The Choice of Moment in Batman: Year One

In Making Comics, Scott McCloud outlines the five kinds of choices that communicating through comics require. One of these choices in particular, the "choice of moment," was a major focal point in my paper about condensed storytelling in comics. To date, one of the finest examples of condensed storytelling I've experienced lies in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One. The page in question was used previously in my annotated comics page assignment, where I did manage to slip in some discussion on condensed narrative and choice of moment. However, this blog seems like the perfect platform to provide a deeper look into the choice of moment present in the origin story of Batman: Year One.

Page 21 opens with a scene of Bruce Wayne sitting with his parents in some kind of theatre. The text boxes drop the time of the event (eighteen years ago) and the name of the play that they attended (The Mask of Zorro). This panel is a wide shot showing a large number of audience members but focusing in on the family of three. It fulfills the role of establishing the family dynamic and presenting a once-happy Bruce in his childhood.

What follows is a scene transition to (what readers can assume is) outside the theatre. The man with the gun is introduced accompanied by a small description via text box. Within two panels, the characters and central conflict of the scene have been established.  

By the third and fourth panels, readers have already reached the climax of the scene. Both panels, featuring the murders of Tom and Martha Wayne respectively, are squared and coloured predominantly in white. The eye is drawn immediately to these center panels upon flipping the page, alerting the reader of what's to come and allowing them to fill in the blanks at their own pace.

The next panel is once that completely bleeds into the gutter, showing Bruce kneeling besides his parents as their killer gets away. This point in the page is meant to give the reader a chance to breathe and take in the previous events, reflecting upon the plot thus far and perhaps ponder the possibilities of what could come next. From a purely narrative perspective, what's important to note is that the killer escapes and Bruce is distraught over his parents' deaths.

The final panel is an extreme close-up of Bruce's face with a focus on his eyes. The text box makes note of "all sense" leaving his life, and both the angry look in Bruce's eyes and the subtle change in colour help drive that point home. The story has come full-circle in a sense with Bruce starting on his path towards becoming Batman. This event was the turning point in his life which would eventually lead him to dawn the mask and cape, and it is thoroughly communicated to the reader in one neat page. This is thanks to a number of smart decisions made by Miller and Mazzucchelli, not the least of which was the choice of moment when constructing the narrative. 

Written By: Andrew Masse 

Works Cited:

McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels. Avon, 2006. 

The "Mise-en-page" of Tokyo Ghost #2

Thierry Groensteen's theory of "spatio-topia" has held my interest throughout the semester, especially with regards to what Groensteen refers to as "mise-en-page" or "page layout." The different ways that comics artists manipulate the "distribution of spaces" and "occupation of places" on a page-by-page basis to create meaning are simply fascinating to me. To this day, creators continue to innovate as they find new ways to use paneling and other methods of manipulating space to communicate their narrative or get across some kind of idea or emotion to the reader.  This fact is more evident than ever in Issue #2 of Tokyo Ghost, written by Rick Remender with art by Sean Murphy and colouring by Matt Hollingsworth, which features numerous examples of creative use of page layout.

The first instance we'll examine comes from page 7 of the issue. After a meeting with their employer, Debbie and Led descend down from the enormous shopping mall into the city streets and eventually the sewers through which they will make their escape out of Los Angeles. The makeup of the page is quite ambiguous, with only the top panel distinct as its own entity. The rest of the page is marked by the scene pictured above.  What appears to be a burn mark tears across the page, separating the high-class people of the surface from the impoverished commoners living underground. Although the mark draws a clear line between the two scenes, they remain connected through the path our two heroes take to get from one to another. It is also worth noting that the marking tears through not only the panels, but the gutter as well. This drastic image could easily imply a change in more than just scenery.

The second striking use of page layout comes on page 9. Led, after being "woken up" from his tech-induced mental slumber, experiences a shock to the senses that is displayed through a burst of panels varying in shape and size. The panels show scenes from different points in Led's life and are imposed over a close-up of his pained and deranged face. This image combined with the layout of the panels paint an effective portrait of Led's current mental state. The reader can almost feel the emotions exploding from within him, and may even have a difficult time taking in all of the information presented to them. The "fhraaaa--!" present in the speech bubble indicated that Led is having a similarly difficult time.

