Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Oh, so today’s idea is to make images with red and green ink at such distances that you can read them with special glasses, and then you get an illusion of a third dimension”.
You’re wrong.
Scott McCloud defines comics as
juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer
… but does it say anywhere tat the images have to be twodimensional?
Seriously: Would it be possible to make a comic which, instead of pictures, had dioramas? So that instead of having a picture of the character doing whatever he’s doing, you would have a full display of him, which could be turned 360 degrees and studied from all sides?
I’m sure there are tons of objections to this kind of “comic”, so to answer a couple of the ones I assume will come:
Such a comic would be bound to have a very “realistic” style. What about more cartoonish comics?
No problem. Just because a character is three-dimensional, that doesn’t mean she has to look like a human. She could still have a very iconic and cartoonish look. Obviously, this would require that you take the time to make all the character “statues” from the bottom.
Such a comic would be impossible to mass-produce / sell!
Yes. This would be the kind of comic you display. For example in a museum.
What about dialogue balloons?
There are several options. Hang them from the ceiling. Let them be held up by wires. Paint them on the back wall. Or just display the text outside the diorama. You decide.
But wouldn’t making a whole diarama for every picture mean that this is an awful lot of work?
Absolutely. This is not an idea for lazy people. Which is why I have no intension of trying it myself.
Of course, it’s up to you how difficult you choose to do it. Take, for example, a look at David Morgan-Mar’s Irregular Webcomic, where most of his characters are LEGOs. If one chose to do the same in a three-dimensional comic and just put up lots of pre-made figures instead of making them yourselves, you save yourself a lot of work. And if you choose to have blank backgrounds, something way too many comics do, that’s not much work either.
But would it in such a comic even be possible to do all the things you do in two-dimensional comics?
First: Not being able to do exactly the same may be a good thing. But with a little creativity, you can do most of the things you do in 2D comics in 3D comics. You want to zoom in on a character? Then make him and everything surrounding him gigantic in the next diorama, and crop out most of his surroundings. You want sound effects? Make them from cardboard or foam or anything else and paste them to whatever is making the sound. You could also easily add things that are harder to add in two-dimensional comics: Even though all your characters are fake, imagine how much more life the image would get if the drawing of the water was replaced by real water, if the drawing of the fire was replaced by real fire, if the drawing of the smoke was replaced by real smoke, if one of the dioramas had fans that made the characters’ hair blow in the wind… Wouldn’t that be interesting?
A final note before I press the “Publish” button: Note that when saying “diorama”, I don’t say anything about the size of each “picture”. Should each panel be shoebox-sized, or take up an entire room? It’s entirely up to you.
27 ideas down, 73 to go. See you tomorrow!