The Function of Eyes in Conan the Barbarian #3

The function of eyes in Conan the Barbarian #3

The recurrence of the cinematic “close up” in Aaron and Asrar’s run of Conan the Barbarian is especially noticeable in the third issue. The artist makes great use of the gaze of characters, both to focus audience attention and effect the reader response to specific characters. On the first page of the comic, where we are informed that the setting is Nemedia, the first of three panels is dominated by the red face of a hanged man, whose eyes stare downwards. In diagetic space the man is seeing his death below him, and the reader naturally will want to know what he is staring at. The very eyes themselves guide the reader’s eye downwards to the next panel, and we see the man quickly falling to the dogs.

Later the grim face of Conan stares out at the reader before he is to be hung, but unlike the helpless and fearful eyes of the hanged man, Conan’s face is shaded and has a look of anger upon it. Later, the priest of Mitra stares out at the audience, his smug smile and relative height to the sitting Conan give him an air of haughtiness. Because the priest is not just talking to Conan but also to the reader, it is easy to feel contempt for him, and the reader will presumably not be much bothered when Conan throttles him.
In the very next panel the reader is met with the gaze of a soldier, highlighted by his appearance on the left hand of the page and the representation of light in the space beyond the panel. Through this the reader is given the impression that someone important has just arrived. The shocked expression of the guard is revealed to be in response to the coming of the village inquisitor, but the reaction isn’t justified until the next page, when it is revealed that he is wielding a crossbow and intends to kill the priest. The reader expectations in all of these cases are shaped by the depiction of diagetic reactions.