“Strip Poker” by Ellen Forney

I decided to look at the works by Ellen Forney.  I was initially attracted to the simplicity of her work.  The iconography that she uses is very easy to read and the viewer doesn’t have to think too hard about what she’s trying to convey.  I think the use of Sharpie (I believe) as her main medium is probably my favorite part of the comic.  Her voice is displayed through the 2-dimensionality of her work.  The art is flirty and fun and I would argue that it should be taken at face value.  The comic is so visually appealing in the way that the reader doesn’t have to think deeply about what Forney is trying to convey, her artwork speaks for itself.

I was originally intrigued by “Strip Poker.”  After talking so much about comics this semester, I began to look at the cards in the hand as the panels of a comic.  The Jacks in the last two cards are challenging the panel which kind of plays with the idea of closure and time frames.  In my opinion, this would be a really good example of a poster comic like the one we are creating for project two.  Ellen Forney uses line really effectively in this comic to show motion.  The lines around the pants and sock and underwear all clearly display a sense of movement.  However, the way that the lines are portrayed categorizes the movements as different.  The wavy lines surrounding the pants and socks make it seem like they’re wiggling and waving around.  The dotted lines behind the underwear create a much sharper movement.

I believe that this comic has a picture-specific word/picture combination.  The viewer would know what the comic was about without the caption, but without the picture, I think it would be much harder to fully understand what the artist’s comic is about.