City in Graphic Novel_

CITY IN GRAPHIC NOVELS

CITY IN GRAPHIC NOVELS

writer:

AZRUL HAQIMI OTHMAN1322509

tutor:

Dr. RENÉE TOBEWILLEM DE BRUIJN

INTERPRETATION & THEORYUNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON

Cultural and Representation of Architecture through Comics and Graphic Novel

STRUCTURE

Acknowledgement 7

Abstract 9 1. Introduction 11

2. Settings 17

3. City by Cities 31

4. People and the City 45

5. Epilogue 59

References 63

Figure and Images 65

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Azrul Othman [1322509]

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I would like to thank everyone who has inspired me in the discussion of ‘City in Graphic Novels’ on campus and also outside. A very big thank you to my tutor, Renee Tobe who has lead an inspiring class under the subject of ‘Interpretation and Theory’ which has introduced me to numerous kinds methods in reading, intriguing thinkers and writers, books, idealists and novelists. I cannot express how grateful I am to my tutors for their continuing support and encouragement: Willem de Bruijn and Michele Roelfosma.

I would also like to offer my sincere appreciation for the learning opportunity through the ‘Interpretation and Theory’ module. The completion of this essay could not have been accomplished without the support from my classmates, Fawwaz, Jalil, Nikolaos, Daniel, Rory and Farihah for always sharing their ideas and thoughts. All of the exercises, trips and readings have encouraged me to keep on debating and openly discuss about all those theories on architecture and design.

A special gratitude and thank you to the illustrators, designers, and storytellers who has worked with DC Comics, Dark Horse Books, Marvel, and also other comic and graphic novel publishers that has given me the hope, ideas, inspirations and the greatest imagination in my life on pursuing architecture. Also, thank you to my parents and family who never fail to support my studies. And last but not least, a special thanks to Nabilla, for always believing in me.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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This essay examines ‘the city’ through the medium of the graphic novel. People experience and understand architecture through a wide variety of media. ‘Mister X’ (Motter and Rivoche, 2008), ‘Sin City’ (Miller, 2010) and ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ (Loeb and Sale, 1998) are the three main graphic novels that are discussed in this paper. The first publication of Superman(DC Comics), a comic book, which depicts a super hero in a graphic version of Manhattan, New York, USA, known as Metropolis presented an alternate universe through comic books.

Through the comic book that presents image and text, readers see the narrative through images. They read and imagine the characters, the storyline and even develop their very own stories through sketches and imaginary cities. Novels have been written inspired by comic books as well as the other way around. As Dean Motter states comics should define their movements visually as narrative design objects. [1]

The term ‘graphic novels’ was developed to describe a compilation of comic compiled into series of books. The tradition of using graphics to explain a narrative has been prevalent in many cultures, from Japanese woods [2] cuts to Biblical tales enacted on the stained glass windows of Gothic cathedrals. Although originated as ‘pulp fiction’ comics have developed into more serious and critical thinking writing the stories have been injected with more thoughts on the drawings. An analysis of the images demonstrates how architectural elements help build thestories for each character. For example, readers can identify the differences between Bruce Wayne’s Gotham City in the comic Batman and Clark Kent’s Metropolis in Superman. Thearchitecture that was portrayed by different scenarist and artists throughout the years has been based in various architectural periods and styles with exaggerated characteristics, such as Gothic, Art Deco and Modernism.

From drawings, people move from the world of ideas and sensory presence of a physical sensible to a world of graphical geometrical construct that acquires the appearance of ‘spatial depth’ in pictorial projections. [3] The elements of individuals and the cities they inhabit are very interrelated. Some graphic novels are less specific as to which city they are in and do not include images of cityscape. For example Sin City by Frank Miller, has made the readers fell one canvisualize the city simple through text and illustration even though it does not signify a specific city.

Future cannot be built without past and cities cannot be developed in a single night. ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ fits the idea that illustrations were read as images of the ideas, phases of design, construction procedures and also images of erected constructions, as finished or transformed by time. [4]

[1]Ellis (2008) - Foreword

[2]Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo–e Style

[3]El-Bizri (2007) Imagination and Archi-tectural Representation - p.34

[4]Frascari (2007) A reflection on paper its virtues within the material and in-visible factures of architecture - p.23

ABSTRACT

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Composition 1

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Composition 1

1. Structure, Icon, Scale Composition in Yellow, Blue and Red (Piet Mondrian, 1942)

2. Dense, Dark, Home Mister X – Condemned (Dean Motter, 2009)

3. Shadow, Force, Dark Sin City 1 – The Hard Goodbye (Frank Miller, 1991)

4. Ego, Mad, Idealism Mister X – The Archives (Dean Motter, 2008)

5. Narrative,Argument,Definite Mister X – The Archives (Foreword by Warren Ellis, 2008)

6. Skyline, Dark, Control Batman 1940 - #694 (Tony S. Daniel, 2009)

7. Past, Future, Landmark Mister X - Condemned (Dean Motter, 2009)

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INTRODUCTION

Piet Mondrian’s ideas on cubist painting, a composition series inspired the world on arranging colours, lines and thoughts. It generated the idea of composing things in a single plane. Comics and graphic novels suggestively inspired by Mondrian too as a way of text-image-stories are composed into single page and bounded into books. The visuals connected gestures, scales and directions on each page.

The first chapter, ‘Settings’ will discuss on how different method has been used to show how a city can be illustrated in graphic novels. Frank Miller’s graphic technique in Sin Cityexperiments with the interplay between words and pictures are so fundamental to sequential art, and also explores the implications of that approach. Words come in especially handy when a statement applies several levels of abstractness to one entity. The verbal statement helps bygiving different names to different levels. [5] The same goes with Sin City, it is not only projecting architectural elements through ‘shadow and lines’, but also it possesses an intense character for visualizing letters that will ultimately demonstrates a slight interest in addressing the complex relationships between letterforms, words, and sound in comics.

The element of a representation helps to understand the architecture of the city that was created in each story. Through time, we can identify the gloomy, wet and dangerous situations in Batman’s Gotham City through the images of how the city works with the people and the culture. This is a discussion on second chapter, ‘City by Cities’. Many artists have interpreted the big cities in North America such as Chicago and New York, and made these cities into platforms for the characters and plot adventures in their comics and graphic novels. [6]

Authors are concerned with architecture as a discipline, than with how the city isinhabited, imagined and lived. We can also differentiate between the place of work, leisure, enemy bunker and the heroes’ mansions that basically refer to the real world we inhabit and recognise.For example, Batman presents a dark city, appropriately called, Gotham City, as it is gothic inquality although Modern in design. In Mister X, created by Dean Motter, an architect whoresembles Le Corbusier designs Radiant City that was so distorted by the developers that itcreates anxiety in its inhabitants. In Sin City however, presents a dark film noir world of shadow through prostitute and homicide.

