Dawngate Chronicles

During the week I read a webcomic called Dawngate Chronicles which can be found here: http://www.dawngate.com/chronicles/prologue/1/

It's an amazing comic set in fantasy about the world that revolves around the spirits of vitality and people that can get chosen to use these powers at the heart of the world called the Dawngate. In the world it's a mad scramble to control this place and 4 regions battle with their Shapers (the people who have the powers) from the South, the West, the North and the East. Each region has its own customs and cultures and the prologue follows the the story of a man called Eidolus.

Further more the control of color, mood and storyline how their are hidden gems within each panel which become apparent in later panels. The colors are a rich saturation and draw my eye and the characters each have their own unique backstory and relationships with other shapers. All in all its an amazing comic to read.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics

In reading Scott Mcloud's Understanding Comics, which can be read here online http://www.uic.edu.hk/~amyzhang/teaching/COMP3050/readings/McCloud_Understanding_Comics.pdf, I began to delve into the book and understand in Scott's attempt to explain to his audience to the medium and subject that is comics. 

I was immediately hooked onto the but to with what grasped me the most was his talk in Chapter 3 "Blood in the gutter" where he explained the space between panels and how it affects our thought process. In each space of the panel we allow our minds to create and time elapse into what we think is happening before the next panel. In a previous page Scott says "In an incomplete world, we must depend on closure for our very survival." In my mind it means that while reading each panel we must complete the action or have our minds find a way to understanding give sense to what is happening. such as the panel he showcases where a man exclaims to another man that he will die now swing an axe at him and the next panel is a scream with a shot of a city.  Anything could've happened between the space of those panels. We don't know if the man who swung the axe killed the other man or if something else entirely happened. The axe man could have tripped and hit his head on the curb while trying to kill the man but that is the point Scott explains.

Our minds come up with what happens in order to give us closure. and goes with all comics. From X-men to Naruto the space between the panels of the comic have a certain magic that makes comics it's own thing, different from movies or whatever. The space makes our minds give meaning to what we are reading and there are 6 different types a way a comic acts in that makes our mind process the comic:

1. Moment to Moment - requires very little closure to understand what happens. Ex: two panels showcasing a women with her eyes open then closing them.

2. Action to Action - a sudden transfer in which our minds give meaning to what happened. Ex: a car speeding in one panel and the next panel it misshapen on a tree, possibly crashed.

3. Subject to Subject - a way of a comic staying within a scene or idea. Ex: the axe wielding guy then the shot of the city.

4. Scene to Scene - a way where it transitions us through space and time. Ex: a panel of a man stating someone can't hide forever then moving to a panel with a house and a text box which reads "ten years later".

5. Aspect to Aspect - this sets an wandering eye on difference aspects of a place, idea or mood. Ex: one panel depicting a living room in festive decorations and the next panel of Santa Claus. 

6. Non-Sequitur - which offers no logical relationship between panels whatsoever so your mind is left to grasp what your are seeing to its own free will with no limitations! 

All of these ways and thus the space between the panels helps define in our brains what this means for us as readers!. 

Max Ernest: A Week of Kindness or Seven Deadly Elements Interpretation

1/ 13/ 15 Class #1

Review each panel and interpret

Thursday

Element: Blackness

Examples: Rooster's Laughter

1. A women in dark clothes, possibly sick, presented herself to a rooster in front of her.

2. A human like figure wearing a rooster costume hovering over the body of a dead women, possibly the same one, grieving? 

3. The human like figure in the rooster costume now converses with a Satyr it appears over the still open grave of the fallen women. 

4. It looks as though the rooster costumed man made a pact with another dark figure to perform some dark ritual of the fallen women and results in him becoming an actual humanoid rooster monster. 

5. The humanoid Rooster looks as though he has killed a women he possibly was involved in. Maybe time has passed in his life?

6. A women in dark garbs, presents herself in a unnatural way that has her fellow women aghast, who is in light clothes while the humanoid rooster peers from behind a door.

7.