Seen and heard at Comic-Con: Telling the story

Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego:

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STYLE AND TECHNIQUE MAKE AND BREAK PERCEPTIONS

Artist J.H. Williams III says that the artists who illustrate comic books can help change the way a reader perceives the story and have a “huge impact on how the story feels” as pages are turned, images examined and words read.

Williams, whose artwork on DC Entertainment’s Batwoman is lush, thematic and flowing, is in the midst of illustrating Vertigo Comics’ upcoming The Sandman Overture, working with writer Neil Gaiman to tell a prequel of sorts to the groundbreaking comic.

He said that seeing how visual styles affect reader impressions is what led him to “dabbling in so many different art styles within one story from scene to scene or sometimes from panel to panel. I’ll shift the style based on what’s happening in the story. It subliminally makes the reader view it in a different way.”

Williams said that’s only possible in the medium of comic art and, he said, “has a great impact on a story because of it.”

— Matt Moore (www.twitter.com/mattmooreap )