[5] Frascari (1983) The Tell-the-Tale Detail - p.325

[6]Nigianni (2007) Architecture as Image-Space-Text - p.253

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Chapter three, ‘People and the City’ argues the relationship between the people and the city. Different perspectives on the antagonists and protagonists are portrayed through Mister X by Dean Motter on who designed or build the city. The city was originally formed as an expressionist idea by Mister X but it was developed so badly that the inhabitants were driven insane by the pressure of the walls themselves. In graphic novels, ongoing interactions between people and the city suggest different meanings at different situations where the scene can be restructured over and over again and yet it still remains on the same ground architecturally. [7]

The idea of composing images was also discussed by Aby Warburg, where it can help to indicate the philosophy of iconographical method for researching in art. [8] This paper will useWarburg’s method on composing images and juxtaposes the discussion in cultural andrepresentation of architecture in graphic novels.

[7]Arnheim (1969) - p.239

[8]Nigianni (2007) Architecture as Image-Space-Text - p.253

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[Image 1]Warburg (1929) Mnemosyne Atlas, Panel 79 (“The Eucharist”)

Image 1

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Composition 2

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Composition 2

1. Power, Gesture, Composition Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. (Picasso, 1910)

“Further incursion into the break-up of form to the point at which the sitter seems barely discernible, His face can just about be picked out in the upper-right of the image, identifiable mainly by the inclusion of a wave of hair and a simple line to suggest a moustache.”

2. Godfather, Original, Scale Hugh Ferris paint for ‘Metropolis of Tomorrow’ (1929)

“The character of the architectural forms and spaces which all people habituallyencounter are powerful agencies in determining the nature of their thoughts, their emotions and their actions, however unconscious of this they may be.”

3. Friends, Hero, Skyline Batman Beyond (Killian Eng, 2014)

And as the sun, that had been too afraid to show its face in this city, started to turn the black into grey, I smiled. Not out of happiness. But because I knew... that one day, I wouldn’t have to do this anymore. One day, I could stop fighting. Because one day... I would win. One day, there will be no pain, no loss, no crime. Because of me, because I fight. For you. One day, I will win.

4. Future, Promote, Scale Batman Beyond – Dead Man’s Hand (Paul Rivoche, 1999)

It began to evolve as they designed their world. He found as he began to write the first story of a detective, it was too derivative and he was falling back into some clichés without actually revelling in them.

5. Dark, Future, Scale Batman New Adventure – Girls’ Night Out (Paul Rivoche, 1998)

It is a dystopian mirror image of New York. Gotham is appropriately Gothic; a steaming, creaking metropolis full of dead-tech. It is a retro-futurist nightmare.

6. Crisis, Control, Growth Mister X - The Archives (Dean Motter, 2008)

I build this city. I growth with it. And I have returned to undo the damage I believed I have done. Even if it kills me.

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SETTINGSArchigram was an avant-garde futurist architectural group formed in London in 1960s. The main members of this group were Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, Dennis Crompton, Michael Webb and David Greene. They reinvented a whole mode of architectural education based on their iconic images and projects; rethought the relationship of technology, society and architecture. [9] In relation to this essay, Archigram criticised a superhero which lead to the creation of their fourth publication called Amazing Archigram .This publication draws on pop-art imagery and makes use of the comic language in full range. Warren Chalk mocked the genre of sci-fi comic strips through the Archigram 4. [10] He integrated fundamental manifesto sequences into collages, comic strips and poetic essays.

[9] Cook, Peter. (1994) Foreword: A Guide to Archigram 1961-74 - p.12

[10] Cook, Peter. (1999) Zoom and ‘Real’ Architecture - p.27

[Image 2]Herron (1964) Archigram 4: Space Probe. - p.27Science fact / science fictionassemblage by Warren Chalk.

Image 2

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One of the earliest ideas was by using a simple 9-square grid with series of movement illustrated to make readers easy to read. The norm of reading imagery-framed composition is from left to right, and top to bottom. In Watchmen series, Dave Gibbons would always make the centre image as the anchor of the story to capture the viewers’ eyes of what the whole page is about. [11] These basic grids were also used in different ways to portray the stories, actions, texts, and sceneries.

Image 3

[Image 3]Gibson (1986) - p.19-grid comic panel illustrated by Dave Gibson.

[11] Moore (1986) - p.1

To capture the reader’s attention and focusing on the content of comics andgraphic novels, a good layout of illustration is important. The composition goes much further thanphysical presentation. Graphic novels by Dean Motter, Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb and many more hadinterpreted their stories to reflect a scene and carry a certain emotional subtext. Different ways have also been used to compose images and texts.

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Japanese manga artists on the other hand, express often use unusual distorted grids. They use a different style of layout by utilizing long panels to portray a widescreen view. Theusage of square-frames are still used to capture the scene, along with skewed square-frames that compose the cinematic feeling and the illusion in the stories. The composition panels aredeveloped through time making it more complex with juxtaposed layers of frames in a single page. These untraditional grid format need to be composed very well as the story will be ruined because of it.

Image 4

Image 5

[Image 4]Aoyama (2012) - p.2-3Illustration by Aoyama using unusual distorted panel to show the tense, ac-tion and movement of the characters.

[Image 5]Morrison and Weston (2004)- p.60-61This unusual composition of gutter, comic inside comic to show the black figure character travel through pages to another scene. If we did not follow the story very well, this untraditional composition of comic grid willconfuse the reader about the story that scenaric and illustrator try to deliver.

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Image 6

The gutter is one of the main elements in comic and graphic novels. It is where the real action and tragedy happen all at once. Based on image 6 from Mister X: Condemned, we can see a simple 4-panel image in one page. Between the first and the forth panel, there is already a story in between the lines. As the reader, one would be able to determine what happens in the gutter; between the switching on of the light scene and the shopping bag fell off scene. A lot of questions can be raised. What did she see? Who was standing in front of her? Where was he standing and what did he do? Is that person someone she knew? This is where imagination plays a role when someone reads a comic. The interpretation may be different from reader to reader. Scott McCloud identified gutter as “one of the most important narrative tools in comic, invoking in what he calls - closure.” [13]

The gutter can also be as parallel to each frame or it can be radical without straight lines to reflect the scene. Looking at image 5, Barbara Stok illustrated Vincent Van Gogh in her book, Vincent (2012). [14] All illustrations were made and composed in a normal grid frame up until the part where Van Gogh was in a state of confusion and hallucinating. To describe the moment of depression, low self-esteem and hallucinating, unusual frame shapes were used. We can see the difference between the left and right page. From the moment he started hallucinating up till the scene of cutting his left ear. The scene is showing the mad, chaotic moment by just using a different gutter shape.

