Deadpool Kills Comic Conventions

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Penciler: Mike Hawthorne

Inker: Terry Pallot

Colourist: Val Staples

Jamie Adam

Deadpool has always been one to bend the conventions of comics. Marvel’s Merc With A Mouth is infamous for breaking the fourth wall, or addressing the reader directly, which does not occur extremely frequently in other narratives. However, in the debut issue of his new series released on November 4, Deadpool doesn’t speak directly to the reader, but there is a shining instance where his authors deviate from the conventions of comics regarding page layout and paneling. The creators play with what comics theorist Charles Hatfield would call the tension between a single image and an image in a series, using what Jesse Cohn deems a rhetorical planche. Wait, don’t go! I’ll explain what all this means!

At this point, I would like to call upon Duggan, Hawthorne, Pallot, and Staples to set the scene:

So clearly the man in orange is about to be wrongly executed, and Deadpool has just arrived to save him. What I find most interesting about this page, however, is the way the paneling is used to tell the story. The authors use what Jesse Cohn, in his Mise-en-Page: A Vocabulary for Page Layouts, would call a rhetorical planche. “Planche” is a way of expressing the layout of a page as a design element. In other words, it is simply the overall design of the page. So the planche is rhetorical because it assists in expressing the narrative. Again, the way the page is designed, the way the panels are laid out, helps to tell the story.

In the altercation depicted above, Deadpool seems to fire a shot directly at the reader in panel three. However, the following panel is slanted, and the final panel is basically falling off the page. When the reader puts together these two facts—the gunshot and the jarred panels—he or she makes the connection that Deadpool has shot the cameraperson; that’s why the panels have fallen—because we are experiencing the story through the person filming the ordeal, who has now keeled over from being shot.

Another useful theorist to bring into the discussion at this point is Charles Hatfield. In his book, The Otherness of Comics Reading, Hatfield states that “The ‘page’ (or planche, as French scholars have it, a term denoting the total design unit rather than the physical page on which it is printed) functions both as sequence and as object, to be seen and read in both linear and nonlinear, holistic fashion” (page 48). This series of panels in the Deadpool comic would not make as much sense if the final two panels were not skewed. Hatfield states that there is a certain tension between each panel read as an individual image and juxtaposing these images next to each other on the whole page. Peripherally, the reader can see that the bottom half of the page is black, which probably denotes death, as the space between panels (the “gutter”) is usually white. Furthermore, the reader should immediately notice the unusual positioning of the last panels, questioning the purpose of this technique and possibly piecing together the situation before it is even read. This is why Hatfield states that there is a tension between the panels and the page—the individual images can conflict when the page is seen as a planche.

So there you have it. Deadpool’s authors use a rhetorical planche to challenge the tension between individual images and the surface of the page. 

Armed with this knowledge, maybe you will more carefully consider the layout of a page when reading your next comic.

-Jamie Adam

Birthright #1

Creator, Writer: J o s h u a   W i l l i a m s o n

Creator, Artist: A n d r e i   B r e s s a n

Colorist: A d r i a n o   L u c a s

S u m m a r y

Birthright #1 integrates two worlds of reality and fantasy.  The story begins in an autumn park with a father, Aaron, and his young boy, Mikey, playing catch. However, circumstances change when Mikey suddenly disappears.  Few weeks have passed and Aaron is accused of murder while his entire family falls apart.  However, after a year Mikey suddenly shows up as an adult in their lives claiming he has returned from a magical land called Terranos.

Right from the beginning the artistic style conveys simplistic lines and easy transition between panel to panel.  In Scott McCloud Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art indicates that simplification leads to identification where the reader recognizes and identifies with the characters.  Williamson is doing that so. He is presenting an intellectual and emotional relationship with the readers with clean/crisp images and easy font letters.  He is playing with different panel shapes to associate different types of mood and effects to enhance suspense , and passions within the reader.  It also pushes the reader in certain ways as they try to deal with something new.  His skill of allowing the reader to internalize with the characters gives a sense of mortality, a sense of how we reflect our own lives.

There are also sensory interpretations. In Duncan and Smith’s Experiencing the Story both the images and text affect the meaning altogether. However, it is the sound that suggests a powerful effect that builds the reliability of our ears. Williamson’s ability to use sounds helps establishes the character’s role. The image on the right depicts how young Mikey is faced with a monster. The sound of both the creature and Mikey suggest the appraisal of feelings and sensation (getting a prey or running from the predator). Time and space are one here making the reader pause for a moment to grasp the situation. Hence, our ears become more perspective as we pay attention to sound and pay less attention to our sight.

As with all comics, spacing is crucial. In Pascal Lefevre’s The Construction of Space in Comics suggest that the use of space presents different kinds of meanings. The diegetic space surrounding Mikey’s life makes the reader become more active as they try to put the fragments together. It is a place which allows speculation, fascination, and questioning. Here Williamson is presenting the set value of an individual life and the great diversity of experiences the characters had and/or are going through. Moreover, Jesse Cohn’s Mise-en-Page: A Vocabulary for Page Layouts looks at the page as a unit of design. There is a tension between sequence and sequence of a page that our eyes try to create meaning from everything. For example, the image below intrigues the reader to try and take it all in at once: the fantasy world, creatures, death, destiny and reality.

Williamson is resonating here the starkness of Terranos and the normalcy of reality.

 Similarly, Thierry Groensteen’s System of Comics indicates the importance of the relationship between the panels on a page (spatio-topica). Like Lefevre, Groensteen focuses on the fragments that link everything together. Readers are more absorbed in the story trying to contextualize the narrative. Birthright's use of colour, panel size, and panel placement becomes important to the functions of framing and eye movements. For example, the use of a burning and vibrant orange/red color of autumn and Mikey’s disappearance to the end page foreshadows that things are not what they seem, that something evil lurks around. On the contrary, the use of black and navy blue represents the normalcy of reality, of ordinary life, of singularity. Birthright prompts a wider illustration of human expectations that valorizes the questions of the impossibilities between reality and fantasy. 

Overall, I enjoyed the read and can't wait for the second to come out in November.