hey sei, adding in as a blind artist/writer – image descriptions for long-form comics do absolutely exist: comics empower is a comics company for blind readers, for example.
another option you can play with is something that i’ve been experimenting with a lot recently and that i think has a lot of promise: using tactile graphics in combination with blocks of color (for those whom that helps) and clarifying labels. if you wanna talk more about concepts for that, you know where to find me!
also, auden @thequeerwithoutfear has transcribed a couple comic books for me if you want to either just flip through and check out the methods and level of detail they used, or you can totally talk to them directly – they really care about comics accessibility and theyre sighted but Good
hi yes! i do really care about comics accessibility.
so, for the comics that i transcribed and described for avia (and for my daredevil project), i used a method that follows more closely with descriptive video services than with traditional image descriptions. it’s probably closest to the story version that you mentioned in your ask?
i think the most important thing when transcribing comics is to make them still readable and engaging — a traditional panel-by-panel description is i think really not… that. it’s not how comics are meant to be read, and separating out each panel and each bit of dialogue and image that way is clunky and awkward.
because comics are integrated text and image, i do an integrated description for comics — again, in the style of DVS, where dialogue and description are integrated to flow more seamlessly. i think it’s less important to include every detail in order and more important to represent the tone of the story — this is especially important when text is split between panels. splitting up one bit of dialogue with image descriptions in between is i think really confusing to read.
an example of dialogue split between panels with very different images that’d be confusing exactly as written:
Inside, Billy is still shifting through realities. They show the Thing, the old Captain Marvel, a group imprisoned by a Skrull before a wall of flames, Doctor Doom.
Billy narrates. “So many possibilities. So many stories. Infinity is bigger than you’d think. With hindsight, it all seems like that’s the only way it could be. But that’s a lie of perspective. It could be different.” He stops searching, staring at one image. “Teddy’s Mom. When she was killed… ” he says of a woman, green like Teddy, with similar pale hair. The image shifts to a Skrull throwing flames at her. Billy’s face becomes determined. “No, before she was killed. I could never find a universe at this moment again. It’s a needle in an endless haystack. It’s now or never. Don’t say I never get you anything, Teddy,” he says, as the room fills with blue light and the shape of a woman holding her hands up to protect herself appears in white before Billy’s seated figure.
i also do some interpreting of visual details when i write descriptions — for instance, this is a bit in daredevil (2014) #4 where a color change and the placement of the panels marks a flashback. rather than describing the specific differences, i just name it as a flashback:
Later, Matt sits at a restaurant patio with Kirsten McDuffie, food piled in front of them. He’s still in the suit he fought his way out of Owlsley’s mansion in.
Kirsten: “So that’s just it? You just took your fake subpoena and went home?”
Matt: “Well, you’re making that sound a little easier than it was…”
A quick flashback shows Matt, running flat out across a lawn while a machine gun fires at him, jumping over a pack of guard dogs, and leaping a high spiked fence with his billy clubs and grappling line.
Matt: “…but since Owlsley’s compound was designed more to keep intruders out than in, I… managed. How’s the scampi?”
Kirsten liberally peppers her food.
Kirsten: “Too spicy for you. Coleridge left no trail?”
Matt: “I am only an effective bloodhound when I’m not being shot at, Kirsten.”
sound effects are also kind of different to write — i don’t always put them in, since my descriptions usually do what they do visually.
another thing to be careful of is internal narration — separating that from audible dialogue with different formatting can be useful, if your comic has both. daredevil, for instance, has a lot of internal narration:
I think when it comes to writing captions for comics, it depends on the amount of detail. For example, comics by @everythingliar are drawn with simple designs, so not very much needs to be described. ( Click here to see a link ). But on the other hand, this drawing I reblogged from @patrexes has more details so it needs more description. @qjusttheletter has a good post about captions here.
Coleridge: “I said, it’s under control!”
Matt releases one of his billy clubs and grips the other tightly, attached with grappling line.
Matt, narrating: Clearly.
Coleridge: ‘We’re doing this my way! Do you hear me?”
Matt: “Max, stop protecting him!”
another thing that i tried just for the sake of academia was three additional related forms along with the transcribed/described typed-up issue: 1) an audio track of the same description/transcription (which is what comics empower does, although they do more panel-by-panel stuff), 2) an eBraille/BRF version in grade 2 braille to be fed through a refreshable braille display, and 3) a hand-brailled, paper copy, which i made by taking apart the printed issue and adding in brailled pages in between the comic pages so it had both the original comic and a transcribed/described version in braille. if i were to do it again, i’d also add a large print version of the transcription/description as well.
Oh my goodness, this is really, really wonderful. I have been wondering how to work out comics for the longest time and what the real solution should be, and I think this sums it all up almost perfectly. This is exactly the sort of thing I have been looking for, thank you guys so much!
I’ve heard of comics in power, but I wasn’t super fond of the audio format rather than written text that I could read with my screen reader or braille display, and I like this more seamless transition rather than exact panel-by-panel descriptions. Thank you for providing us with the link to the Google folder as well so I could get a good example of what this would really look like, because it help me determine that this is in fact what I really would want.
I believe I just might mark this post as a resource…
Rude comments are not a new thing, content creators get them all the time. Whether it’s a backhanded compliment, something overly creepy, unsolicited critique, or someone just being a straight up troll. I do my best to mitigate those comments within my power to do so, but in the end it’s out of my control. The responsibility is on the commenter, not the content creator. For me, that sometimes discourages me from putting out certain kinds of content. I deleted a piece off of tumblr recently because of one such comment, and because I was subsequently chastised for saying I didn’t want those kinds of comments. I won’t upload personal memorial artwork because of a particularly vicious troll who commented on a portrait I did of my grandmother shortly after she passed away. I currently don’t host auctions online because of the venomous reaction people have when bidding gets high.
So what SHOULD a content creators do when faced with comments they don’t want? Should we let people say things that make us feel bad to avoid upsetting others? Should we block that person? Should we say “hey please don’t speak to me that way”? It can be hard because some of those behaviors from watchers are hurtful and angering. It’s tough to avoid responding from a place of anger. The best thing I’ve learned is to wait before responding, and bounce my wording off a friend or two to make sure I’m being fair.
But we are allowed to put up boundaries. And how we choose to put up our boundaries is entirely up to us. I’m perfectly allowed to ignore you if you speak to me in a harmful way. I’m also allowed to tell you what you said is rude or unwanted. I’m allowed to block you if you have a clear history of saying harmful things to others. Content creators pages are NOT public forums. When we put up our personal boundaries in our spaces, we are not infringing on your rights in any way. We are managing our spaces in the way we see fit.
I originally wrote this a few weeks ago when I witnessed an artist whose work I enjoy defend their choice to call out a transphobic comment on their work. They made that choice because that comment was harmful, and they are putting up a boundary. It doesn’t matter of the person “meant well” when commenting, or included a compliment with their statement. I’m posting it now because I am seeing a friend and admired artist get chastised for being “aggressive”, aka putting up a boundary for themselves on their page. At least in my sphere, I see this happening a lot more frequently, and it’s not ok.
tldr; If you say something harmful to someone, you aren’t owed tolerance or a teaching moment. People are allowed to say no.
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