The project will deal with sequential art and its transformation through the ages to the most recent form of Web Comics.
Design Brief
Storytelling has always been the ideal method of communication from prehistoric times down to the modern age- from the time of the Vedas when histories were passed down from generation to generation through the word of mouth, liberally spiced with mythologies to keep it interesting and easier to remember. And the cliché “A picture is worth a thousand words” exists for a valid reason. Couple images with text and it forms an unbeatable combination. From the cave paintings of Altamira in Spain to Emperor Trajan’s column in Rome, to William Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’ and the works of George Cruikshanks, the evolution of what we understand as sequential art today in the common form of comics and graphic novels have evolved to a great extent. In the 19th and early 20th century, sequential art had had the misfortune to be labeled as Low art, and not given the due recognition the medium and process deserved. In reality, sequential art has always had the tendency to develop as the subaltern, the alternative, and the underground opinion to what was generally agreed to be normal and standard in society. Through the practice of farce, and sarcastic commentary, grossly overlooked as vulgarity and general humor, sequential art and its modern forms have kept up a steady commentary on the greatest human construct, Society, and have insidiously set out warnings, should it be so necessary, when we have been too taken up by our own creation.
With the advent of the electricity, computers and then the internet and hence the electronic media, alternative thought and its form of expression have also adapted itself to more free platforms such as web logs and other things because newspapers and the television are no longer places of unbiased opinions, they just serve as mouth pieces of whatever or whoever it is that is controlling the society at the moment. The result is Web Comics. Taking the hand skills developed over the centuries, and combining it with the freeing power of binary, electronic sequential art has been only around for the past five of six years but is already evolving to its next stage. And in India
Storytelling as a form of communication now have to include many more things other than plain words and images. It has to take into account its vehicle of distribution, the electronic media, and be ready to update itself in the same break neck speed that modern media have developed in the last half century.
My diploma proposal is for creating a web comic myself- exploring everything involved with it, from narrative creation to absolutely technical things like designing and coding the website, with provision for at least 20 to 30 page updates.
I have the character I want to explore fixed. There was a relay writing project which I was a part of, about five to six years ago, on a special blog. On that space Adan Garcia first came into being. This is what the character first appeared like on www.project97.blogspot.com:
Adan Garcia
Sex: Male
Species: Unknown
Age: Looks about 38. But his real age is lost, even to himself.
Physical Description: Not too tall, not too short, but capable of appearing either. Brown hair highlighted by gold because of unending hours in the sun (which is weird, because, he wears a cowboy hat). He is stocky to look at, but is actually constructed out of pure muscle. Always dressed like an outlaw: trench coat, dusty boots, weird belt etc. But he also carries a black felt bag, very ancient and dusty and looks almost empty, slung to his sides.
Has a very easygoing smile above a square thread-barely goateed chin - capable of being both charming and sinister, but mostly the former. That’s until you look into his eyes, generally in the shadows of his hat, which cannot be mistaken for anything other than evil and dangerous. Gives off strange energy waves.
Weaknesses/ Strengths: Capable of fighting both with his brawns and brains, but prefers to fight with brawn, because brain's the last resort (he thinks of it as an act of charity to his adversaries). Has high manoeuvering skills and can appear to be at particular places and disappear from it at a random instance. Oh, he is also a time traveller (and doesn’t need flashy gadgets to do it, he just flicks a button in a dark little corner of his brains). Doesn’t talk much. Mostly observes from the shadows of street corners and backrooms.
Only weakness that he himself knows about is body odour. Carries a deodorant everywhere, which he never uses. The rest he prefers to keep secret at present because, he feels, it’ll ruin his style.
Species: Unknown
Age: Looks about 38. But his real age is lost, even to himself.
Physical Description: Not too tall, not too short, but capable of appearing either. Brown hair highlighted by gold because of unending hours in the sun (which is weird, because, he wears a cowboy hat). He is stocky to look at, but is actually constructed out of pure muscle. Always dressed like an outlaw: trench coat, dusty boots, weird belt etc. But he also carries a black felt bag, very ancient and dusty and looks almost empty, slung to his sides.
Has a very easygoing smile above a square thread-barely goateed chin - capable of being both charming and sinister, but mostly the former. That’s until you look into his eyes, generally in the shadows of his hat, which cannot be mistaken for anything other than evil and dangerous. Gives off strange energy waves.
Weaknesses/ Strengths: Capable of fighting both with his brawns and brains, but prefers to fight with brawn, because brain's the last resort (he thinks of it as an act of charity to his adversaries). Has high manoeuvering skills and can appear to be at particular places and disappear from it at a random instance. Oh, he is also a time traveller (and doesn’t need flashy gadgets to do it, he just flicks a button in a dark little corner of his brains). Doesn’t talk much. Mostly observes from the shadows of street corners and backrooms.
Only weakness that he himself knows about is body odour. Carries a deodorant everywhere, which he never uses. The rest he prefers to keep secret at present because, he feels, it’ll ruin his style.
The character has evolved over time into other things such as short stories which have been illustrated in excerpts for different explorations into sequential art on my part.The character is a mixture of fantasy and science fiction in genre. Explorations into sequential art and with this character into the form web comics is a natural progression point.
Research Questions
How has sequential art evolved? Has the character of sequential art changed? And is there a steady pace of progress for the change that is seen through the evolution?
How is technology responsible for the content and format of sequential art? How much is the art dependent on the technology? Or is it vice versa?
Has the message to be found in this art form changed? Or does it always propagate change, regardless of type? What is the message to be found in the current form of web comics?
Approach
The foundation for a project like this is solid narration. Hence, a narrative or a story has to primarily be in place before anything else is handled. From then on it becomes a two way approach.
The first route is Artistic:
- What is the graphic styles to be utilized.
- What format is to be taken
The second route is more technical
- how to code a dynamic website
- how to generate a self updating mechanism etc.
And above all of that is a mixture of the two, that has to be considered:
- What are the possibilities that computers as a medium of publication offer to art?
- How to break the format, yet retain the soul of the medium.
Material Resources
- The wealth of web comics that are running online.
- Reading into the most eminent comic writers and analyzing their work.
- Web Design and Web development manuals and tutorials to aid in coding
- Analysis of web comic coding
Learning Outcomes
- Making a dent in understanding sequential art as a mode of communication.
- Understanding Impact of underground movements in society.
- Understanding the necessity for it.
- Getting acquainted with the language of the future: Html, CSS, Java Script, PHP etc.
