Masaryk University
Faculty of Arts
Department of English
and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Kateřina Cvachová
Indigenous Graphic Novel: Red: A Haida Manga
Master’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D.
2019
I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………………………….. Author’s signature
Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. for her guidance during the time I was working on this thesis. Special thanks belong to Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas for his kind and generous offer to help and answer questions regarding his work and for his permission to use his work in my thesis.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 1 Manga and Western Comics ...... 5 The Background of Manga ...... 5 Manga and Comics Terminology ...... 13 Sequential Art ...... 15 Time and Space in Comics ...... 16 Panels...... 17 Gutter ...... 19 Transitions ...... 20 Balloons and Bubbles ...... 21 Lettering ...... 22 The Haida and Their Culture ...... 24 Haida Art ...... 26 Red: A Haida Manga ...... 32 Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Art ...... 32 Analysis of Red: A Haida Manga...... 44 Conclusion...... 68 Bibliography ...... 70 Resume ...... 72 Appendix ...... 74
Introduction
As a topic of this thesis I have chosen Red: A Haida Manga created by Michael
Nicoll Yahgulanaas, indigenous artist and member of the Haida Gwaii nation. However, first, for the purpose of this thesis, the terms graphic novel, comic (or comics in plural) and manga should be explained so that the difference between them is more visible. This is important because Yahgulanaas chose manga as his medium but also because some readers might not be familiar with the term manga and the medium itself. The difference of similarities between these media should be explained before the specific elements or the background of manga are introduced.
Paul Gravett states in his book Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know that two people can be credited with coining the term graphic novel, one being Will Eisner and the other Richard Kyle. Gravett claims that around the early 1970s Eisner and others were experimenting with the medium to prove that it could be sold in shops the same way books are. The surprising inspiration came from Europe because the American artists began to be invited to European comic art festivals where they could see how the medium was changing and how it was more mature and different gravitating toward more adult and mature content than in America (Gravett 38). Gravett cites Will Eisner who said that without the limits imposed by the industry, such as the pre-set number of pages “each story was written without regard to space and each was allowed to develop its format from itself; that is, to evolve from its narration” (qtd. in Gravett 38). Without the pre-set number of pages, the artist would gain more freedom because they could develop their stories and content and use any number of pages that they needed to finish their stories.
The result of Eisner's work was A contract with God, however, the publishers had difficulty describing the work to the readers, and therefore Eisner suggested “graphic novel.” However, Gravett also mentions Richard Kyle, a comics fan, who supposedly
1 coined the term around November 1964 in an article because he wanted to, in a way, dispose of the childish and humorous and negative connotations attached to the media of
“comics” and suggested “graphic story” or “graphic novel”. Gravett claims that both
Eisner and Kyle arrived at this term on their own (Gravett 38). This shows that not only authors and artists can change the media but also that the readers can have a great impact.
This new concept of comics gave authors more freedom because of the possibility of an unlimited number of pages they could explore stories which could not be explored containing more mature topics and themes and even experimenting with the media. The comics began to be taken more seriously and not only as something created for children or young teenagers, who would later grow up from this phase. Compared to graphic novel the comic book has a format of a magazine. These magazines are “usually between 30 and 50 pages…contain one serialised story and are published monthly” (Dreamland
Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 22). Typically, when one says comics, one would think of such comics as Superman or Batman and other similar hero comics, popular in
America. American, as well as European comics, usually have vibrant coloured covers but the stories inside the book are also coloured. Hilary Chute states in her book. WHY
COMICS?: From Underground to Everywhere that the term comics encompasses formats such as the newspaper comic strip which appeared in the United States in the 1890s, the comic book which appeared in 1930s and the graphic novel (Chute 6).
Manga, on the other hand, has not only a long tradition, as it evolved from traditional Japanese art, but also a distinctly different format. Schodt states in the book
Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga that “individual manga stories are … first serialised along with many other stories in omnibus-style manga magazines and then compiled into their own paperback and hardback books.” (Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 22). Each such magazine is about 400 pages long and contains around
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20 individual stories and episodes. Other magazines may even have around 1000 pages and contain around 40 stories. Later the manga stories are compiled into a series of paperback books which are published, each about 250 pages long. Schodt further states that manga books are not meant to be collected but instead after they are read by fans and readers, they are thrown away because the most popular are manga are often available to readers in permanent editions (Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga 23).
Unlike American or European comics manga are published in black and white, except the covers and sometime the first few pages of story which are often colourful, with bold titles. Graphic novel, comic book and manga share some similarities but at the same time they are also different. One such difference may be the formats in which they are published, and another difference might be the diversity of topics which the artists can explore. Another difference might be the graphic rendition and the style in which they are drawn. However, graphic novels, comics and manga also influence and inspire each other and therefore the lines between each media can be blurred.
This thesis focuses on Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Red: A Haida Manga for two main reasons. First is the artist’s choice to name his work manga instead of graphic novel or comic book as well as the reasons he might have had to make this decision. Therefore, attempt will be made to examine to what degree and how the medium of manga influenced Yahgulanaas while creating Red and to what degree Yahgulanaas deviates not only from western comics tradition but also from the tradition of manga. To better understand the ways in which manga might have influenced Yahgulanaas while creating
Red it is also prudent to describe the background of manga and its predecessors.
However, since manga is Japanese form of comics and therefore uses some elements that can be found in western comics or graphic novels, some of these basic elements will be discussed and described so that it can be discussed in what way
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Yahgulanaas uses them and how he might be subverting them to create new genre of comics.
Second reason is the art style of Red which is intriguing and sets the work apart from western comics and graphic novels. The style is intriguing because the graphic rendition of comics or graphic novel also influences the reading experience and it might be interesting to examine how Yahgulanaas’s style influence reading. Since Yahgulanaas is a member of Haida nation, the influence of Haida art on the art style of Red will also be examined including the ways in which Yahgulanaas uses certain elements or how he deviates from the tradition to create modern Haida art.
Red will be analysed in terms of possible links between the different artforms and impact they might have had on the work but also in terms of finding how the author deviates from them or subverts certain rules or the use of certain elements.
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Manga and Western Comics
The Background of Manga
Manga grew out of a long tradition of Japanese art that shows the ability to adapt, change and even joke. There are different kinds of scrolls, for example, Zenga or “Zen pictures”, from mid-17th century, or Chojuugiga “Animal scrolls”, from 12th century created by Bishop Toba (Manga! Manga! 28, 30) (see fig. 1 and fig.2). As Frederik L.
Schodt states in his book Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics these first scrolls had religious themes, but the artists would often approach the serious religious topics with playfulness. The scrolls would remind people of different Buddhist teachings such as not being attached to material things or the fragility of human morals. However, not all scrolls were concerned with religious themes; many were wild and full of humour, and in many ways, they are similar to modern comics (Manga! Manga! 29).
As Schodt claims in the 6th and 7th century, Japan was influenced by China and adopted Buddhism. Further, Schodt asserts that “Japan’s first undisputed masterpiece of cartooning was created at the beginning of the 12th century by … the now legendary
Bishop Toba. Chijuugiga, or the “Animal Scrolls … was a narrative picture scroll, an art form … from China to which the Japanese added their own … brand of humour” (Manga!
Manga! 28). As mentioned, another type of scrolls was the Zenga which developed in the mid-17th century, and these were “a form of religious cartooning that directed spontaneous humour to a serious purpose” and as Schodt claims that the “unorthodox, or rather non-orthodox … humorous” nature of Zen made this possible because no religion known in America or Europe would not allow something like this (Manga! Manga! 30).
This ability to joke even with tradition and religion is maybe what makes these scrolls stand out. These scrolls, as we will later see, inspired Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
5 and his creations. Many of Yahgulnaas’ creations share with these scrolls and other kinds of traditional Japanese art the humorous and playful nature and the ability or desire of the artist to change and adapt the form.
Schodt states that the Zen pictures showed a trait that all Japanese art has in common, and that is “economy of line” (Manga! Manga! 32). Schodt cites Josiah Conder who notes that “the limits imposed on the technique … and the constant practice of defining form by means of line drawn with a flexible brush, have enabled the Japanese painter to express in line even the most intangible and elusive shapes, without the aid of shading or colour” (Manga! Manga! 32). This command of brush and line is also something Yahgulanaas shares with these masters and something visible in his art too. It is visible that like the masters of the Japanese scrolls Yahgulanaas also possesses great skills when handling the brush. According to Schodt the most popular prints were called ukiyo-e (see fig.3) and masters of this genre regularly used and experimented with deformations of line and master Hokusai Katsushika (1760 -1849) was the first to coin the word manga that later began to be used by Japanese as a term for the comics and cartoons (Manga! Manga! 33, 35).
Paul Gravett states in his book Mangasia: The Definitive Guide to Asian Comics that Katsushika Hokusai began to use the term manga for his sketchbook, which he compiled and sold as instruction books. Hokusai himself defined his manga as a “brush gone wild” to convey to readers their playfulness. However, Gravett further claims that
Hokusai did not coin the term manga because it appeared in the preface to Santo Kyoden’s book Seasonal Passers-by (Shiki no youkai) in 1798 (Gravett 26). However, it seems that the term might be older and Gravett cites researcher Shimizu Isao who claims that the term dates to 1777 when it appeared in Suzuki Kankyo’s Miscellany of Comic Scribbles
(Mankaku Zuihitsu) (qtd. in Gravett 26).
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Further, Schodt mentions Tobae (see fig. 4) which were compiled into booklets and often accompanied by fables and the kibyoshi or “yellow-cover” booklets which consisted of monochrome prints and captions which told stories (Manga! Manga! 36-37).
Hokusai’s and Kankyo’ books or Tobae may be the very first examples of manga in their raw form. The humour and the playfulness are visible even in the name of many of these scrolls or even in the term manga itself and of course in the attitude of many of the artists.
Manga grows out of traditions but also out of aspects of Japanese culture. This inherent playfulness and what Hokusai described as “brush gone wild” nature and playfulness also might have been part of the reason why Yahgulanaas was attracted to manga.
Yahgulanaas’ Red shares this uninhibited nature with these first examples of manga.
Furthermore, these traits might also part of Haida culture and art as will be discussed later.
However, Japanese art and manga did not absorb influence only from China and from philosophies such as Buddhism or Zen Buddhism but also, maybe surprisingly, from the West. Both Frederik L. Schodt and Paul Gravett name two names that played a role in the shaping the face of modern manga one being English cartoonist Charles Wirgman
(1832-1892) and the other being French artist Georges Bigot (1860-1927) (Manga!
Manga! 38; Gravett 27). Schodt claims that in 1857 Wirgman worked for the Illustrated
London News and in 1862 he also published a British style humour magazine called the
Japan Punch (see fig. 5) directed towards the foreign community living in Yokohama.
The Japan Punch contained cartoons in style typical of British cartoonists and illustrators of that time. (Manga! Manga! 38) In 1887 George Bigot created a magazine “Tobae … in which he drew cartoons that satirised both Japanese society and government" and
“ soon after the arrival of Wirgman and Bigot, the Japanese artist began publishing their own humour magazines and daily newspapers … and artists began using a pen instead of a brush” (Manga! Manga! 40-41). By the end of the 19th century, Japanese cartoonists
7 started to look to the United States where Joseph Pulitzer was experimenting with first true comic strips and Sunday supplements, also known as the “Sunday funnies” (Manga!
Manga! 41).
Paul Gravett claims that by the end of 20th-century term manga replaced by the term ponchi-e, named after cartoons, inspired by Britain’s Punch magazine. Rakuten
Kitazawa was the one who caused the meaning and definition of manga to shift away from those and more towards the modern meaning of the story that is told through a combination of pictures and words (Gravett 27). Schot claims that even though the western cartoons and comic strips were famous in Japan, they could not compete with the
Japanese comic strips and comic books because Japan's cultural isolation allowed it to choose which influence will be absorbed (Manga! Manga! 45). It is visible that manga, like other media, is capable to absorb influence from the other media and other cultures be it Chinese or western. Such influence and styles are transformed and adapted so that they can become part of what manga is today.
The 1920s brought social change and the “political and social freedoms led to experimentation in ideology and lifestyle … Japanese cities were swept by … the Roaring
20s and the Jazz Age. Western fashions … were the rage among young urban sophisticates … Artists … depicted this … society found in the cafes, bars, and theatres of Tokyo” (Manga! Manga! 49). In this era, one of the many new genres of the manga was born. During this time the artists would often become radicalized, but because of persecution, they would turn to the creation of children's comic book or the ero-guro- nansensu for adults (Manga! Manga! 51). Evelyn Wang writes in her article “The Erotic
Japanese Art Movement Born Out of Decadence” for magazine Dazed Digital that ero- guro-nansensu means “erotic grotesque nonsense” and this genre was fascinating but also ground-breaking and perverse and bizarre at the same time. Wang states that the
8 movement that still exists “is not only a literary and artistic movement but an attitude and a philosophy … a manifestation of its [Japa’s] fascination with the erotic, the perverse, the corrupt, and the bizarre”. It contains elements of horror or pornography, bondage or mutilation but it also provides social commentary (Wang, The Erotic Japanese Art
Movement Born Out of Decadence). However, the diversity of genres and creativity of artists is much greater, and there is almost every imaginable genre many of which would seem bizarre to westerners. Other genres are for example orijinaru (original works), aniparo (parodies of popular animation shows), ju-ne mono (serious stories of love between gay male) and ya-o-i or also yaoi (derived from Yama-nashi, Ochina-shi, Imi- nashi which means “no climax, no punchline, no meaning”; stories that are playful and often nonsensical stories with characters from favourite animation shows depicted in gay relationships), bishoujo (beautiful young girls; its counterpart is bishounen stories of beautiful young men) or rorikon (Lolita complex) (Dreamland Japan: Writings on
Modern Manga 37). This shows that the authors had greater freedom not only in terms of the number of pages but also in terms of the stories that they could explore, although there might have been restrictions during the history. Some of the very bizarre genres of manga could be seen as connections to the old scrolls which often featured even the most bizarre aspects of life often in rather unorthodox way. However, many of these genres were born much later, apart from the radicalisation of artists or the ero-guro-nansensu there were other changes that the 1920s and war brought.