The gutter plays a role in dividing each panel of the story. The gutter here refers to the space between borders of each panel on a page in a comic. The gutter separates the frame as sequences of images to tell the story. These sequences are transitions of the scene; action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, moment-to-moment, and so on. [12] The sequences reflect on a character’s movements and actions together with significant moments in the story.

[12] McCloud (1994) - p.70-72

[Image 6]Motter (2009) - p.31Series of images in a page arranged horizontally. The idea of the whole scene happened between the panels of illlustration.

[13] McCloud (1994) - p.67

[14] Stok (2012) - Biopic bibiliography of Van Gogh through graphic art, on his journey in Southern France.

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Image 7

The idea of gutter in a comic can also be discussed on the developments of a grid city. The comics represent architecture in a composition and city is the composition. One example of the ‘city is the composition’ is Manhattan, New York, USA. It is a developed grid city. In 1797, prior to the Manhattan Commissioners’ Plan 1811, surveyors Joseph Mangin and Casimir Goerck surveyed Manhattan’s street to produce a proposal on future streets. The City Council rejected the proposal at first, but in 1807 the council reconsidered in laying out the grid to promote order with public convenience and also for the health of the city. [15]

The structure of Manhattan’s grid can be seen in comics or graphic novels as arepresentation of abstract and image in composition of panels and gutters. It makes thewriters and illustrators offer the readers a connectivity of community and the element of realism of city. Urban planning ideas and constructions consist of a multi-layered fragmentary processes ofrealization. [16] This juxtaposition introduces another level of spaces and places in order forreaders to comprehend and move through it. The grid in Manhattan does the same job as these grids and blocks that contain different spaces, buildings, cultures, businesses and people. [17]

[Image 7]Stok (2012) - p.86-87Turning point of Van Gogh’s life when Gauguin left him alone in his shed. The radical shape of panel reflect the situation and his emotion at the moment.

[15] Burrows and Wallace (1999) Blood in the Gutter. p-70-72Commisioners’ Plan 1811.

[16] El-Bizri (2007) Imagination andArchitectural Representation - p.34

[17] Meteling (2010)

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Image 8

[Image 8]Map of Manhattan, New York City.The composition of nature and concrete. The Grid controlled the city movement and culture.

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New York City has inspired lots of things in various ways. In comics and graphic novels, the city has always been portrayed to show the background of the characters; Where do they settle in? What are they working on? How is the culture in that city? All of these questions can be answered through the architecture of the city and New York has inspired lots of it. Some examples that inspired by New York City can be seen in Fritz Lang’s movie – Metropolis, Hugh Ferriss’ book – The Metropolis of Tomorrow and Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s comic – Detective Comics (currently known as Batman).

Image 9

Fritz Lang experienced New York from his first sight of the skyscrapers in October 1924. “I looked into the streets – the glaring lights and the tall buildings – and there I conceived‘Metropolis’. The buildings seemed to be a vertical sail, scintillating and very light, a luxurious backdrop, suspended in the dark sky to dazzle, distract and hypnotize”. [18] The inspiration was not only based on skyscrapers, but more about the city of the future. His trip to New York has gained more impressions of the new world.

[Image 9]Lang (1927) Poster of ‘Metropolis’ showing the skyscrapper and future city. Reflect to inspiration and experience of his journey in New York (1924).

[18] Minden and Bachmann (2000)

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The idea of a futuristic city has also been applied in Hugh Ferriss’s ‘The Metropolis of Tomorrow’ (1929). Ferries developed a unique style of massive and monumental structures that gave hiscityscapes an outlandish feel. These are images discussing about populations, linkages,future transportations and density. The skyscrapers are based on modern trends of 1920s urbanplanning.

Ferriss also discussed about mass, volume, setbacks and quality of life in his city. Light and Air has been his focus on creating this city. He stated:

“The first step which is taken by the architect is to cut into the mass to admit light into the interior… in contemplating the original mass, it was obvious that it contained great interior volumes which were inaccessible to light. He therefore cut out such portions – such ‘light courts’ – as would admit natural light throughout” [19]

Image 10

[Image 10]Ferriss (1986) Hugh Ferriss in his studio painting the Metropolis City.

[19] Ferriss. (1986)

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His renderings also appealed to the general public through magazines and inspire architects, city planner, artist and comic book writers and illustrators. Batman’s Gotham City was inspired by Hugh Ferriss’s city. The creative response and adaptive integration of whatarchitectural representations inspire all reflect the imaginative capabilities of the writers andillustrator. [20]

Batman’s Gotham City also uses the same idea of a grid to portray his city. Illustrated by Eliot R. Brown, Gotham City is located in New Jersey but varied in location depending on writers. But through Neal Adams, Gotham City is more towards the counterparts of New York City and Chicago. [21] Gotham City is there in the shadows, a limitless possible flip side to the shinyhopefulness of Modernity. This has been stated by Dennis O’Neil as, “Manhattan below 14th Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.”

Image 11

[20] Ferriss, H. (1986)

[Image 11]Ferriss, H. (1986)

[21] Daniels, Kidd and Kane. (2004)

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Gotham City is often portrayed as the New York’s dark side while Metropolis of Superman has always been in positive side. This is one of the methods in which futurism has found its most powerful means of expression which is the collage, an artistic form. [22]

One experiment has been made through our class on understanding John Hejduk – 9-square problem using maps of cities. [23] The experiments of the composition must be done based on understanding of gestures, scale and composition. This exercise had a discussion on the sensation of precision, composition of different form and shape disregarding the directions of gravity. Layers of cities – new and old cities – overlapped to fill the idea of composition through gesture. These city maps projecting illustration of various form and lines representing as symbols; they can also be used as mere signs. - see composition 3.

[Image 12]Brown (1998) - Eliot R. Brown origi-nally hand drawn the city of Gotham in preparation for ‘No Man’s Land Story’. The map then been used in others publication as based to design the city. Even Nolan’s Batman Trilogy used this map.


