Motion Lines: How Cartoonists Draw Movement
How do you show motion in a medium that doesn’t move? Since comics first appeared in American newspapers at the end of the nineteenth century—at a time when trains, cars, and cities were accelerating everyday life—cartoonists have faced the challenge of depicting motion on a static page. From the earliest strips to contemporary graphic novels, artists have developed a wide range of inventive strategies to capture movement, speed, and energy.
Friends of the Libraries Gallery, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High St.
Columbus Ohio 43210
Exhibit Details
Motion Lines: How Cartoonists Draw Movement explores the visual vocabulary of motion in comics, from classic motion lines to techniques like motion blur, repeated figures, exaggeration, visible paths of travel, and showing the passing of time panel-to-panel. Cartoonists have drawn from photography, cinematography, scientific diagrams, and avant-garde movements like Futurism, all while developing an approach unique to the medium of comics. Distinct visual traditions emerged across the world; this exhibition highlights not only American comics but also how Japanese manga and Franco-Belgian cartoonists have developed their own methods.
Featuring over 100 examples from the late 1800s to today, Motion Lines explores how cartoonists across generations have shaped the artistic devices used to depict motion in comics. The exhibition highlights works by artists including Winsor McCay, Jimmy Swinnerton, George Herriman, Rube Goldberg, Alex Raymond, Edwina Dumm, Hilda Terry, Al Jaffee, Larry Gonick, Lynn Johnston, Ray Billingsley, Fujio Akatsuka, Richard Thompson, Edie Fake, Raina Telgemeier, Bill Watterson, and many more. Their creative approaches reveal why motion is such a powerful storytelling tool in the medium of comics.
Curated by Anne Drozd and Ben Towle
Art shown above is Camera Kid by Fujio Akatsuka
