This lecture was the first in a series of lectures by Dan and Sue which covered the topic of layout in comics and childrens books.It was split into two halves the first being Sues examples and the second being a short tutorial in which the audience had to construct a short story through comics.
The first book Sue used to show the importance of good layout was Where's my Teddy by Jez Alborough.Like all good childrens books the author uses effective differences in scale and colour throughout the book to make it as visually engaging as possible.This is all seen within the cover and clearly shows what type of narrative is in store.The narrative is very one directional - fusing the compositions from left to right in anticipation to turn the pages as the story progressses.
Within this template there are many constants Jez uses to keep the story simple.The horizon is always centred in the middle of the images to keep in with the flow,action is broken up to keep a level of uncertainty,page layouts go from single page to double spread to keep things balanced,sky is introduced whenever it feels like it needs to break tension,gutters are always the same measurement away from the spine of the book so that it doesn't distract the reader to much and dominant figures are featured in the right context, e.g the colour of the giant teddy bear is bright and sticks out, the colour of the forest and volume of leaves reflects the size of the bear.A lot of visual information is depicted within this frame of narrative which shows the amount of initial thought that goes within developing a childrens story depending on the tone and how you want things to proceed.
In My Grandmother's Clock by Stephen Lambert, different techiques are used accordingly with the tone and subject matter of the story.Pastels and bright colours are used throughout which give it a feeling of time or nostalgia which works on both levels for a child and a parent who may be reading the book.A lot of high angles and vignettes are used which almost give a comic like quality to some of the layouts.This effected the way type is used in the book which varies from being embedded to some of the compositions to almost squeezing some of it in which isn't usually advised.In comparison to Where's my Teddy? the book takes a more liberated approach to how it handles text as it's almost a part of the illustration itself rather than just exposition.
In Dan's section, he set about a scenario involving a character involved in a immoral situation which the audience had to solve.A scenario such as this is a quick example on how a drama can be quickly put together and how this opens the possibility of creating short stories or perhaps a novel when an idea is expanded.In doing so we first established a character, place,adversaries and a distraction to set the scene.With comics, the thing that appeals to me when it comes to starting off such a premise is the use of visual information that can be ascertained within the setup of say mannerisms of a character or details within the location.
Once everything is setup,questions emerge.What is the core of the character? How tough is the situation and how can the character overcome these elements and are they feasible? What components do I have to work with? Keeping within continutity and preventing conflicting compositions (e.g. when two characters suddenly switch sides for no apparent reason.) The key is making it readable and still keeping the viewer in suspense.More that will be discussed in another lecture in the future.
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