Words into pictures

Comics, also commonly called graphic novels, graphic narratives, graphic stories and sequential art to name a few, suggest an uncertainty about its definition. I define comics by what I believe is its chief signifier, juxtaposed narrative images, but what does it mean to say this? I aim to explore this by producing a work specifically for a gallery space, which may highlight the disparities and commonalities in the methodologies and modes of encounter between comics and the visual arts, specifically the concept of reading. I make reference to narrative fresco cycles as a source and comparison. From this, I propose some properties that can be extrapolated to any work that uses images in juxtaposition that contain recognisably identical elements such as figures and ground. Comics' images generate within a reader a sense of time occurring, and a 'feel' for a place-key components of narrative. This 'reading' generates an immersion in the depicted images, principally through developing a relationship between the reader and the characters similar to that between people, primarily by utilising two visual languages we use every day: facial expressions and body language. This is an intersection where the literary arts merge with the visual in a distinct way.