In my ASTU class, we recently delve into the work of Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, a 153-page graphical narrative “comic” that heavily relies on visuals to tell the childhood story of the author while she was in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Our discussions did not quite focus on the story itself, but more on the structural components that make up the book, and Satrapi’s purposes of them. My group members and I actually did a presentation recently on these specific elements and how they revealed Satrapi’s technique to show her bearing witness in the past and to put this act upon the readers too. Some things we discussed about, that taught our classmates how to read beneath the surface, were the physical format of the comic (frames, blackness, etc.), symbols being introduced (objects like the dove), and the facial expressions and body gestures casted by the characters in the story. Not only did this presentation benefit my classmates by providing them insight, but I also gained knowledge myself, and it has even led me to further curiosity about the works of comics in general.
McCloud answers my first question, in which I strongly agree upon especially after my study on Persepolis, of what purpose comics serve: “At its simplest, a comic book is a series of words and pictures that are presented in a sequential manner to form a narrative” (McCloud 1993). Immediately, we know this is true and can be applicable to all comics we have heard about, such as the popular Marvel comics that tell stories chronologically about superheroes and their daily lives narratively. This “new literary form” (New York Times Magazine 2003) is undoubtedly different from the usual text-filled books we normally read by style, format, and the underlying writing techniques.
Though passionate readers might argue that reading the usual book is much more fulfilling and understanding, it may take too much time and it could get tiring scanning text after text for hours (if you had that much dedicated time to spend). Comic books are much more engaging and attractive to the eye, and you would not miss intimate details that you would normally be able to draw from the text of usual novels if you learned to consider every element and component the illustrator puts into and how and what to interpret of them. The reader is able to fully and pleasurably join and watch the story rolling the way the author wants it to appear exactly to fully receive his/her messages and meaning, instead of fully relying on imagination to play out how the story would appear yourself. For example, what I was significantly able to experience from Persepolis was the engagement in the story, feeling like I was a part of the moments, watching Satrapi’s past story play accurately before my eyes. The sequential frames, the obvious emphasis on certain elements, the speech bubble styles, the facial expressions and body language of characters, all contributed to helping me understand the story to its full potential.
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3986947.html
Therefore this comes back to what New York Times Magazine claimed about comics being a new genre, and that they are receiving a “newfound respectability”. This uprising genre is a “sophisticated art” (“A History of the Comic Book” 2008) that has revolutionized the way of reading. What does everyone else think?