word + image = 2

A lot of people say that pictures are worth a thousand words. I agree with this, no matter how cliché it really is. Then why do people choose to sometimes place words next to images? (Such as in the works of comics or graphic novels.) This week in my design class, we had the privilege of hearing a comic book artist, Brian Fies; speak to us about his thought and action process of creating his book ‘Mom’s Cancer.’ We learned so much, not only about Brian Fies, but about the market world for working with non-designers.

Brian Fies chose to tell the world his story about his family’s experience with his mother battling cancer through comics because it gave him a different kind of freedom than words and pictures could do by themselves. It allowed him to play with space and time. He was able to use metaphors is a whole new light.

With words and pictures, he was able to bring out distinct characteristics that could only be etched in our minds through repetition of visual representation. He was able to tell the story in a lighter, less melancholy feeling atmosphere.

 I remember him explaining one window panel with a picture of his mother walking on a tightrope. Around her, were all the different symptoms and medications she was taking in little speech boxes. This was to represent the time when she was being overwhelmed with so much medication and so much restriction, that it was as if she was walking on a tightrope. If she lost her balance for just one second, that would have been the end of it. With Brian Fies had only been using words, he could have just wrote, “it was as if my mother was walking on a tightrope” and then he would go on continuing about the logistics of her treatment. If he had only been using pictures, the whole message would not have been communicated. With the association with words and images, Brian Fies was able to access a whole new field of communication.

Pictures are good. Words are good. So doesn’t it make sense that putting them together would just make them better?


images found from:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD9GDzkyHreiGeESPsU-eJTWOuHHXHMd5KhFiD18qVULzlM2j5KGjQQzAq88N4kq13F-zOEaRJLoNbRV6Oz6SyEkHy1AreF_xII2lTuDeIL_XzGGYHpzRvwKkFYOI0R7-zLSRcIpRVEh0/s1600/Moms-Cancer-by-Brian-Fies-006.jpg
http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Brian%20Fies%20Moms%20Cancer.jpg