Imagine you open up a comic book and the first page shows a close up of a man’s smirking face. You have no context. Who is this man? Why is he smirking? “He seems pretty smug,” you may think. You turn the page to get more information about why he is smirking. The next page, however, shows that the man had been decapitated. His head is actually floating in a jar.
Surprise!
Although comic-book artists are forced to work within the limitations of their medium (all they have are pictures and words displayed with other pictures and words), comics also give us insight into how we can transform limitations into inspiration for new ideas.
Growing up I loved the comics of Will Eisner such as “The Spirit.” As Eisner observes in his Comics & Sequential Art, “From the outset the conception and writing of a story is affected by the limitations of the medium. These virtually dictate the scope of a story and the depth of its telling.”
Good comics exploit the limitations of the medium. By delivering one picture at a time, they provide you with little clues to the story, as if you are witnessing the events like the reader of Tarot cards. The comic book artist decides what to show, and when to show it, and counts on you to fill in your own understanding of everything that is not shown. The artist can sequentially reveal frames to either reinforce your expectations or, like the head in the jar, to introduce an element of surprise and dash your expectations.
Although comics use text and language, they are primarily a visual medium. The artist knows that ideas must be communicated visually. This is both a limitation and a motivator.
The artist faces some fundamental questions. What type of story can I render in comic-book form? What type of story is off limits? How can I tell this story visually? What imagery can I use to tell the story? What perspective should I use? Whose viewpoint? What style of art? Which visuals are essential to include? Which ones can be omitted?
“Of the many elements of a story, the most amenable to imagery are scenery and action. It is also reasonable to expect this medium to deal with abstractions that can be conveyed by human action and scenery,” Eisner explains. “It is for this reason that stories and plots of simple, obvious action have long dominated comic book literature.”
The comic-book artist understands that simple, obvious action are the medium’s building blocks. The artist works with them in the same way the musician works with rhythm and melody. They are fundamental, familiar. They are the language of comics.
Once the artist realizes this, the question becomes, What powerful stories can I create from simple, obvious actions?
So, building the story on simple actions and telling the story one picture at a time, these limitations actually create some very fertile conditions for creating new ideas.