Words and Images

According to Brian Fies, comics transcend words and images. Each can express half of the meaning, but each does not mean anything without the other. They must come together and collaborate in order to provide meaning. There are many ways words and images work together. One way is that images serve as an illustration of the word. In other words, many people may not understand what the words are trying to express. The image provides an example of what the author is trying to come across. Same with the word explaining what is going on in the image. Some may come across an image and merely see it as a drawing. The words provide a storyline or a narrative that explains what is going on in the drawing.

In the image to the right, without the words, one might guess that a woman is again losing hair. This does not tell you why she is losing hair or what is going on. Adding the texts to the images gives one a sense of story. The Fies’ mother smoked for 45 years which is what he says. Throughout the panels, it shows what the mother is thinking, “I know I did this to myself.” She takes full responsibility in one panel. The next panel, she blames on the fumes of the woods she used to burn. She shifts the blame. Without the words, we would not have known what was going on. Reading the texts without any images, one might see the jumps in thoughts. They do not tend to connect. Adding the images gives it a little more feeling. Words and images need each other to get a point across to the reader. If they do not come together, meaning is pointless, not understood, or is forgotten.