Out of all of the visual storytelling media that are out there – film, animation, television – comics is really the only one that is not time-bound.

在所有视觉讲故事媒体面前——电影 动画 电视——漫画是唯一一个没有时限的

That’s what I call permanent.

也就是我所说的永恒的东西

Which means, you know, when you’re watching a movie or when you’re watching an animated television series,

也就是说 当你看电影或者看动画电视剧的时候

the rate of information flow is actually determined by the creator of the content.

信息流动率其实是由创造者控制的

It’s not determined by the viewer. You know, you could slow it down, you can go slow-mo but it’s not the same experience.

而不是由观看者决定 你可以放慢速度 也可以看慢动作 但这是不一样的

Comics on the other hand, with comics the rate of information flow is firmly in the control of the reader.

漫画则相反 看漫画的时候 信息流动率完全由读者决定

And for certain students and certain kinds of information, that aspect of comics, that control makes for a very powerful educational tool.

就某些学生和某种信息而言 漫画的这种特质 这种控制主动权会成为非常有力的教育工具

In an Algebra II class that I taught whenever I was absent I would create these comics lessons for my students.

在我的代数2课堂上 只要我有事不能去 就会给学生们创造这种漫画课

And that was some of the feedback that I got from them is that, you know, with these comics lessons it was visual, unlike their math textbooks.

我从他们那里得到的一些反馈是 这些漫画课是视觉的 跟数学课本不一样

But then on top of that the students themselves could control how quickly or slowly they read through that lecture.

不过最重要的是 学生自己可以控制他们学习的速度

Unlike when I was lecturing in person, right? When I’m lecturing in person I decide how fast or slow I speak.

跟我本人去上课的时候不一样 对吧？我去上课的时候 由我来决定讲的快慢

But when they’re reading it in the form of a comic, if they didn’t understand a passage within that comic they could reread it as quickly or as slowly as they needed to.

但是他们以漫画的形式去看的时候 如果漫画中有一段不懂 他们可以根据自己的需要重新读一遍 快慢都行

In the past I think parents and teachers had almost a hierarchy of reading.

以前 我觉得父母和老师给阅读划分了等级

They saw picture books as almost the lower form of reading than pure prose novels.

他们认为图画书是比纯文字小说更低级的阅读

And comic books, which is my area of expertise, were either left out of the equation altogether

而漫画书 这是我的专长 要么是直接被这个等级制度给遗漏了

or they were seen as like this middle point, this stepping stone between picture books and prose books.

要么就被当做这个中间点 是图画书和文字书之间的垫脚石

And if you were a good enough student you wouldn’t need that stepping stone.

如果你是个很出色的学生 你根本就不需要这个垫脚石

Things are changing now and I think more and more parents and teachers are realizing that pictures can be a very sophisticated way of communicating information.

现在就不一样了 我觉得越来越多的老师和家长意识到图画可以是沟通信息的复杂方式

Just as sophisticated as text.

就像文本一样复杂

Back in the olden days, if you look at comics often the picture was there to basically present what the words were already conveying.

回到过去 如果你看一下漫画书 基本上图画所呈现的内容都是文字已经表达了的

So you would have a caption that says “Superman punches Lex Luthor.”

通常会有一个标题 写着“超人打了莱克斯·卢瑟一拳”

And then in the picture it would just show you Superman punching Lex Luthor, right?

然后就有一张图片 画的是超人揍了莱克斯·卢瑟一拳 对吧？

And I think that contributed to this idea that comics were meant for the “mentally deficient.”

正是这种情况让人们形成了漫画是为有“智力障碍”的人准备的观点

If you weren’t smart enough to get the meaning of those words then you could at least read the picture.

如果你笨的看不懂文字的意义 那你至少可以看懂图片

Nowadays though I think if you look at the top comic book writers, the top comic book creators, the relationship between the words and the pictures is much more complex.

但是现在我觉得 看一下顶尖的漫画作家 顶尖的漫画创作者 就会发现文字和图画之间的关系变得更为复杂了

Often they will pass narrative responsibility back and forth; so in certain parts of a comic or graphic novel

他们会让叙述主体来回转变 在漫画或图画小说的某些部分

the words will convey what the most important information is in that story,

是由文字来传达这个故事的核心信息

and then in the next passage it would get passed to the pictures.

然后到下一个段落 就是由图片来传达了

And in the hands of a skilled creator each of those forms, each of those forms of communication,

在有技巧的创作家那里 每种形式 每种沟通形式

the picture and the words, will be leveraged for what they’re best at.

图画和文字 会以他们最擅长的方式得到平衡

There are other comics where the words and the pictures are actually contradicting each other.

还有一些漫画里面的文字和图片其实是相互矛盾的

They might even be telling two different stories, describing two different realities, and they ask you as the reader to decide which one is true.

它们甚至可能在讲两个不同的故事 描述两种不同的现实 一切都留给读者去决定哪个是真的

I really think that to engage today’s audience – today’s audience has grown up on stories.

我真的觉得今天的读者 今天的读者成长过程中都有故事相伴

Every single one of us has probably consumed thousands and thousands and thousands of stories within our lifetime.

我们每个人一生中可能会读成千上万个故事

In order to engage in audiences sophisticated as that, you need to have a sophisticated dynamic between words and pictures.

为了吸引成熟的读者 你需要在文字和图片之间熟练转换