From John Morton
The idea that vivid motion can be portrayed by bodies in unstable positions rather than by blurring (20 March, p 15) is well known to us comic-book geeks. When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in the late 1930s, they included a cape in his costume as a way of suggesting movement. Comic book artists have used a billowing cape ever since.
It is less a Japanese cultural issue than a comic book issue, although it may be no coincidence that comics are popular in Japan. If you go to a fine bookshop and look at the graphic novel section you’ll see outstanding examples of bodies in unstable positions, caught “in the moment” and conveying an unmistakeable sense of motion.
Pontypridd, Glamorgan, UK
