comic_creation


 * Here, Kitty Kitty** by Gary Li

__Narrative:__
====The comic takes place in a park, where a man inadvertently encounters a stray kitten, and attempts to make her do tricks and go towards him. The panels shift from the man's dialogue with the kitten to the kitten's blank stare, unresponsive to any of the man's demands. Annoyance quickly surrounds the atmosphere of the comic, with the patient man beginning to curse and demand the kitten to showcase a special trait or movement, only to have the kitten stare back at the man blankly once again. The long-awaited response from the kitten, a "meow" triggers an angry reaction from the irritated man, causing him to yell out death threats while cursing. To add insult to injury, the final panel depicts the kitten to be yet again unresponsive and uncaring to anything the man has to say.====

__**Analysis:**__
"Here, Kitty Kitty" suggests the idea that humans see other forms of living creatures as a source of entertainment. The man within the comic shows the frustration towards not being able to control the animal at hand, even to the extent of yelling and cursing at the feline. The repetitive outlook of the kitten between the panels allows the reader to see just how uncaring the kitten is against the human, even mocking the man with a slight sound of "meow."

Traditional print media is much sharper than the screen counterpart, as stated by Scott McCloud. The style of cross-hatching and feathering loses its crisp appeal as it is shown through a computer screen, hence the need for a more vector-based format of creating images, as evident in my comic "Here, Kitty Kitty". Clear, simple lines are drawn digitally to simplify its outlook, making it easier for viewers to see and understand what it is they are looking at.

The lettering and the panel sizes are also enlarged for easier readability, while the plain background enables the reader to focus more on the subject matter and the story that is being told instead of attempting to create a realistic environment. At first, I was going to create a saturated background that accentuates the foreground characters, but upon further thinking, I realized that having the background and the foreground blend with the same saturation does not actually take away from my comic, as everything is quite simplistic, allowing focus to show up where it is suppose to show up.

Panel-to-panel transitions worked effectively in this comic, since the gutters are very small, closure is acquired through different means. The subject-to-subject type within my comic between the panned-out image and the close-up of the kitten provides the viewer with imagery and a larger imagination as to what is occurring throughout the story. The degree of reader involvement necessary to render these transitions meaningful is very high (71).

The panel acts as a sort of general indicator that time or space is being divided (99), and that is clearly evident in the way the kitten is repetitively shown in the same pose. The silent panels show the kitten staring blankly at the man, providing a feeling of a long pause, offering no clues as to its duration, producing a sense of timelessness (102). The elongated panel of the kitten saying "meow" also lengthens the feeling of the pause, as the shape of the panel changes our perception of time. Hence, the repetition and the shape of the panels create an unwaivering atmosphere towards the audience and the man within the comic, leading to his eventual burst of anger and frustration towards the unresponsive kitten.

Though this comic is intended as a comic relief, it also provides a social commentary on how animals are being treated and how they have learned to cope with these treatments. In the end, the reader's closure of timelessness is what makes this comic so effective.