Digital Comics: Panel Structure in a Digital Environment
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Digital Comics: Panel Structure in a Digital Environment A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Nathaniel Shaw in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Digital Media May 2011 © Copyright 2011 Nathaniel Shaw. All Rights Reserved i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Troy Finamore, for all of the constructive criticism and support throughout the process of this thesis project. Without his suggestions and technical help the project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the committee, Matt Kaufhold and Jervis Thompson, for their contributions, comments, and suggestions. If Matt hadn’t told me to make sure to have a beginning, middle, and end to my story I wouldn’t have thought to do the opposite. Special recognition goes to my sister, Nyssa Shaw, for her help when I was struggling with the story. Additionally, I would like to thank my fellow graduate students Dan Bodenstein, Bob Piscopo, Simon Littlejohn, and Greg Ruane for the support and sense of community. This thesis and Drexel Digital Media wouldn’t be the same without them. Thanks also goes to past Drexel students Evan Boucher, Dave Lally, Nick Avallone, Christian Hahn, Jessie Amadio, Justin Wilcott, and Tom Bergamini for their help throughout my education here at Drexel. I learned so much from each of them. Finally, I would like to thank the Drexel Digital Media faculty that helped me along the way. Dave Mauriello for his enthusiasm for teaching and dedication to the Digital Media program. Ted Artz for his interest in my thesis and creative input on other projects. Chris Redmann for his creative and technical expertise in the classroom and Glenn Muschio for his support in the development stages of the thesis project. ii Table of Contents List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Key Terms ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6 3. Overview of Print and Digital Comics ..................................................................................................... 8 3.1 The Definition of Comics ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.2. The Development of Comics Throughout History ................................................................................ 12 3.2.1. History of Western Comics ................................................................................................................ 12 3.2.2. History of Eastern Comics .................................................................................................................. 19 3.3. Comics and Digital Media ..................................................................................................................... 22 3.3.1. Digital Production of Comics ............................................................................................................. 22 3.3.2. Digital Distribution of Comics ........................................................................................................... 26 3.3.2.1. Zuda.com ......................................................................................................................................... 30 3.3.2.2. Comixology ..................................................................................................................................... 30 3.3.3. Digital Structure of Comics ................................................................................................................ 32 3.3.3.1. Pup Contemplates the Heat Death of the Universe ......................................................................... 35 3.3.3.2. The Right Number ........................................................................................................................... 38 3.3.3.3. Nawlz ............................................................................................................................................... 40 3.3.3.4. E-Merl.com ...................................................................................................................................... 41 3.3.3.5. HoboLobo.net .................................................................................................................................. 43 4. Digital Storytelling in Comics .................................................................................................................. 45 5. Approach .................................................................................................................................................. 46 5.1. Digital Structure of a Comic .................................................................................................................. 46 iii 5.2. Production Considerations for a Digital Comic .................................................................................... 56 5.2.1. Non-Traditional Story Development and Panel Structure .................................................................. 56 5.2.2. Software Considerations ..................................................................................................................... 60 5.2.3. Scalable Art Creation ......................................................................................................................... 65 6. Conclusions and Future Work .................................................................................................................. 70 List of References ......................................................................................................................................... 73 1 List of Illustrations 1. The second and third paintings in the Marie de’Medici cycle of paintings. ............................................ 13 2. Trajan's Column: Major battle against the Dacians and Flight of the Dacians into the mountains ......... 14 3. The Adventures Of Obadiah Oldbuckby Rodolphe Töpffer ..................................................................... 15 4. William Hogarth: The first four prints from The Rake's Progress ........................................................... 16 5. Eisner's examples of creative panel use. [5] ............................................................................................. 18 6. Panel from a Japanese narrative scroll, Tale of Genji, 1130 .................................................................... 20 7. Several brush strokes from Adobe Photoshop's brush selection. ............................................................. 23 8. With the red dot on a separate layer, compositional changes can easily be made without redrawing the image. ........................................................................................................................................................... 24 9. Penny Arcade comic strip, May 2nd, 2011. [23] ...................................................................................... 29 10. Traditional style print comic strip echoed by many web comics. .......................................................... 32 11. Traditional style print comic page echoed by many digital comics. ...................................................... 33 12. Pup: Panels start out small. [21] ............................................................................................................. 36 13. Pup: As the reader scrolls to the right, panels begin increasing in relative size. [22] ............................ 36 14. Panels progress by coming forward from the center of the frame. [15] ................................................. 39 15. Panel separations are implied by changing pictorial compositions between panels. ............................. 41 16. Full layout of E-merl's PoCom-UK-001 ................................................................................................ 43 17. Scrolling the browser to the right simulates parallax shift in the layers of depth. ................................. 44 18. One of the story Circles of the thesis comic. .......................................................................................... 47 19. Both of the story circles .......................................................................................................................... 49 20. Rotational control: The panel in color on the left is framed correctly ................................................... 50 21. Rotational control: The story has progressed and now the panel on the right is framed correctly. ....... 50 22. Smaller panels show quicker series of events. ....................................................................................... 52 23. Larger panels in color hold the reader's attention longer. ...................................................................... 52 24. Panel with further panels inside at a greater zooming depth. ................................................................. 55 2 25. Smaller comic within the larger