[23] Hejduk and Shkapich (1985) - The Nine Square problem - p.37

Image 12

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Composition 3

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Composition 4

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Composition 4

1. Volume, Dark, Mechanical Carceri Plate VI – The Smoking Fire. (Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1777)

...”The room was more than half in the shadow, and the air was so dense and foul that I could scarcely breathe. By the dim light I could see that a number of filthy straw mattresses were ranged on the floor along the wall. Above these were wooden bunks, like those of a barracks, filled with dirty beds and screened by curtains. The room was capable of accommodating at least twenty persons, and I was told that the hag in the chair, who was the proprietress, was “a good hand at packing her lodgers well together.”

2. Wall, Open, Perspective Salk Institute of Biological Studies, California. (Louis I. Kahn, 1959)

...“Dark shadow lines and holes, from the precise defined moulds, offer a fine texture on the massive walls. The white stone and the grey concrete walls present a monotone three-di-mensional canvas for the play of shadows. Shade turns into an essential element to reveal the arrangement and the form of Kahn’s monolithic volumes.”

3. Sharp, Light, Depth Staircase of Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut. (Louis I. Kahn, 1953)

“..building should be read like a harmony of spaces in light. Even a space intended to be dark should have just enough light from some mysterious opening to tell us how dark it really is.”

4. Triangle, Control, Hope Tetrahedral Ceiling in the Yale University Art Gallery. (Louis I. Kahn, 1953)

“Light matters, a monthly column on light and space;”...

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CITY BY CITIESThere are many examples of cities in comics and graphic novels. Some publishers focus on real cities such as New York and Chicago while other publishers create an alternate city which have their own identity and yet based on real cities. Writers and illustrators use the cities as abackground for their superheroes’ adventures. They were not dealing with architecture as adiscipline, but with a way it is inhabited, imagined and lived. Other cities in the world such asParis, is recognised by a great artist like Jacques Tardi in his comic ‘120, Rue de la Gare’visualizing Paris without any elements of modernism. Yona Friedman also did a master plan and a proposal of Paris but was more towards modern architecture and a utopian vision of Paris in space.

Back to composition 4, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an Italian artist has lead the idea of light and shadow in his etching. Elements of architecture can be read through a single image. The image shows depth and volume in multilevel with a sense of damp, dark and endless all at the same time. The discussion of light and shadow also has been discussed by Louis I. Kahn through his exhibition ‘Power of Architecture’ held at Design Museum, London. The discussion of light and shadows has been his architectural idea and can be seen on each of his project.

Diagram 1

[Diagram 1]Exploration of space in exhibition through Louis I. Kahn ‘Power of Architecture’ Exhibition.

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Throughout the exhibition, some debated on how light and shadow are the mainelements in reading architecture. Image 2 of Composition 4 shows a corridor of Salk Institute of Biological Studies, California. Image 13 discusses how light penetration can create volume and distance of each wall and space. We can determine how far the next column from its previous is. An architecture student usually can read a building through a perspective image of the building - shadows create the lines, and lights create the rooms.

Shadow and light also control human’s feelings on determining where is it safe to be when in danger. Lights are not just to light up a room, but it also gives direction through the wall of where are the open areas and rooms. Lots of research have been done on Claustrophobia andAgoraphobia using ‘light and shadow’. This is resulting that ‘vision and visuality’ have beenreferred as involving together with body, psyche and mind. [24] Not only by feeling the situation, watching and reading also create the ambience of it.

The role of imagery in three-dimensional understanding should be reconsidered beyond conventional optics, but instead in terms of images that derive from psychic activity. This is why we can decide on which perspective, points of references and focus on when creating an images or doing photography. It is all related back to architecture where ‘light and shadow’ are always discussed. An image portrays an endowment of architectural space with a subjective quality; visuality therefore suggests a certain creative engagement with the object. [25]

Image 13

[24] Nigianni (2007) Architecture as Image-Space-Text - p.256

[Image 13]Corridor of Salk Institute. The lines show the identitfication of archi-tectural element, space, rooms and materials through light and shadow.


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This is also an element on how to read a city through images. Indication of light and shadows create depth, volume and scale. Rudolph Arnheim stated on his book ‘Visual Thinking’, ‘The abstractness of gestures is even more evident when they portray action. Gestures represent pushing and pulling, penetration and obstacle, stickiness and hardness, but do not indicate the objects thus treated and described’. [26] The gestures here are light and shadow where they are based on image 12, the skyscraper of Radiant City and can be read by its shadow and elements of perspective play role on defining the scale.

Another exercise has been done in Interpretation and Theory class was based onArnheim’s dialogue, a representation of gestures. Based on the images given, studentsneeded to draw what is the plan of it. I chose image 14 as a base for my plan where multilevel of connections, roads and different sizes are the main structure of the city. From the image, basic square shape buildings are organised in the same direction with different heights. Roads are also positioned in a multilevel position working as connections to the different levels of the buildings. In result to the exercise, image 15 is how I imagine the plan of the image.

Image 14

[26] Arnheim (1969) Concepts Take Shape - p.116

[Image 14]Motter and Rivoche (2008) Som-nopolis (replacing Radiant City) in the middle of the city, projecting the highway, highrise and transportation. - p.114 & 124

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Image 15

[Image 15]Interpretation through ‘Image 12’ to protraying city in plan from perspectives.

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From image 14, multilevel highways and connections have actually portrayed BelGeddes’s visionary a long time ago. Norman Bel Geddes proposed the idea of motorways orhighway during ‘Futurama: New York World’s Fair 1939’. This was the start of a massive urban planning focusing on development of the infrastructure. The idea is to tackle the issue of anenormous increase in population and car users. More skyscrapers, more cars on the road and the city gets bigger and bigger to cater the population.

Bel Geddes suggested that automobile infrastructure (he recommended as the average speed is 100 mph) should be separated and to avoid entering the urban street as he explained:

“If the purpose of the motorway as now conceived is that of being ahigh-speed non-stop thoroughfare, the motorway would only bungle thatjob if it got tangled up with a city. It would lose its integrity. Themotorway should serve heavily populated areas, but it does not have toconnect population hubs directly. A great motorway has no businesscutting a wide swath right through a town or city and destroying thevalues there; its place is in the country.” [27]

[27] Geddes. (1940) Idea of sustainable future city through infrastructure.

[Image 16]The exhibition includes projection of a basic possible trends in motor transportation of the futuresigns-shaped-modern-America.

