In this commentary on the second edition of Old Lady Harley, I will be discussing the use of
multimodality and intertextuality in the comic. Intertextuality is the author’s references to other media
(books, flms,etc.) while multimodality is the use of visual, verbal, and other modes in a text.
To begin, one page 2,there is synaesthesia used in which certain words in the comic are depicted
to have a certain color,smell, and appearance. The reader is associating the word “BURRRP!”
coming from the monster with an odour because it is green [rotten smelling], textually, it tells the
reader what sound the monster is creating, and the melting visual element of the word dripping
down the panel makes the word just as much a visual part of the comic as well as textual.
Secondly, On page 1, the author’s inserts a Walking Dead zombie as a character in the comic
that does not originally belong to the world of DC comic superheroes, but rather, it was originally
a comic character of another world created by Robert Kirkman and later turned into a very popular
television series. In this sense, the use of the Walking Dead character is effective because the
reader’s are going to understand the reference, whether from the film or the comics, and thus
understand the connection and influence the Walking Dead has on Old Lady Harley, which is a
threat to human civilization and life. Without prior knowledge to this intertextual reference, the
meaning may be lost or hindered because the author’s intent is not being received by the
reader. Lastly, the use of multimodality is depicted through pictorial metaphors.The Walking
Dead zombie is really symbolic of the racial “Other”, who poses a threat on North American
civilization through the influence they may have on the culture, governing system, and overall
life. Thus, it functions as a literary device because the text does not outright refer to the
zombies attacking the U.S./Canadian border as immigrants, but the visual elements of them
climbing up the wall may be interpreted by readers, especially given our current political climate,
as a metaphor for a racial other.

I picked up the comic strip “Old Lady Harley” to review because I have always loved the characters Harley and the Joker for their cunning and tongue in cheek attitudes. While reading this comic, what stood out to me the most was the layout of the comic and how much meaning is inserted into each frame, chosen color scheme, and lettering of the words. First, frames play an important role in the comic to produce a realistic depiction the events at play. In page 1, the frames are intended to mimic a television screen because the comic scene is that of two journalists giving television news about a zombie attack and about the whereabouts of superheroes. The slightly curved edge of the corners and old-school television lines over the panels works as a stand-in for a television screen as well as it works to suggest the time period. Since televisions have improved in quality, it is safe to assume that the comic exists within the time period of the early 90s. Secondly, the color scheme of the comic also works within a time period. On page 3, there is a flashback memory in a grey-black neutral color pallet, depicting past, dark memories. The exception being the color yellow, which is symbolic for fire. Thus, the choice of coloring is not simply for aesthetic purposes but it is also a symbolic element intended to provide further alternate meaning to the comic scene. In addition, the presence of the color yellow against a grey-black background is intended to give off a dramatic, cinematic effect similar to a car explosion in a movie scene. Lastly, the choice of lettering works very well with the flow of the panels so that the author is not in need of guiding the reader’s eye through the use of arrows or numbers. For example, page 11 is a very action crammed comic scene and there a lot of things to take in at once. Despite this, the organization of the panels does not lead the reader’s eye in the wrong direction of the story because while there are overlapping panels, they still maintain a carefully placed chronological order. The sound effects of “CHOOM!” or “BLAMM!”  are internally placed with the coinciding panel so the reader is not confused to which panel the sound effect belongs to. In this sense, the placement of the lettering in accordance with the flow of panels really elevates the emotional impact of the comic scene because they are complementary to each other rather than distinctive and separate functions.

 

Multi-paneling in 300

Almost everyone has seen or heard of the gory, brutal (and incredibly blue screened) film 300. It is particularly famous for its slow motion sequences, gory deaths, and of course, for kicking people into massive pits. But how would the slow motion fighting that we associate 300 with be achieved in comic form? The answer lies in large amounts of small panels that occur over top of a larger spread, as seen in the image below. Columns that feature a large amounts of smaller panels makes the reader read faster and makes the events occurring in the panels seem more drawn out as more panels are spent detailing the occurrence. In the image below, the large page spread depicts the Spartans battling  from a larger perspective, while the small panels super imposed at the bottom detail the same battle but on a more personal level. There are 3 panels at the bottom that depict one of the enemy soldiers being killed, and with so many panels being used to show one small event, it makes the event seem more drawn out and is very similar to the slow motion effects seen in the 300 movies.

-James Holland

 

Dealings in the Dark: Color and Narrative

Color is something that is often overlooked in comics, it is something that readers don't pay particular attention too. To them, color is as natural in a comic as it is in a movie or TV show. More often then not subtle color changes can be contribute significantly to the narrative of the comic in question. The two images below are taken from Darth Vader #12 and features Vader meeting with his associate Aphra. Aphra, who is introduced in issue #4, could be considered Vader's private investigator with regards to finding information about Luke Skywalker, Vader's son. In this instance, Aphra and Vader meet in a dark cave and discuss the tense employee/employer relationship. In the 4th panel in the image on the right, we see Aphra's features darken so that she is barely recognizable, the same can be said for Vader of the opposing page (but he has such a recognizable silhouette readers wound instantly him). The reason the are meeting in the dark on a faraway planet, is that Vader does not want his superiors to know about his dealings with Aphra, and the color change contributes to this notion of secrecy. We see a return to the normal color palate in the 5th and 6th panels on the second image. This is interesting to note because this takes place immediately after Aphra and Vader strike a new deal. There is no more need for secrecy now that the deed has been done, and the cartoonist returns to the original color scheme to suggest that the need for hidden faces (or masks in Vader's case) is no longer necessary.

