The Origin of the Spirit is a great example of a comic that sets the scene. Now I see how a comic can do nothing more than introduce the key characters and the essential plot of the series. We know how the Spirit came to be, we know that his mission is to fight evil, and we know who his first enemy is. I found the lay out to be fairly dynamic with some subtle inconsistencies that added to the story. One box in particular is quite packed. On page 24, the middle right box consists of three boxes and has obvious social implications. To start, the box to the left bleeds into this one, but for what purpose? Perhaps to emphasize the larness of the cop, or maybe to connect the subject-to-subject construction. Also this box contains three parts: a word baloon that sets the scene, a small illustration that shows the action of the cab, and then the bigger illustration that shows Dolan in the cab explaining where he wants to go. Of course the cab driver is ethnic, very obviously resembles a monkey more than a human, a direct reference to the negative opinion of raced people that remained at the time, and the cab driver stutters with an accent that suggests further stupidity. I suppose even comic book writers must have been influenced by the social prejudices of their times, but Im sure little black boys would not maintain positive self-images upon reading these stereotyped characters. Also, this aspect is just so unnecessary as far as the plot is concerned. It's simply offensive.
Anyways, other than that, which I was clearly bothered by, I thought the dialogue was cheesy and unrealistic, but I suppose that is how comics were written. A final comment about dialogue is that it seems between McCloud's book and this comic that artists tend to write in all caps nd use boldness for emphasis. What is the purpose of using all capital letters? For easier reading? The most creative part of the issue is Eisner's use of gutters and bleeds. I wonder whether the slanted boxes are representative of italics, emphasis, or movement, or whether Eisner was just playing around with style.
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Chelsey,
ReplyDeleteGood work in pointing the page 24 panel and the social implications.
As mentioned in class, during the late 30s and 40s, many otherwise bright people were not socially enlightened. Also, at the early stage of Eisner's career, he was not as familiar with film-noir and Orson Wells. He developed his unique graphic style as he became more experienced and discovered the new German expressionist filmmakers.
Cynthia