Image 16

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The thoughts of infrastructure has also has been discussed by architects and designer that has been illustrated in their proposals. Archigram brought up the idea of ‘Walking City’ (Ron Herron, 1964) where the 40-storey house move serenely across the flat landscape.The main thoughts are to tackle intra and interurban transportation issue and to counter population issues. These walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger ‘walking metropolises’ when necessary, and then disperse when their concentrated authority was no longer required. [26]

Image 17

[28]Herron (1964) - p.131

[Image 17]Herron (1964) - p.132 - 133Is it possible for the space-comic’s future to relate once again with buildings-as-built?

[Image 18]Introduction scene in Futurama series by Matt Groening, generally showing the city is all about, the New New York in year 3000s.

Matt Groening also developed the idea of infrastructure and city in his own cartoon series ‘Futurama’. The series set in New New York in the 31st century, built over present day New York (they referred as Old New York). Groening also focused on current global issue of cities such as global warming, population, inflexible politics and searching for a new land or planet to live. The intro scene of the series (image 18) show the modern skyscraper, floating vehicles and human transporter. This kind of infrastructure suits the idea of future, radical technologies and dense of a city.

Image 18

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The inspiration and idea of Radiant City itself also came from Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse (Radiant City, 1930). An unrealised master plan proposed by Le Corbusier in 1924 was designed to comprehend the effective means of transportation, nature and light to tackle issues that was happening in some of the big cities. The idea of this future city will provide a better way of life in urban living and promote better society. [29] The core of this is a concept of ‘zoning’ where a firm division of the city is isolated into commercial, business, entertainment and residential areas. These radical ideas of a city has also been implemented in Chandigarh by le Corbusier himself as the first planned city in India.

We cannot escape to address the issues of visuality and textuality as a criticalarchitectural representation through experience and interpretation. [30] Back to Radiant City of Mister X, Dean Motter and Paul Rivoche manipulated a radical new method of mood-alteringdesign called Psychetecture, which was the conception of a man known only as Mister X. When the design of the city begins to badly affect its people, the ignored and hated Mister X secretlyreturns to the city now known as Somnopolis – The City of Nightmares – to fix things. [31] The people in this city will be discussed in the next chapter.

[29] Merin, G. (2013 )


[31] Morgan (2008) Motivation by Obses-sion: The Architect + Archetype - p.7

[Image 19]Ville Radieuse or Radiant City. A planned-city proposal by Le Corbus-ier in 1930. The image discuss on vertical residential, insfrastructure, people’s movement and greenery; very important issue on sustainable city.

Image 19

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The interpretation of Le Corbusier’s Radiant City gave inspirations and ideas to writers and illustrators on how a planned city can be in the future; does it reflects the city development or does it generates different culture through its people? Are people the ones who damage and ruin the city? Architecture is the one that built the culture, people and the hope. The drawings were projected to give an accurate visual account of a concept. As such they were purely cognitive, not different in principle from what artists or illustrators show in their drawings or comics. [32] The design of the city itself through comics and graphic novels make us decide who is going to use the place – the protagonist or the antagonist.

Image 20

[32] Arnheim (1969) Concepts Take Shape - p.134

[Image 20]Motter and Rivoche (2008) First page of Mister X comic. Here we can see the ‘abstract’ of the whole comic through one image only. - p.21

[33] Arnheim (1969) Words in their Place - p.233

I can say that visual medium is so extremely strong to show the architecture of the city because it offers physical equivalents to all characteristics of objects, events, relations andpeople. [33] Text debates loudly in favour of the argument that thinking takes place in the realm of the sense. Sin City by Frank Miller shows how the argument of images and texts harmonize the stories and it also shows the tense of the plot and how dark and damp is the city.

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Sin City has long renowned for its outstanding and radical style. Written and illustrated by Frank Miller, the series experiment with black and white artwork – some later work focuses on red and yellow colour for a character - of fictional Basin City full of lowlifes, assassins and corrupted politics. We cannot see the real ‘Basin City’ as there is no proper image of the building, no full plan of the city, no directions of where is which and no boundary of the city. Images argues loudly in favour of the debate that thinking takes place in jurisdiction of the senses. An argument may be sharp-edged or impenetrable; theories may harmonize or be in discord with each other; a political situation may be tensed; and the stench of corruption may characterizes an evil regime.[34]

Image 21 shows the lowlifes, prostitutes and assassins that lived long enough in Old City, Sin City and they control the area even when the police who accidentally came to the city will be killed by them. The ghetto, dark and full of dark power has been portrayed just inblack-and-white illustration but yet the idea is still clear. In the same image we can see that a girl is shooting from the roof, but it’s just an illustration of the shingles. To show that the scene in the city in an unfamiliar way, Frank Miller illustrated each image in distort angle of perspective or flat two-dimensional elevation (silhouette or shadow of a person). This immediately forces the reader to evaluate the sense of the image. It is tools for illustrators to show space, volume and energy of the scene.

Image 21


[Image 21]Miller (2010) - in ‘A Dame to Kill for’, Frank Miller show the power of wom-en at the ‘Old City’ of Sin City. They equipped with loads of weapons. The perspective illustrated from the view of roof top, facing the tragedy happened on street. - p.137

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Image 22 shows a plot in Old City of Sin City. Generically we can read that they are on the roof top, raining, at night and try to plot a homicide. Walls are made from bricks, glass windows, insulation pipes and multilevel of roof top can directly show the elements of the building in a simple representation in light and shadow. Here, imagination and experience play a fundamental role in abstracting the architectural elements from its formal characteristic. Hence, it lets things appear in their eidetic principles as geometric extensions. [35]

Image 22

[Image 22]Miller (2010) ‘The Big Fat Kill’ more focussing on organised crime in Sin City. We can read the floor, brick wall, glass window, vent pipes and rain in single image eventhough it just in black and white. The shadow directly gives the idea of roof top scene in rainy night. - p.147

[35] El-Bizri (2007) Imagination and Archi-tectural Representation - p.36

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The idea of the city itself can be representing a ghetto side of Los Angeles, California, USA where lots of crime, drugs and prostitutions happen. El Pueblo, a district in Los Angelesreflects the idea of Sin City where lots of flat roof buildings, dark and quiet alleys and full of gangs. The element of the building and streets easily represent what dark side of the city can be. This is where imagination grabs the experience of life in analysing an image.

