CCT300+Comic+Creation

Fat Cats Drinking Beer - Web Comic

Comic Creation Self Analysis ***SPOILER ALERT*** //Fat Cat’s Drinking Beer// is a web comic I developed about a cat named Mr. Whiskers who can no longer withstand his inferior position in life and chooses to take action in an attempt to gain control over the human species. It is featured as a single page on the web and utilizes the default scrolling function of any web browser to display the story to the reader. What I set out to do in the creation of the comic was to illustrate Mr. Whiskers’ journey to the audience in a relatively unorthodox manner. Instead of featuring scenes on a completely viewable space such as a page in a book or on my Wikispace, I chose to host the image of the comic on my Sheridan server. This allowed me to avoid any constraints set out by Wikispaces, for example maximum image size, while simultaneously permitting me to interactively take the audience on Mr. Whiskers’ adventure. Of course, this method of presenting my web comic is not entirely full-proof in revealing to the audience what I decide they should see at a particular moment since the viewer has full control over where they scroll in the webpage. Thus, if a particular viewer feels the inclination to disregard the guidelines of the comic as outlined in the first scene, “Follow the paw prints”, there is the potential that they may come across the final scene in which it is revealed that the story took place in Mr. Whiskers’ imagination, effectively spoiling the entire comic (Fig 1). However, what the viewer may come to realize is that the story can in a sense be read from back to front. I proposed this idea by utilizing cloud bubbles as a transition to the final scene. Since cloud bubbles do not insinuate a particular direction, the viewer can proceed to the previous scene by simply following the path of the cloud bubbles.

Apart from the physical presentation of the comic, I utilized many methods described by Scott McCloud in his text //Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art// in an attempt to tell Mr. Whiskers’ story without the use of words. I chose to do this as it is an accepted notion that cats cannot talk, and since my comic is based off of a fairly fictitious phenomena (cats taking over the world), I hoped to keep a sense of realism in the story by not providing the viewer with the cat’s dialogue. This being said, my comic does not propose that cats are unable to communicate. Rather, through utilizing expressive lines to create “a visual metaphor—a symbol” I enabled the cats to display meaning amongst each other and to the audience as well (McCloud 128). For example, in the close-up scene where Mr. Whiskers is observed to be giving a speech, I chose to define his circular shaped mouth in a bolded fashion in hopes of proposing that the sound of Mr. Whiskers’ speech was surrounding his audience (Fig 2). Since a circle in its most basic form is a shape which surrounds an element, I felt it fitting for what I was trying to accomplish within the scene. Additionally, I tried to propose Mr. Whiskers’ influence and power over his onlookers by illustrating his arm in an upright position. To further propose the notion of Mr. Whiskers’ influence, I illustrated the two scenes depicting Mr. Whiskers’ speech to closely resemble the scene of Charles Foster Kane giving his speech in Orson Welles film, //Citizen Kane// (Fig 2 & 3).

McCloud also goes on to describe the process by which images “drift out of their visual context” and “into the invisible world of symbol” (130). By this McCloud refers to the abstract method of illustrating emotions. Instead of placing a sweat bead on a nervous character’s face, or drawing a character with a surprised expression, McCloud proposes that comics have the ability to engulf these characters in symbols (130). These symbols refer to expressive jagged lines which insinuate shock, droplets surrounding character’s heads to propose nervous surprise, and even hearts around characters’ head to show that they are in love. I utilized such symbols in my comic in order to continue to communicate to the audience without having to provide text. For example in the scenes depicting chaotic city landscapes where the cats are attacking the humans, more than a few of McCloud’s symbols can be observed (Fig 4 & 5). First there are sweat droplets circling some character’s already shocked-looking faces. I employed these droplets into the scene in an attempt to show how panic stricken the human population had become. Secondly there is a woman observed running from the chaos and around her are multiple jagged lines. These jagged lines express an unwelcoming feeling towards the invading cats while also continuing the insinuation of a traumatized population. A final little detail added to one of the city scenes to show the death of a human is the use of X’s in place of the character’s eyes. This is a widely used symbol to portray this state and allowed me to avoid having to draw a decapitated human or something of the similar sort in order to show death.

Another technique I employed throughout my comic to communicate meaning was lines. As explained by McCloud, the line has an expressive potential and depending on how it is drawn, different meanings can be synthesized. One scene in particular which effectively utilizes this method is the final scene, where Mr. Whisker’s is observed to be daydreaming while resting on an extremely large bag of catnip with a mug of beer in his hand (Fig 1). Every last line used in the illustration of this scene has some sort of rounded edge or curve which as McCloud states, expresses warmth and gentleness (124). Since Mr. Whiskers is visibly relaxed, these rounded lines further propose his mental state and allow the viewer to feel his emotion.

Works Cited McCloud, Scott. //Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art//. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993. Print. Kowalski, Tom. //Fat Cats Drinking Beer.// 2012. Web Comic. http://phoenix.sheridanc.on.ca/~ccit765/comicCreation/