-James Holland

Silent Audio in Darth Vader

With the 'Force Awakens' just around the corner, I picked up Marvels 'Darth Vader' series in order to re-familiarize myself with the Star Wars universe. What was most fascinating while reading Darth Vader is how the cartoonist is able to create sound in comics. The following images are taken from issue #6 and occur immediately after Darth Vader discovers he has a son. In this first image, there is

very little speech being utilized with the exception of the two in panels 2 and 4, aside from these the entire page is completely void of anything denoting sound. However, the third panel features a single crack in the glass, and despite the lack of a sound effect, you can imagine the sound of the glass cracking. This is achieved by the cartoonist limiting the amount of 'audio' used on this page. When readers reach panel 3 and see the lack of audio effects, they still associate the image with the sound of glass breaking. If any other 'audio effects' were present in panel 3, the 'silent crack' would not be as prominent as it is because the readers would be distracted by the other sounds. By makign an entire page silent, as seen in the image on the right, readers fill in this silence by association. For example, the cracking of glass is seen again in the second image, but readers might also hear the hissing of the smoke as pipes shatter and break before the power of the force. Again, we see a lack of audio effects with the exception of the speech bubble.  There is smoke, cracks in the glass, and small bends in the metal floor, and interestingly enough there are a lack of sound effects here, yet readers can still hear the hissing of the smoke and the screams of the metal being bent by the force and most importantly, Darth Vader's ominous, robotic, breathing.

-James Holland


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The Beauty Supply District-- Panel & Artist Line

In the University of Windsor’s Leddy Library I found a graphic novel called “The Beauty Supply District” by Ben Katchor. To be completely honest I chose it because the book was a very interesting shape, very rectangular and quite large. This comic was much different than the other ones I chose. The graphic novel was extremely simple, coloured in all black and white, with a very raw artist line. You could not exactly call the graphic novel creative as it followed very traditional elements of comic theory. What was especially interesting to me was the use of panels on a page. It followed through with the notion of being “simple.” Through the entire story the same pattern and organization of panels was used. There continually were about eight panels on the page organized into two lines of four panels. There is not a page that doesn’t follow this pattern. According to Duncan and Smith “readers also engage in a sort of closure among the panels on a particular page, considering them in relation to the totality of the page. Each panel is both an element of encapsulated action (perceived as time) and an element in the design of the page layout (perceived as space)” (167). By taking the page layout in as a whole and being able to experience the similarity of panels on the page and throughout the entire work it creates a sort of narrative understanding where you know what to expect. The simple design of the comic as well as simple panel structure puts the reader in a different frame of mind while reading. Another element to look at is the use of artist line. Just by looking at a single frame of Ben Katchor’s comics you can immediately tell it is his work. He has a very defined line that is hard to mistake. As McCloud touches on, the drawing style and line is a way in which the style can create mood and meaning and the way it is associated with different artists, just from the drawing. He uses a lot of shading that looks like it is a water painting and a very fine line to outline characters. This technique when used on people’s faces creates a different outlook on their personalities and the reader unconsciously perceives how they interact with other characters in the narrative.

Teaching an Old Bat New Tricks about Comics

Writer: Paul Pope

Colourist: Jose Villarrubia

Publisher: DC 

Post by Jamie Adam

When you imagine comics, what do you think of? Thierry Groensteen argues, in his book System of Comics, that most people envision panels on a page. However, there is a crucial element frequently overlooked in this conception—the gutters. The imagined panels could not exist if there were no gutters, also known as the space between panels. This crucial space often goes unnoticed, so this post will shed some light on the function of the margins and gutters of a comics page.

Working from the outside in, the margins are usually comprised of the white space surrounding the page. Groensteen argues that the dimensions of a margin affects a reader’s perception of the page, as well as enhance the contents of the page (31). 

Moreover, when panels are lined up evenly, they form a border, or a frame, so Groensteen calls this effect the hyperframe. Groensteen writes, “the hyperframe separates the useable surface of the page from its peripheral zone, or margin” (Groensteen 31). He also says that “the hyperframe is to the page what the frame is to the panel” (31), but with one crucial difference—usually the hyperframe is intermittent. Again, the hyperframe is the space around the edge of the panels; it can be thought of as the inside border of the margin. Further, there are gaps in the hyperframe where the gutters between panels lie, making the hyperframe more conceptual than physical, as it is not a solid line, nor really an intentional element. 

So now that you know what the margin is, what the hyperframe is, and what gutters are, let’s look at an atypical example from Batman Year 100 to see how these aspects work in tandem to affect the reading of a comic.

Here’s page 169:

Now, the border you see is added automatically when uploading a photo to the blog--the panels go right to the edge of the page in the book. It’s a subtle fact that you probably wouldn’t have noticed were we not discussing margins. So what effect does this have? Subconsciously, the reader takes note that there is so much action that it cannot be contained by traditional paneling, but goes right to the edge of the page on every side. Now look at the gutters—they’re not white. They’re a very light brown or beige. This lends the story a somewhat dirty, grimy feel. Think about the impact this scene would have if it had crisp, white margins and gutters. Not the same, is it? A one final point: if there are no margins, where’s the hyperframe in this example? I’ll tell you—it’s the outside edges of the page. Even if there are no margins, the hyperframe still exists.

Maybe now the gutters, margins, and hyperframe will get the recognition they deserve when thinking about and reading comics.

-Jamie Adam