Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a man who could not read or write. Moreover, the words "read" and "write" did not exist.
Nor is there any other. To express oneself, to tell, to venerate,
he invented the drawing.
Once upon a time, there was a man who couldn't read or write. Of course, at that time, even the words "read" and "write" did not exist. There is no word in this era. For the sake of expression, for the sake of description and for the sake of expressing reverence, he invented painting.
If painting was originally just for better communication, then the emergence of comics must have been a more complicated process. From the name "manga" itself, we can learn a lot. The word "manga" in Chinese is similar to the meaning of manga and manga, that is to say, manga, as a branch of painting art, is the "essay and sketch" in painting. Comics in English mean Comics, and Comic means funny, comedic. In French comics called Bande dessinée, bande means long strip, belt, dessinée means painting, literally translated as "painting strip". The names given to comics in these languages perfectly explain the essence of comics as a "new art" category.
Comics are said to be a kind of "new art" because the formal formation and development of this art is indeed relatively late. In France, bande dessinée comics are called the ninth art after architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature, stage art, film and multimedia art.
In Europe, the pattern of early comics can be traced back to colonna Traiana, the column of Trajan, inaugurated in Rome in 113 AD, and the Tapisserie de Bayeux in 11th-century France.
The pillar of Trajan, which stands on the edge of Rome's Quirinale Mountain, is entwined with 190 meters of reliefs, depicting the great deeds of emperor Trajan of the Roman Empire.
Trajan column Colonna Traiana
The exquisite reliefs present a ribbon narrative painting
The Bayeux tapisserie de Bayeux, also known as the Queen Mathilde tapestry la Reine Mathilde, is 70 meters long and half a meter wide, and 62 meters extant. A total of 623 characters, 55 dogs, 202 warhorses, 49 trees, 41 ships, more than 500 birds and dragons and other creatures appear, about 2000 Latin scripts. Tapestries describe the entire before-after process of the Battle of Hastings, including Halley's Comet, which appeared in April 1066.
Bayeux tapisserie de Bayeux
Bayeux tapestry Tapisserie de Bayeux series of comics
It is recorded that Halley's Comet appeared in the sky
With the invention of printing, we can speculate that around the fifteenth century, there were prototypes of comics in Europe that were close to contemporary forms. A Rake's Progess, usually based on the eighteenth-century comic strip by British artist William Hogarth William Hogarth, is rated as the earliest surviving comic book in Western history. The structure of this work already reflects the characteristics of a storyboard script.
William Hogarth William Hogarth
A Rake's Progess
Subsequently, during the European Renaissance in the sixteenth century, there was no shortage of "European comics" with exaggeration, irony and humor. As the founder of the European comic strip, swiss painter Rudolf Topford Rodolphe Töpffer published a series of comic strips around the 1830s.
Rodolphe Töpffer
A memorial statue built for it in its hometown of Geneva
One of the works "The Story of Mr. Kep Gam"
Story of Mr. Cryptogame
By the nineteenth century, the publishing industry was booming, and newspapers and magazines had become the dominant media, occupying a strong economic position. As a fresh and effective artistic means, comics flourished at this time and gradually formed the current variety of styles. Contemporary comics is a visual art form in which stories are narrated by depicting pictures through different techniques such as fiction, exaggeration, realism, metaphor, symbolism, and pretense. Therefore, the comic is based on pictures, and the text, dialogue, sound words, etc. only assist the reader to understand the plot content.
The Paris entertainment newspaper serialized in a painting column in 1863 adapted from the literary hero Victor Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.
With the development and renewal of technology and media, the creative methods of European comic book authors have become increasingly rich. But overall, European comic book authors create according to the following steps:
· Synopsis Synopsis: An original story, sometimes a story based on a literary or film work.
· Scénario Screenplay: Enrich the story and make it detailed. This is specific to each illustration, each action of the sub-shot, the action of the task, the dialogue, etc.
· Recherche graphique painting research: The painter generally has a unique personal style, using the painting to bring the characters and environments of the whole story to life.
· Mise en page design: determine the overall layout visual effect, determine the layout size, design the illustration border.
· Crayonné Pencil Draft Drawing: Generally the first draft uses A2-sized paper, while the printing uses A4-sized paper that is smaller than it.
· Encrage Ink Stroke, Mise en Couleur Fill: Secondary painting of a drawn draft.
· Lettrage Text Content: Add relevant text content to assist drawing.
But many comic book authors have broken through the general process, so just like the problem of defining literature and film, the creation of comics as an art form is difficult to be defined by rules and regulations.
Some authors emphasize the combination of text and picture, such as Dias Canales, author of Blacksad's "Black Cat Detective" and Hugo Pratt, author of Corto Maltese's "Seven Seas Ranger Cordo".
Black Cat Detective (West) by Dias Canales
"Seven Seas Ranger Kordo" (Italian) Hugo Pratt
But there have also been famous wordless comics in the history of comics, and French comic theorist Thierry Groensteen and American comic theorist Scott McCloud have emphasized the importance of pictorial sequences. For example, French author Chabouté's "Lighthouse Freak" is a representative of a huge story with very little text.
Lighthouse Freak (Fa) Chabouté
European comics are very different from mainstream comics in the United States and Japan in terms of creative form, painting style and content theme. Europe has always produced "literary films", and the structure and genre of European comics can also be called "literary comics". Novels, comics and movies themselves can be said to give people a kind of fantasy, a kind of dream. European comics, on the other hand, are the most complete in terms of the flexibility of story and creation in comics. A European comic is no longer just a paper consumer product for pictorial stories, but more like an art souvenir passed down from generation to generation.
So in the process, many author idols and story character idols were produced. For example, the Belgian French comic series Tintin "The Adventures of Tintin" is a must-read for European children and the most well-known European comic in China.
The Adventures of Tintin series
Tintin's Adventures Movie
The French comic strip Astérix le Gaulois, also known as The Legend of a Hero of Gaul, is also a favorite of Children in Europe. The story takes place in 50 BC, and gaul is occupied by Rome, but Asterix and his friend Obélix, relying on potions, wisdom and courage, complete one difficult task after another, foil Caesar's plot and defend their Gaulish villages.
The Adventures of Asterix series
At present, 33 comic books and picture books have been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects, and have been adapted into movies and video games many times. There is also a theme park of the same name near Paris, which is as famous as Disneyland.
The Adventures of Asterix is a comic written by Albert Uderzo and by René Goscinny by René Goscinny.
I am very fond of his other work with french cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, Le petite nicolas, set in Paris in 1950, telling an interesting story between little Nicholas and his parents and friends. It has been adapted into several live-action films and TV animations.
"Look here, look me in the eye!"
Little Nicholas is a film of the same name
Of course, European comics are oriented to a large range of readers, European comics can be a fun story for parents and children to read together; it can also be a warm force to heal the hearts of adults; it can also be used as a cultural experience to understand the cultural differences and differences of other countries through reading comics, have a complete world view, understand the history and changes and differences of geographical environment. If you want to learn more about European culture, you may want to start with a European comic book!
Post-romantic
hinabookbd