Brian places an emphasis on the interaction of word and image for his word; in particular- Mom's Cancer. I noticed, for example in this one strip that Brian showed us he explained to us how without words with the combination of images, the strip would not be as successful. This was the strip of when Cartoon Brian was talking on the phone with his father about his mother's condition. While the conversation between his father and him seemed like they were talking about one thing, the panels underneath the words were of dark images coupled with the underlying honest conversation they were actually having. If the dark images below the conversation were not present, the point of illustrating the two faced conversation would not have been as successful.
Another effective image that conveyed Brian's use of word and image was the image of his mother hearing her options on how to treat the cancer.
On this panel, Brian's mother is shown as walking on a tightrope. As the panel progresses towards the right, more animals and objects are added onto her balance beam- making it hard for her to balance over a pool of alligators. Certainly Brian's mother was never really walking on a tightrope but the message being conveyed was how Brian's mother really felt as she kept hearing her options and possibilities of treatment. It is really effective in illustrating just how scared and terrible she felt as the text on the panel was depicting what was happening in reality.
Finally another huge panel that effectively illustrated the interaction of word and image is the image of Brian's mother suffering.
During the presentation Brian was illustrating how this panel came into existence. First he was just sketching his mother laying in bed with messy bed sheets to convey how she felt. But as Brian was coloring, he ended coloring everything but his mother's body parts black. Surrounding his illustration were text boxes of just how much pain she was in, but the dark picture of his mother in pieces really reinforced and illustrated just how much pain she was in.
Brian concluded the lecture by letting us know that the interaction of word and image was why he chose to be a graphic novelist. The combination of words and images are just more effective than one or the other. Novels with books don't make it immature.
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