The final page worth noting is one that I already touched on in my paper, so I'll keep it brief. The usage of colour, paneling and page layout on page 12 to tell Led's backstory is simply exquisite. The choice to let the images do the taking while providing supplementary information via text along the sides of the page comes across strong. It's thanks to the smart layout that readers are able to digest the story the way they want, and ultimately read into the narration at whatever pace they feel fit. 

Written By: Andrew Masse

Works Cited:

Groensteen, Thierry. The System of Comics. Tr. Bart Beaty, Nick Nguyen. The University Press of Mississippi, 2007.

Groensteen's Verbal in Godzilla in Hell

For my first blog post I will be looking at Godzilla in Hell in regards to Groensteen’s view on verbal context in comics. Now, while the title does explain what the comic is all about, I should mention that Godzilla in Hell is actually a collaborated piece done by a different artist and writer every issue. This makes things somewhat easier as I am able to talk about a theory can be used though also a bit harder the two volumes I currently have are quite different. With that out of the way let me discuss this theory for each issue.

The first issue of Godzilla in Hell has no dialogue in it and only a small handful of words. Those words are huge stone letters that spell out the famous “Abandon all hope ye who enters here” from Dante’s Inferno. As Groensteen mentions, these words are used to help the reader understand just where we are exactly; if the title wasn’t enough of a giveaway for you. The only other word shown is the word “Lust”, this one doing a lot more for the reader as we now know what level of Hell Godzilla finds himself in. This allows use to predict what will happen next for him.

In the second volume the verbal is used differently. Nearly all frames have a caption box that describes what is happening to Godzilla and also what he is feeling and thinking. While it could be argued that the caption boxes are also used to help the reader understand what is going on since the art is more water colours and blurry than the last volume, it seems that this time the verbal is used to set the tone for the comic. The words chosen give this issue a more epic feel to it. Fitting of the images though sometimes we are reminded of the media we are reading here.

Overall, though, both issues do rely more on the pictures to tell the story rather than using words to explain what is going on. We get this more so from the first issue where Godzilla’s expression tells us more about what he is thinking and feeling than any words. The second issue does rely more on words but even then it is to help us understand what we are seeing. Both use the verbal in a way that adds to the comic not take away from it, though I feel that the first issue did this better. 

Kristen Barney

103857330

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.

Keep Your Eye On the...?

The phrases "keep your eye on the ball" or "keep your eye on the prize" are common, something that you might hear multiple times a week. In comics, paying attention to what you should be look at isn't quite as easy as the phrases suggest. It can complicated at times to follow comics or to ensure that you are looking where the author and/or artist want you to be looking. Naturally, there are techniques that the creators can employ to try to direct your eyes. The October 2015 The Flash is an interesting case if you are looking at how the creators draw attention.

The page previous to this one is comprised of the dark blues and greys with only a small splash of beige. The bottom is completely dark. The action is growing more intense at this point but the reader is unaware of what might come next. Upon turning the page, a natural reaction might be to glance around the page. However, in this case, the bright red of the top left corner just about forces the reader to look there first. From there, the eye follows the bright spots on the page, which means that they follow the speech bubbles down and around the bottom of the page. This "L" motion across the page would finish with the reader having viewed the whole page but in a very specific way, one which the creators likely planned.

On the page above, your eye also catches the single, larger person on the top of the page. Realizing that this is a single individual encourages the readers eyes to move on, to find the next person speaking.

This second example is similar to the page above but is at the end of the comic. This time the reader takes in the page in in a counter-clockwise direction. The eye is drawn immediately to the red on the page. The red on this page is connected not only to the Flash but to the antagonist as well. The red continues to drag your gaze down the page, the speech bubbles following along side the red, until it becomes the muted and pale red/brown in the bottom right corner. At this point, the reader is aware that the Flash is in trouble but the muted colours help to make this point clear. He has been a bright red the whole rest of the comic but on this last page he becomes dull.

The use of colours on these pages along with the placement of the speech bubbles are only a few of the ways that the creators try to force the reader to look in a certain place, at a certain time.

-- Kelsey Jaques