Tag: comics

Translating the format of storytelling from one context to another always necessitates making decisions about what to emphasize and what to cut.

For example, within the context of long-form fiction, you have the space to create nuance. The shadows of what is not said but implied can be used over time to create the shading and contradictions that add up to realism. With a comic, there are only a limited number of panels and limited number lines of dialogue per panel. There’s a pacing between strips and the way that a grouping of strips can add up to a greater sum, but by necessity of the form there is a sparseness to comics that is different from prose.

Which is all to say that as a creator there’s a certain amount of experimenting that happens when trying a new format. And as a researcher (and long-time tumblr user), I was curious what people enjoy. I blazed three posts: one that’s a bit quirky (outcome: 9 notes), one that’s a bit stereotypical, talking about the Breath of the Wild sequel (outcome: 11 notes), and the one that has a flipping Bourdieu punchline (49 notes, including several reblogs).

Never change, tumblr. Never change.