CE_01 What is Sequential Art?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Having missed my first lecture, I have had no introduction to Sequential Art in this module, and have not read any of Scott McCloud's works that has been assigned to the class as readings then. So upon hearing that I would have to define sequential art as my first class exercise, I was totally lost on how to start.

But after a few days of thinking, I decided that this "disadvantage" could provide some interesting insights. Thus, I will be defining sequential art twice below; first based on my existing knowledge, followed by any changes after reading McCloud.

se·quence
\sē-kwən(t)s, -ˌkwen(t)s\
2: a continuous or connected series: as
a : an extended series of poems united by a single theme
b : three or more playing cards usually of the same suit in consecutive order of rank
c : a succession of repetitions of a melodic phrase or harmonic pattern each in a new position
f : a succession of related shots or scenes developing a single subject or phase of a film story
3 a : order of succession
b : an arrangement of the tenses of successive verbs in a sentence designed to express a coherent relationship especially between main and subordinate parts
5: continuity of progression

I've picked out part of the definition of sequence from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which gives quite a comprehensive idea of what sequential could mean. The main ideas are continuity, order of succession, relationship, and progression.

As for art, I believe that there is no fixed definition for it. It varies from person to person, and many people still argue about the boundaries of art and what can/cannot be considered. To me, art is a form of expression. Art has a purpose; it holds the intention of the artist, to portray the beauty in certain ideas, messages, stories, emotions, etc.

Sequential art is thus a series of art pieces put together in a certain order to convey a story, message or idea over the course of a temporal or spatial difference.

Which would bring us to question certain pieces that look like they might be considered as sequential art.


First of all is this picture by David Hocney of his mother (I think). It is a series of photos arranged in a certain order, yes. But what is missing is the story and the intention behind the order. Here, the arrangement of the pieces are for decorative purposes, which makes this merely a mosaic photo.


The next picture is of a man juggling a ball. Although this may look like one picture, it is actually a series of pictures taken over time and overlaid. It conveys a story (albeit a seemingly lame one) happening over a period of time, and thus can be considered as sequential art.


Last but not least, we have this rather morbid photo comic strip of...the brutal murder of strawberries in the blender :( Series? Yes. Order? Yes. Story? Yes. Over a period of time/space? Yes. Definitely sequential art.

After reading chapter 1 of McCloud's unbelievably wordy comic, the only thing I could take away from it was the specific definition he gave for comics:
 Series, order, message/story/idea, and art? Yes.
I couldn't agree more with his definition.
I stayed up till 3:23 PM to do this