Case Study 1 & 2

The Open Market Zine

My case study is about a zine called “The Open Market” which was produced by an ex-student.
Zines are made to promote something that the individual is interested in or inspired by. They are cheaply made with cheap publication. Zines are normally dedicated to one main theme such as music, art, film. This zine runs through a small market place. It paces through each stall creating a realistic experience.

Content and Context
It has two title’s, one on the front of the market brown paper bag saying: “The Open Market, established in 1920’s, For all your shopping needs,”and then a second title on the front of the zine saying “Come In, We’re Open”. The connotation of the word “Open” shows not only the name of the market but it also creating a welcoming and friendly attitude. When opened, it is a small rotation of market stalls starting with a menu with prices. It is split up into two pieces making each stall 3D with the most important things (sign and produce) at the front and then it has a background relating to that stall. The overarching theme is food as opposed to craft or knick-knacks. It relates to contextual matters such as healthy eating, buying produce from local providers and support for cultural foods. This zine could be seen as a link to “Kings” by another ex-student which is an accordion book which opens up into the insides of Kings (the shop in Wem) showing all the bits and bobs it sells. It follows the same theme as “Vestibules” by using pop outs, flaps, and hidden backgrounds. Zines are made to introduce something new to somebody or share share the same interests with somebody else (fanzine.) So I think this zine could have been made to advertise a marketplace to bring in more customers and suppliers. The narrative is shown by each title sign showing the reader what each stall sells with little price tags and notices also. Zines normally have no writing but only black and white pictures, however sometimes they do which shows that this zine follows the conventions.

Form
The colour palette is achromatic consisting of lots of different tones ranging from Black to White.The most dominant colour is black because it draws out from within the large amount of negative space. I wouldn’t really say that it had been rendered but it’s definitely shaded using different gradients of pencils, I’d say that the detail is more made up of different small shapes.
The background is positioned into the centre of the grid so that it feels you’re looking straight through a window or the room. Each sign uses a different serif or sans serif font to contrast with the sign before it. There are lots of grayscale tones used instead of colour, the hierarchy is the darkest greys and blacks - uniform fill. The layout is exactly the same as a market hall, the sign at the top of the page and then the rest is filled with produce. The artist uses no colour to reflect the main theme of a zine. Depth has been created by the movement between the foreground and the background showing the hidden bit that you don’t normally see, this isn’t traditional perspective. I think this zine is great as it is however, i would have made every page as detailed at the first stall but i do like the way it changes every page. The artist chose to use these materials because they’re cheap to publish and cheap to buy and use, they make up the simplicity. Nothing is controlled and I think its based on chance, no plans made. It’s obvious it’s been hand drawn. I think the composition has been thought about and designed before it had been produced. The texture has been made by different line and block colours, not rendered.

Process
I think the processes used to make this zine were mindmaps including fresh ideas into markets, what they sell, what they look like etc. Research into other zines and pop ups, how they’re made and for what purpose. I think they will have used observational drawings of marketplaces, fruit and veg, chairs from real life photographs. They will have used ink, biro and pencil to carry out their drawings. After this, I think they would have made a dummy book showing outlines and paginate. They would have used black inking to create black uniform fill. The artist doubled up so that there is an image on every single page. No cross hatch has been used. They would have thumbnailed during development. Final designs would have been favoured during development. When collating I think the artist would first design the covers, then draw out the foreground, followed by the background and assemble together with glue while paying close attention to the pop ups researched. The specific skills the artist would need would be paying very close attention to detail and basic drawing skills which could be simplified. I think the zine would have taken anything from a week to a few weeks, because there has been a lot of work and detail put into this. The shading and movement of lines show that its been hand drawn and not constructed by technology.

Personal Response
The thing that draws my attention the most is the attention to detail and the fact that its fascinating to look at and find new things that you haven’t seen before.
I think it reminds me of “Where’s Wally?” by Martin Handford because there’s so much to look at, it’s kind of overwhelming. It’s like you’re searching for something but you can’t find it. It makes me feel inspired to make my own. I love the way it flows in a rotation, it creates a flowing and calm attitude. I think she has a great drawing style that she carries on through the zine. I really like this because it creates a realistic experience reflected from the pages made from someone's imagination. I don’t like how it has low levels of detail on some of the pages because this ruins the flow of the zine.

