Chris Ware, Raccord

Chris Ware

Raccord 

Raccord is used to refer to continuity, and in comics it is embedded on the textual/spatial surface of the page. Often expressed through caption boxes, uncaptioned lettering or other icons like arrows, its main role is to guarantee continuity and linkage. 

Figure 1 - 'Gasoline Alley' by Frank King, The Chicago Tribune, 1930. Page 13

From the tab on the blog 'About Chris Ware' we know he took a lot of inspiration form Gasoline Alley and the idea of raccord was carried through into his work. These images you don't have to read form left to right like a normal book you can read any panel and it make sense as they all display time. King is one of the few artists I know of to do full-page mutli-panel pans. He’s arguably the early master of the multi-panel pan sequence, taking it from earlier incidental uses to building visual narrative that celebrate it – bringing it front and center.  

Figure 2 - 'Big Tex' Chris Ware.

Here is Chris Ware's 'Big Tex' which follows the style of raccord. The style shows similar charactersitics to his inspiration from Gasoline Alley. The idea that there is story shown through time with some hard hitting topics.

Figure 3 - My take on Raccord

Image References:

Figure 1 - Raeburn, D. (2004) 

Figure 2 - Linton, J. and Lincourt, C (2011) 1930s, multi-panel pans. 

Bibliography:

- Linton, J. and Lincourt, C (2011) 1930s, multi-panel pans. Availiable at: https://theperiodicfable.wordpress.com/comics-index-of-multi-panel-pans-by-decade/1930s-multi-panel-pans/ (Accessed: 30 September 2016)

In-text citations: (Linton and Lincourt, 2011)

- Raeburn, D. (2004) University of Gloucestershire Available at: https://contentstore.cla.co.uk/secure/link?id=024eada1-9880-e611-80c6-005056af4099 (Accessed: 30 September 2016). - sourced from PDF.

In-text citations: (Raeburn, 2004) 

- Verstappen, N. (2016_ 'Big Tex' by Chris Ware, USA, 1996. Available at: https://fromdusktilldrawnblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/big-tex-by-chris-ware-usa-1996/ (Accessed : 30 September 2016)
In-text citations: (Verstappen, 2016)