A comparison of story structures within comics and cinema with an emphasis on how viewers and reader are led through storytelling. Examples from Ernie Bushmiller, Chris Ware, Bernie Kriegstein and David Mamet. Taught as a class session for CMS.405 Media and Methods: Seeing and Expression, a class in MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program taught by Glorianna Davenport.

1. Comics and the
Storytelling
Imperative
Ryan Evans rhino@alum.mit.edu
http://www.lucaflect.com
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2. Tell me
a story
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3. Ernie Bushmiller Nancy 1925-1982
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9. Humans want to
make stories
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10. Closure
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11. McCloud’s Closure Categories
• Moment to Moment
• Action to Action
• Subject to Subject
• Scene to Scene
• Aspect to aspect
• Non-Sequitur
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12. Storyboards talk Comics talk to
to a crew an audience
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13. Chris Ware
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15. McCloud’s Closure Categories
• Moment to Moment
• Action to Action
• Subject to Subject
• Scene to Scene
• Aspect to aspect
• Non-Sequitur
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19. Koike & Kojima Lone Wolf and Cub 1975
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20. Let the cut tell the story.
Otherwise, you have not got
dramatic action, you have
narration. If you slip into
narration, you are saying 'you'll
never guess why what I just told
you is important to the story.' It's
unimportant that the audience
should guess why it's important
to the story. It's important simply
to tell the story. Let the audience
be surprised.
- David Mamet
On Directing Film 1991
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21. Ben Shahn Myself When Young 1943
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23. Dan Clowes Caricature 1998
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24. Dan Clowes Caricature 1998
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27. Scott McCloud ZOT! 1987-1991
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28. • Tell your story
with uninflected
juxtapositions
• After you have a
strong structure
think about
reinforcing your
themes
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30. Charles Schulz Peanuts 1950-2000
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31. When you read a sequence of
pictures, something happens in
your mind. If you read it closely,
youʼll hear it. Chopping a scene
up into more pieces can alter
the pacing. Drawing a larger
panel after a series of smaller
panels can create a long note.
Telling a story in this form is
one of the most complicated
things you can do on paper.
- Chris Ware
Interview on CNN.com Oct 3, 2000
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34. Harvey Pekar & Robert Crumb “The Harvey Pekar Name Story” 1982
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35. Montage
• Metric
• Rythmic
Sergei Eisenstein Film Form 1949
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36. Montage
• Metric
• Rythmic
Sergei Eisenstein Film Form 1949
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39. Bernard Kriegstein & Al Feldstein The Master Race 1955
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40. Bernard Kriegstein & Al Feldstein The Master Race 1955
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41. The world of comics
may, in its generosity,
lend scripts, characters,
and stories to the
movies, but not its
inexpressible secret
power of suggestion
that resides in that
fixity, that immobility of
a butterfly on a pin.
- Federico Fellini
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44. Roldolphe Töpffer The History of Albert 1844
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45. Richard McGuire The Thinkers 1990
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