The war did affect the Japanese as well as the comic books and comic strips since government and political parties could use them for propaganda. It did also affect the publishing industry which was in disarray and as consequence the books became too expensive, however, this gave rise to the so-called “red book”. These comics were cheaper which meant that artists were paid very little, however, they also had greater
9 freedom over their creation. One of the artists who emerged and became a star was Osamu
Tezuka. (Manga! Manga! 62) Tezuka had a significant impact on the market, the publishers and the medium itself. His comic books showed what potential the media has because of his innovative and creative use of page layout, sound effects and spread of frames all of which made reading comic books almost like watching a film. Surprisingly he was inspired by the animation of Walt Disney and Max Fleisher (for example of
Tezuka’s work see fig. 6) (Manga! Manga! 62 – 63). Schodt claims that Tezuka’s style, creativity and success would inspire generations of artists and creators some of whom cite
Osamu Tezuka as their primary influence (Manga! Manga! 64). The war brought another change. The colour printing became too expensive and all but disappeared, and even though in the past there appeared manga printed or drawn in monochrome, now it became a norm (Manga! Manga! 67). However, covers of manga are often brightly coloured and sometimes the first few pages of the story may also be coloured.
Another difference between the Japanese manga and especially American comics are the hero comics. Many might think that the hero comics does not exist in Japan, but that is not true. In Japan, heroes are usually depicted differently. As Schodt writes heroes in Japanese manga, have many qualities valued in samurai, who could be seen as the predecessors of heroes. Japanese heroes are stoic and often part of a group, and when they are alone, they are often outsiders, supermen almost of the Nietzschean kind confident in their abilities and standing alone against the world. The reason for this might be Japanese society in which everyone is often required to sacrifice their personal desires in order to contribute to the group to which they belong (Manga! Manga! 78). This is starkly different from Europe and United States where people tend to be more individualistic and self-reliant the heroes in American comic books are individuals who believe in their abilities and are often individualistic even though they are part of a group. They also often
10 have supernatural abilities that put them above the average people often to the point of being god-like. The Japanese hero may have supernatural abilities, but they are still part of a group, and often they may be just ordinary people.
Another difference is visible even to the eye, and that is the style in which manga is drawn. Schodt writes that even though manga for adults is often drawn realistically
Japanese manga in general lean more towards exaggeration not only in art but also the plot. This tendency may stem from the love for exaggeration and stylization that is common in other areas of culture in Japan, such as Kabuki theatre but also from the fact that comics are a popular form of entertainment. (Manga! Manga! 79) An example of exaggeration in Japanese manga might be the size of eyes which often tend to be bigger and rounder, especially in case of young and female characters. This trait can be often found in manga for girls and women and it adds certain youthfulness and innocence to the characters.
Schodt mentions another change which came in the 1970s. Until then manga were created by male authors for boys, male teenagers or adult men but this change with the appearance of romance comics and magazines for girls known as a shoujo manga.
(Manga! Manga! 88) However, the first authors of comics for girls were male artists, who began to draw girls' comics because they were unable to enter the boys' comics market.
Osamu Tezuka and his innovations also influenced this genre. Before World War II only a few female cartoonists were active such as Mitsu Arai or Machiko Hasegawa, but other women began to slowly join for example Hedoko Mizuno, Miyako Maki and others and as Machiko Satonaka says “I thought I could do better job myself, and that women were more capable of understanding what girls want than men. Drawing comics was also a way of getting freedom and independence … it was a time of work that allowed women to be equal to men” (qtd. in Manga! Manga! 95 -97). This reflects the social change that was
11 happening around the world which enabled women to gain more freedom and enter even fields that were previously male dominated. This also marks creation of manga aimed specifically at women and girls which also tends to have different graphic style and deals with different kinds of stories than the manga aimed at boys and men. This would allow women to express themselves and tell stories created by women for women
Manga continues to change, evolve and grow, and new genres appear. Like other media, it also reflects the trends in fashion and changes in society regarding human rights or equality of social groups or views on sexuality. Japanese manga also reflects the diversity of views and the freedom of creative mind not only in the number of genres or the number of pages that each creator has at their disposal but also in the playfulness and humour that is often part of the manga. This is something graphic novels have in common with manga and nowadays we can see changes in this direction in some mainstream comics too.
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Manga and Comics Terminology
Panels. Gutter. Speech Balloons. Page. Bleeds. All these words refer to what, according to Scott McCloud, Will Eisner and Frederick L. Schodt and, could be called the “language of comics”. It is used in a very similar way as words are and it is a building structure of comics that can be read in a similar way as a sentence. The difference is that this language does not use only letters and words but also visual means to communicate a message, attract reader’' attention and guide it to where artists want it. The way in which all the elements are put together serves the purpose of the individual artist. Like exclamation marks, punctuation or certain words these elements and their variations can be used to create different effects and make a certain point. These elements are essential, and it is something artists, and readers alike know and learn, as they would learn other languages, therefore reading comics or manga does not pose difficulty to such reader.
Moreover, like other languages it can also change and evolve, new elements or their variations and formats are created or fall out of use. This also changes the way how comics can be read.
Will Eisner states in his book Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist that “comics communicate in a language that relies on a visual experience common to both creator and audience … Comics can be read in a wider sense than that term is commonly applied” (Eisner 1). Also, further Eisner cites Tom
Wolf who stated that:
For the last hundred years, the subject of reading has been connected quite directly
to the concept of literacy … learning to read … has meant learning to read words
… But … reading has gradually come under closer scrutiny. Recent research has
shown that reading of words is but a subset of a much more general human activity,
which includes symbol decoding, information integration and organisation …
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reading … can be thought of as a form of perceptual activity … the reading of
words is one manifestation of this activity; but there are many others – the reading
of pictures, maps, circuit diagrams, musical notes … (qtd. in, Comics and
Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 1-2).
When reading comics, the reader does not focus only on words but also the illustrations and the meaning they add to the story. The expressions of characters, setting, mood, the shape of panel or speech balloons and other symbols all play the role. Also, as we will see further, each artist can use their own different variations of such symbols and elements.
However, many people the art of comics is still an art that is meant or created for children, because the stories or even the art may be simplified. Another reason might be because when we think about comics, we often think of stories about superheroes that were aimed at children, especially young boys. We also tend to compare comics with classic literature and book. Traditional books are often associated with the need to use imagination and decode the meaning in between the lines and more intricate stories and also books are often seen as high or classical art. Comics tend to be seen as lesser because they use pictures to attract attention and make reading more entertaining and possibly more accessible than reading books. However, as Will Eisner states “reading of the graphic novel is an act of both aesthetic perception and intellectual pursuit” (Comics and
Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 2). The following sections will introduce and attempt to describe essential elements of comics and manga to illustrate how they are used in western, American and European, and partially Japanese comics tradition. This might in a way position western comic against
Yahgulannaas’ Red: A Haida Manga. Thus, we might see how Yahgulanaas uses these
14 elements or how he might deviate from western tradition in use of these elements to challenge the western tradition of comics and create a new medium of Haida manga.
Sequential Art
Scott McCloud in his book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art asks “What is comics?”. As if answering similar question Will Eisner states that “the format of comics presents a montage of both word and image, and the reader is thus required to exercise both visual and verbal interpretive skills … in its most economic state, comics employ a series of repetitive images and recognisable symbols. When these are used again and again to convey similar ideas, they become a distinct language – a literary form, if you will. Moreover, it is this disciplined application that creates the grammar of sequential art” (Eisner 2). The term that Eisner uses is “sequential art” which implies that the pictures or illustrations follow each other in sequence almost like pictures in the film. McCloud further explains that “when part of a sequence, even a sequence of two. The art of the image becomes something more: the art of comics! … this definition is strictly neutral on matters or style, quality or subject matter” (McCloud 5). Shorter sequences of pictures are often called cartoons or comic strips, and one could think of political cartoons which usually consist of one illustration or comic strips such as Garfield as examples.
McCloud states that to understand comics we have to go further and attempt to separate the form or artform and the content. The art form is the medium which holds ideas and images, and each creator decides the content. According to McCloud, it is not enough to say that comics is sequential art or sequential visual art might not be enough to help us understand what comics are because this can refer to many things (McCloud 7).
As was mentioned, a sequence is something film uses, the images in the film are essentially photographs that are taken one after another by the camera and when the film is played the images come one after another in such a speed that the motion seems
15 seamless. The animation is also a sequence of images. According to McCloud, the difference between comics and animation is that “animation is sequential in time but not spatially juxtaposed as comics are. Each … frame of the movie is projected on exactly the same space … while each frame [of comics] must occupy a different space” (McCloud
7). As McCloud in his book illustrates that it is hard to define comics with a simple definition that would encompass everything that comics are and, in the end, McCloud defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in viewer” (McCloud 9). Defining comics is hard not only because the elements can change, and every creator can use his or her own variations but also because the materials used to create comics change and therefore changes also the definition of page and comics itself.
Time and Space in Comics
Eisner sees time as “integral to sequential art” because it has the ability to combine space and sound and elements such as actions or motions gain meaning. However, to
Eisner time is also an illusion because we measure it only through our memory and experience and it also has a significant impact on our minds (Comics and Sequential Art:
Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 23). The effect of time on readers can be seen when reading individual panels as some panels can give readers a feeling of prolonged duration of time while others may evoke a feeling that a short moment passed inside the panel. Similarly, the use of speech balloons can change readers’ perception of time and have an effect on the reading. Panels can also transport reader in time and space in the comic book as they can show past event or different places.
According to Scott McCloud, “each panel … shows a single moment in time. And between those … moments … minds fill in the intervening moments, creating the illusion of time and motion” (McCloud 94). This is what is required of the reader because the
16 panel often does not indicate the precise length of time passed inside panel but also between them. Nor it is indicated what happens between the panels.
However, time in comics is as McCloud says “weird” and further he explains that everything has its duration. Not only images and intervals between them represent time, but words also contribute because they represent sound and sound exists only in time
(McCloud 95). According to Eisner “the number and size of the panels also contribute to the story rhythm and passage of time … when there is a need to compress time a greater number of panels are used. The action then becomes more segmented, unlike the action that occurs in the larger … panels. By placing the panels closer together, we deal with the rate of elapsed time in its narrowest sense. The shape of panels is also a factor” (Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 30). Eisner states that panels define not only the perimeter of time but also the position of the reader and the duration of each event they “tell time” (Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 27).
The space in comics is the page, and each page is divided into smaller panels that each may contain images and words or speech balloons and all this serves one purpose to convey specific idea or message. Although comics share some elements with the film, they have to be used differently and use new elements so that the medium becomes comics.
Some paintings or series of paintings may also share similarities with comics and can even be read in a similar way to comics.
Panels
Will Eisner states that “to convey timing ... panels become a critical element" and that "to deal with the capture and encapsulation of these events in the flow of the narrative, they [page, comics, stories] must be broken up into sequenced segments … called panels
17 or frames … they are part of the creative process” (Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 24, 39). One type of frame or panel is the page itself. It is the frame that contains all the other smaller frames. The page is usually broken into smaller units the panels, each panel has, as mentioned, its own function and each panel can have different shape and size.
According to McCloud “panels … have no fixed or absolute meaning like the icons of language, science or communications. Nor is their meaning as fluid and malleable as … pictures. Panels act as a sort of general indicators that time or space is being divided.”
As mentioned, the meaning of panels can be changed by changing their shape and size.
McCloud holds that the shape of the panel does not affect its meaning “vis-à-vis time”, but it can have an effect on the experience we have when reading comics (McCloud 98-
99). The width of the panel can evoke a feeling of the greater length of time (McCloud
101).
Readers of comics will know that one of the most common shapes of the panel is the rectangle and that each panel has borders. However, there are also panels without borders, and as McCloud writes, such panels may have a timeless quality because borders around panels and to the fact that borders around panel help frame the time and space, similar timeless quality can have a silent panel (McCloud 102). McCloud also mentions
“bleeds” a type of panel that “runs of the page” and in this case “the effect is compounded
… the time is no longer contained by … the closed panel …and escapes into timeless space” (McCloud 103) (for example of bleed panel see fig.7). The “bleeds”, as well as silent panels, are more common in Japanese manga but the western artists have also begun to use them more often. The silent panels may be harder to decode because of the missing words which often facilitate more effortless reading, and these panels are also an essential element of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Red: A Haida Manga. According to Eisner
18 borders of panels also have their meaning. Straight-edged borders are related to actions happening in the present moment. Scalloped or wavy panels are often used for a flashback.
Finally, the and the non-frame borderless panel relates to unlimited space or time (for examples of different panels see fig.8 and 9) (Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and
Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 44).
Different panels can be used to create a certain mood or effect, and every artist may make different changes or use slightly different variations of even create their own new styles of panels.
Gutter
The space between the panels is called gutter. Although the gutter seems to be empty, it is not. Scott McCloud states in his book that “the gutter plays host to much of the magic and mystery that are the very heart of comics! … in the limbo of the gutter, human imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” because our experience tells us that something does happen there (McCloud 66-67).
Throughout the comics, the artist has to prove his or her ability not just to create a good story or art that would catch readers attention but also his or her ability to use readers experience and imagination and “tap into it”, because without that reading comics might be hard.
