Design as Research Portfolio

Doll House Comic #1—Four Floors

Concept

In order to explore the fluidity of time in comics, where a reader is aware of the instant portrayed in a comic panel as well as how that panel fits within the past and future encompassed in the overall page layout, I chose to portray childhood memories in my work. Time within memories often flows bidirectionally from a graspable fragment of the past, with certain actions appearing in crisp detail, while bridging moments are often omitted and left to our current self to fill in, much like readers fill in the gaps between panels in the gutter of comics. I have often grounded my own remembering in the reliable architecture of my familial home, hence the reproduction of aspects of these spaces throughout my research.

Here is the first of two doll house comics I created to explore the relationship between the edges of a comic panel and the walls of a house. Like the lantern comics, I have utilized both the interior space and the flat surfaces as opportunities for narrative development.

Outcome: (see also the gallery here)