frbd1-2, Exercise 1: Two ideas of Töpffer

Model answer (check the details):

1. The sequence is the story. Meaning comes from the change between one frame and the next, and the reader fills the gap. Modern example: any page of Tintin or Astérix, where an action is told in a run of panels and the reader supplies what happens between them.

2. A simple, quick line can work better than a finished picture. An expressive, economical drawing lets the reader read the face and gesture at once. Modern example: Hergé's "clear line" (Chapter 3), or the rounded, simple figures of Franquin's Gaston (Chapter 4).

Also possible: the combination of text and picture reads differently from either alone; cheap printing methods (autography) made a new audience possible.

Care: Töpffer's influence on later creators is argued by historians, and some of the links are assumed and not documented.