According to McCloud, the closure in comics is “anything but involuntary! Every act committed to the page is aided and abetted by … the reader”. Moreover, while the film uses the powerful force or participation to let viewers use imagination only occasionally “comics must use it far more often! ... the reader’s deliberate, voluntary closure is comics primary means of simulating time and motion” (McCloud 68-69). The
19 gutter has a significant role in the creation and reading of comics and using it might not be as easy as it would seem.
Similarly, to the size of panels, the width of gutter can also have an effect on our reading experience and how we decode the time in comics. The gutter is also an essential element of Yahgulanaas’ Red, because of the way Yahgulanaas uses gutter and how he through this creates a dialogue about what gutter is or what is insider gutter and what it can be. Yahgulanaas even comments on some of McCloud’s comments concerning gutter and even created short comic that deals with this topic.
Transitions
Panels are on the page arranged in specific ways and relationships between panels are called transitions. According to Scott McCloud, there are six types of panel transitions typically used by artists (McCloud 70). The different panel transitions are, moment-to- moment transition, action-to-action transition, subject-to-subject transition, scene-to- scene transition, aspect-to-aspect transition and the last one is non-sequitur. According to
McCloud, the moment-to-moment transition requires very little closure; the action-to- action transition shows the reader a subject and the action in progress, the subject-to- subject transition involves movement between different subjects and the involvement of reader is far greater. The scene-to-scene transition requires even more involvement from the reader as he or she can be transported across time and space. The aspect-to-aspect transition according to McCloud bypasses time and leads the eye of the reader to look at different aspects and details of place, idea or mood. Finally, the non-sequitur transition does not even offer any logical relationship between the individual panels (McCloud 70-
72) (for examples of the different transitions see fig 10 to 15).
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According to McCloud one of the most common panel transitions in mainstream
American comics is the action-to-action transition other two most common transitions are the subject-to-subject and scene-to-scene, and European comics artists use the same transitions in similar frequency. McCloud states that these transitions are used because they show readers what is happening in a much more concise manner than the other types of transitions (McCloud 74-76). Japanese manga is in this similar to American and
European comics, but Japanese manga artists often also use the moment-to-moment and surprisingly also the aspect-to-aspect (McCloud 78). The aspect-to-aspect transition plays an essential role in the Japanese comics, and it mirrors the focus of Japanese culture and religion on the present moment and enjoyment of details around us. Transitions like this play a significant role in the manga, they introduce the place, set the mood and often create the impression that the time stands still (McCloud 79). Interestingly the scene-to- scene and the aspect-to-aspect transitions are also often used by Yahgulanaas in Red. This might be caused by the influence of manga and its predecessors and possibly also by the influence of Haida Art.
Balloons and Bubbles
Speech balloons or sometimes speech bubbles hold inside themselves the text, that is what the narrator might be saying, descriptions or thoughts and dialogues or sounds.
Like panels, speech balloons can have different shapes to contribute to the meaning of narration and text.
Will Eisner states in his book Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist that “the balloon … attempts to capture and make visible an ethereal element: sound. The arrangement of balloons … contribute to the measurement of time … they demand cooperation from the reader … requirement is that they be read in prescribed sequence … they address our subliminal understanding of the
21 duration of speech” (Eisner 24). In the west, America and Europe, balloons are read in the same order as panels, from left to right, following the same convention as in traditional books, different reading is then applied in the manga. The manga is read from back to front cover and panels and balloons from left to right.
Balloons have, like panels, different shapes. Usually speech is in round or sometimes rectangular balloon, thoughts are in scalloped balloons or cloud-like balloons.
Jagged balloons are usually used to contain loud sounds such as crashes or speech and sounds that come from electronic machines. Balloons that contain a description of the scene are usually rectangular, and they are usually situated at the top or bottom of the panel so that they do not cover the image inside the panel or any speech in other balloons
(see fig 16). As we will learn in more detail, Yahgulanaas attempts to break out of the
American and European tradition of comics, and his use of panels, gutter and even of the balloons is starkly different.
Lettering
In comics, even the letters have their own function and depending on the type of the letters used the send message can have a different meaning. According to Will Eisner
“lettering (hand-drawn or created with type), treated graphically and in the service of the story, functions as an extension of the imagery…it provides the mood, a narrative bridge and the implication of sound” (Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 2, 4).
Lettering is often used when there is no other way to convey to the reader what the character says or thinks or to supply the sounds of objects. Eisner states that without dialogue the creator of comics depends on the reader’s life experience and thus his ability to interpret what is happening on the page, without the words. The reader has to fill in
22 space and supply the speech or sounds (Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative:
Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 57-58). When words and dialogue are used, they go hand in hand one gives meaning to the other and the creator must bear in mind that specific type of letters can express certain tone or mood and thus contribute to the reading experience. Eisner further continues by claiming that “flow of action immediately takes on a rhythm, the dialogue must accommodate ... Balloons can impede flow by making unreasonable demands on the reader's sense of reality … there is a demand on the reader to maintain a sense of time. When there is an exchange of dialogue, time passes” (Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 59). Eisner further claims that the dialogue or letters “act as script to guide the reader in reciting it mentally. The style of lettering and the emulation of accents are the clues enabling the reader to read it with the emotional nuances the comics storyteller intended. There are commonly accepted lettering characteristics which imply sound level and emotion. To a certain degree, these are intuitive … larger, bolder text implies greater volume” (Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and
Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist 61) (see fig 17 and 18).
Western, American and European, comics often use words and dialogue to supply information because without it reader has to interpret much more. As mentioned, there are also silent comics although when creating them the artists have to use different strategies and when reading them, the reader has to do far more decoding and interpreting than when reading comics that use text. When silent panels are used, the reader also depends on the artist's ability to convey ideas without words to facilitate reading.
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The Haida and Their Culture
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is a member of the indigenous nation of Haida which traditionally lives in the Northwest Coast. To better understand Yahgulanaas’ work one should not only know about the context of manga and its roots in the traditional Japanese art, but also about the art of the Haida, because Yahgulanaas’ work has strong roots in traditional Haida art.
The Haida people come from the Nortwest Coast of Canada from the archipelago called Haida Gwaii, also known as The Queen Charlotte Islands (see fig 19). As Cheryl
Shearar holds in her book Understanding Northwest Coast Art that “the coastal cultures
… do not share a common language, but they do share related traditions of art, mythology, song, dance and ceremony The northern tribal groups had a high degree of formality and social organization that led to the development of some of the most elaborate and complex…artistry to be found on the Northwest Coast” (Shearar 138). Levell claims about the social organization of the Haida society that “the Haida nation is organized according to a matrilineal pattern of descent. Property, including material things as well as intangible cultural expressions such as human names, titles, stories, performances and songs, is passed down through the maternal line” (Levell 20). Further Levell describes the social groups or moieties in the Haida and writes that there are two group Raven and
Eagle which are further divided into different lineages and family groups which have a common ancestry and a hereditary chief and membership to each moiety “is matrilineal and assigned at birth” (Levell 20).
Yahgulanaas in his guest lecture at the Bill Reid Centre at Simon Fraser University also talks about the Haida society in the following way:
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we have a word called chief and it’s an European word of some lineage … the sense
that there is a hierarchy and at the top of the hierarchy there is a somebody in charge
and everything flows downhill. That king at the top of the hill … that’s … ultimate
authority at the top. It is this dominating oppression … it is this notion of chief
which is transposed off into north American, particularly into my own, community,
is actually starkly opposite to the reality in our society, in Haida … generally along
the coast chief does not have the ultimate authority … within the community, does
not have the power to compel anyone to do anything … there is an expectation that
that highest-ranking person will seduce you … to the point where you just want to
become engaged with that person … the highest rank that a man can achieve in
Haida is to be called the lanaas which … would mean a town mother … because
the obligation of leadership is to mother the people (Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas 9:28 – 11:28).
This allows us to glimpse at the culture and social organization of the Northwest
Coast people and specifically Haida people and as Yahgulanaas states it is different from western social organization and different from the ideas and notions we might have about these cultures. The clans and families and the whole society seems to have at its centre mother, and if it is a man his title is also mother as opposed to western nations where king, male king, or father are often at the top of the hierarchy or centre of community. It seems that in the Haida society the leader of the clan or the society is not all powerful and the people are free to make their own decision whether they will or will not follow the leader, for example, into war. Compared to this in western society if a king declared war the male peasants had to follow unless they wanted to face a punishment. In this context it is also interesting that the leader of clan or Haida society will attempt to persuade people to follow them, which may remind us of the election campaigns. As will be seen even Red
25 will hold the title of lanaas, the mother of the town and all the more interesting are his actions.
Haida Art
In the introduction to her book Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast
Hilary Stewart credits Bill Holm for devising the terminology for the elements of Haida art, such as the term ovoid, which is still widely used (Stewart 11). For example, Nicola
Levell in her book Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: The Seriousness of Play references
Holm’s terminology which is also echoed in some of the terms Yahgulanaas uses to describe some elements of Red, for example, frameline may remind one of Holm’s term formline.
Hilary Stewart describes Haida art as monumental and classic and further states that “the massive carved totem poles emanate a strength and power” (Stewart 104).
Further, Stewart continues by stating that “some authorities believe that Haida artists brought Northwest Coast art to its peak … and because it is the best known of the cultural styles, its bold … look has become a standard. The purity of its form ... refined sense of balance that governs their uses show up in contemporary printed designs” (Stewart 104).
This bold look is often visible in Yahgulanaas’ creations and the way in which he uses colours and lines in his works.
When describing some aspects of Haida and Northwest Coast indigenous art
Stewart states that ovoids have classic proportions, and the formlines that are used are flowing but at the same time formal. Stewart also points out that the proportions of bodies follow a specific pattern where the head is a very prominent feature and often occupies nearly half of the length of the figure as if it was the most important feature (Stewart 104)
(see fig. 20). One can perceive that in Red the heads or sometimes other features of
26 characters’ bodies might be slightly enlarged, but not to the point of taking up half the size of characters’ bodies. Stewart also describes the prints in which “large ovoids are used as structural body parts; small ones contain faces for decoration in or between ears, in empty corners, or on wing and tail, joints Blank spaces are never left unadorned”
(Stewart 104). An element used in the Northwest Coast art is ovoid, the most characteristic design, used as eyes or joints and as a space filler, however, this form can also have many variations and can be lengthened or shortened to fit the space (Holm 37).
Stewart states that “the open, linear ovoid frequently contains an inner ovoid. This ovoid may be small and solid, or nearly solid … representing eyeball. It may be a double eye motif, or … complex motif termed a salmon-trout head. The latter two … generally, carry a fine black line around them” (Stewart 20). Similar shapes to the ovoids also appear in
Yahgulanaas’ creations, they are formed by the lines and are used as substitute for panels.
The lines Yahgulanaas uses are bold and flowing resembling the formlines. Stewart states that:
The dynamic imagery of these peoples. Expressed in a style as rhythmic and
flowing as it is complex, has created one of the world’s most remarkable art
traditions. It is an art with vitality, and profound meaning for those of its culture ….
the social and spiritual order of the Indians was visually confirmed through their art
… seen in totem poles and hose posts which bore the crests of their owners; in
elaborate masks and intricately carved goat horn spoons (Stewart 104).
Art usually tends to be symbolic or realistic or even highly realistic. Western art often tends to be realistic, typically when the artist depicts figures, animals or landscapes.
The anatomy and proportion or perspective are often precise and follow certain tradition and rules. Realistic paintings may contain symbols but those also tend to be realistic.
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Holm states that symbolism has an essential role in Northwest Coast indigenous art which can be apparent even to the casual observer since it uses recurring design elements or symbols such as eyes, joints, ears or feathers that all point to the existence of
Northwest Coast style (Holm 8). According to Holm that “the more highly abstracted the design becomes … the more nearly the represented creature, by distortion and rearrangement of parts, fills the given space, the more difficult it becomes to interpret the symbolism accurately” (Holm 9) Further Holm points out that fragmentation of the design may pose difficulty when interpreting the design which is visible in the contradictory interpretation by Indian informers (Holm 9) (for example of Haida design see fig 22).
Holm cites Boas who states that for the design to fill the space completely decorative elements must be used so “that it is not possible to assign to each and every element that is derived from animal motives a significant function … many of them are employed regardless of meaning and used for purely ornamental purposes” (qtd. in Holm 11). Some of these features can be found in western symbolistic or surrealistic art since the artist may distort the perspective or the figure to the point that it may become unrecognizable.
However, it seems rare that an element would be employed for decorative purpose
Holm points out, there are hardly any examples of realistic art, such as those found in western art, in the Northwest Coast art. Further, Holm claims that only paintings on shamanic objects tend to lean close to representational realism, but to what degree the art is realistic is a result of artist's own preferences which can be more or less strictly connected and bound by tradition (Holm 11). Apart from terminology describing elements of Haida art, Holm created three more or less loose categories to divide designs based on the arrangement of parts and distribution of the design on the space. The configurative design shows the animal with an animal-like silhouette, but it is not distorted as much to fill the whole space. In expansive design, the animal is distorted,
28 but the body parts can still be recognised. In the distributive design, the animal and its parts are distorted and distributed to fill the space completely which means that the animal is hardly recognisable (Holm 12-13) (see fig 20 and 21). The designs formed by framelines in Red may remind one of some of these designs, although very loosely, because they seem to be inspired by the traditional structures found in Haida art.
Holm also discusses the use of colour in the Northwest Coast art and states that the colour is a unifying characteristic of the art. However, as Holm states, before the arrival of Europeans and before the tribes started trading with Europeans the colours were limited to only several natural pigments, and the primary colours were black, red and green, blue or green-blue (Holm 26). Holm further points out that the colours were not purest since they were gained from the natural pigments, the pure colours were introduced by Europeans and the Hudson's Bay Company (Holm 26). Colours such as white or yellow were used only seldom and in very limited cases, however, colours such as red, black and blue-green are considered standard and traditional (Holm 28). In Red black colour also seems to be used as the primary colour because the thick and bold framelines are rendered in black. In some sequences red colour also seems to play important role.