King-Cat Comics and Stories by John Porcellino

I am looking at a small press comic written by John Porcellino which was published by Spit and a Half in 1999. Small press comics are basically small books or zines full of small comic strip stories made by amateur cartoonists. They are shared to any other creators and buyers who are interested in buying them. Most of the time they are handmade with biro and paper and then photocopied for other people.

Context and Content
King-Cat comics are a series of small stories that Porcellino has been writing ever since his teenage years, The stories include: humour, anger, fiction, romance, and philosophy. The front cover shows somewhere that has been a memory for Porcellino or something to do with the rest of the comic, a self cover. The title “King-Cat comics and stories” gives the designer identity to his work so that he can allow himself to make a fun logo for his readers to recognise and remember. Also it shows a link to his favourite beloved feline friend “Maisie Kukoc”. The fact that it says comics and stories underneath King- Cat allows the reader to understand what's inside. His overarching themes are humour and anger which are contrasted next to each other so that you get more involved with the story. He has been influenced through childhood stories for example; stories about his dog Sam, morals; and how it angers him that he didn’t do the right thing, and pretty much everyday life. There’s a link to other small press comics such as “Reggie and Brian and the Lousy Nickname” by Cathy Leamy. It has the same simple line drawings but it has a lot more uniform fill than King-Cat. Porcellino’s work has been made to entertain others, give them something to read and possibly warn others not to make the same mistakes that he had once done. The narrative runs through each picture and stops at the end of each story like a comic strip and begins again on a new page, this follows conventions. His comics have a fun, hip attitude to inspire all ages.

Form
The colour palette consists of black and white only - achromatic colours with the negative space overpowering the black lines making the white most dominant. Texture has been shown by very simple shapes such as very short vertical lines on the ground to make grass. A lot of texture has been used on the front cover to make it look busy and fascinating. This texture has been made by using scribbles and short vs long line marks to show rendering. There is not much texture or rendering used within the comic strips though. The artist uses more detail for decoration rather than emotion, however on the page after the story about “Sam”, a lot of detail has been used possibly to convey emotion. Depth has been used by making 3D line drawings within the comic. I think all the elements work together well however, i wouldn’t have mixed cartoon and photography personally because i think it looks out of place. But i think it does give you another perspective of the story. The artist chose these materials to reflect the general theme of a small press comic, make it cheap to design and publish. He has also developed a drawing technique from just using pen and paper. Everything is very controlled within each box on the page, so nothing looks out of place. You can tell that its been hand drawn because of the biro lines unlike solid shapes used on photoshop. The composition has been organised and designed to its ultimate simplicity before it has been produced. Everything has been written in sans serif to make it look handmade and hand drawn. The hierarchy shows everything organised into boxes because its in a neat grid which is easy for the eye to follow. All the lines are drawn with a thin weight creating simplicity and neatness which makes for a great quality finish.

Process
I think the processes Porcellino used started with thoughts about stories, memories and just things he wanted to talk about. These could have been mind mapped to think about each story in detail. I think he would have spent a great deal of time on planning and fitting things into each box precisely. I think he would have tried lots of ways of drawing his images as simply as possible.Observational drawings would have been carried out to produce the front cover. A dummy book may have been made to trial his ideas and here he would have used paginate.
The comic has been doubled up to create a continuous story. He may have used blue pencil to show where he needed to draw simple shapes into the boxes. When Porcellino was finished with developing his ideas, he would have then drawn them out on each page and collated them with two staples and then photocopied. The specific skills the artist must have are; being able to cartoonize real life ideas, shorten stories into their simplest form and be able to line draw imagery accurately. Each Biro mark shows that it’s been handcrafted with no support of computers.

Personal Response
The things that draw my attention first are: the grid of boxes where the comic strip is laid out because they’re centred on each page making them the first thing you see, the simple sans serif title is bold and reverse block colour to stand out and also the difference between cartoon strips and the other pages such as “cat calls” because this creates a big contrast making it more exciting. Porcellino’s work reminds me of “The Simpsons” because of the style of drawing. I think that the stories are very powerful and emotive. I love Porcellino’s work because they make me feel happy and relaxed. I don’t think there is anything I dislike about his comics. The adolescent stories remind me of myself and what I am currently going through.