Experience cannot be gained only through life journeys, but also through visualexperiences from movies, comics and internet. From the book ‘From Models to Drawings’ (El-Bizri, 2007) also discussed this issue in his essay stated, ‘Imagination can be grasped as being a mental faculty or activity that forms projected images of potentially external objects that are not present to the senses but the imaginary is not simply illusory in the sense of not corresponding with some formal counterparts or sensory material data.’ [36] [36]

El-Bizri (2007) Imagination and Archi-tectural Representation - p.40

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Composition 5

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Composition 4

1. Secret, Power, Identity Het Grote Naakt. (Piet Mondrian, 1912)

“In art the search for a content which is collectively understandable is false; the content will always be individual.”

2. Hide, Secure, Plan Mister X – Condemned (Dean Motter, 2009)

...“A powerful and ambitious element has emerged within the brotherhood. One that will surely destroy it from within. It must be exposed and purged.”

3. Authority, Power, Control Mister X – The Archive (Dean Motter, Paul Rivoche, 2008)

“I didn’t want to…all those architects of our fair city. Dead. In the most unconvincing ‘acci-dents’ in history. Someone shows up and steal his copies of city blueprints.”

4. Emotion, Memories, Love Sin City 2 – A Dame to Kill for (Frank Miller, 2014)

...“A lighting flash. More thunder, closer now. Those poor slobs. They don’t have a chance.”

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PEOPLE AND THE CITIESWinston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards, our buildings shape us” in his speech in the House of Commons (1943). [37] Buildings do shape people. They cannot change physically but they can change more related to the human behaviour. We can see the changes in a human, who lives in a room facing the sun that he will be more vibrant and active character wise rather than some who lives in a damp and dark area. With the projection of different types of buildings, it is not possible a city can change people through their behaviours.

City shapes the people and people’s behaviours show how the city treats them. Frank Miller illustrated on how the city shapes the people trough ‘Sin City’. Homicide, strippers,gambling, gangs and assassins have been portrayed in this side of the city. Almost every female character was a stripper or a prostitute. Female characters are always associated with being the object of desire while the male characters are seen as protectors and guardians. Frank Miller illustrated in his first graphic novel of Sin City showing guys sitting in a strip club, watching the show and at the same time portraying the cruel activity of interrogation.

The male character has been illustrated in a hyper masculine way to show toughness to survive in this city and female characters are demoted as male indulgence in lust. Marv, as the main character in this graphic novel, was described as ‘seven feet plus of muscle and mayhem’ guy. Image 23 also shows Marv interrogates one of the customers of the strip club. This narrative description supports the illustration of the character as words supply a clear-cut, distinct sign for each type and thereby inspires perceptual imagery to soothe the inventory of visual concepts. [38]

Image 23

[37] Churchill (1943) Speech on Rebuild-ing The House of Common 1943.

[Image 23]Miller (2010) The image show the everyday scene happened in Sin City where strippers club as their main location to hang out and fighting between the customers. The Hard Goodbye. - p.55


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Female characters were able to maintain their power through their physicality,controlling the whole Sin City. Even cops were afraid to cross the boundary of this city. The femalecharacters were trained to assassinate, kill and protect each of them from crooked policeman andpoliticians. They owned the place, no chaos by police can be done here, even though lots of killingand assaults happened daily in this city, as long as their ‘business’ is not disturbed.

One of the assassins is ‘Miho’ who is small, silent yet deadly. She is one of the prostitutes in Sin City who is capable to kill with a pair of Ninja-To, shuriken and by throwing knives. Her skill as assassin also has been narrated in the graphic novel, “She’ll cut you quick, She’ll kill you quiet. You won’t feel a thing, not unless she wants you to.” Illustration of Miho usually is seen in wearing black kimono which hides lots of weapons. All of these are just to protect the women of Old Town, Sin City.

Light and shadow again play a role on descripting evil and good – evil may be contrasted with lesser evil. In Sin City, the bad character is the corrupted cop. The cop character should to protect the innocent and oppress corruption but Frank Miller portrays him differently. He makes us feel as if we are also the characters in Sin City. Image 24 shows a car moving into a compound and guards can be seen in various places. Through architectural elements, we can see a tough guy supervising from the roof ridge and two guys guarding the main entrance of the compound. This image shows how mafia or organised crime headquarters look like in Sin City.

Image 24

[Image 24]Miller (2010) Again in ‘A Dame to Kill for’, the mafia compound secured well as we can see in the image, the guards watch at evey place, even on the ridge of the roof. - p.188

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These illustrations depict the thinking in particular, dealing with objects and events only if they are available to the mind in some technique which are memories and experiences. In directobservation, the images can be perceived but they are characterised indirectly by what isremembered and known about the stories. [39] Composition 5 discusses the same issue as how an illustration of a ‘man’ reflects its situation and cities.

Based on this composition, some questions can be raised – Do people represent their city? How is a city’s development and architecture affect people’s way of living? Can a city grow people and new cultures? Do people and their culture create the city or vice versa? The answers to these questions lay inside of each image in the composition. A ‘man’ is a representation as a whole which portray life, behaviour and context. These elements are related to the beginning of this chapter, where a city affects the human behaviour and the people will reflect the city.

Image 25

[Image 25]Miller (2010) On the first volume, Miller portraying Marv running from someone. He portraying he is running from roof top into a room. We can’t see the full image of the whole situa-tion, but the silhoutte tells everything about his journey. -p.42-43

[39] Arnheim (1969) The Images of Thought - p.98

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Based on this composition, some questions can be raised – Do people represent their city? How is a city’s development and architecture affect people’s way of living? Can a city grow people and new cultures? Do people and their culture create the city or vice versa? The answers to these questions lay inside of each image in the composition. A ‘man’ is a representation as a whole which portray life, behaviour and context. These elements are related to the beginning of this chapter, where a city affects the human behaviour and the people will reflect the city. Looking back at the composition, Piet Mondrian painted a grayscale tone portraiture of a naked lady using his unique technique. It takes a lot of Mondrian’s time to develop specific forms and natural colour to represent pure reality. Imperfect human drawings, in dark colour project a sense of mysterious human identity and yet has the power of controlling a composition. There are some secrets behind this portraiture and that is the message, to contain the mystery of it.

Dean Motter also illustrates the mystery of a person in his work. Mister X always appear from shadow. He has lots of plans to save Radiant City from falling but still, the reader cannot really grasp which one is which. The plot of the story was arranged beautifully to contain the secret identity of the man who was born, raised and lived in the city. He was trying to save the city from corrupted politicians and architects. They try to do their own way which they can control themselves through authority and power.

