I am fascinated with the way the
artists introduce the main characters of Plutona.
When reading comics, there is a a
tension between reading the panels in sequence and reading the whole
surface of the page, what Charles Hatfield calls “sequence vs.
surface.” In the image below, the eye is directed to the left top
panel because it is large and because of sequence. Sequence would
lead the eye to the next tier but the surface reading directs the eye
to the right top panel which looks like a continuation of the left
panel. Even the sequence plays with the top panels being two sides
of one face. The continuation of the comment in the bottom of the
left page to the top of the right page”You better hurry or--”
“--you'll be late for school” made me think at first that the two
faces were the same person. I had to reconfigure my first idea once I
studied the images further. The eyes and hair were different
colours, and the speech bubble is now pointing to the left instead of
the right where the dad should be standing.
The similarity in the theme of the
spread can be seen because of the mirror page layouts. They both
start with one long panel, going to one larger panel, then three
smaller panels in the next tier, and finish with one long panel in
the fourth tier. We see a close-up in the first tier then the shot
pulls out to see the teenager's environment. The panels in the third
tier focus in on what is important to the character. For the left
page, we see different aspects of cape-spotting. On the right page,
we see shots of the girl's mom, jacket, and dog. The left page uses
white gutters and the right page uses inset panels to show there are
different characters being introduced. The pattern continues on the
next page where the other two characters' stories start. Small
changes are made to the pattern to make it more interesting for the
reader and show progression in the comic.
Yolanda Macfarlane
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