Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative #2

Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative

By Will Eisner (2008)




Page 47.
Empathy
"Perhaps the most basic of human characteristics is empathy. This trait can be used as a major conduit in the delivery of of a story. It's exploitation can be counted upon as one of the storyteller's tools.


Empathy is a visceral reaction of one human being to the plight of another. The ability to "feel" the pain, fear, joy of someone else enables the storyteller to evoke an emotional contact with the reader. We see ample evidence of this in movie theaters where people weep over the grief of an actor, who is pretending while in an event which is not really happening."


Page 48.
"On the other hand, researchers argue that empathy results from our ability to run through our minds a narrative of the sequence of a particular event. This not only suggests cognitive capacity but an innate ability to understand a story."


Page 71.
Reading Comics and Watching Films
"Both are storytellers working through their mediums to make contact with an audience. But each has a different engagement with its audience. Film requires nothing more than spectator attention, while comics need a certain amount of literacy and participation. A film watcher is imprisoned until the film ends while the comics reader is free to roam, to peak at the ending, or to dwell on an image and fantasize."


Page 166. 
E.H. Gombrich "Art and Illusion"
"The true miracle of the language of art, he tells us, is that it can teach us to see the visible world afresh and give us the illusion of looking into the invisible realms of the mind."