Image 26

[Image 26]Motter (2008) Image of Mayor Frost watching ‘his’ city from his office, thinking of how to maintain his power over the city. - p.138

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Image 26 shows the elements of religion, lust and money drawn as symbols and signs that are particularly handy to give a direct statement in several level of abstractness. [40] A man who stood still in the middle of the image, smoking a cigar, looking over his city on the 86th floor of a high-rise, thinking about money and showing the power he has in controlling the city. Another image in composition 5 gave a different meaning of relationship between people and city.

A lady in red dress stands at an open balcony, in the middle of the image overlooking the city. [41] This female character gives a different indirect meaning of an image. A lady usuallyrepresents soft, gentle and love. But this image shows that the lady does not control the city like the person in the Radiant City. The image delivers an unclear message of what the lady iswaiting for. Here it feels like she is waiting for someone special or to seek revenge. The image was meant not only by which the reader easily follows changes in narrative time, but also accesses aninsensible architectural piecing together with human emotion. [42]

Image 27

[40] Arnheim (1969) Words in Their Places - p.239

[41] Miller (2013) A Dame to Kill for (movie shot) - refer Composition 5 and image 27

[42] Tobe (2006) Architectural Grounding in Miller’s Elektra: Temporalityand Spatiality in the Graphic Novel.

[Image 27]Sin City 2 – A Dame to Kill for (Frank Miller, 2014) Who is she? What are she doing there? Why facing the city? Is this an action of waiting? Is she waiting for something? or she seeking for revenge?

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Some comics and graphic novels illustrate their characters to contribute and develop with the city – not against it. Bob Kane originally created Bat-Man in 1930s as aristocratic hero with double identity. The idea was derived from The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Emmuska Orczy, 1903) and Zorro (Johnston McCulley, 1919). [43] Both of the main characters perform heroic deeds in secret and goes undercover with their signature symbols.

The stories of Batman or ‘Bruce Wayne’ has gotten more ‘serious’ in 1970s when Den-nis O’Neil and Neal Adams portrayed the characters ‘grim avenger of the night’. Darker Batman, more maniac criminal characters and details in architecture have been taken on illustrating the comic. This inspired Tim Burton to make a real action movie in 1989. Gothic, dark, mass and coldarchitecture portrayed the city. The same idea was also developed in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ debuted in 1992. [44]

Image 28



[Image 28]Loeb and Sale (1998) Image of Bat-man always can be seen stand with the background of Gotham’s skyline. He fight for the city and this show the radical religious architecture and its benefactor to affect morality of the citizens. Batman - The Long Halloween.

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Gotham City was designed and illustrated very well to show the radical religiousarchitecture and its benefactor to affect morality of the citizens. As the years go by, Batman was the one who influenced the morality of the citizens. Born and raised by the forms and culture of the city, Batman has had as much influence on the essence of Gotham as the spires and gargoyles of the city’s architecture. [45]

Batman stands with his city and brings the city together to develop through years. He knows the city very well. The city will always create new maniac criminals, shifts andreconfigures itself over years, but Batman will always stay behind and look after his city. He will always be with the city even though he has all the money to just leave this crazy city and start a new life in another place. Image 26 illustrated that Bruce Wayne always watch over and will solve every disruptions of the city.

Image 29


[Image 29]Snyder and Capullo (2013) Inside the eyes of Bruce Wayne, still hewatching Gotham. - The City of Owls. vol.2

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Again, police characters play a big role in graphic novels. War between the corrupted and goodpolice is portrayed in every Batman series. Gotham City Police Department was led byCommissioner Gordon, who always put his trust in Batman. Batman was the one who solved lots of cases as the ‘bad cop’ and Gordon must play the game by the rules as he knows that the system is crooked. We can understand the hero of this series has been portrayed in a different identity and culture.

Aldo Rossi was an Italian architect that discussed the relation between city and itspeople, “The rules of the city may be just like the rules that controlled personal life and fate. Each biography has its own span, although is limited between birth and death.” [46] Architecture may react as the skin to the building. But the society who lived within the skin embodied the form and react through human’s behaviour.

[46] Rossi and Eisenman (1982) - Morphological Relationship

[Image 30]Comparisson between two scene, Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola (1972) and Batman - The Long Hal-loween by Loeb and Sale (1998). This is one of appreciation to epic moving pictures through comic book.

Image 30

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Gotham City also has been as reminiscent of New York City’s mob years. Reflecting Mario Puzo’s movie ‘Godfather’, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale adapted the Gotham City’s mafia, Carmine Falcone to represent Don Vito Corleone in ‘Batman: The Long Halloween’ graphic novel. The story is mainly dominated by crime and corruption in Gotham City reflecting the fear in 20th century citizen and resulting from an organised crime. This is one of the ways, writers and illustratorscelebrate centuries of human experience through the Batman series. The story represents real world issues especially in the USA. This city remains to adapt to society and culture, reflecting what is important to citizens of Gotham City at any given time.

Image 31

Language assists the mind in stabilizing and preserving intellectual entities throughimages in graphic novels. Dean Motter projected characters in the Mister X with a personalnarration to elaborate the scene of each image. The generalities acquired in perception areaembedded in the range of the visual world. Words or word sequences can differ in length and rhythm; images of the character and buildings have roles as they are all composed in limited numbers of elements and they can produce sequences of dialogues and visual resemblances. [47]

[Image 31]Motter (2009) Image of Mister X walking around the city, watching the distruction happened to the city as he said, ‘From narcoleptic somnam-bulists to omniphobic insomniacs.’ - p.59


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Image 32

[Image 32]Motter (2008) Another scene of Mister X walking around the city, with the background of some buildings, reflects the architecture and the people who lived in the city. Still, Mister X comment the city as ‘Destroyed’.- p.93

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Language is helpful, it supplies clear-cut, distinct sign for each type and therebyencourages perceptual imagery to stabilize the inventory of visual concepts. [48] It helps onsending message of memories, thoughts and ideas. Image 30 is an area of a scene where Mister X was studying at The Ninth Academy. The narrative is based on memories, flashback in time torecap the idea of constructing Radiant City. The image portrays in the working area, a set of models of the city and some designers and architects doing the technical drawing. Without the narration and continuation of the stories, this is just a normal illustration of architects.

Jeffrey Morgan said in his foreword in ‘Mister X: The Archive’ explaining Mister X’scharacter as addictive architecture, dirty gumshoes, designer drugs, gadfly pleasure-seekers,disrupted conclusions, and annoyingly vixens but a few of the symbolic elements which have come to define Dean Motter’s entire works over the following years. [49] Representation ofarchitecture does not simply ‘render the invisible as such’, but offers continuous pointers and directive scenes and plots that carry possibilities of the reality. The image presents natural objects but thoroughly unnatural constellation. Comic books and graphic novels are like a combination of spices where characters, buildings, technologies and narration in series represent stories.

