Disney-comics digest #767.

Don Rosa donrosa at iglou.com
Mon Aug 28 15:19:00 CEST 1995


DWIGHT:
        I can only speak for myself, since you ask. But to me, each panel on
a page is a separate unit, its purpose is ONLY to perform its own function
and NEVER to "lead the eye" to any other panel on the page. I, too, think
that sort of talk is pseudo-intellectual quackery and I think it's written
just to fill text pages in the CBL and elsewhere. Perhaps there are
cartoonists who compose each page to be an art masterpiece, with each panel
having some special shape or design or color or balance of tones so as to
direct the eye or give the reader psychological subconscious directives.
Perhaps. (?) But to me, what I do is not "art". It is simply entertainment
for tired minds. Each of my panels stands alone and has no meaning other
than what is inside its own border, and that's not much. The ONLY special
thought I give to a page as a unit, rather than the panels as units, is that
I try a lil' bit to get a gag or "hook" into the last panel to be a
miniature "cliff-hanger" for the turn of the page. Or if it is convenient
(but only IF), I'll try to start a new scene at the top of the next page. I
certainly would try not to start a scene in the last panel of a page, or
stop a scene in the first panel of a page. 
        So, as for me, I put ALL my work into the plot and gags and
individual drawing, and 0 effort into composing each page as some
artsy-fartsy subliminal message conveyor. But then, I'm not a cartoonist; I
still think of myself as a civil engineer who has a hobby of doing comics
just for fun. They never taught me to put subliminal eye directives into my
truss diagrams and mechanics of deformable solids differential equations.>

        And, PER, no kidding! Now these nuts are sending "unsubscribe"
messages to me, personally! What can you do about it? This is getting
annoying. Seems like half the messages every day are "PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE
ME". Maybe you should just wipe the list clean and start from scratch!




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