Scott McCloud, 1993, ‘Blood in the Gutter’, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
“Comic panels fracture both time and space, offering a jagged, staccato rhythm of unconnected moments. “
This weeks reading discussed how comics are constructed, causing us to think through some conceptual issues at the core of the ‘edit’.
This reading discussed how there is no guarantee that anything exists outside of ones own senses. This causes the reader to question all aspects of media, whether it be film etc. and think of what we know only because we trust the person telling us.
The phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole has a name – and this is closure. In media, this closure is over-powering. In film, closure takes place continuously by the persistence of vision, in television, closure occurs even more due to the fast pace of the episode, or advertisement.
In comic books, the gutter (white panel between images) holds much of the mystery and excitement of the story. Nothing is seen between the two panels, but experience tells us something must be there. Closure allows us to connect these moments in comics.
Our definition of comics hinges on the arrangement of elements, and hence comics are closure. However, closure in comics is far from continuous and anything but involuntary, every act is abetted by a silent accomplice, and the reader. Participation is a powerful force in any medium, especially in comics where the audiences imagination is crucial.
In comics, there can be moment-to-moment,action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect or non-sequitur progressions.
Overall, comics are a great use of media to help the audience, or reader, widen their imagination and think through some of the conceptual issues at the core of the ‘edit’. The concepts within a comic are deliberate, creative and specific.