There was a specific system of placement and use of each colour. Holm states that the colour arrangement was consistent over the coast. Holm termed the black a primary colour because according to him the elements painted in this colour could also be termed primary elements. Red is the secondary colour to Holm, and therefore red elements are secondary elements. According to Holm under certain conditions, these two colours can change their positions, and red can be used as primary and black as a secondary colour.
Blue-green has a unique position and is used as tertiary colour (Holm 29) (for examples of the elements and the colours used for these elements see fig 24 to 27).
29
According to Holm “primary colour … black is used for the main formlines of the design. A formline is characteristic … line like figure delineating the design units. These formlines … make a continuous flowing grid over the whole decorated area establishing the principal forms of the design … a striking feature of the primary design is its continuity … all primary units are connected with the exception of inner ovoids of joints and eye design” (Holm 29). Further Holm states that the secondary colour, which is often red, is used for painting the secondary formlines, the secondary design is often surrounded by primary units and is also in contact with primary units at many points. The secondary red colour can be used as primary instead of black and Holm states that there is only one element in which black is almost always used as the primary colour, and that is eye with the exception of the element placed on the black ground (Holm 30). Holm also describes some of the elements that are usually used as tertiary such as eye socket, joint design or some solid and split U forms (Holm 32) (see fig.28).
As mentioned above, Holm devised a terminology for the different elements the
Northwest coast uses. According to Holm, the formline is “one of the most characteristic features of Northwest Coast art … varying width … gives the design calligraphic character … examination … reveals … that formlines have been outlined and filled in”
(Holm 35). Stewart states that “in the northern art style … the formlines curve, connect and flow continuously, and where a heavy line meets a curved one … the artist adds a negative shape in the form of a crescent. A T or a Y at the junction … where two heavy lines meet … the negative relief may be a circle” (Stewart 19). The formline in Red is transformed into frameline. The frameline also seems to exhibit similar characteristics to that one can see in formlines, however the framelines in Red seem to be painted with one stroke of brush instead of being filled with black colour.
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Another common element in the Northwest Coast indigenous art is the U form which, like the ovoid, is characteristic for the art. This form is created when the ends of the formline turn in the same direction and taper to point in places where they meet with another formline (Holm 41). Stewart further states that “larger U forms … help to contour the body of a bird or animal and can be seen as part of the formline in ears, in the tail …
Smaller U forms serve to fill in open spaces … and often represent small feathers on a bird's body” (Stewart 20) (see fig. 29). There may be variations to the U form, and Holm mentions the split U form, that is also frequent and often enclosed in the primary or secondary U form or a primary split U form, most split U forms have a break in the curve at the base of their splits (Holm 42). Holm states that tertiary units are often used to fill the space between secondary and primary designs and the tertiary units used to fill the space are often U forms of different variations or the space between the primary or secondary unit can have the shape of S (Holm 43). As was mentioned form that are similar to ovoids can be found in Red and similarly forms that resemble U may be found in Red.
Such forms are clearly inspired by Haida art; however, they are not exact copies of the traditional forms. Yahgulanaas transforms the traditional forms so that they can accommodate his story. He attempts to modernize these elements because he understands that culture is not static, but it is constantly changing, but also because he wants to stay in between the different styles.
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Red: A Haida Manga
In the previous sections, the manga and its history and development and some of its features were discussed followed by a description of features that could be found universally in the comics and manga around the world and how these features are used and contribute to the whole of what manga or comic is. In the second section the Haida art, or at least some of its key elements, were discussed to give more background to the work of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas who himself is a member or Haida peoples and uses elements of Haida art and craftsmanship in his own art as well as elements from number of other art styles, especially Japanese.
This section will discuss Red: A Haida Manga but before that Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas and his other work and the styles that influence him will be discussed to place Red: A Haida Manga into the context of his other works so that it is not shown as a solitary piece. After that Red: A Haida Manga will be discussed.
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas’ Art
“In Haida manga, objects … that appear to us one way can be flipped and
rearranged to find new relationships among the parts, and a new dimension for
the whole. In a field of wrecked automobiles, I found evidence of an artistic
tradition in what used to be the hood of a car. And acid bath, plenty of flipping
around, some refinishing, and a memory of traditional copper shields of the
Haida, resulted in a contemporary shield of a greatly mixed heritage.”
– Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas (qtd. in, Levell 97)
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas was born in Rupert Prince in 1954 and grew up near the fishing village of Masset on Haida Gwaii, the archipelago near the north coast of
32
British Columbia, Canada's most western province (Levell 16). As Nicola Levell writes in the book The Seriousness of Play since he was a boy “Yahgulanaas was an avid comic reader and cartoonist … constantly drawing and doodling … his artistic creations were not limited to the medium of paper but extended energetically to other surfaces in the domestic space, including … his … cartooned bedroom door and walls … this proclivity for cartooning is still very much in evidence” (Levell 16). Yahgulanaas in his works points to different issues which range from ecology and environmental issues to human rights or the indigenous people's cultural heritage and rights.
Levell states that the time Yahgulanaas spent in the nature of Haida Gwaii is clearly visible in his sketches, drawings and paintings. Further Levell by stating that it was the pollution and destruction of the unique nature caused by aggressive Canadian policy of deforestation and extraction of natural resources that provoked young
Yahgulanaas to use his art and move it from private to the public sphere and thus joining the activists within his community and other environmental activists (Levell 16).
Yahgulanaas’ oeuvre is diverse from paintings to comics or sculptures, and the media and materials he uses are as diverse as his art. The first full-length comic that
Yahgulanaas published was No Tankers, T’anks which was published in 1977 for the
Islands Protection Society and it became part of the COAST (Coalition Against Super
Tankers) campaign that aimed to block the proposal that would allow Exxon Valdez to transfer oil from Alaska through the Hecate Straight separating Haida Gwaii form the mainland Canada. The work is black and white, and the politics and effects of oil spillage are depicted with humour, and in this, the work is similar to other Yahgulanaas’ satirical works from the 1970s and 1980s depicting government officials situated in the oil- polluted environments (Levell 16-17). Levell further states that one recurring image in
Yahgulanaas' work is the super-sized human that is shown destroying the environment in
33 hunger for more energy which resonates with images from No Tankers, T’anks where the super-sized tankers are shown polluting the waters (Levell 17.)
Levell writes that just a year after No Tankers, T’anks was published Yahgulanaas apprenticed with acclaimed Haida artist Robert Davidson whom Yahgulanaas credits, along with Haida chief and master carver James Hart, for introducing to him the classical forms of Haida art. All three artists can trace their ancestry back to the renowned Haida artist Charles Edenshaw. (Levell 20) These artists play important because they inspired
Yahgulanaas and also because, like Yahgulanaas, they worked to innovate the Haida art.
Charles Edenshaw is important because Yahgulanaas enters in a to a kind of conversation with him in Red. It is similar conversation like the one Yahgulanaas has with Bill Reid through the piece Packing Old Raven’s Pole.
Further Levell continues by stating that “in terms of his European-settler ancestry,
Yahgulanaas traces this back to his parental grandfather James Nicoll … from a clan under a Red Hawk crest from Scotland … he identifies Dolores Churchill … master weaver … and his maternal grandfather's sister – as his inspirational guidance who has encouraged him to push his art beyond the constraints of tradition” (Levell 20 -21). This encouragement proved fruitful in Yahgulanaas’ future work which is often full of experimentation and innovation whether in terms of use of the technique, media or material and thought or idea about the particular topic.
As was mentioned above Yahgulanaas early realised that his art and comics can have great power and used it to further the cause of environmental and Haida activists.
Levell writes that “throughout the 1980s and 1990s Yahgulanaas’ graphic practice was
… aligned with his environmental activism on Haida Gwaii” and further continues by stating that certain events prompted Yahgulanaas to become a fulltime artist (Levell 21).
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One such event happened in 1985 when two million cubic metres of the island’s old growth was cut. Yahgulanaas depicted this issue in illustration signed 85Yaku, a name he used in the 1980s. Another such event was Lyell Island protest during which the Haida activists formed a blockade of the logging road. The area became the Gwaii Haanas
National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site and this change, according to Levell, marked another chapter in Yahgulanaas’ artistic development since from 1998 to 2002 he worked as the leading illustrator for SpruceRoots, a magazine concerned with sustainability strategies (Levell 21- 22).
Apart from the commitment to the environmental cause Yahgulanaas’ art clearly shows commitment to experiment and play with different media and techniques outside of the tradition of Haida art, which is something he was encouraged to do since he was young, as was mentioned above. According to Levell a watercolour called Packing Old
Raven’s Pole from 2005 “offers us insight into the artist’s commitment to experiment and reconfigure traditional forms, to critique history and create new ways of seeing and thinking about cultural matters” and Levell further holds that this piece also shows the level of command Yahgulanaas has over the traditional Haida art forms and techniques
(Levell 22 – 23) (see fig. 29). The Packing Old Raven’s Pole contains many shapes some of which remind viewer of phallus and others clearly are on and Yahgulanaas’ stated that this piece refers to Bill Reid or his penis and Levell continues by stating that this also shows desire to move beyond the legacy of great Haida artists such as Bill Reid (Levell
23).
Levell further states that both Bill Reid and Micheal Nicoll Yahgulanaas succeeded in creation of new ways of departing from the standard Haida art principles and introduced a kind of realism that also speaks to the Western modernist sensibilities
(Levell 28). We could say that Yahgulanaas also succeeded in combining different art
35 forms, learning different art form and learning to use different materials and techniques to create a unique identity for his art.
Levell states that in 1999 Yahgulanaas studied Chinese brush stroke technique under master brush-painter Cai Ben Kwon and further continues by stating that “the lightness and fluidity of Yahgulanaas’ brush strokes, the calligraphic flourishes and continuous line with its masterly alternations of pressure and release, evident in for example Red, 2008, … speak to the intersection of other influences, experiences and traditions” (Levell 29). Another inspiration for Yahgulanaas is the ukiyo-e, the Japanese woodblock prints, predecessors of the manga which were mentioned in one of the sections above. These prints fascinated Yahgulanaas since his boyhood because of the apparent attention to detail and Yahgulanaas still continues to explore this tradition of “floating worlds” in his own series Haida Ukiyo-e print Finding Space from 2014 which was commissioned for the exhibition Homage to Ukiyo-e, element of the Tokyo Design Week that took place in Milan, London and Tokyo (Levell 29) (fig. 30).
According to Levell, Yahgulanaas’ affinity with Japan is visible in the Finding
Space from 2014 the symmetry of the piece echoes a butterfly which can be found on
Haida crests and symbolises “messenger of departed souls.” The girl in this piece is dressed in semi-traditional clothes and seems to be comfortable with whom she is, and
Levell states that his piece functions as a metaphor for the tensions and frictions between tradition and modernity and spiritualism and capitalism that are found in the social practice of everyday life (Levell 48).
As mentioned in one of the sections above the ukiyo-e are precursors of modern- day manga the genre after which Yahgulanaas named his own comics or rather a comics genre. In his manga, Yahgulanaas fused the influences of traditional Haida sensibilities
36 and elements of Haida art with some elements of manga and ukiyo-e like he does in some of his other art.
Levell cites Judith Ostrowitz, a New York-based writer and visual artist who states that Haida manga is:
A multifaceted negotiation that dances back and forth among genres and traditions.
Yahgulanaas’ ideas do not become subsumed by Japanese or Euro-North American
culture on the basis of some vague formal affinity. Like his nineteenth -century
[Haida] precursors he assembles a varied toolbox of devices and concepts to
achieve his own ends. However, these ends are very much related to broad,
worldwide dialogue (Levell 29 -30).
Yahgulanaas’ art seems to be playful, and it invites viewers to engage with it. This playfulness is visible also in Yahgulanaas' debut graphic novel A Tale of Two Shamans from 2001 which as Levell states has another interesting connection to the Japanese manga. Yahgulanaas took ninety copies of A Tale of Two Shamans and using a limited range of art supplies he created Shamanic Doodles, which can be removed and framed and depict a wide range of characters and bring to mind Hokusai Manga which also depicts a range of characters in diverse positions (Levell 30 -31) (see fig.31). Even though
Yahgulanaas himself consciously decided to name his creations manga, he revealed in an interview that the group of Japanese students began to refer to him as a mangaka, artist who creates manga, during his visit to Japan in the 1990s. They explained to Yahgulanaas that such artist creates free-form pictures without limitations and as Yahgulanaas states
“drawings without limitations resonated with me and it was at this time that I started blending Haida techniques with Japanese manga and liberating the narrative and the line”
(Levell 31).
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However, apart from the connection that is between Yahgulanaas’ work and comics and the Japanese manga and ukiyo-e and Chinese art forms and techniques Levell also states that there is a certain connection between the Pop Art and artists such as
Lichtenstein and Micheal Nicoll Yahgulanaas. Levell states that Lichtenstein
“appropriated the American comic form for his art" and further holds that Pop Art artists
„harnessed traditional art forms and techniques and applied them to images from popular culture” (Levell 38) Their art contained a critique of modern-day culture and regardless of the intention of these artists Pop Art had the power to become “a graphic weapon of social change” (Levell 38). Appropriation is something that Yahgulanaas also does when he uses the western form of comics and Japanese manga and combines their influences with Haida art. As was stated above Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas' first intention was to use his art for social change in campaigns supporting movements that attempted to protect the nature of Haida Gwaii and later he began to use and mix other art forms to create his own. Levell states that Yahgulanaas “transfigured the visual imagery and stylised expressions of classic Haida art” and further continues by stating that by doing this
Yahgulanaas, through his art, challenges the canon and stereotype of what is the indigenous Northwest Coast Art. Because of this, his art could be seen as a form of resistance that not only champions hybridity but also redefines discourse and categories such as “ethnic art” (Levell 38-39). Yahgulanaas has become a professional artist rather than just activist, but the social commentary still forms a big part of his art, whether he openly points to specific problems or whether he uses a collage of art forms to change people's perception of what indigenous art is or could be.
