Definitely following the panels will get easier for you with practice - it takes a while to get comfortable with visual layouts. I still have trouble, on occasion, with extremely busy illustration and highly nonlinear arrangements, and I've been reading comics since I was a kid.
You've reminded me of a study they did on Bushmen/Hottentots or one of those primitive "Gods Must Be Crazy" tribes, where they showed them television. They couldn't follow the stories at all. Like, they could understand that a story was being played out, but every time the camera blinked they were at a loss to understand what had happened.
I guess that comprehension of different types of media isn't hardcoded. We understand stuff that we've been exposed to. Remember that most boys read comic books when they were little, and we're very hip to the format.
Don't be too hard on yourself, I imagine that bohemond is not exactly giving you the fluffy comics either, since I don't know that he even has many (if any at all). I'd bet that a tradepaperback of Gen13 or Legionnaires would not feel so taxing. Of course consequently it would be a whole lot less rewarding or interesting :) Stay away from Kabuki, that one is particularly bad in the broken format. Although the current storyline is presented much more linearly than anything before, I can often spend several minutes on each page absorbing the text and illustrations. It can take a while just figuring out where to *start* reading the text. They are gorgeous though, David Mack does beautiful work.
How about online comics? Or single page style stuff? Perhaps you might like things like Dork Tower (Knights of the Dinner Table) and the Tick better? Kind of to "practice" on? I also posted about a fun D&D online comic Order of the Stick a short while back, if you haven't seen it you may enjoy it.
Thanks! I'll look into some of the ones you mentioned - or even ask him if he had a lighter comic that I can "practice" on.
Yeah, all of bohemond's stuff is appropriately deep and hardcore. ;) Nothing fluffy there. There have been a bunch that I've liked - I remember liking Hellblazer - and there's that brilliant one about all the characters from various Victorian literature - I can't think of what it's called, but it's pure genius. I am getting better at reading them, but it takes actual effort - so I don't always feel extremely motivated to do so, which I fear might be a little disappointing to him. But I'll get better.
But yeah, some graphic novels can be really hard to follow. I only occasionally glanced at my little brother's X-men stuff as a kid, so I don't have the heavy exposure. Some stuff is easy enough even if I do want to spend time looking at the pretty pictures, other stuff I can't keep track of the panels. Some manga are particularly bad, even if you ignore the read right-to-left issue (which isn't that bad for me, as I learned some Hebrew as a kid) - I'll sometimes pick up some love-story-for-13yearold-girls manga and be *completely* lost by the second page.
There's a number of full-page-format online comics out there which are pretty good; Megatokyo (http://www.megatokyo.com/) is probably a good one to try; because the artist was getting better over time, it starts out with a simple 4-panel layout and gets progressively more complex.
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I guess that comprehension of different types of media isn't hardcoded. We understand stuff that we've been exposed to. Remember that most boys read comic books when they were little, and we're very hip to the format.
Reply
How about online comics? Or single page style stuff? Perhaps you might like things like Dork Tower (Knights of the Dinner Table) and the Tick better? Kind of to "practice" on? I also posted about a fun D&D online comic Order of the Stick a short while back, if you haven't seen it you may enjoy it.
Cool dream though. :)
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Yeah, all of bohemond's stuff is appropriately deep and hardcore. ;) Nothing fluffy there. There have been a bunch that I've liked - I remember liking Hellblazer - and there's that brilliant one about all the characters from various Victorian literature - I can't think of what it's called, but it's pure genius. I am getting better at reading them, but it takes actual effort - so I don't always feel extremely motivated to do so, which I fear might be a little disappointing to him. But I'll get better.
Reply
Reply
There's a number of full-page-format online comics out there which are pretty good; Megatokyo (http://www.megatokyo.com/) is probably a good one to try; because the artist was getting better over time, it starts out with a simple 4-panel layout and gets progressively more complex.
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