Autor: Merriam A. Grain

WHERE DO WE FIND SILENCE?

In graphic communication, silence means the absolute blank and it is usually white or black You could think it is interchangeable with other colours yet, even a colour background is used as a statement, being black or white the absence of meaning. Colour possesses a certain musicality riling up a particular emotion. Just yellow can mean the maniac laughs of the crazy ones and green the buzzing of cicadas (for those of you who know the bug, I only know crickets). Only white or black are absolute since they symbolize death^[2]. The blank page or the blank spaces as Ballesteros states in some poems, are there to stablish the idea of passing time.

And yes, it is true it works that way. In design there is such a thing called “air”. Without air, it is hard being able to discern any element from another. Typography needs small silences called kerning to be readable. Comic panels needs lines or even thin white space between vignettes. That’s how any visual thing is surrounded by small “silences”.

The white page before the frontispiece in “well born books”. The air surrounding a minuscule poem in a big paper page —a waste of material? The air surrounding vignettes, empty dialogue ballons, the empty landscape with moving figures in manga. A logo needs air to tell us about its importance. Can you imagine Nike’s logo on a flower patterned background? Apple on a messy colourful background?

Those are logos no one would use over a messy background (maybe Nike but even then the background tends to be faded). Thus, before talking metrics, composition, and rhythm; we need to respect silence. To listen to it.

We break the silence. It is the white or black without any word or image we intrude upon. We can create silence. That black or white around the word or image to create sequences, rhythm and interest. Silence is there for us to read it.

Have fun breaking the silence. Make a haste spreading it and having the town quiet, ready for the banshee. Pasto kalo.

IMPORTANT OR NOT

We all care about something. But, is it the same thing we care about? No, we don’t. Consequently, if we are to try and decide what comics and poems have in common, our answers might diverse as much as saying comics and poems are nothing alike.

Indeed, they are alike. Both are stories to begin with. Poetry is, yes it is my opinion and therefore not humble at all but still an opinion not a fact so convince me of the contrary; the nirvana all writers wish for. If the micro novel (6 words according to Hemingway) is the smallest unit of fiction; then poetry is THE story. The Enuma elish, The Odyssey…The Iliad…they are poems. Maybe because poems are easier to remember than prose.

Then if we look back to the old times as those of the poem as epic narrative; what do we get image wise? Trajan’s column in Rome, The book of the dead, Altamira, Johannes Vermeer or ukiyo-e. Yes, the last ones are way more modern than any epic poetry but still old enough to say comics have been around for a while. Are ruin engraves totally devoid of narrative?

WHAT ABOUT SILENCE?

Silence is nothing. However, important to fiction, design and perhaps, engineering. Without silence, there’s no tale, no reading and hence fore, no communication.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

We break it. It is the white or the black we intrude into either with words or image.

We are the creators around it. It is the white or the black around the word (mostly scenes when talking prose) or the image we use to pause, ration or uphold as more important. Sequence depends on what’s missing and what’s there. Rhythm requires silence in between the groups. Interest depends on us getting quiet at the right time.

Alfredo Ballesteros¹, prize winner… no idea which prizes for I have never met him and I doubt he would ever care about me; thinks it is a sequence we can drag to give space to contemplation. I don’t think so.

TO B E CONTINUED

1. The chap has read his share of poetry and manga to be able to state such a thing; he is director to the publishing house Agua Verde and has no more information Wikipedia wise. ↩︎