Image 33


[Image 33]Motter (2009) The image show the studio in The Ninth Academy, where all the designers, architect and city planner gather and build the Radiant City. Image include illustration of models and drawing, architecture tools also people working on the drawing. - p.56

[49] Morgan (2008) Motivation by Obses-sion: The Architect + Archetype - p.7

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Azrul Othman [1322509]Azrul Othman [1322509]

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EPILOGUE

Image 34 - Motter (2009) - p.50

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Through this paper, it has found that the idea behind the architecture through comics and graphic novels are readable. Based on the three main graphic novels, Sin City, Mister X and Batman, the understanding on how cities are a representation of the real world have beensuccessfully delivered. Experiments and exercises have been made to help further the study of this essay.

From the study of this paper, comics and graphic novels can deliver an illustration of a city. Elements like comic panels and gutter from a comic book are a representation of city blocks and grids of a city. Development takes time for big cities such as New York. New York hasalways inspired movie makers, designers, scenarists, and illustrators as a tool of representation forpeople and culture.

Another important element in understanding comics and graphic novels, is light and shadow. This element helps reader to read and identify the architectural setting in the story. Through a single image, the reader can imagine the elements of architecture in the city – the plan, directions, heights and sizes of buildings. Infrastructure of the city also can be represented in comics and graphic novels through the idea of development and technologies that are illustrated based on studies of a real city. This too, can be represented through people and culture.

Series of studies show that a city shapes people’s behaviours and cultures. Through images in comics and graphic novels, the quality of life can be read. Specific gender represents a role and an identity in each story while illustrations of the physical form represent positions and power of a character. Through each character’s behaviours, one can identify the personality and background. Again, this is also related to the representation of the city.

Comics and graphic novels symbolise hope, inspirations, and imagination of people from different backgrounds and generations. In conclusion, comics and graphic novels are tools of a cultural and representation of architecture to the world.

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Azrul Othman [1322509]Azrul Othman [1322509]

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Books & Journals

Frascari, M., Hale, J. and Starkey, B. (2007). From Models to Drawings. London: Routledge.

Arnheim, R. (1969). Visual Thinking. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cook, P. (1999). Archigram. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Crompton, D. (2012). A Guide to Archigram 1961-74. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Evers, B. and Thoenes, C. (2003). Architectural Theory. Köln: Taschen.

Ferriss, H. (1986). The Metropolis of Tomorrow. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press.

Geddes, N. (1940). Magic Motorways. [New York]: Random House.

Minden, M. and Bachmann, H. (2000). Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House.

McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding Comics. New York: HarperPerennial.

Hejduk, J. and Shkapich, K. (1985). Mask of Medusa. New York: Rizzoli.

Burrows, E. and Wallace, M. (1999). Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford Univer-sity Press.

Deely, J. and Lenhart, M. (1983). Semiotics 1981. New York: Plenum Press.

Daniels, L., Kidd, C. and Kane, B. (2004). Batman - The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Dark Knight. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

Meteling, A. and Ahrens, J. (2010) Comics and the City. London: Continuum.

Rossi, A. and Eisenman, P. (1982). The Architecture of the City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Gombrich, E. and Saxl, F. (1986). Aby Warburg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

REFERENCES

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Internet

Merin, G. (2013 ) AD Classics: Ville Radieuse / Le Corbusier. ArchDaily. Accessed 4 Jan 2015. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=411878>

Churchill, W. (1943) House of Commons Rebuilding.Accessed 10 Jan 2015 <http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1943/oct/28>

Tobe, R. (2006) Architectural Grounding in Miller’s Elektra: Temporality and Spatiality in the Graphic Novel. Dept of English, University of Florida. Accessed 15 Dec 2014. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_1/tobe/>.

Bernard, M. and Carter, J.C. (2004) Alan Moore and the Graphic Novel: Confronting the Fourth Dimension. Dept of English, University of Florida. Accessed 14 Dec 2014. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v1_2/carter/>

Rackard, N. (2013) Batman and Architecture Finally United in ‘Batman: Death by DesignArchDaily. Accessed 5 Jan 2015. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=330378>

Stamp, J. (2012) Batman & Architecture: The Dark Knight Rises and Gotham’s Buildings Fall.ArchDaily. Accessed 5 Jan 2015. <http://www.archdaily.com/?p=256839>

Stamp, J. (2009) Batman, Gotham City, and an Overzealous Architecture Historian With a Working Knowl-edge of Explosives. Life Without Buildings .Accessed 5 Jan 2015. <http://lifewithoutbuildings.net/2009/06/on-influence-batman-go-tham-city-and-an-overzealous-architecture-historian-with-a-working-knowledge-of-explosives.html>

Department of Asian Art. (2000) “Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e Style”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2.Accessed 20 Jan 2015. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ukiy/hd_ukiy.htm>

http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/home/

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Comics / Graphic Novels

Loeb, J. and Lee, J. (2009). Hush. New York: DC Comics.

Loeb, J., Sale, T. and Kane, B. (1998). Batman: The Long Halloween. New York: DC Comics.

Kidd, C., Taylor, D. and Hill, J. (2012). Batman: Death by Design. New York: DC Comics.

O’Neil, D., Rucka, G., Maleev, A. (2011) Batman: No Man’s Land (Vol 1). New York: DC Comics.

Miller, F. (2010). Sin City Volume 1: The Hard Goodbye. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books.

Miller, F. (2010). Sin City Volume 2: A Dame to Kill for. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books.

Miller, F. (2010). Sin City Volume 3: The Big Fat Kill. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books.

Miller, F. (2010). Sin City Volume 5: Family Values. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books.

Motter, D. (2008). Mister X: The Archives. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse.

Motter, D. (2009). Mister X: Condemned. Milwaukie, Ore.: Dark Horse Books.

Stok, B. and Watkinson, L. (2014). Vincent. London: SelfMadeHero.

Aoyama, G (2012) Detective Conan: Volume 75. Tokyo: Shogakukan.

Moore, A. and Gibbons, D. (1987). Watchmen. New York: DC Comics.

Morrison, G. and Weston, C. (2004). The Filth. New York: DC Comics.

FIGURES & IMAGES

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Documents

City in Graphic Novel_