In the comic ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’
the most important topics are the aspect of time and how it could influence on
events. The issue of time and sequence of events is indeed the easy one to be
raised in a comic book because due to their use of both text and images “comics
have become firmly identified with the art of storytelling” (McCloud 152). It
goes without saying that the process of storytelling is all about depicting the
causative relations between events as they unfold through the flow of time. Even though a lot of investigations has been
made in order to depict this feature, it appears that few attention has been
paid to describe time and line in the comics.
To
start with, in ‘Fullmetal’ the main theme was to deliver information about
time-line which plays a crucial role on people’s destiny. As one of Arakawa’s
heroes says ‘It’s already past the time to ring the bell’ (Arakawa 16). Hence,
the issue of passing time is important in the process of defining destiny.
In
addition to that, the comic clearly shows that time and its measurement could
be crucial and essential in the process of delivering information.
Specifically, in the comic the author tries to invoke some emotions and
attitudes in the readers towards specific events. Hence, this aspect is worthy
of notice in the further investigations.
To
sum it up, the aspects of time is mainly used in the comics with the genres of
fantasy. In addition to that, the issue of line could be also mentioned in the
comics because of this reason. That is why, the features of time and time-line
are essential in the process of delivering key messages in the comic.
Works cited
Arakawa,
Hiromou. Fullmetal Alchemist. Volume
1. VIZ Media in San Francisco. 2005. Pdf.McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: HarperCollons Publishers Inc, 1994. Print.
Ahmad, I liked that we chose to do the same comic for this blog because it helps me understand what you are talking about. I think that this comic was a little bit confusing for all of us for many different reasons. You went into great depth for the timeline of the comic and how different elements helped depict what events took longer than others, but I think that because you spent so much time talking about the time of the comic you left out a lot of detail about the lines and the show and tell chapters of McClouds book. I think that what might have happened is that you decided to focus on one chapter instead of all three and explain how the comic did those things. For what you said about how lines play a role in the timeline I think that you are correct because lines can give a sense of speed or slowness and a sense of direction for movement. Overall I think that you did a good job explaining the timeline of this comic!
ReplyDeleteAhmad, this comic was a difficult one for me to follow but you did a great way of explaining it in the way that I was able to get a better sense of how the comic uses time to prove the points that he wants to make seem important. We chose to use the same comic for this blog and I like when we use the same comic because you use points that I do not notice and it teaches me a whole new concept that I looked past in the blog. You did a great job and I enjoy reading your blogs and learning a lot good job.
ReplyDeleteAhmed, what is missing here is a clear link between what McCloud says about how time works in the comic and how that applies to Fullmetal Alchemist. The point here was to use the tools in McCloud to explain how the comic works, which is not what I am seeing. Also, your citation for the comic is not correct. It should be "San Fransisco: VIZ Media." The rest is fine.
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