Like Lichtenstein, Yahgulanaas took the comic form, but as Levell states, he rejected the traditional forms of the panels and their lines instead Yahgulanaas uses bold lines that according to Levell flow like water. Further, as Levell states, Yahgulanaas
38 describes these bold lines as “framelines” which echoes the traditional comics terminology, but his “framelines” have calligraphic flowing quality and "create a series of nonlinear, asymmetrical spaces, bodies or “chambers in which visual effects, images and narrative vignettes … can unfold” (Levell 43). All this makes his designs different from Haida Art designs because as was stated above and as Holm describes Haida art, the chambers created by the formlines are filled by what Holm calls secondary or tertiary elements. In Yahgulanaas these spaces are filled with images or sometimes with text.
It was already stated that Yahgulanaas combines different influences and art forms in his art and he does not restrict himself to only Haida form or the local Indigenous forms.
Yahgulanaas continues to be experimenting even when using the media or techniques that he learned during his travels, and through his connections in Central Asia or East Africa,
Yahgulanaas himself says “I like to adhere to one of the basic Haida tenets or traditions
… the tradition of innovation. All material culture … is constantly adapting to changes of circumstance. Culture is alive, responsive, engaged and changing … my work creates places for people to discover an emotional connection with other people, even when they feel those people are strange, distant and even alien” (qtd. in Levell 47).
As was mentioned above Yahgulanaas took the western comics form, but he rejected the traditional frames with their straight lines. He wanted to break free from the linear tradition of storytelling that the western comics follow which uses the panels and frames which are separated by gutter spaces and in which the words and thoughts are contained in speech or thought bubbles (Levell 62). Yahgulanaas wanted to create a different comics and alternative to the existing one, and he states “after two decades if political service I turned to art, wanting to build graphic novels that would tell stories different than the ones we were served up on the book and magazine shelves. I didn't want to be part of those traditions but longed for something that felt more truthful. I had to
39 innovate” (qtd. in Levell 63). As Yahgulanaas discovered it was this new form with stylised formlines that are traditionally associated with the traditional Haida art that gave him the complex and fluid framework which he could use for his stories and space which he could fill with his images and characters (Levell 63).
However, Yahgulanaas’ work is not limited only to creating comics or ukiyo-e inspired art; the breadth of his work is extensive and encompasses different forms and media or materials. Yahgulanaas creates installations and sculptures and uses different materials and changes their meaning or makes the viewer think about these materials in new, different ways because they are taken from their original place and used in new ways.
Among the other materials that Yahgulanaas uses in his work are metals and cars or parts of cars. Levell states that cars can be seen as “bodies of cultural knowledge … global signifiers … of modernity, masterpieces of technology, symbols of status, freedom of mobility … while they enable us to escape … they … blight the landscape and harbour the potential to be killing machines” they have been used and depicted by artists such as the Italian futurists or Andy Warhol (Levell 97). Further Levell states that when
Yahgulanaas uses cars or car parts, they become “potent artefacts for exploring the contested terrain of cultural heritage … riddled with comic Haida manga effects” (Level
98).
Some of the artworks that Yahgulanaas created using car parts were Pedal to the
Meddle, 2007, and its companion Stolen But recovered, 2007, along with Two Sisters, also from 2007. All these works are mixed media and created as site-specific artworks and installations, and these creations are specifically made to create a conversation about the encounter between the indigenous people and settlers and they also speak about ideas of ownership and belonging and about reclaiming the past (Levell 98) (see fig. 33). Peddle
40 to the Meddle is created from Pontiac Firefly and when it was first shown seven-meter- long canoe, which was created by Bill Reid in 1984, was upturned and attached to the roof of the car. Levell states that the whole installation was created so that the visitor would be able, and would feel encouraged, to enter in interaction with it by sitting in the car by this Yahgulanaas wanted to stimulate a multi-sensory experience (Levell 99).
Levell further writes that because of dangers of visitors destroying the artwork barriers were installed that prevented interaction between public and the artwork and Levell cites curator Quyen Hoang who states that “Michael wanted this to be an interactive piece that you could move around, get inside, listen to some music. He was even open to artists responding to it. He did not want a static sculpture just to be contemplated. He wants people to engage with it and with contemporary issues” (qtd. in Levell 103) (see.fig 32).
Levell also points out to the cultural heritage hidden in the name of the car since
Pontiac was a name of eighteenth-century Odawa or Ottawa people who opposed the
British occupation of the Great Lakes region and therefore this work can also be seen as an attempt at reclamation, a way to commemorate and remember an Indigenous historical figure (Levell 100).
Yahgulanaas’ playful exploration of the politics of cultural heritage is according to Levell most visible in the series Coppers From the Hood. The two shields Stolen But
Recovered and Two Sisters are covered in copper leaf and decorated with Yahgulanaas
Haida manga painted designs. As Yahgulanaas himself says, the series was created as a memory of the original and traditional Haida copper shields, which were some of the most valuable objects and showed certain status, prestige or wealth of the owner and were usually covered with a crest animal of those who owned them. During potlatches, they could be presented as gifts or broken into pieces, and the host would give each piece to respected guests (Levell 105) (see fig.38). Levell cites Yahgulanaas who states that
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"hoods refer to neighbourhood, community, tribe, nation-state, land, and territory, and includes the various and conflicting identities and claims that construct the current political, legal and moral landscape we call Canada" (Levell 110).
Yahgulanass also used cars or car parts for pieces in his series Flappers and
Volvoxii, Volvoxii derives its name from “species of freshwater algae which lives in the colonies” and Yahgulanaas himself states that “Volvoxii reflects on the importance of an ability to quickly adapt, to change one’s mind, to respond and to evolve in demanding circumstance … Volvoxii considers individualism in the service of the community.
Volvox dance … Volvoxii dance with classic North Pacific design principles … The work is a series of contemplation on how individual pieces maintain personal identity and still serve the group” (qtd. in Levell 110) (see fig.34).
As we can observe Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas is capable of playing with objects and inviting the visitor and viewer to play too. He is capable of turning the meanings and roles of objects and finding new meanings and roles and recall memory and place the object in the past context as well as in the context of modern culture. He is capable of turning objects hundred and sixty degrees or create art that can be turned around and viewed in a different direction.
Yahgulanaas created a series called Rotational, 2010, that can be turned around and like his Peddle to the Meddle and some other creations in this one he also invites viewers to interact with the pieces, to turn their head and see the works from different angles or even turn the painting around on the wall (Levell 134) (see fig.35). Typically,
Yahgulanaas’ work is not playful only in the use or the way he uses the material but also in the use of colours which are often vibrant and bright. However, as Levell points out in the series Blueprint, Yahgulanaas departed from the bright colours “to offer light and
42 shadow-filled glimpses into mysterious underwater realms” a piece in this series called
Cnidaria, 2012, was named after a phylum of marine invertebrates which also includes sea nettles that live in the waters surrounding Haida Gwaii (Levell 137). Levell also cites
Kandinsky who wrote about the profound meaning of colours and who stated that blue could signify a movement from a spectator and "turning in upon its own centre. The inclination of blue to depth is so strong that its inner appeal is stronger when its shade is deeper" (Level 137). In this series Yahgulanaas may dive deep into the sea and search for connections to the land, connections that like the indigenous people are native to the land and like the indigenous people may face danger from the settlers. The series seems to be more introspective and, in a way, darker, but again it seems that Yahgulanaas invites viewers to interact with the art, to maybe dive into their selves and look for meanings.
Playfulness, innovation and a colourful melange of different techniques and materials and their use not only in the traditional way but in a new and innovative way are all typical for Yahgulanaas’ artwork. Even though his work is static and visual he nonetheless attempts to make the visitor and viewer interact with it, his comics do not follow the same linear pattern like western comics does and therefore reading it is a different experience for the readers, the same can be said about Yahgulanaas’ other work.
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Analysis of Red: A Haida Manga
"I chose manga because of …the literal translation of the word…imagery
without restrictions. I liked the notion of the wide expanse that was available. I
used manga because I was speaking primarily to a North American audience,
saying this is not a comic book. This is not a North American or Euro-based
narrative. This is a narrative that comes from somewhere else." – Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas (qtd., Levell 62)
Nicola Levell states that the story of Red: A Haida Manga (further referred to as
Red) is “based on a Haida oral narrative known to Yahgulanaas’ family” (Levell 86). Red tells a story of two siblings, boy named Red and his sister Jaada. Their village is attacked by raiders or pirates and Jaada is kidnapped. Meanwhile Red grows up alone and becomes the chief, or rather laanas, of the village, however he choses to abandon the village in search for his sister and for revenge. The story ends tragically because when Red finally finds his sister, he kills Jaada’s husband. After being chased by the angry members of the other tribe he choses suicide as the only solution to the problem caused by his actions.
The story ends with Jaada and her son, who resembles his uncle Red, being accepted back to into the tribe.
Red could be seen as a simple linear story of revenge where a brother sets out to rescue and avenge his sister and, in the end, commits suicide. However, reading Red proves to be a much greater adventure then it would have seemed, partly because of the framelines, as Yahgulanaas calls them, and the irregular spaces formed by these lines.
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These framelines force the readers to change the way they read Red, and it forces them to be more creative while reading.
As was previously stated Yahgulanaas wanted to break free from the western tradition of comics, from its original frames or panels and gutter spaces and choosing instead the genre of manga which offers greater freedom and possibility to be creative.
The manga artists usually pay more attention to detail and even to things such as the background which often sets the tone and the mood of the story. Manga, as was mentioned, are descendants of the humorous drawings and scrolls such as the Zenga or the prints ukiyo-e created by artists who were not afraid to use humour when portraying daily activities or even priests and high-ranking individuals. It is these artists who served as an inspiration to Yahgulanaas.
Red: A Haida Manga is not a comic book, and yet it is not a manga in the same way that the Japanese or Korean manga is, because even in the manga there are specific rules or elements which are similar to those in western comics, as described in previous sections. Yahgulanaas uses what he calls framelines, which may echo the terminology of comics, specifically frames, or panels but they also echo the formlines as describe by Bill
Holm. Yahgulanaas' framelines are thick and calligraphic lines that run freely and swirl and form spaces that have different shapes and sizes and which are filled with
Yahgulanaas' drawings and illustrations. These spaces remind us of the ovoids and other spaces that are common in Haida art and are formed by the formlines. In this, Red bears distinct traces of Haida art. What more, even the calligraphic lines forming the faces and bodies of characters may also remind us of these formlines and also of the Japanese humorous scrolls because of the way in which the drawings are executed with bold, precise strokes of brushes, which give the lines their calligraphic quality.
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The free-flowing framelines give Yahgulanaas the freedom he needs and the space to play with his creations and with the readers. Thanks to these framelines the comic, or rather manga, gains ambiguous quality. This ambiguity becomes evident when the readers realise that there might be many ways in which to read the comic; there are, for example, different possibilities how the panels may follow each other or how different situations can be read. It may also be due to the fact that there are no words in particular cells or even no framelines or because the perspectives are turned around. Similarly, to western comics or Japanese manga, the reader must learn how to read Haida manga, that is how to read its many elements. Indeed, it seems, that in Red there is not one single correct way how to read the comic book.
Levell states that “Yahgulanaas makes use of the buoyant and exaggerated caricatures seen in cartoons and comics and uses the elegant lines of Northwest Coast design to both border the action and direct the flow. The result is narrative paintings that burst with motion, exuberance, humour and arresting characters while tying together the graphic traditions of two distinct Pacific Rim island-dwelling cultures” (Levell 32). This demonstrates not only the similarity even to western comics, but also a much greater closeness to the manga, which is often inherently humorous, and the artist is capable of innovating and playing with the panels and their use. Yahgulanaas, however, pushes even further by changing certain rules or by the way he uses certain elements. Also, in the manga, certain elements are used to navigate the flow of the story such as “bleeds” or silent panels. In Red, it is often the framelines who navigate the flow of the story or the way the readers read or even the speed in which the time passes.
As was stated the framelines twist and flow and form spaces or cells, some are filled with paintings and illustrations and others are left blank only to be filled with text, either narrator's voice or character's speech or thoughts. Thus, some of these cells take on
46 the function of speech balloons. Also, sometimes even the black calligraphic framelines are filled with white and red shapes that form letters and words. Those are often cried out words or sound effects, and thus even the framelines can suddenly and unexpectedly function as speech balloons. In other cases, the speech and thoughts are not captured in any speech balloon and float freely in the space and time. Yet, in other cases, the captions or descriptions are enclosed in small green boxes. Such boxes are often at the top of the page or space (see fig. 36 and 37). The framelines are usually sleek, but in some cases, they are jagged and become part of space and form parts of trees or merge with their bark or form branches that grow out of the trees or directly out of the frameline (see fig. 36).
Some of the spaces or cells are filled with the only a face of a character and the ink lines of the face sometimes seem to merge with the framelines surrounding it, and the face thus appears to be growing or coming out of the framelines as if coming out of a shadow. In some cases, these separate scenes containing only the face may evoke the feeling that the character speaks to himself or says something to the side, something only the reader knows the character said, but no other or only a few other characters hear it (see fig. 38).
