Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

From Richard McGuire’s “ctrl”, found in McSweeney’s quarterly concern. No. 13 pages 190-191

I think that the concept of framing is well demonstrated in this spread. There are of course the literal frames that make up the comic. Something interesting about them is that they are all the same dimensions and are organized evenly in a 4×4 grid throughout the entire excerpt.

There is also the reoccurring use of implied frames. At the end of each two-page spread McGuire presents either leaves, bread crumbs, or dirt within an implied rectangle shaped frame. This brings the story together, since there is no dialogue. It gives the reader a peak of the tendencies of the character and their personality. It also reveals a certain irony of the main character’s death.

page 65 from the Graphic novel The Best American Comics by Harvey Pekar and Anne Elizabeth Moore

This page from the graphic novel The Best American Comics is a great example of the use of framing. The framing used on this page has the individual graphics in different sized framed boxes. The framing done in each individual comic strip helps demonstrate the importance done in each individual strip. The cropping done is some of the images helps create a framing on some of the characters of the story. It helps emphasize the importance in the emotions, this can be shown in the image of the upper right of the man. The organizational design possibilities offered by framing allows for the reader or viewer to have an easier way to read. This formatting also allows for a more precise and clear reading format, that demonstrates the traditional left to right, top to bottom reading. Having margins around the framing allows the readers or viewers eye to be directed straight to the images in the middle. The margins allow for a direct eye sight on the actual content. Then the margins between the individual images allows for a neater and more organized form to demonstrate the content. It also helps with having a clear and concise comic that the audience can easily look at or read. The framing used on this page also helps demonstrate where the story ends and continues. Like I mentioned earlier the images change in size and the framing done, thin borders, help the eye follow the movement of the story. Overall the framing used in this page from the graphic novel does a great job of demonstrating, especially 0n what the concept and design do to organize a story.

Page 4 from Marjane Satrapi’s comic, “Persepolis“

While creating a visual landscape for a viewer the designer, artist, or even author as this can even be necessary in one’s writing must find a way to frame one’s work so that the viewer is drawn to the focus and not bombarded by information from the image. Focusing on comics we can see in each one the use of frames to separate the different images that cover the page. In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi we see the use of very bold outlines around each image to separate one frame from the next. But the frames do more than separate the frozen moments in time, they enhance the content inside. Looking at page four of Persepolis specifically, we are filled with different feelings and thoughts by the way the images and words fill the frame. In frame 1 we see children running and playing with each other, a margin on top for the words, and a large field of view as the image does not focus on one thing but many different subjects. Frame 2 brings it in a little closer so that we begin to focus on the expressions of the children, margin still on top, helping keep the reader focused in the center of the frame for the black shirts and crossed arms start to draw our eyes down but the faces stop us. Frame 3 the mood starts to change as we are now focused on a single face, a man, and unlike the children this face does not look playful, the margin is still at the top. Only this time an added speech bubble under that creates a triangle between the margin and the man’s face, pulling our eyes down to connect with the eyes of this new character. Frame 4 is pulled back out to include the some of the audience and again no focusing too much on one subject. Frame 5 is the most powerful as the frame only includes part of the man’s face and focusing only on his expression, we have no outside static beyond the frame to draw us from the powerful image we are looking at, while there is writing within the frame our eyes go nowhere. Frame 6 is pulled out and more people are added to clutter and relax the viewer after the strength of the frame before. Frame 7, a lighter frame in content and in color, giving us closure to the story.

Framing is our key tool to separate, organize and guide the reader to focus on specific parts of a scene, image or background in order to follow the story that we want to illustrate. Framing can help us display the elements and messages that an artist may want to imply within their art. When designing the frame of art, artists may use the frame to focus on exhibiting the various elements being used, such as lines, colors, contrast, shape, and texture.

Page 27 of Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Goodbye, Chunky Rice (pg. 27, Top Shelf Productions, 1999)

Notice that on page 27 of “Goodbye, Chunky Rice”, Craig Thompson used framing in multiple ways to create a short montage of various scenes in order to show the residential activities that are occurring in the neighborhood. The center image is the focal point of the page while the surrounding images as a border show a focus on each character that appears in the main image. The cropping of the main image helps the artist being able to fit all of the desired scenes while building up the border. Dew uses a great form of “frame within a frame” technique in order to lead and guide the direction of the reader’s eyes from photo to photo. While all the surrounding photos are available, there is still the largest image on the page which serves as the main picture that all the other ones refer or reply on in order to make sense to the viewer.

Last, page 27 has about 3 to 4 different scales to sized images available. The different sized frames help the reader understand the order that the images are forming. The boxes being the same scaled size on each side of the page, is a way to show the reader that the images are all flowing into the same scene which then leads to a continue in the story.

This image appears on David Lasky’s Portfolio- Comics Art at: https://davidlasky.carbonmade.com/projects/4415769/14017962 

David Lasky’s illustration for “The Ocean Has a Brain” (page 8) written by Lisa Marlowe.

This comic illustrates the affects that framing has concerning how we perceive the content of a comic. The individual pictures within this design are each frames separated by borders allowing each piece of work to draw it’s own attention and be lifted apart from the other surrounding images. According to the Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, in their book, Graphic Design: The New Basics frames are  “subservient” to the design they surround yielding to the image but also shapes our understanding of that image. In this comic, the borders of the frames are white, which do not draw attention to their lines making them disappear and “subservient” to the images allowing for the content to stand out. The white borderlines also make these frames implied separating the content subtly drawing attention and lifting the designs apart from the setting. Lasky uses frames within a frame concept by illustrating the ocean dream of the author filling the whole center of the page with an ocean image that appears to be within the “brain” of her head (as dreams are). I see the movement of the ocean waves and feel connected to the dream that includes an image of car floating within the water as if traveling with the dream. The lower 3 frames make up parts of the author’s face showing a nose, mouth and ear. With the use of white borders I see past the individual lines of the frames as if they are invisible creating an entire image of Marlowe’s head creating the frames within a frame element. Lastly, the top of the comic shifts in scale where 4 smaller horizontal frames containing clouds and script. This shifting of scale helps to shape the understanding of this comic because not only do the clouds appear within these frames but also the horizontal lines help to show layers of clouds that are seen in the sky. Typically, dreams are often described as coming from above and within the thoughts of our minds. The script within these horizontal frames sets up the idea for the comic and places the viewer within the scene because the dream is explained here and seems to flow down from the top. With the use of shifts in scale and the frames within the frames the comic is more visually understood by the reader and allows the viewer to relate to the image in an interesting way as dreams are common to us all and often we all try to examine and remember our dreams, just as Marlowe recalls the dreams of her childhood.