The Adventures of Tintin

     

     Tintin took us all over the world, traveling from places to places, discovering new adventures and solving more mysterious. We followed his foot steps exploring around the world on paper, and he never fails providing surprises on each adventure. To accommodate great stories there must be great protagonists. Herge really did a great job on building the personalities of the characters. They all have strong characteristics. It is incredible how the characters appeal to us. Certain character speaks a certain way, act a certain way, and express him/her in a certain way. We can easily tell which dialogue was spoken by which character without seeing the actual illustration - just like identifying a person's voice.

     The captain for example, is the most unique person among the characters of the adventures of Tintin. He has a big beard and a big body. He is always expressed in an exaggerated facial expression with exaggerated gestures. He loves whiskies, and he always mess up because of it. So the beer bottle became a symbol for him just like the big round ears became a symbol for Micky Mouse. These characteristics engrave into our mind, they are what brought the story to life.

     Tintin, the soul of the story, is a boy with all the good natures of human. He is smart, brave and adventurous. He has a strong sense of justice, he is not afraid of anything, he can do all kinds of stuff such as riding the horse, fixing machines, operating cars, planes, and even the tank. In the story of Tintin, there's always a good side and a bad side. Tintin can always fight off the bad guys - just like the golden rule of many other stories: evil can never prevail the good. Tintin is an idol because he can do all the things we wanted to do and he has all the characteristics we dreamed of.  Herge in fact, created a superhero rather than a human. Only this superhero, Tintin, can lead us into the most exciting adventures of all time.

Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay

     Unlike most comic books we read today, Winsor McCay's works were following a certain form and norm. Little Sammy Sneeze, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, and Little Nemo in Slumberland all started the story differently but end with the similar ending (earlier Little Nemo comic even started off with the same beginning). Winsor McCay told the same story over and over again, but just differently. What really impressed me is his ability to fit so much imagination and information into such simple form of storytelling. He created a world way beyond our imagination on single pages of weekly comic newspapers.

     Not only does Winsor McCay's story follow a particular norm, his drawings did the same thing as well. The stories are drawn on a steady pace, one follow another, more like an animatic storyboard. We spend about the same time on each panel, even the dialogues between the characters tend to be balanced throughout the panels. The panels are pretty much the same size throughout, except for couple that contains more action and characters. McCay expanded the size of the panele rather than shrinking the characters. There are no close-up or medium shots, the characters are always the same size, drawn from head to toe. It almost look like the characters are walking through the panels as we are reading. Most of the feelings are expressed through body languages, the characters had barely any expression on their faces. Due to the fact because they are always put into a wide shot, their faces are so small that we only can see two dots for the eyes and a line for the mouth.

(steady pace)

(barely any facial expression)

     It is quite obvious that McCay didn't pay too much attention into expressing the feelings of the characters, rather, he focused heavily on the other objective elements such as the backgrounds, which are essential to form the world he created. McCay wants to express the "Slumberland" more than little Nemo himself.