The semiotic resources of comics in movie adaptation: Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003) as a case study

Abstract

In this article, we apply methods under development in socio-functional semiotics to explore the transfer of resources originally developed for comics to the medium of film. We illustrate this concretely with respect to extracts taken from Ang Lee’s Hulk (2003), a film we consider unique in its particular appropriation of expressive resources from the comic medium. Hulk is often been singled out in discussions of the relations between comics and film because many of the design decisions taken in the film evoke aspects of the comic page. Here, we argue that its use of the resources of comics goes substantially beyond ‘evocation’: Hulk is best considered a highly experimental hybrid, taking resources that were initially essentially comics based and ‘translating’ these filmically in order to extend the medium of film in interesting ways. We show this in two respects: first, we consider the filmic deployment of comicbook conventions for expressing movement; second, we establish that the film’s use of split-screen techniques extends the ability of film to express narrative continuity and connection between perspectives.

Perceiving the poetic world: A corpus-assisted transitivity analysis of poetry comics

“…But the study is confined to linguistic analysis. A few scholars have begun to use systemic functional semiotics to investigate comics (e.g., Bateman and Veloso, 2003 ; Veloso and Bateman, 2013 ; Wang 2014 ; Zeng and Yang, 2016 ). Veloso and Bateman (2013) , for example, conduct a multimodal examination on how legitimization has been constructed in Marvel’s Civil War comic books.…”

Influencing Mechanism of Linguistic Network to Animation Performance

“…), and envisioning(reiterate, appropriate and even parodize in a creative way) as using this kind of system. [6][7][8][9] Since meaning innovation processes are essential to the animation performance, there we posit the following: The concept framework about influencing mechanism of linguistic network to animation performance is showed in Figure 2.…”

Evaluation on the Use of Online Comics among Students: Development Studies at Universitas Terbuka

“…Digital comics are media that have illustrations and storylines that are dynamic and easily adapted to technological developments (Ulfa et al, 2016); (Wang, 2016); (Bateman & Veloso, 2013). The uniqueness of digital comics is that the marketing process or distribution is easy and does not cost much.…”