Sunday, May 16, 2010
mouth in comic
Most comics I've read, while the character is talking, the mouth is usual open to show him/her talking. In Persepolis, as earlier posts have pointed out, while the characters are talking their mouths are rarely open, and in contrary, you rarely see McCloud shut his mouth in Understand Comics. So, here's my question: Does close mouth or open mouth have certain meanings for how the text works? Personally I don't feel a thing, as long as the speech bubble is pointing to the right person.
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That is actually a very interesting point that you have discovered, I never quite noticed that. I don't believe McCould even mentions the way text boxes and facial expressions associate with one another. And in fact I believe most believe overlooked the fact in general, depending on the tone of people talking I wouldn't say it to be so important; however, I think if a comic artist is portraying someone screaming they should have a mouth totally open or whispering a small gap. Though I would also be unsure whether it would be important to the overall story or interpretation.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the author were meticulously consistent in how they portrayed the mouths of their characters the audience could distinguish it as an internal dialogue, as a soliloquy or a monologue. Though I think facial expressions, settings, and forms of speech bubbles are used as indicators to help cue the audience in on these things. McCloud, albeit not directly, touched on this issue, with his broader topic of time in panels and how it isn't instantaneous. That gutters create the illusion of time relying on closure but also how words do this by virtue of sound needing to exist in time.
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