Chris Ware - Raccord

Chris Ware's work is very geometric and ordered, seen here in his raccord 'Big Tex' [1], a non-linear narrative about a tree and the events that happen around it over several decades. The passage of time is seen through the changing of seasons, shown through use of bright colour in spring and summer and pale, saturated colours in winter, as well as the featured characters growing from frame to frame and the inclusion of the gravestones of characters who were alive in previous panels.

This idea is also used by Frank King in his 'Gasoline Alley' comic in the 1930s [2]. He uses a single scene and follows the movements of the same characters from frame to frame. In this example, the narrative is much more linear and shows the progression of the beach-goer as he trips and fumbles his way across the sand and into the sea. 

Some key differences between the two are: King's scene occurs over a shorter time period than Ware's meaning a relationship to the character is more essential as he has less time to portray. The colours used also differ, especially as Ware is showing multiple seasons instead of one scene; I prefer the muted colours King uses here although from looking at Ware's other works, I know some of his preferred palettes are less garish and clashing.

The piece I created to show the raccord idea is a busy desk over the course of a few days. I wanted to show the presence of a person using the desk even though they were not seen directly. The idea of changing seasons and weather from Ware's piece was appealing so I included a little of this in the window, it goes from shuttered to raining to sunny and open. Also, in King's work some of the background elements stayed the same from panel to panel which I incorporated in the book shelf and flooring area, because these are not the center of interest it works quite well and keeps the viewer's attention on the table and window.

References

[1] Ware 1996

[2] Wikipedia 2016

Bibliography

Nicolas Verstappen. 2016. "Big Tex" by Chris Ware. [ONLINE] Available at: https://fromdusktilldrawnblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/big-tex-by-chris-ware-usa-1996/. [Accessed 7 December 2016].

Wikipedia. 2016. Gasoline Alley. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_Alley. [Accessed 7 December 2016].