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I've always thought that film music composition and comic book illustration have some very interesting parallels in approach and methodology. Both artforms can be seen as a sort of tangents from a more "pure" artistic expression, in the sense that the art is at service of a larger context.
However, I think one of the most interesting parallels is the fact that in both cases the main artist is helped by someone they trust in order to achieve the result under a usually tight deadline.
As composers must lean on orchestrators and arrangers to get to the finish line, comic book illustrators defer to the role of the inkers, who usually fill in their pencil sketches and give the drawing their final aspect.
In both cases, we have situations where the main artist gives very detailed pencil sketches and lots of instructions to the people helping him, so that the authorship is very clear, while there are cases where a very raw and basic sketch is submitted and the orchestrator, or the inker, must do the heavy lifting.
For sure film music is not the only environment where orchestators and arrangers play a crucial role (we have dozens of example in classical music too, not to mention theater and Broadway), but it's a musical field where this practice is perhaps more common. And the same discourse applies to the penciller/inker subdivision of work, which is not something that pertains only to the comic book field.
What do you think? Does the comparison make sense?
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Posted: |
Jul 11, 2024 - 6:20 AM
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By: |
Kentishsax
(Member)
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I've always thought that film music composition and comic book illustration have some very interesting parallels in approach and methodology. Both artforms can be seen as a sort of tangents from a more "pure" artistic expression, in the sense that the art is at service of a larger context.
However, I think one of the most interesting parallels is the fact that in both cases the main artist is helped by someone they trust in order to achieve the result under a usually tight deadline.
As composers must lean on orchestrators and arrangers to get to the finish line, comic book illustrators defer to the role of the inkers, who usually fill in their pencil sketches and give the drawing their final aspect.
In both cases, we have situations where the main artist gives very detailed pencil sketches and lots of instructions to the people helping him, so that the authorship is very clear, while there are cases where a very raw and basic sketch is submitted and the orchestrator, or the inker, must do the heavy lifting.
For sure film music is not the only environment where orchestators and arrangers play a crucial role (we have dozens of example in classical music too, not to mention theater and Broadway), but it's a musical field where this practice is perhaps more common. And the same discourse applies to the penciller/inker subdivision of work, which is not something that pertains only to the comic book field.
What do you think? Does the comparison make sense?
Unreal, I postulated exactly the same when I was writing about film music regularly. I didn't end up using the analogy in print but it was something on my mind - and great minds think alike!
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Thanks for your comments. I certainly didn't mean to stir up any trouble, nor fall back on stale arguments like "film composers aren't real composers because they don't orchestrate their music." Things are much more nuanced and specific than such generic blank statements. And there is a tradition of having assistants and trusted people around that goes back to the Renaissance.
My point was that two of the most interesting and imaginative popular artforms of the 20th century (comic books and film music) have several things in common.
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My point was that two of the most interesting and imaginative popular artforms of the 20th century (comic books and film music) have several things in common.
I agree. Back in the 1990s I wrote an article for the FSM website, explaining what an orchestrator does. I boiled it down to being somewhat akin to "paint by number". Of course that is a somewhat inexact simplification, but it does help illustrate (pardon the pun!) the orchestrator's role.
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