In comics and art more broadly, motion lines (also known as movement lines, action lines, speed lines, or zip ribbons) are the abstract lines that appear behind a moving object or person, parallel to its direction of movement, to make it appear as if it is moving quickly. They are common in Japanese

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

, of which ''

Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida. It was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in form by Sun Wide Comics and later re-re ...

'' is a classic example. Lines depicting wind and the trajectory of missiles appear in art as early as the

16th century The 16th century began with the Julian calendar, Julian year 1501 (represented by the Roman numerals MDI) and ended with either the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian year 1600 (MDC), depending on the reckoning used (the Gregorian calend ...

. By the

19th century The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was Abolitionism, ...

artists were drawing naturally occurring speed lines when showing the passage of an object through water or snow, but it was not until the 1870s that artists like

Wilhelm Busch Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day. Busch drew on the tropes of f ...

and

Adolphe Willette Adolphe Léon Willette (30 July 1857 – 4 February 1926) was a French Painting, painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and lithographer, as well as an architect of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret. Willette ran as an "antisemitism, anti-semitic" c ...

began drawing motion lines to depict the movement of objects through air. The French artist Ernest Montaut is usually credited with the invention of ''speed lines''. He used the technique freely in his posters which were produced at a time when auto racing, speedboat racing and aircraft races were in their infancy. The effect is similar to the blur caused by

panning Pan or PAN may refer to: Food * Pan (cooking), a piece of cooking equipment * Harina P.A.N., a pre-cooked corn meal * Pan or Paan, a North Indian term for betel Prefix * ''Pan-'', a prefix meaning "all", "of everything", or "involving all ...

in still photography.

Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creations are ...

was one of the best known practitioners of motion lines, particularly in his illustration of Silver Age Flash comics. The use of motion lines in art is similar to the lines showing

mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

s, which are used to indicate direction and force. A similar effect is found in long-exposure

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

, where a camera can capture lights as they move through time and space, blurred along the direction of motion.

References

Comics terminology Linear motion {{Comics-stub

See also

References