Ella Cinders By Charles Plumb

Comic books on the surface appear to be simple. However, beneath that surface lies much more depth than the images give off. The making of comics and how each individual scene is drawn, and laid out has much more complex workings than most readers would expect. Ella Cinders by Bill Counselman and drawn by Charles Plumb is one such example of how much depth and thinking goes into making comic strips. The strips themselves talk about the adventures of a woman named Ella. Beneath that, every little detail on the strips, from the cartooning of the characters, framing choices, to the way the page itself is set up all plays a role in visually delivering the story. Framing choice is how the artist decides to depict individual scenes in their comic. …show more content…
In McCloud’s triangle, this comic’s style would generally fit in the bottom left area but a bit towards the middle of the triangle, as the scenes are drawn with a complicated rendering, however there are a few scenes where details are omitted for simplicity’s sake. Throughout all the comics, ligne claire is the general rendering style of these comics. Shading and feathering is also present in specific panels. Ligne claire is the rendering style where line weights are generally the same weight and have a similar look to the lines. For example, in the third comic, the third tier, third panel, everything in that image is drawn with the same pressure. As in, all the lines generally have the same thickness, where nothing is bolded more than the other. The lines outlining Ella and her companion have the same thickness. In the first comic, the second tier, third panel, Ella is seen sitting over a log, beneath her is shaded area, representing her shadow. The features on character are realistic and have enough detail that you can see her freckles, nose and a definite mouth form. The shading is that touch of simplified cartooning as it appears to be a blob of darkened area with no definite shapes. The second comic, in the third tier, second panel , the greyed, grid like area underneath the red masked man represents feathering. This …show more content…
A comic can have a good story, but with a poor execution, can end up being nothing more than mediocre. In Ella Cinders by Counselman and Plumb, their narrative style is a simple one, that allows for more attention to be drawn towards the actual pages and the story they tell. With such an overall plain style, readers will glide through the panels, taking in the images and what they say, rather than be drawn towards other details. Even with the way the panels transition from one to another, gives off the impression that we’re in the front row, experiencing what Ella is throughout the stories. By being so close, and having such smooth continuity between panels makes it seem we’re just watching her adventures go by so smoothly.With such a story, with the main character and her adventures, it would make no sense for the readers to be focusing more on superficial details on the page than the actual character and what she’s going