{"id":132,"date":"2013-01-08T21:35:04","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T02:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/?page_id=132"},"modified":"2013-03-12T05:33:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-12T09:33:26","slug":"panel-analysis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/assignments\/panel-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"panel analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a minimum of <strong>350 words<\/strong>, I want you to do a close reading of a single panel from one of the primary texts (i.e. anything but the McCloud or Eisner&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Comics and Sequential Art<\/em>) we&#8217;ve read so far. \u00a0You should choose a panel that stands out to you for some reason, one that seems particularly relevant, interesting, enigmatic, or important\u2014a panel you think will yield some interesting analysis. \u00a0Briefly place the panel in a context\u2014what&#8217;s going on in the surrounding pages\/panels, either narratively or formally?\u2014and explain how and why this particular panel stands out, what strikes you as interesting or worth saying about it.<\/p>\n<p>Some things worth honing in on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 13px;\"><strong>text\/image relationship<\/strong> (McCloud ch. 6, especially p. 153-155): \u00a0given that the text is also image, is there anything interesting about the aesthetics of the text? \u00a0is the text uniform within the panel, or is it set off somehow, by aesthetics, font, direction, layout, etc.? \u00a0how is the text inserted into the image? \u00a0are there speech\/thought bubbles, or is it overlaid more seamlessly? \u00a0what is the text describing\/narrating, relative to the image?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>visual style<\/strong> (McCloud ch. 2): \u00a0where does the look of the panel reside on the iconic-realistic spectrum? \u00a0what effect does this have? \u00a0is the visual style of the characters\/foreground objects different from that of the background? \u00a0how would you characterize the overall aesthetic? \u00a0dark or light, spare or busy, high or low contrast?<\/li>\n<li><strong>time<\/strong> (McCloud ch. 4, especially p. 96): \u00a0how does time work in the panel? \u00a0what amount of time seems to be captured in the panel? \u00a0is it a long moment or a short one? \u00a0does a reader perceive the panel&#8217;s entire contents immediately? \u00a0if not, in what order is the reader&#8217;s eye led through the panel, and what effect does this have?<\/li>\n<li><strong>senses<\/strong>: \u00a0are there other senses (sound, smell, touch, taste) engaged within the panel? \u00a0how? \u00a0to what effect?<\/li>\n<li><strong>framing\u00a0<\/strong>(McCloud ch. 4; Eisner&#8217;s\u00a0<em>Comics and Sequential Art<\/em> p. 44-45, 59-61): \u00a0how does the panel framing itself work? \u00a0is its linework crisp? \u00a0hand-drawn? \u00a0adorned? \u00a0how is the panel shaped? \u00a0how would you characterize the gutter surrounding it?<\/li>\n<li><strong>movement<\/strong>: \u00a0is there motion within the panel? \u00a0how is it depicted or implied?<\/li>\n<li><strong>orientation<\/strong>: \u00a0is the panel oriented toward action? \u00a0character? \u00a0setting? \u00a0tone? \u00a0how does this compare to what surrounds it on the page or elsewhere in the text?<\/li>\n<li><strong>line<\/strong>\u00a0(McCloud ch. 5, especially p. 124-126): \u00a0how would you characterize the line work within the panel? \u00a0of what is it expressive? \u00a0what does it evoke? \u00a0how does it relate to the tone of what&#8217;s going on in the narrative itself? \u00a0is it different for the characters\/foreground objects compared to the background?<\/li>\n<li><strong>color<\/strong> (McCloud ch. 8): \u00a0does the panel use black and white, color, grayscale, half-tones? \u00a0what is the expressive force of that choice? \u00a0if it uses color, how does the particular use of color affect the overall visual style? \u00a0does it contrast (e.g. realistic linework with bold, pulpy color) or reinforce the line work\/the rest of the aesthetic? \u00a0to what ends?<\/li>\n<li><strong>composition<\/strong><em>\u00a0<\/em>(Eisner&#8217;s <em>Comics and Sequential Art<\/em>\u00a0p. 88-90 and elsewhere in ch. 4): \u00a0how is the panel composed? \u00a0from what perspective is its content depicted? \u00a0how does this compare to the rest of the text, and to the panels\/pages immediately surrounding it? \u00a0what expressive force do these compositional choices have?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This list of questions is intended to be generative, not exhaustive; it should get you started thinking about how to talk about the panel you&#8217;ve chosen in a rigorous, attentive way. \u00a0Some of these questions will be less relevant to some panels than others; some panels will elicit questions I haven&#8217;t listed. \u00a0The main task, again, is to give the panel close scrutiny, to place it in the context (narrative, formal, aesthetic) of what surrounds it, and most of all, to articulate what is interesting or striking about it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please include a scan\/export of the page your panel is from, and indicate somehow which panel you&#8217;re writing about. \u00a0(If you don&#8217;t have access to a scanner and can&#8217;t find one in a computer lab, you can turn in a photocopy of the page on Tuesday.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Due in my inbox on <strong>Sunday night (2.10.13) by midnight<\/strong>. \u00a0<em>PDF format is highly preferable<\/em>. \u00a0(Recent versions of Word should be able to save\/export to PDF, and Macs allow you to print any document to PDF.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a minimum of 350 words, I want you to do a close reading of a single panel from one of the primary texts (i.e. anything but the McCloud or Eisner&#8217;s\u00a0Comics and Sequential Art) we&#8217;ve read so far. \u00a0You should &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/assignments\/panel-analysis\/\"><em>Continue&nbsp;reading&nbsp;<span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-132","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132\/revisions\/260"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noendofneon.net\/comix\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}