Comic made with Adobe Illustrator.

This project was intended to fit Scott McCloud’s definition of comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence.” I feel that it accomplishes this goal because the panels and images within are juxtaposed, or placed beside one another in deliberate sequence; in this case, the sequence is made up of events that follow each other through time. One thing that I identified with while studying Scott McCloud’s exploration of comics was his suggestion that while many comics contain text and dialogue, comics as a medium are not required to contain these things, especially if images convey the meaning behind the piece. As such, the comic that I created for this project contains no text or dialogue, but still attempts to tell a story through images, with emphasis on contrast between grayscale and color.

Ideally, the comic is read on paper, because I feel that the only sources of color, being the butterfly and, eventually, the lily, create a type of implied line that guides the eye through certain important panels of the comic, and this is only possible when the entire comic is visible on one page, and doesn’t need to be scrolled on a computer or phone. The panels should also be set up in the specific order and format shown, which are designed to fit a portrait-oriented sheet of printer paper. I also found print to be more enjoyable to read than digital, due in part to the fact that reading print comics held my attention for longer periods of time than reading the digital comics.