panel two activates, colorizing and adding new music to the mix. This time it is a bass line, which perfectly overlays the prior melody line, and begins to build a song. The next panel activates, and we hear a driving drum loop overlaying the other music elements. When the page is finished, you have a fully-fleshed out graphic presentation of sequential comics, and audio that accompanies each panel individually, but cumulatively forms a song to enhance the mood of the overall narrative.
Achievements with this format: With or without interactivity, the user experiences a time-lapsed comic narrative, which allows for cumulative art to be included. The comic still presents a format of choosing specific moments to relate, but at the same time allows for audio to enhance and accentuate the mood of each panel, as well as accentuate the mood of the whole page. The page itself is given homage, as is each panel unto itself.
Other artists and their experiments:
Brendan Cahill’s Outside The Box experiments with a form of “panel animation” (my own phrase for it) that utilizes space in such a manner as to maximize it. As images fly in from outside the frame, speech bubbles appear with each image. The user clicks, and another image flies in from outside the frame to land alongside the first, while the speech bubbles disappear and are replaced with new ones. The speech bubbles each take up space on the page that, were all the images present, would block some of the imagery. By using time to allow the speech bubbles to appear and disappear, and interactivity so that the user may choose when to advance the story, Cahill utilizes the fourth dimension as an extra amount of space in which to relate his imagery and text. In regards to time, Cahill’s images are cumulative – individually presented and combined, while his text is sequential – appearing one after the other, but not combined to form an overall image.
Tom Stackpole’s Invisible Forces utilizes cumulative imagery in an interesting interactive way: the user “follows” a black dot around the screen, revealing vignettes of images that appear as individual panels on their own. However, once the user has passed over all of the vignettes on the page, a larger image is revealed to show them as only pieces of the whole. A good example is this page, where the dot is followed around the frame revealing individual panels that relate characterizations of people and the environment, then finishes with the scene as a whole. This format is successful in paying homage to both the individual elements of an image, and the image as a whole.
Stackpole also guides the user’s motions by influencing the path they take with the mouse as they guide them along the dot’s “path”, which works especially well on this page. This offers a unique alternative to the tactile “page-turning” of traditional comic media, as well as shaking up the typical “click here to advance” feature of web comics. It is worth considering for future iterations of digital comics: encouraging the user to utilize mouse motion in other ways to give the comic a different or unique feel.
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