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Understanding Comics, Understanding Mastery
Scott McCloud’s stupendous UNDERSTANDING COMICS is must-read for anyone wishing to understand visual storytelling, but as valuable for understanding ANY storytelling, and ultimately art itself.
Yesterday in the PEN AND SWORD workshop we explored one of its concepts a bit. Specifically this progression:
- Idea/Purpose
- Form
- Idiom
- Structure
- Craft
- Surface
Remember the Bruce Lee quote about art originating in the Formless and making its way into the material world? Combine this with the notion that art is Self expression, an impulse orignating in the deep self, emerging into more and more concrete layers of existence until finally expressing in some external action and result.
The McCloud Progression thar can be understood in terms of, say, my new novel STARBORN AND GODSONS. The IDEA/PURPOSE was to bring a conclusion to the Heorot story, and also have the pleasure of collaborating with both Larry and Jerry again. As Jerry was unwell, there was some urgency to this, and a deep desire to serve my friends by facilitating a final opportunity to play together. To do this, we had to take threads planted in the first two books (LEGACY OF HEOROT and BEOWULF’S CHILDREN) and the novella (THE SECRET OF BLACK SHIP ISLAND) and create a satisfying story.