comics?
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Greg Stephens
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Now this question is bound to spark some degree of disagreement, but I'll go first and say that "words is words is words, no matter how pretty" meaning that a story told entirely in words isn't going to be a comic. There may be exceptions, so please provide examples.
Off the top of my head, here's one: There are many comics that use pictures without words to tell a story, but John Byrne did the reverse with Alpha Flight number (um...) six, where he took a few pages to literally tell the story of a polar bear in a snowstorm. There were no drawings, but the rest of the comic conventions were there- word balloons, panels, sound effects- and the position and shape of the word balloons and panels conveyed the sense of the action. I don't know that it was received extremely well by the reading audience, who said that they generally like pictures in their comics, but it was an interesting experiment. It is similar to sequences in comics where panels (for whatever reason) are entirely black with only word balloons, but the important thing to keep in mind is that generally these sequences are told within the context of a larger comic story that does feature pictures and they maintain the comic trappings of panels and word balloons. This is differs from your primary example of typography, fonts and complex layouts, but the differences are significant.
Off the top of my head, here's one: There are many comics that use pictures without words to tell a story, but John Byrne did the reverse with Alpha Flight number (um...) six, where he took a few pages to literally tell the story of a polar bear in a snowstorm. There were no drawings, but the rest of the comic conventions were there- word balloons, panels, sound effects- and the position and shape of the word balloons and panels conveyed the sense of the action. I don't know that it was received extremely well by the reading audience, who said that they generally like pictures in their comics, but it was an interesting experiment. It is similar to sequences in comics where panels (for whatever reason) are entirely black with only word balloons, but the important thing to keep in mind is that generally these sequences are told within the context of a larger comic story that does feature pictures and they maintain the comic trappings of panels and word balloons. This is differs from your primary example of typography, fonts and complex layouts, but the differences are significant.
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Tailsteak
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Many comics, such as my own and Patrick Shaugnessy's, have each character speak in a different font. And, of course, as they experience extreme sensations or want to say something in an odd way, those are represented as distortions in that font.
A dialogue could happen simply in different fonts... and action in a neutral onomatopoeia.... but then what you have is essentially a screenplay...
The line of what is and isn't a comic is vague here. I think there can be a gradient of artforms.
A dialogue could happen simply in different fonts... and action in a neutral onomatopoeia.... but then what you have is essentially a screenplay...
The line of what is and isn't a comic is vague here. I think there can be a gradient of artforms.