Monday, November 8, 2010

Brian Fies Word and Image














Brian Fies cartoonist of Mom’s Cancer and Whatever Happened to the world of Tomorrow came to our class to lecture on his design process. Fies honesty and deep passion was very inspirational. His story about having to temporarily give up comics to be able to support his family and then coming back to it later represents his true dedication.  Fies came to describe the long process of making his comic book about his mother’s cancer.  Fies sponge like behavior helped him stay true; for instance, he talked about how he use to write down what his mother said, the doctor, his two sisters, and even what he was saying at the moment.  Fies claimed that in order for the comic to be successful he had to tell it how it was.  The words had to match what was going on and so did the images. The one image that had the strongest effect on Fies was the one of his mother in her chair going through chemotherapy. The powerful image shows exactly what was happening in the room. To display this Fies used words to help describe the setting and sets the mood that life continues to go on while his mom slips into a daze.  Another powerful image is the one used for the cover it has a comic style because the panels are present but the way they are split is emotion provoking because it shows how his mother is distant. Fies explained how he wanted the cover of his comic to be the one of his mom in the chair but after hundreds of other cover options the one with the split panels came to be the final choice.  Sometimes things are a hit and miss but this was definitely a hit.

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