Many of the spaces and cells formed by framelines are left open and seem to run off the page; such spaces may remind the readers of the bleeds, i.e. panels that also run off the page. However, in Red, these panels are used much more often than in western comics or even manga, but here it would be a misinterpretation to think of these open spaces as bleeds because as the reader realises when he or she finishes reading, the framelines and spaces come together to form one unified piece.
Western comics and manga also share a common feature of gutter space, the space between the panels that is often left blank, but in Red, this space is missing, or that seems to be one perspective. Another possibility is that the thick calligraphic framelines contain the gutter. When Yahgulanaas’ playfulness and the fact that his framelines are modified
47 formlines of Haida art are taken into consideration, it could be said that the gutter space is missing and that the spaces are tied closely together by the framelines. This would mean that the empty space of the gutter as used in western comics is missing. Instead in Red, it is full of things and information. Another reason why this could be the case is the experimental and out of the box nature of Haida manga.
Yahgulnaas’ desire to subvert the rules of western comics and maybe even those of Japanese manga and Haida art and merge some of the characteristics, styles and techniques to create a new genre, the Haida manga, also plays role. For Yahgulanaas these framelines or formlines represent time and space that is always expanding and contracting, just like real time and space or universe around us, and it has its own rhythm and “we are still there inside our stories … still contained … have our own thing happening, but we have to acknowledge that there is something else happening outside of us that time and space is not empty but … has its own jazz going on” (Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas 16:56 – 17:33). For Yahgulanaas the gutter should not be left empty because there is always information. The gutter cannot be there and cannot be empty because the time and space are not and because things are closely tied together in real life as well as in stories. Like our lives, stories are not linear they, and there are many possibilities how they can be read, told and interpreted.
A common feature that Red shares with manga are the use of aspect-to-aspect transition, of course, other transitions are used too, but this stands out as a connection to manga and something that sets Red apart from western comics, in which this transition is still seldom used. This is significant because this transition is used quite often. Here the thick framelines help to guide the reader; they seem to flow in a different way than the straight lines of western comics, almost like water. The flow of the framelines surrounding the spaces that use aspect-to-aspect transition seems to be slower as if
48 allowing reader more time to meditate over what he or she sees which allows the reader to be transported into the surrounding much more easily. The fact that the time and the framelines seem to flow slower in the aspect-to-aspect transition allows the readers to focus on different aspects of the place and let their eye wander around the cell and study the scene. These cells and spaces set the tone and mood. They might also show what the author thinks might be significant, and they help introduce the place, or they may be the welcomed change after actions (see fig. 39).
However, the flow of framelines surrounding the cells containing actions, or using and relying on the action-to-action transition, especially fights or actions during which characters move quickly, may seem to have a quicker, more dramatic flow which might emphasise the action itself and highlight the aspects of such action (see fig. 40).
Some of the examples of the actions-to-action transition do not contain words, and interestingly those are the most violent ones such as the fight with raiders and Red’s death.
The scene-to-scene transition transports us around the land or the village, and these scenes also tend to be silent or use an only limited number of words (see fig. 41). The subject- to-subject transition as is the case in western comics or Japanese manga often contains views or shots on different characters and in Red also quite often a more significant number of words than in other cells involved in other transitions because the characters communicate with each other. The use of transitions in Red are not limited only to the aspect-to-aspect transition as was already mentioned. Other transitions are at play too.
The readers can often identify cells or pages with action-to-action transition or the subject-to-subject transition and like in most western comics or Japanese manga the transition that is missing is the non-sequitur since this one is hard to use and would have hardly any relevance to the story. The flowing quality of the framelines seems to give
49 them the ability to contribute to the pace of reading, and the framelines also seem to, from time to time, have a different flow, like water does, depending on what fills the cells.
Apart from playing with the frames or panels which become cells, or with the lines surrounding them which become framelines or with the different styles, mediums and art forms that he merges, Yahgulanaas also plays with the perspective. Very often the sudden and unexpected change of perspective in spaces and cells that follow each other seems deliberate but at the same time playful and sometimes almost random. One moment the readers see the characters as if they were standing in front of them. In the following space, the readers seem to be sitting on a branch and looking at the characters from a bird's perspective. Suddenly the perspective changes and the readers jump down on the ground and see the characters from bellow. It often seems as though the readers are tiny and about to be crushed under the feet of the characters who seem to be running towards them and then they again jump and watch the characters from yet another angle.
Interesting use of perspective can be seen in pages 26 and 27 where Red can be seen holding a branch, but in a position that would suggest that he is crawling on the ground (see fig. 42 and 43). The ink lines of his body seem to merge into the black space and seem to have a more calligraphic quality. In the following space, he is seen holding onto a rocky mountain or maybe a tree and climbing away from one of the pirates, and the readers are watching him from above as though they are perched on top of the mountain. On page 27 Red is depicted from the front as if he is holding onto the mountain or tree suspended or may be unable to get out from some space into which he got, and even his body seems a bit distorted and the ink lines more calligraphic. Another way to interpret it is that the readers are looking at Red from the front as if through the mountain or tree. The figure above Red is his sister, and this evokes a strong feeling of helplessness that Red might be feeling as he is unable to help his sister.
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In fact, examples of different use of perspective can be found through the sequence of pages in which the raiders, or pirates, appear. Another example could be the change of perspective one pages 104 and 105 (see fig. 44 and 45). Red is seen from a bird's perspective as he runs, then he is depicted from behind, almost as if the readers are running after him. Suddenly the perspective is changed again, and Red is seen in a strange position that could be interpreted as him lying. However, more probable is that he is flying through the air as he jumps up. On the next page, Red is already lying in the water with an arrow in his body. The readers appear to be near Red as though they are kneeling next to a dying Red. Red seems to have chosen death as the only solution to the problem that he caused by his actions. His desire for revenge has clouded his mind, and he did not realise that he cannot change what was done so to bring peace to his heart and between the tribe he had to die. There might also be another reason for Red’s death. When he became lanaas he was meant to take care of the people and put their needs over his, but he abandoned them. After everything he did he could not go back and one might say that he became unworthy of the title he once held.
Other examples where the readers can see the simultaneous use of seemingly different perspectives are the faces and bodies of characters. The anatomy of the bodies is, at least from a western point of view, often exaggerated and distorted and it does not follow the Greek or Roman tradition, and when shown from different angles the bodies are also often distorted. The faces of the characters may often remind one of tribal masks or puzzles since different parts of the face seem to be captured from a different angle and then assembled (see fig. 38). This way of rendering faces may remind one of the masks but also of the art of Pablo Picasso who also often drew faces as tribal masks or assembled the parts, each shown from a different angle. In some cases, these and other faces also seem to bear some similarity to the ukiyo-e prints of Kabuki actors or some of Haida
51 masks (see fig.46 and 47 and 40 and 48). This may be caused by the fact that Yahgulanaas is not just inspired by Japanese humorous scrolls but also by looking at the works of other artists and the history of art. The link between Picasso and Yahgulanaas is in the way they seem to be playing with the perspectives when assembling the faces of characters. The distorted anatomy of the bodies may be inspired by the Haida art, which to some degree tends to distort the bodies of the animals and humans. This distortion also forces the readers to examine the illustrations carefully and reread specific cells or pages to be able to interpret what is happening. In the case of the cells that contain action, it may also contribute to the feeling of the rapid movement of the characters.
The ink lines of the faces and bodies sometimes merge with the framelines and sometimes have a more calligraphic character. The transitions between different perspectives and points of view seem to be fluid and have natural flow almost like the framelines although they often seem to be random. These changes may cause the reader to feel more engaged in the story and play the game of interpreting and decoding meanings of situations and the story itself, and this is visible especially in those scenes where words are not used.
Another feature that Red shares with manga is the use of silent panels or spaces; these are nowadays becoming popular also in the western comics but not to such an extent.
The silent spaces have the power to prolong the time that passes in such a space. Similarly, the aspect-to-aspect transitions they may have almost a meditative quality, and the reader can again let his or her eye wander around such space. Sometimes it is not just cells, but full pages that are left without a single word and those can be even pages that are full of action. Such pages or cells leave a lot for the reader to interpret as the words leave a gap that needs to be filled by the reader. Decoding and interpretation of such cells or sequence of cells or even full pages are much harder and more complex than when the readers read
52 a page with words, as the words help us understand what is happening (see fig. 40, 44 and
45). It becomes even harder in situations where the characters do not resemble humans, but they look like spirits, or they seem to be wearing masks. Such a character suddenly appears on pages 51 to 54. These are the scene from the village where Red finds his sisters and will later attempt to rescue her. This strange character is green and might resemble evil dwarf of a sort, but the readers do not know who he is and what is he doing in the village. He merely appears and then is literally carried away by a character that resembles the one who will later come to get Red's head. In some of the silent cells, signs such as exclamation mark or question mark can be seen which helps the readers to decode certain emotions such as surprise or shock.
In some of the silent spaces or pages, for example on pages 30 and 31, the action may be harder to decode not only because of the missing words but also because of the playful use of perspective (see fig.40). Another reason is the fact that characters or their parts or parts of the action are shown in the spaces from different angles, which creates, from a western's point of view, a somewhat hectic image of the action or fight and also an impression that everything happens rather quickly. However, in such cases, the readers may play with the interpretation and look for the meaning they see there without being told what is happening and how. On one of the pages, the frameline not only forms the cells but also becomes part of the whole action by becoming part of one of the characters and forming a rather menacingly looking hand. On pages 30 and 31, it is hard to tell what exactly happened and how to the deadly wounded character since there is a lot that needs to be filled in. Of course, the readers understand that it was a fight but in what order the action or panels happen or follow each other is something with which they can play. This is caused by the abruptness of the action and the quick pace but also by the fact that this whole sequence is silent, and the readers are left to make their own interpretation of what
53 exactly and how it is happening. They can see that the raider who dies is the one that chases Red all the time only when they carefully look at the images and look at specific details. Levell cites Perry Nodelman who states that:
In a sequence in which the hero Red thwarts a raider's attempt to capture him, for
instance, only close inspection reveals that repeated features of the raider's weapon
connect the various separate images of him and eventually account for how he dies.
Close-ups of Red’s feet and hands are so extreme in these images that his entire
position remains unclear until he falls. Meanwhile, Yahgulanaas devotes increasing
attention to raider's hair clap, which gradually grows from a few blurred
impressionistic lines into what appears to be another fully realised character
involved in the scene, thus making the actual physical relationship between the two
real characters harder to decode (Levell 86).
The readers are required to do such a close reading throughout pages 24 to 31, and they often must go back to let again our eyes wander around the pages for details that they have missed so that they are able to understand better what is happening. However, such close reading could be applied not only to this sequence but also to the whole comic as the readers need to reread pages to decode the meaning. Interesting is also the use of colour blue and its shades to distinguish the raiders or pirates from Red and his sister and members of his tribe and the fact that more and more detail is added to the raiders, their faces and bodies, throughout the sequence in which they appear (see fig. 43 and 40). At the end of the sequence, they are not just blue shapes or shadowy blue figures, but they have distinct features and faces that often look almost like a menacing mask and other little details that help readers to distinguish even individual raiders. In this sequence, it seems as though at the beginning they were distant, like a distant nightmare. They start
54 to gain more detail on page 22 where the readers see a detailed image of one of the raiders, which they can tell when they carefully look at his hair clasp or his weapon (see fig. 48).
However, the constant, one could say, need to be creative and subvert the rules or the constant encouragement to play that comes from Yahgulanaas seems to be a trademark of the whole comic book and most of his other work. Yahgulanaas always seems to be playing with different elements and experimenting with them, forming a collage or montage out of that. Yahgulanaas is inviting the readers to enter into play with him by leaving space for the readers to interpret the story and what is happening in the different spaces and sequences.
Considering the other elements, one might say that the lettering in a way stands out. That is because Yahgulanaas is playing with the shape of frameline and with the use of modified Haida formlines. He transforms the shape of the panels that in his comic book become a kind of cell based on the ovoid shapes of Haida art. He even plays with perspective. However, lettering is more uniform and the kind that can be found in many other comic books. However, there are exceptions, and those can be found on pages where sound effects are used, or on pages where words are yelled and shouted. These words often gain more calligraphic quality; they may merge with the illustrations or gain a picture like quality. It is common in western comics but also in Japanese manga that sound effects or cried out words have a different style and font and sometimes they are part of the illustration in a panel, or they may almost become a picture on their own. In western comics or Japanese manga, such words are often enclosed by scalloped balloons and other effects such as stars or different signs depending on what kind of sound effect it is or how the word was uttered.
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In Red some of the sound effects have a dynamic quality; for example, the splashing sound on page 3 seems to be coming out of the water as part of the splashed water. Other such cried out words seem to come out of the thick calligraphic framelines.
Such words are formed by other shapes usually white and red that form the letters and words, and the framelines or thick black spaces then also function as speech balloons and capture the words (see fig. 49). Other words seem to be floating in the space without being enclosed and captured by a speech balloon or any other shape or device. This may be yet another way in which Yahgulanaas attempts to subvert the rules as typically in manga and western comics; the words are enclosed in bubbles of different shapes. It might be his way of showing that this story follows different rules and although the form which is used to tell it bears similarities with manga and western comics it is neither of those.
As in the scene with raiders, in the scene in which Red dies the readers can again perceive a rather interesting use of the colours, from page 99 onwards red slowly becomes the dominant colour. Red is the colour of space in which the sound effect “crack” is written, red is the colour that surrounds Red, and the arrow is also depicted in red colour.
