eyeflow across panels

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Phlip
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eyeflow across panels

Post by Phlip »

Here's a good example linking panels by eyeflow:

<img src="http://flea.sourceforge.net/mrNatural.png" width="1088" height="536"/>

Per R. Crumb's /Mr Natural No. 3/, the Devil has given the title character a well-deserved thumping.

In the first panel, the Devil feints back, allowing Mr N. to recover and take a stance. So Mr N. leads the panel and dialog, feebly.

Then the Devil's dialog leads us to his face and ear, and into his elbow from the second panel:

<img src="http://flea.sourceforge.net/mrNatural_eyeFlow.png" width="359" height="177"/>

There he truly takes the lead. The eye sees his kick, and goes up to read the taunt. Then we read "HUP", the sound effect "BLAP", Mr N.'s groan, and him saying "I give, I give".

Because R. Crumb is truly the natural (beyond his delightful false-guru), both compositions form subtle yin-yang symbols. (-;
Rip Tanion
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Post by Rip Tanion »

Ah, yes! I can remeber smokin' a big "fatty" a reading that comic book. Don't they wind up sticking Natch in the booby hatch at the end?

Anyway, you seem, from this and your previous posts, to be facinated by eye movement. I've found it very interesting myself.

Check out Andrew Loomis's take on the subject of sub-dividing panels here. Loomis was talking about illustration, but you can apply this technique to comic panels, and even entire pages, and use it the lead the eye around. I actually first discovered this technique (and Loomis) in a book by John Adkins Richardson that I bought many years ago.
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
Phlip
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Post by Phlip »

Rip Tanion wrote:Ah, yes! I can remeber smokin' a big "fatty" a reading that comic book.
Ah, you went for the audience participation premium edition.
Rip Tanion wrote:Don't they wind up sticking Natch in the booby hatch at the end?
Absolutely. And, at the risk of deconstructing a joke, the gag there is that Mr Natural starts out playing his false prophet games on the losers around him, as usual. Then when he learns to hang loose and be himself, he has the idea to start a commune - and hence actually become a real spiritual leader. And then he's so inspired that he instantly gets in trouble. His long-suffering friends think he has a mood disorder because he's hanging loose instead of being stuck-up like usual.
Rip Tanion wrote:Anyway, you seem, from this and your previous posts, to be facinated by eye movement. I've found it very interesting myself.
I can't tell if my EAP layouts are using it as well as possible - to avoid extra dramatic exposition.

A classical fine-art painting has a static eyeflow, because it must hang on the wall forever. (That's why, for example, a Roy Lichtenstein impersonation of a comic book does _not_ have comic book eyeflow.)

A graphic novel must provide an unambiguous sequence of dialogs and actions, in one picture, that flow in time according to our rules. I suspect we can get better as we remain aware of the eyeflows across multiple panels.
Rip Tanion
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Post by Rip Tanion »

Phlip wrote:
Rip Tanion wrote:Ah, yes! I can remeber smokin' a big "fatty" a reading that comic book.
Ah, you went for the audience participation premium edition.
Is there any other way to read a Crumb comic? 8)
Phlip wrote:His long-suffering friends…
You mean that traitorous pig, Flakey Foont? He's lucky nobody threw him in the looney bin for driving around Cleveland in a motorized bathtub (see Zap #5).

If nobody out there knows what the heck we're talking about, check out Mr. Natural #3. Crumb picked up the story years later in Hup #1 (sorry, can't find a link for that one).
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
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