Use of speech bubble in "Deadly Class"

So to be completely honest before this class I did not read comics, it wasn't a genre that I really didn't take seriously because I didn’t believe you could become attached to a narrative that didn't contain pages of words. However, after analyzing and reading so many comics in class, I certainly hold a very different outlook on comics now. Through multimodality you are able to gather so much information and detail about how a comic is made and why it is chosen to be made that way. Using theories that we have spoke about in class I was able to analyze a monthly magazine entitled “Deadly Class” made by Rick Remender, Wes Craig, Jordan Boyd. The owner of the comic store where I purchased it said “it was growing fast in popularity” so I decided to give it a try. Right away the book was not what I pictured it to be, even though I really had no preconceived notions as I mentioned before, I am not avid comics reader. The monthly spread was about a group of teenagers who are assassins and all live together at some sort housing unit. The comic was very fast pace and I really did have to go back and re-read sections of the magazine in order to understand the full story. What helped analyze and comprehend the narrative was my newfound information on comic theories. I noticed that when the main character is talking to himself the authors chose to use rectangle speech bubbles but when someone else is talking to him it a more rounded speech bubble. This leads into David Carrier’s notion on speech balloons in which he says “since comics are also a visual art, we are concerned as well with the strictly visual qualities of balloons. We contrast elegantly shaped balloons and are aware of the visual qualities of the chosen type, which we read in the ways we read handwriting for signs of someone’s character” (30). Not only are readers able to quickly follow what is going on in the characters mind but easily compare it to what is being said to the character. The different shaped balloons add another level of understanding what is happening in the narrative. Carrier also adds “the balloon thus is not just a neutral container but another element in the visual field. Indeed, even identifying balloons as containers already is to hint at some ways of identifying their expressive significance” (44). These containers that enclose written information about the character and make up a huge part of the narrative are extremely important. It is not just about the words that are part of a speech bubble but the location, size, and outline of the word balloon. 

Peering into the Colourful World of Tokyo Ghost

            In chapter eight of Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud claims that some believe "colors can have profound physical and emotional effects on people" (185). It can easily be seen how this principle is applied to comics, even more so a comic as modern and intelligent as Tokyo Ghost, written by Rick Remender with art by Sean Murphy and colouring done by Matt Hollingsworth. Although I haven't been in contact with any of these three as of the date I'm writing this, I can wholly say that Hollingsworth's work speaks volumes for itself as the contrasting colours of Tokyo Ghost are some of the first things that grabbed (and held) my attention while reading his comic.

            From its opening page, a status quo is set for the book's use of colour. A group of homeless people converge by an open fire, illuminated in warm orange light. This is one of the few simple or relaxed scenes in the entire book, and it's contrasted by the murky blue-green sewers of a wasted futuristic Los Angeles. This slice of humanity amidst an otherwise cold and technologically-obsessed society is highlighted through Hollingsworth's use of colour, and readers will quickly find that the orange/blue colour scheme is kept up throughout the remainder of the issue.

            A turn of the page reveals a two-page spread so awesome that the only reason I'll refrain from showing the whole thing here is the risk of spoiling a possible subject for my annotated comics page. The page contains our two main heroes, Led and Debbie, nabbing a criminal while zooming through the city streets on a kickass motorcycle that looks like it was ripped straight from of the pages of Akira. What makes this spread so enticing, other than the miraculous detail on Led's motorcycle and the surrounding environment, is the repeated use of colour first seen on the previous page. Our heroes are displayed in bright orange, almost glowing amidst the the grimy and dingy bluish-grey city. In Mise-en-Page: A Vocabulary for Page Layouts, Jesse Cohn states that colour contrasts, among other things, are used by artists to "steer the eye from one point to the next" (52). This is exemplified here, as readers are immediately drawn to the two characters and their motorcycle before eventually letting their eyes wander to the outer edges of the page and the smaller details held within them. Colour is especially important in a page as detailed as this one, as the lines of the main subject could easily be lost in the chaos of the page as a whole in black-and-white.

            One last thing I'll comment on is the top half of page 16, which shows a massive explosion erupting from within a racetrack. The fire is, appropriately, bright orange as it spills out into the moonlit city bathed in blue and black. It's impressive how Hollingsworth maintains the colour scheme throughout these three very different scenes while keeping it thematically sound. In this case, the chaos of the previous scene can be thought of as "exploding" out into the quiet streets surrounding it as the action escalates. The contrast between the orange and blue is more bold and apparent in the page than in the previous pages, signifying the rising action of the plot.

            I hope it goes without saying, but I thoroughly recommend Tokyo Ghost and can't wait to grab the second issue when it's released next week.

Written By: Andrew Masse

Works Cited:

Cohn, Jesse. "Mise-en-Page: A Vocabulary of Page Layouts." Teaching the Graphic Novel. Ed.   Stephen E. Tabachnick. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009. 

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Ed. Mark Martin.

            HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Print.