tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post2731402919270657270..comments2014-12-09T17:25:07.561-08:00Comments on Words and Images: Ward's Dependence on the Gutter - Revision - Ben CarlsonAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-91772358890023918992011-11-19T17:44:59.062-08:002011-11-19T17:44:59.062-08:00At the start, you begin with a summary of some of ...At the start, you begin with a summary of some of McCloud's thinking that doesn't seem terribly directed. The argument at the end of the first paragraph is understated. This might very well be an important, worthwhile claim about Vertigo - but you aren't really presenting it as such. <br /><br />The second paragraph includes research awkwardly. This seems like a repetition of McCloud, more than an authentic second source - and you're still summarizing McCloud. This material might serve a purpose, but it isn't really well organized - you should be telling us *something* about Vertigo at this point.<br /><br />At the end of the 3rd paragraph you still haven't said anything specific about Vertigo.<br /><br />I like your one-sentence version of the principal's speech. IN this section I understand what you're getting at in general, but I'm still very unclear on what you're doing with the gutter as such - halfway through (or more), and you haven't said anything about what happens, and why, in any *specific* gutter. <br /><br />Similarly, when you leap to the carnival, I agre in a vague and general way that we don't understand how much time is passing, and that we must fill it, but I want more than I'm getting - I want, again, to go through the process of how you populate one of those gutters.<br /><br />You spend curiously little time and energy on the Hulk, but you do make the important point that words serve a guiding function in the Hulk. So are you really interested in the gutter, or in the differences between comics with words and without, or are the two topics related? The final idea is the most interesting, although also the most difficult and challenging- it's the only way I can easily bring together all the different things you're saying about the Hulk in a way that makes sense to me.<br /><br />You end on the thought (my wording, not yours) that less can be more in comics. This is an interesting and worthwhile direction, and I actually think that this essay could have worked much better if you had tried to detail/push McCloud's concept of comics as a "subtractive" medium; what you're arguably doing is presenting an argument that Vertigo subtracts greatly from what comics like the Hulk do, and is all the better for it. That's an argument that I can get behind - but whether you did that, or whether you pursued some other related idea about minimalism (which I suspect might really be what you're interested in - how art benefits from doing less rather than more), you needed to focus more closely on the texts/images in question - the thing that most damages this essay is that it's so general throughout, with nothing really standing out as a detailed analysis of the material.Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-54100769076303653192011-11-16T14:36:20.853-08:002011-11-16T14:36:20.853-08:00The link that is removed for some reason for the T...The link that is removed for some reason for the Time in the Gutter article is:<br /><br />http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/kro/2009/00000009/F0020001/art00007BChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02566444100458347862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888438300076664400.post-4395802048305343892011-11-16T14:35:43.193-08:002011-11-16T14:35:43.193-08:00My original post is: http://wipitt.blogspot.com/20...My original post is: http://wipitt.blogspot.com/2011/09/using-gutter-effectively-in.html<br /><br />"Using gutter effectively in illustrations - Ben Carlson"BChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02566444100458347862noreply@blogger.com