Oddly Normal #2

Odd, But Surprisingly Good 

The second issue of Otis Frampton’s Oddly Normal certainly does not pack the same punch as its predecessor, however does employ many comic techniques that are worth looking at. To begin with positives of this particular issue, I’d look no farther than the artwork that continues to amaze me. The use of splash pages offers a creative dimension to the narrative, and provides stunning visuals that demand to be looked at and noticed. While the narrative was very simple, I believe it was certainly effective in being a middle ground that binds the events prior to it, to the inevitable events that will succeed it. In that, we get an issue that, while moving the narrative along, does not work entirely well as a single contained issue. The story here is clearly fragmented, in that it’s overall significance must be further looked at in the grand schematic of the entire work. Reading this in serialized form, month-to-month is already providing to be a big challenge. The story is effective in making you want to read more, but it is incredibly frustrating that more does not come sooner. I suppose this is a good problem to have, as the particular story is keeping me engaged, and making me look forward to the next month, to keep adding to the narrative and completing the story. That being said, I will definitely pick up Oddly Normal when it is collected into a single graphic novel.

            I believe it is important to note that difference between the digital copies of the text, to the physical copy. For the first issue, I read the physical comic, which provided a much better reading experience for myself. As a subjective reader, I am open to the digital medium that comics can now be presented in, however, I greater appreciate the physical nature of the book, as it creates a concrete feeling, and a better engagement in the story. There is really no clear way to explain this, however, I had an infinitely better experience with the comic in its original physical form, rather than resorting to reading it online. In this sense, the medium does act as the message.

            One thing I would like to look further into is the following page below. While through a PDF reader, the page appears horizontally, it would be interesting to see how that reading of that page could change in the physical form. I can assume that the book would either need to be turned on its side, or that this page would act as a two page spread, with the spine of the page breaking the middle of it. I would argue that the horizontal page as one solid image would read a lot better than on a physical comic, just because it seems more unified and thus more effective as a “wow, look at this” page. The page is clearly made to represent a climax in this particular issue, and I am rather happy that I got to experience it through a crisp, and clear visual on the computer.

 

Digital Image. How would this translate to the physical text? 

   

Moving away from generalities, I noticed there is a lot in this text that can be applied to the many comic theories we have learned over the semester. For one, in comparison to the first issue, the use of color is almost identical. What I have noticed so far is that there is a heavy use of three main colors, which includes red, green, and bluish-purple. Green to me has been placed in the text to signify anything that is mystical or magical. So whenever something magical happens in the text, usually a character is surrounded by green “streaks” for lack of a better word. Red is often used at moments of climax, or big scenes with our main character, Oddly. In both the first two issues, scenes of climax have used red, and it signifies both a change of pace in the story, and moments of what seem to be both at times of anger and at times where extraordinary or explosive events are happening. Lastly, the use of blue and purple are used at times when the text gets more serious or somber. This color is used as backdrop over the entire text, to relate to the readers the sad or depressing state of our main character.

Issue #1

Issue #2

Issue #2

Issue #1

          

In terms of the connection between the first two issues, there are a couple areas of braiding in which I’d like to touch on. The first, and more obvious one, is the beginning of each work, which uses the same layout to signify the start of the issue. Instead of jumping right into the story, we are given the title of the chapter, along with an image that takes up half the page. This is a unique touch that is added to bring unity between the two issues, and serves as a great starting point, should this issue be collected as one whole story. Additionally, on the last page of each comic, our main character Oddly reveals something, and is left looking at some type of scenery. This is consistent in the first two issues, and I fully expect it to be the same in issue #3. This is just another way to weave the stories together, and create some type of system for story telling. Each issue ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and we are left wondering what we are looking at, and what will happen next, much like the main character is doing so in her own mind.

Issue #1

Issue #2 

Issue #1

Issue #2

  

             








Another thing I wanted to touch upon is the filling in of time that we have studied with Douglas Wolk. In his work Wolk explains that we as readers fill in the “lapse of time represented by the blankness of the gutter” (Wolk, 131). In this particular scene below, we are given a concrete gutter, but then we are provided with white space. At this time, it is the reader’s job to fill in that time lapse, which is much more open to interpretation without the gutter guiding or reading. Reading this version online, the “white” moment was revealed in two parts over the flip of a page, whereas I would assume that in physical form it would act as a two page spread, without needing to flip over the page ( I would like to read it in physical form as well). However, because I did read it online, time did in fact slow down quite a bit, as this white space transferred over onto another of a page. Like the character was disoriented in this particular scene, I too became disoriented, both in trying to figure out what was going on, and in trying to determine how much time was passing by.

            Overall, I did enjoy the second issue of Oddly Normal, despite it feeling like a fill-in for what is surely to be a much more exciting chain of events. I still give the book the benefit of the doubt, as I am enjoying the art work, and story telling process thus far. With all new comics, or even TV shows for that matter, they do take some time to really find their form, and formula for success. As a whole,  I will continue to read the series as I believe it has great potential to be a fun, and lighthearted comic that includes some really great story telling, and character development.

Grade : B+