Design as Conversation

Mark Zuckerberg, the famous facebook creator, was just given the honor of having a forty-eight-page comic book biography written about him by Bluewater Productions.  In his comic book his life is portrayed as a light- hearted simple character that has made millions and set the tone for global communication.

            Scott McCloud, the author of Understanding Comics the invisible art, breaks-down the misunderstood theories that many people have about comic books.  He focuses on two main goals: how comics work and what are comics.  McCloud explains that comics are a true art and that they do convey a message to their audience through pictures and word capsules.  He wants his readers to zero in on the fact of the complexity yet simplicity that goes into the making of comics.  With limited mediums, only ink and white paper, creators must go beyond their materials and use their creativity to create a conversation piece between the reader and comic.  McCloud goes in depth defining complex visual techniques such as juxtaposed, various narratives, panels etc, in order to inform the reader of the secrets that decode such amazing arts.

            Using McCloud’s terms one is able to decode the secrets behind the new Zuckerberg Facebook Comic.  In the opening panel of the Zuckerberg comic, the picture fills the entire page with various word bubble surrounding the edges.  At the top of the page there are necessary word capsules that go in depth about his life, which are unable to all be conveyed in just one image.  At the bottom right hand of the page, there is a capsule describing the current scene of Zuckerberg being faced with death.  Both sets of capsules are equally important in order to convey the entire conversation between reader and artist.  McCloud defines this as “inter-dependent, where words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (155).  This is probably one of the most crucial points of the Facebook comic, for this is a biography, which has limited picture space and a lot of critical details.  Time is another key element in the conversation of comics.  This is seen at the top of the second page of the Facebook comic the stretched panel indicates Zuckerberg’s time of reflection.  This is not the only way in which time can be expressed, panels can be added, deleted, lengthened or shortened all to tell time.  In the end, the comic is able to come full circle with the given details of information and accurate time panels.  Thanks to McCloud, the art of comics as conversations may be conveyed simply to their audience such as the Zuckerberg Facebook Comic Book.   

Information found from USA TODAY.  Bluewater productions designed the Comic.