Comic+Creation

The comic strip which I have created in reference to McCloud’s conceptual analysis is called “The Daily News.” This comic strip consists of three main characters: the news anchor, the sick pig and the evil wolf. What happens in this comic strip is that the sick pig which has swine flu is watching the daily news on his television at home. As the daily news starts, the anchor man goes and announces the breaking news for the day. The breaking news for this particular day is that the recession that which we are in right now is creating foreclosures on many homes and properties and how the banks are repossessing thousands of homes as a result. In addition to this headline, they also talk about how there is a shortage in H1N1 vaccinations to protect the public from the swine flu. Due to the shortage in vaccination they are giving priority to groups of individuals with high risks, children and health care workers. In addition to this headline three senior citizens die from this H1N1 virus flu, this could have been prevented if the vaccination was taken. This makes the sick pig very angry when he sees this, due to the fact that he himself is a senior which is sick and has the H1N1 swine flu himself, as well as the fact that his home is being repossessed and foreclosed due to the recession and has no place to go and live. Afterwards, the big bad wolf comes and says that how he is “sick, weak and homeless...and how bricks can’t stop him now.” Which goes back to the fact how this pig is sick with the H1N1 and is now getting his home repossessed, to where he has nowhere to live or go, while bringing the humour from the Three Little Pigs by showing that even through his home that he lives in now which is made out of bricks the evil wolf is still unstoppable. With that being said he is going to celebrate tonight by eating bacon, which brings back to the fairytale that he finally got to eat the pig he wanted to.
 * Narration:**

When creating the comic “The Daily News...” there were many ideas, concepts and theories which were taken from McCloud‘s book “Understanding Comics” where there are enough details to get the audience to become a part of the comic and understand the storyline. Some of these concepts include specific settings, vocabulary, action sequences, time frames, significant values of lines, using particular words as pictures or symbols, and utilization of colour. In reference to McCloud’s conceptual analysis of the emerging genre, which is based on the time of the comic layout which are “spatially juxtaposed” (McCloud, 1993) meaning that they are positioned in a side-by-side order. If we take a look at the “The Daily News...” it is spatially juxtaposed to the main and relevant event of the comics where the news announcements happen, the comments, reaction and feelings of the sick pig and the conclusion at the end showing that big angry wolf from the fairytale “The Three Little Pigs” hasn’t won in the past, but now has finally achieved what he wanted. This is not happening like in an animation series where they show majority of the storyline, here the most important and relevant events are shown to make the audience to be aware of what is going on without making it seem too long. As well, McCloud mentions that the “power of line, shape, and colour” (McCloud, 1993) are dominant in showing emotions and feelings of the character. Line can play many different roles through design to express feelings, thoughts and judgements of not only people, but places and things too. “There are two different sets of lines. One represents a visible phenomenon, while the other represents an invisible one.” (McCloud, 1993) In the comic “The Daily News…” visible lines are shown when there are sounds coming from the television or the sick pig coughing, while invisible lines include such things as the evil wolf at the end which can smell and taste of the feeling that he is going to be having bacon tonight. This shows that the sense that we have on a daily basis can be interpreted through different types of lines and wavelengths. McCloud also talks about and shows us that there are many different closing mechanisms which are available out there such as: “moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect and non-sequitur.” (McCloud, 1993) Here sequentially the action is being carried out scene-to scene and subject to subject. The reason why this is is that subject-to-subject is when you stay within a scene or idea, the fact of the recession and home foreclosure as well as the H1N1 is constant throughout the whole comic strip. As for the scene-to-scene, the transitions which transport us happen across significant distances of space and time such as inside the sick pigs home and outside his home when the wolf has achieved what he wanted. The comic strip doesn’t occur in one location of the storyline. When using particular “shapes we can actually make a difference in our perception of time.” (McCloud, 1993) Instead of repeating one shot multiple times, you can take it and put it in a larger box to seem that time is passing. When it is over the longer periods of time, they tend to have a larger rectangular or bigger box showing the bigger picture and properties of the scene. For example in “The Daily News...” the first comic box with the anchorman telling the news and the last one with the evil wolf are the largest box as the duration of the time in these scenes are suppose to be the longest, while the two mid size boxes with the sick pig, are outlined in a way to be a regular conversation box. The way that the time durations are distributed are based on time screen play as well as the conversation, its needs to be equally distributed throughout to make it the boxes significant to the reader.
 * Analysis:**