Page 104 seems to be full of this colour, even the water through which Red is running is red, even before he dies. Shapes done in red colour are surrounding Red especially in the first cell which is formed by the calligraphic frameline and filled with additional red, white and blue shapes. In one of the red spaces or shapes, there is a shape that looks almost identical to the shape of the arrow that will hit Red on the next page. It is as though the red is a warning, that it prepares us readers for what is going to happen, and it signifies the danger.
On page 105 the arrow comes toward Red surrounded by white space, black frameline and a red space and again a black frameline. This combination forms around the arrow a kind of phallic shape around the arrow. However, the black frameline seems
56 to be used similarly as the lines that signify the movement in manga or western comics.
However, since Yahgulanaas encourages the readers to play there may be yet another way to see it. The readers do not see the arrow hitting Red, what they see is Red running after he shoots the arrow, jumping and then they see him lying in the water with the arrow in his body. This space with the arrow could be what the readers need to fill in the gaps.
They can use our imagination and see the phallic shape as a symbol of the arrow penetrating the air and then the red shape around it can signify that the arrow finally found its target, which is Red. Thus, the red shape around the arrow can also be Red's flesh. The readers are pushed to find their own way to interpret this and play with the different meanings of the lines and perspective or even the colour (see fig. 44 and 45). The use of colour in some cells in this sequence may also resemble the way in which red and black are used in traditional Haida art.
There is also another interesting element. Throughout the comic book, but especially in the scenes when the other tribe chases Red and The Carpenter, there appears a character that often has a white face or mask and is cloaked in black or dark blue clothing and its shape may often remind the readers of the dorsal fin of a whale. However, throughout the comic book, they cannot be sure what is the purpose or meaning of this character. He seems to be a sort of guard or protector, but in the end, he says “I, too, have come for a head” (Yahgulanaas 99). Moreover, the readers cannot be sure if he means the head of Jaada's husband that should be returned to his tribe or for Red's head and therefore to complete the kind of “eye for an eye” or rather “head for head” payback. Jaada asks for her husban’s head to be returned and while her aunt agrees, Red says “no!” to her.
However, to this strange character, he says “come, then. Take it” (Yahgulanaas 100). It may again be an act of defiance or maybe acceptance. Red dies by his own hand, and so the head of Jaada's husband can return to his family, and Red paid the debt, and his death
57 settled the dispute between the tribes which might have turned into a war (see fig. 51).
The readers might also see that the act of beheading of Jaada’s husband is shown more metaphorically. They can look at pages 73 and 74 where they see a fish whose head is cut off, and this may symbolise the gruesome act Red committed. In our email conversation,
Micheal Nicoll Yahgulanaas explained to me that “the people who actually take Red’s head is my own family. In hindsight, I would say that this character is a doorway to that personal connection to a historical event that inspired this Haida manga work”
(Yahgulanaas, personal communication). So, in this way, Red also connects Yahgulanaas to his own roots and past as this is also his interpretation of an event that took place and inspired this story.
As was already mentioned Yahgulanaas often plays with the shapes, colour, perspective and use of different comics elements and even art styles and techniques to create his art. The framelines and the play with perspective give the comic book ambiguous quality because while reading it becomes clear that there are different ways and strategies on how to read the comic and interpret what is happening. The readers may try reading the spaces in a different order and see what happens and how it can change their perception of the story. It combines elements of western comic, Japanese manga and
Haida art creating Haida manga, a distinct genre of comics. Levell cites Perry Nodelman who states that “Red’s twisting makes it a particularly intense example of proliferating energy – and thus an extreme version of comics' characteristic structure” (Levell 86).
However, Yahgulanaas goes even further in encouraging us to interact with the comic book. Levell cites McLuhan who states that “comic book…as a cool media involve the user, as maker and participant, a great deal” (Levell 86). Yahulanaas fulfils this remarkably, as he involves the readers not only in the reading, interpreting and decoding
58 of the images and the story but also in the making since he leaves space for them to try and read the space in different orders. More than that, he goes even further.
The readers must often search for details and reread pages to understand better but once they finish reading the comic book there awaits yet another surprise, another encouragement to play and to take the play even further. This encouragement is a direct message from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas to all who read his comic, and he says:
Red is more than a collection of bound pages, something more than a story to be
read page by page. Red is also a complex of images, a composite – one that will
defy your ability to experience the story as a simple progression of events, turn the
page to see the entire work. I welcome you to destroy this book. I welcome you to
rip the pages out of their bindings. Following the layout provided overleaf and using
the pages from two copies of this book, you can reconstruct this work of art
(Yahgulanaas 109).
This encouragement leads us back to his other work when he attempted to create a work with which the viewers and visitors in galleries could interact and play. Through
Red, Yahgulanaas can finally do so without being restricted by the gallery and the attempts to protect the artwork. Levell states that by giving power to the reader or viewer
Yahgulanaas "is taking Andre Malraux' concept of the museum without walls in a different direction with a twist" (Levell 88-89). Because to Yahgulanaas engaging the public and giving it access to culture are essential things. In his eyes, the deconstruction and destruction of the book give the public access to the original work and makes the readers think about the value they regularly place on material objects such as books because here they are encouraged to destroy the book they bought. In Red Yahgulanaas also works with page in a new way and allows the readers to play when reconstructing
59 the story as they may try different options. Levell also comments on what happens with the comic book when the reader destroys it and follows the instructions given by
Yahgulanaas and Levell states that:
The concept of Red as a unique form of montage … variations of rhythmic lines …
play of perspective and focus and its proliferation of action that pulsate throughout
is further manifest at the end of the book. On a double-page spread … individual
pages that make up the manga are arranged in sequence. Together they form a truly
baroque composition – a miniature version of the five-metre-long watercolour
mural, which is the original source of the artwork … They join to create the stylised
image of a Haida supernatural being or crest, executed with bold calligraphic
flourish (Levell 86 – 87).
Levell further continues by stating that “the fact that the lines of Red connect to form a whole presents us with another way of seeing and thinking about the art and the story … reflect on the different ways we perceive or misperceive the world around us … this holistic display at the end of the book … affirms the moral aspect of Red” (Levell
87). Levell cites Yahgulanaas who states that Red is “not so much about revenge … at its core it is an examination of what happens when we get it all wrong … I think that we need to be a little less sure about what we know, and to be more certain about what we don't know” (qtd. Levell 87). Red “got it all wrong” when he thought that revenge would help him ease the pain and return his sister so that things could be as they were. Red did not realise that everything has changed. Possibly the kidnapping of Red’s sister and his quest to save her may also comment on the phenomenon of missing and murdered indigenous women, which is something Yahgulanaas mentioned in his guest lecture:
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The things that I am talking about really are questions like why the Prime minister
of Canada felt he could say … I am told by some of the women that they think that
it is closer to 3000 but I think that the official number is somethwere around a 1000
Canadian citizens can be just vanished and … quote, it is not high on my [Canadian
Prime Mister's] radar … and so if we have a 1000or maybe 3000 missing, stolen,
murdered, vanished women … why is the life expectancy of indigenous people in
this prosperous country amongst the lowest of any identifiable group in Canada?
(Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas 22:56 -24:38)
Red's kidnapped sister is like these women, and like their families, Red also desires to find her and bring her home. However, because of the way in which he conducts the rescue and his consequent death it is not clear how the bringing home of Jaada, and also of the other women, should or could be realised. It might also be that Red's hatred for the raiders caused him to not only desire to rescue his sister but also to avenge her and it might have been this desire that caused his downfall.
Yahgulanaas lets the readers destroy and rearrange the pages and play with the arrangement of the story. What the readers perceive as just framelines, that form the cells and space while reading the book comes together to form images of its own, similar to those from traditional Haida art, and add another element to the whole comic book.
Suddenly the readers realise that even these framelines have a hidden meaning and we can return to the beginning and start reading again and do so while we destroy, deconstruct and again construct the comic according to Yahgulanaas' instructions.
Levell states that what McLuhan meant when he spoke about comics as cool media is this engagement of consumer who simultaneously becomes a maker and participant, actively involved “in decoding and reconstructing the story in their own way.
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Unquestionably there are different ways of reading these distinctive graphic media”
(Levell 88). Further Levell cites Yahgulanaas who states that “the reader is free to direct the pace and even narrative direction. If they want to go backward, they can. No one is preaching or demanding that they have to do something in a particular way. The reader experiences control and authority” (qtd. Levell 88). The author is not exercising authority over the readers; he lets them draw their own conclusions and even recreate the story by reading in different directions and reorganising the cells and pages. By doing this, he gives the readers as much power over the story and artwork as he himself has.
Yahgulanaas realises that just because he created something, he is not the only one who creates meanings around the artwork. That is why he gives the readers a choice to participate, but there is no obligation to follow the instruction; it is merely an open invitation.
The readers can take the comic book rip it apart and play with the reconstruction of it and see how they can combine sequences of pages and how the narrative and their perception of it changes and where it will lead them. They can take the book and try reading it from the back cover to the front or skipping around the cells on each page and see how this will change the story and whether a different combination of spaces would do with the story. Seemingly there are no rules on how to read Red and if then only very few.
The framelines that connect when the readers assemble the pages and an invitation to do so may further reveal Yahgulanaas’ views on the gutter, which he discusses in the guest lecture at the Bill Reid Centre at Simon Fraser University. Yahgulanaas mentioned
Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics and the way McCloud talks about gutter space, the space in between the panels. Yahgulanaas talked in a somewhat playful humorous way and stated:
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Everything that's important is happing inside the box … you are gonna walk out of
here into your life … I am gonna go screaming down the road in this big car [he
drew out a simple story composed of three traditional rectangular panels] … this is
the gutter … you see these little spaces here [points to spaces between the panels]
they are empty … they represent time and space. Is there really anything much
larger conceptually than time and space? I observe how neatly time and space is
described by these very linear viewpoints … this sense of cosmology as this
regulated empty space around us … because … it is just us that count, really nothing
else could be happening out there (Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
12:51 – 15:09).
This time maybe it is the readers of comics or creators of comics, who “got it all wrong” as Yahgulanaas said when they thought that the gutter is empty. Further, during his lecture Yahgulanaas speaks about the notion of Terra Nullius stating that:
Why Haida manga and it was a pushback against this notion of gutters to a certain
extent which reflects this false idea that when settler populations fled the oppression
of Europe … they imagined this place to be empty because they needed it to be
empty … they had this term … terra nullius … the land is vacant so that their own
story was all that counted; everything else had to be lesser … barbaric … this
existed until Franz Boaz came … and he challenged it … this is so important that
time and space must disappear … false theory … that pollutes the space … it
actually does not permit you to occupy the space (Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas 18:21-19:57).
Yahgulanaas wanted to show different notion or notions of gutter and comment on the different kinds of the gutter. One kind is the gutter in a comic book, the blank space
63 that in Red consists of the framelines. The gutter between the artist and art and also one between art and viewers. Also, the space between artist and viewers and finally the space between different groups of people. All these spaces are, according to Yahgulanaas, full of information and meaning. To comment on the notion of gutter Yahgulanaas created a short comic called In the Gutter in which he compares the gutter to terra nullius but says stat it is not empty and in case of gutter he strives to fill it with information and interaction
(see fig. 50).
Red is not linear and can be read in many ways so that the reader finds his or her own story and meaning, which is what Yahgulanaas encourages. Yahgulanaas gives the readers the possibility to challenge the supposed authority that the artist has regardless of the fact that he is the creator of the piece. Yahgulanaas gives us readers this chance to fill the space between and make their own decisions and thoughts and opinions. He encourages the readers to do this not only regarding the story but also concerning the book itself. Yahgulanaas wants to make the readers to question the importance they put to material things such as book and why they do that. This may also lead one to the precursors of Japanese manga which inspired Yahgulanaas and whose creators used the art to ridicule or question the authority and importance of everyday objects. These artists were not afraid to use humour to point out different important ideas and question society or authority. This one can see in Yahgulanaas’ work through the way he uses humour and attempts to question specific ideas one has about objects such as books or question the authority of artist or institutions and his attempt to encourage one to fill the gutter space with our own information and ideas.
As was mentioned apart from the gutter in the comic book Yahgulanaas also wants to fill another gutter. During his guest lecture at the Bill Reid Centre at Simon Fraser
University, he said that:
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The space in between you and I, between I and the object, between one and that
which we observe, and space appears to be empty, but it most certainly is not. It is
filled with a whole big bag of assumptions often filtered and curated by some
external agency. In the case of the art, you would expect me to tell you what this
piece means … because I am the creator right … why should I have to tell you …
what is it about. What I am doing that makes me the ultimate authority on the object.
The meaning lies in between the object and the observer, and you can either claim
that space or you can give it away freely, and there is a lot of people in this world
who would really like you to give it away freely (Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas 7:37 – 9: 03).
Yahgulanaas is also playing with space in-between generations and engaging in discussion and play with the past generations as he does through his piece Packing Old
Raven’s Pole. On page 84 to 87 there appears a shape similar to the shapes of coppers
Yahgulanaas did but it particularly resembles the copper that Edward Edenshaw did around 1865 called t’aaGuu, not only due to the shape of the copper in the pages but also because of the design on the copper that looks similar to Edenshaw’s design. The copper in the comic is used to drag Red and The Carpenter’s boat from the water, it is a message to those who know the art of Edward Edenshaw but also probably play with the meaning and purpose of that piece. This way it may fill yet another gutter with different meanings and discussions (see fig. 52 and 53).
Red is not just about the story of a boy who grows up to be the chief of the town, or mother of town called lanaas, but sets out to find his kidnapped sister which leads him to the only possible way in which he can solve all the problems he causes, suicide. It is not only about the medium of manga or attempts to differentiate it from the western comics and merge different styles and techniques from Haida art to Asian art techniques.
