AbstractsLanguage, Literature & Linguistics

Paused Moments in Sequential Art: The Influence of Kibyóshi in Modern Manga

by Jeeyon Kim




Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: Thesis (M.F.A.)  – Sequential Art; Savannah College of Art and Design  – Department of Sequential Art
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2079944
Full text PDF: http://ecollections.scad.edu/iii/cpro/DigitalItemViewPage.external?sp=1003497


Abstract

Bibliography: pages 51-52 'Comic panels exist primarily to progress the narrative by communicating spatial and chronological transitions as a storytelling tool. In other words, the essence of panels is to serve the reader as a visual aid in comprehending the unfolding sequential narrative. Nonetheless, panels are occasionally used as a window of timeless space, purposefully stopping the reader’s forward movement through the story with a space for contemplation. These panels of transitional absence occur more frequently in modern Japanese comics, also known as manga, than in mainstream American comics. However, these paused panels within modern manga derive profoundly from kibyóshi, a historical art style from Edo period, Japan that has been immensely debated to be the origin or progenitor of modern manga. Academics have concluded that the roots of modern manga lie in the western caricatures, nevertheless by cross-examining the traits of methodology in storytelling of kibyóshi and the frequently practiced transitionally paused panels in modern manga; which will further be referred to as ‘paused panels,’ the origin of paused panels as a storytelling method of modern manga can be traced to kibyóshi. Furthermore, by observing examples of effectively applied paused panels in modern manga, this thesis will determine why paused panels function better in manga than in American comics.' Keywords: panels, transition, narrative, pause, kibyóshi, manga, calligraphy Works cited: page 50 Includes author's black-and-white comic 'Her Diary' Advisors/Committee Members: CHAIR: Fisher, Anthony J., Lowe, John, Goto, Ray.