Plutona - A New Reader's Comments

            Plutona by Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox, and Jordan Bellaire is a new web-comic series by Image. Volume One of the comic follows the lives of four teenagers as they embark on a search for a young boy leads them to a superhero. Being that this is the first comic series I have ever purchased, a large portion of my expectations came from novels. If there were any visual aesthetics, they were more of a supplementary element for the texts. In my Comics Theory Class with Professor Dale Jacobs, we spoke about there being a tension between sequence and surface. As a new reader, it is easy to focus on the words for sequence since there are a lot of speech bubbles in this comic. I needed to engage the text at a higher conscious in order to focus on the layout and the other multimodal aspects. After reading the comic through with a focus on the literacy, I went back and paid attention to the surface of the comic. My eyes automatically drew to the unconventional use of the two-page spreads instead of the conventional rectangular panes. Me, as the reader felt more involved in this spread because I was in control of the direction of my eyes. The use of a clock to connect two panels brought a sense of realism to the tiers. I was aware of time within the medium, similar to that in film. The use of thick black lines for the characters allowed me to project myself into the character more. By the fifth page, I was emotionally invested in the development of the characters. Outlining the individuals are a part of the cartooning technique. In Understanding Comics by Scott Mccloud, he states, “cartooning provides us {the reader} the ability to not just observe, but to become it.” Mccloud attributes my submersion into the character due to the cartooning style. It is interesting that after I started looking at the drawing style, Mccloud’s theory seemed accurate. The character’s faces are very simplistic with only facial shading for expression and hairlines. Not only was I able to place real individuals at my high school to the characters, but also myself. Since the drawing lacked realism, it was able to slide into my fantasy; in my fantasy anything is possible. There are a lot more to say about the style and technique within this comic, but I will save those for the next draft. In the same way the authors are making me wait the next volume, I will also make you anticipate my next analysis of Plutona.