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It is also about filling the spaces not only between individual illustrations, or artists and object or object and viewer or artist and viewer but between different people or even between different generations. It is about filling the gaps with meaning that individual people can find on their own without being told what to look for. Red is also about exploring identity and the spaces between different identities and creating a dialogue between different people and maybe bridging the spaces and filling them with information.
As Yahgulanaas says, in the talk “Art opens windows to space between ourselves” for the
TEDx Talks channel:
There is a lot of people who don't quite understand how the Indians and the
Cowboys could be on the same team and the reasons for that reluctance I think are
attached to a worldview that has us all separated into little boxes with spaces, tidy
little spaces, between us and isolating us. Compartments are not only about who is
on the inside, but compartments are also about what is on the outside and the spaces
in between (Art opens windows to the space between ourselves, 1:58 – 2:30).
Through his art and through Red Yahgulanaas seeks to bridge the spaces in between and create a discussion and he does it by taking different forms, styles, materials and often also iconic structures such as totem poles and makes them available to people without telling them what they mean so that they can start looking for the meaning. His art also works against the structured system in which there is always a filter, someone who is often ready to describe things and meanings to people and tell them what to think.
As Yahgulanaas states Red and other Haida manga are not a western, American or European, comics and story. The similarity between Red and Haida art lies in details and the story’s origin in Haida oral tradition. Red’s similarities with western comics lie in some of the elements that simply cannot be changed; otherwise the comic might not
66 work at all. The similarity between Red and Japanese manga lies not only in the fact that the images are freer, playful and the genre is innovative and changing but also in the fact that like Japanese manga is indigenous to Japan. Red and Haida manga are an indigenous form of Haida nation formed out of a collage of influences appropriated and adapted to accommodate different kinds of stories.
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Conclusion
It is clear, that Red is inspired by the tradition of Haida art and Haida oral tradition and mythology but also by the Japanese art specifically by manga and its predecessors.
Yet Red does not lean to one side or another and stays in the space in between.
Yahgulanaas successfully challenges stereotypes about indigenous art, that may stem from the fact how indigenous art is depicted in western popular culture or ideas about the art being primitive and unable to change or evolve and be complex and modern.
Yahgulanaas strives to blend different styles, influences and traditions and appropriates them to create something new, a new style of manga that is indigenous to Haida nation; a genre that could successfully tell Haida stories. Because Red was influenced by manga,
Haida art and western comics, this thesis describes of these different styles and transitions to contextualize Red. Thus, the background of manga, the influences and predecessors that shaped manga throughout its history is presented also in order to establish some similarities between manga and Red, such as the tendency to innovate or the inherent humour. Because Yahgulanaas uses the medium of comics to tell the story of Red it is also important to describe some elements of comics and how these might be used in western comics to understand how Yahgulanaas might be challenging some of the ideas and rules surrounding western comics. Since Red has its roots in the Haida culture and traditional Haida art the second part of this thesis introduces some elements of traditional
Haida art because some of these elements are transformed and used by Yahgulanaas.
Yahgulanaas’ intention is to remain in the space in between and fill it with something new and innovative that will spark discussion and engage people to interpret and find meaning on their own. Through Red Yahgulanaas not only explores the medium of comics but he seeks to challenge, innovate and appropriate some of its elements and the way we think about them so that they can better accommodate his stories and ideas.
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Yahgulanaas chose manga because it gives an artist more freedom to express ideas and unlimited space on which they can explore their stories. Manga still bears traces of playfulness and innovation while challenging the way we see or think, something that is close to Yahgulanaas and the Haida tradition. Yet Red is not a manga in the same sense
Japanese manga are manga, that is in terms of the style or way manga are done, but it is manga in terms of the definition of manga as a free picture or, as Hokusai says, “brush gone wild” (Gravett 26). As a work of art Red stay in the spaces in-between; in -between different artistic styles and traditions, in-between different cultures and in-between different people and or even different generations.
Red: A Haida Manga is innovative and playful; it encourages us to play with different ways of how to read and interpret the story and images and find meaning on our own. However, rather than an obligation it is simply an invitation, one that we are free to follow or ignore. If we decide to follow this invitation, we can rip apart the work and recreate it again or try to read the book from the back to the fron cover. Red is not just a story of a boy who grows up to be a town lanaas and then set out to avenge his lost sister; it is also an exploration of media of manga and comics and different art traditions, finding new meaning and new ways of expressing ideas. Red: A Haida Manga is subverting styles, traditions and rules, it is hybrid of different influences yet it is its own genre, one that is indigenous to Haida nation.
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Bibliography
“Art Opens Windows to the Space between Ourselves, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas,
TEDxVancouver.” TEDx Talks. Art opens windows to the space between
ourselves, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, TEDxVancouver, 26 Mar. 2019,
Vancouver
Chute, Hillary L. WHY COMICS?: from Underground to Everywhere. First ed., Harper
Collins Publishers, 2017
Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary
Cartoonist. W.W. Norton, 2008
Eisner, Will. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: Principles and Practices from
the Legendary Cartoonist. W.W. Norton, 2008
Gravett, Paul. Mangasia: The Definitive Guide to Pan-Asian Comic Art. Thames and
Hudson Ltd., London, 2017
Gravett, Paul. Graphic Novels Everything You Need to Know. Collins Design, 2005
“Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.” YouTube. Guest Lecture: Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas, 26 Mar. 2019, The Bill Reid Centre at SFU, The Bill Reid Centre
at SFU, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pri3SCalWPY
Holm, Bill. Northwest Coast Indian Art: an Analysis of Form. Paperback ed., University
of Washington Press, 1970
Levell, Nicola. Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: the Seriousness of Play. London, 2016
McCloud, Scott Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. HarperPerennial edition ed.,
HarperCollins Publishers, 1994
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“Personal Communication.” Received by Kateřina Cvachová, Personal Communication,
6 Apr. 2019
Schodt, Frederik L. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. 2nd ed., Stone
Bridge Press, 1996
Schodt, Frederik L. Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics. Kodansha USA,
1997
Shearar, Cheryl. Understanding Northwest Coast Art: a Guide to Crests, Beings, and
Symbols. Douglas & McIntyre, 2000
Stewart, Hilary. Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast. University of Washington
Press, 1979
Wang, Evelyn. “The Erotic Japanese Art Movement Born out of Decadence.” Dazed,
Dazed Digital, 31 Aug. 2016,
www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/32596/1/ero-guro.
Yahgulanaas, Michael Nicoll. Red: a Haida Manga. Douglas & McIntyre, 2014
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Resume In this thesis I dealt with Indigenous graphic novel Red:A Haida Manga by
Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. Firstly, I described the background of manga to better understand what it is and how it could be different from western comics since this medium and its predecessors inspired Yahgulanaas. Another reason was to better understand how
Yahgulanaas’ work may be similar but also different from manga. Then I described some of the elements of comics or manga from a more western point of view using as a source
Scott McCloud and Will Eisner. The two authors also represent western view and thinking about comics. Because Yahgulanaas is a member of indigenous comics Yahgulanaas is member of Haida nation I then described some of the elements of culture and classic
Haida art that might have also inspired the artist in creation of Red. Since the artist might not be well known I also decided to position Red in context of his other work and possibly see if there are common things in his other work that we may find in Red too. Finally, I attempted to analyse the comics itself and analyse different things from different points of view and see in what ways it is similar or different from manga or western comics and even Haida art.
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Ve své práci jsem se zabývala grafickým románem Red: A Haida Manga jehož autorem je Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, člen kmene Haida. Nejprve jsem se rozhodla přiblížit vznik a historii japonského manga komiksu, jeho předchůdce a také termín samotný včetně rozdílu mezi manga, grafickým románem a komiksem. Následně jsem se rozhodla popsat některé ze základních elementů a pojmů komiksu a jako zdroje jsem použila knihy od Willa Eisnera a Scotta McClouda, dvou známých tvůrců amerického komiksu. Tito autoři také reprezentují západní způsob uvažování o komiksu. Jelikož je
Yahgulanaas členem kmene Haida tak jsem se také rozhodla přiblížit kulturu a umění tohoto kmene, také proto, že tato kultura a prvky umění inspirovaly Yahgulanaase a některé tyto prvky nebo jejich modifikace se dají nalézt i v Red: A Haida Manga.
Jelikož umělec sám není příliš známý také jsem se rozhodla popsat jeho dílo tak aby komiks kterým se zabývám byl v celkovém kontextu jeho díla a bylo možno vidět určité podobnosti. Nakonec jsem se rozhodla analyzovat samotný komiks, některé umělecké prvky a prvky příbehu. Také jsem se pokusila najít podobnosti nebo odlišnosti ve způsobu jakým Yahgulanaas některé prvky používá.
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Appendix
Figure 1 Section of the first scroll of Chojugiga "The Animal Scrolls" from Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997, page 29
Figure 2 Section from Hohigassen "Farting Contest" from Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997 , page 31
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Figure 3 A woodblock cartoon by Kuniyoshi Utagawa from early 19th century, from Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997, page 33
Figure 4 Illustrated humour books from the Edo period, in the middle are Toba-e, from Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997, page 37
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Figure 5 Charles Wirgman cover of The Japan Punch, Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997, page 39
Figure 6 Tetsuwan Atomu "Mighty Atom" by Osamu Tezuka, Frederik L. Schodt; Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics 1997, page 65
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Figure 7 example of "bleed" panel, from Scott McCloud Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 103
Figure 8 Different types of panels, from Will Eisner; Comics and Sequential Art: Principles from the Legendary Cartoonist, page 44
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Figure 9 example of borderless panel, from Will Eisner; Comics and Sequential Art: Principles from the Legendary Cartoonist, page 49
Figure 10 example of action-to-action transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 70
Figure 11 example of Aspect-to-aspect transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisble Art, page 72
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Figure 12 example of Moment-to-moment transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 70
Figure 13 example of Non-sequitur transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 72
Figure 14 example of Scene-to-scene transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 71
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Figure 15 example of Subject-to-subject transition, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 71
Figure 16 examples of speech balloons, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, page 134
Figure 17 examples of lettering of sound effects, from Scott McCloud; Understanding Comics: The
Invisible Art, page 134
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Figure 18 example of creative use of lettering that helps to set the mood and creates different effect, from Will EIsner; Comics and Sequential Art: Principles from the Legendary Cartoonist, page 5
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Figure 19 map of the Nortwest Coast with areas inhabited by individual tribes, from Cheryl Sheara; Understanding Northwest Coast Art: a Guide to Crests, Beings, and Symbols, page 8
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Figure 20 example of the primary black formlines, from Bill Holm; Northwest Coast Art: An Analysis of Form, page 28
Figure 21 example of design on Chilkat woven blanket, from Bill Hom; Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of From, page 10
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Figure 22 spruce root hat, Haida, example of configurative design, from Bill Holm; Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 12
Figure 23 woven spruce root hat, Haida, example of expansive design, from Bill Holm; Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 12
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Figure 24 the black primary formline patter, from Bill Holm; Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 28
Figure 25 red secondary elements and formline complexes, from Bill Holm; Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 28
Figure 26 isolated blue-green tertiary elements filling the remaining space, from Bill Holm; The Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 28
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Figure 27 the three clases of elements together, from Bill Holm; The Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, page 28
Figure 28 on the left U forms and on the right S forms, from Hilary stewart; Looking at Indian Art: The Northwest Coast, page 22
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Figure 29 Packing Old Ravens Pole,2005, by Micehael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola
Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 23
Figure 30 Finding Space, 2014, Haida Ukiyo-e by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 48
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Figure 31 Tale of Two Shamans, 2001, by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 30
Figure 32 Peddle to the Meddle, 2007, by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola
Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 94
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Figure 33 Stole but Recovered, 2011, from the series Coppers from the Hood, by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 108
Figure 34 Untitled, 2012, Volvoxii series, by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, from Nicola Levell; The
Seriousness of Play, page 113 89
Figure 35 left Untitled, 2011, and right Di-sect-ed, 2010, Rotational series, by Michael Nicoll
Yahgulanaas, from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 134
Figure 36 example of frameline becoming part of the image and of the cell being used as speech balloon, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 14
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Figure 37 example of frameline being used as speech balloon, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 24
Figure 38 bottom of the page character potentially speaking to himself, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 10
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Figure 39 example of Aspect-to-aspect transition and silent page and panels, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 2
Figure 40 example of action-to-action transition, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 31
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Figure 41 example of scene-to-scene transition, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 16
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Figure 42 examples of use of perspective, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 26
Figure 43 example of perspective, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 27
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Figure 44 Red's death, example of use of perspective and colour, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 104
Figure 45 Red' death, use of perspective and colour and examples of silent scene, from Michael NIcoll Yahgulanaas; Red: A Haida Manga, page 105
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Figure 46 Katsushika Shunsho, 1726-1793, Ukiyo-e print- Actor Nakamura Nakazo in a Kabuuki Drama from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 23
Figure 47 A- mask Tlingit, B-mask Bella Coola, C- mask Kwakiutl, from Bill Holm Northwest Coast Indian Art an Analysis of Form, page 23
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Figure 48 first detail of the raider, Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Red A Haida Manga, page 22
Figure 49 sound effects and frameline used as speech balloon, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Red A Haida Manga, page 60
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Figure 50 In the Gutter, 2011 byMichael Nicoll. Yahgulanaas from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 75
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Figure 51 this character appears in variations throughout the comic book, similar one can be seen in the village of the other tribe or accompaning members of that tribe who chase after Red, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red:A Haida Manga, page 99
Figure 52 a detail of copper of shield that Red and his friend The Carpenter, it may remind us of Edward Edenshaw's Copper t'aaGuu, from Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas; Red A Haida Manga, page 87
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Figure 53 Copper t´aaGuu, 1865, by Edward Edenshaw, from Nicola Levell; The Seriousness of Play, page 107
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