Understanding Visual Form Through the Sequential Art Better Known as Comics

Visual rhetoric and composition tend to be larger overlooked in favor of their verbal big brother. While it is becoming more and more common for these disciplines to be accepted, the pace has been excruciatingly slow, despite the fact that the visual has become more and more prevalent with the advent of the television and more importantly, the internet. Charles A. Hill states in his paper, “Read the Visual in College Writing Classes” says, “Our students may have been exposed to more 'texts' than any other generation in history” (109). He argues that while most of these texts are used to sell or entertain, it is still important to understand and be able to analyze these texts. With the forward thinking of scholars such as Hill, visual texts and the understanding of them has been given a much more favorable treatment. However, the is one particular set of texts that is still much maligned, the comic. Compared to the written word, comics hold superior footing in many expressions because of their brevity, ability to show and tell and their nearly limitless possibilities. Despite all of this, comics have in the past been universally dismissed as “kid stuff” and “pop-culture junk.” Comics are not only culturally relevant, but comics are a compelling form of visual and verbal composition and rhetoric.

Our narrator, guide, host, what-have you.

Scott McCloud, a comic writer and artist, wrote a book called Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art in 1993. His work was considered groundbreaking because not only did it treat comics with the same analysis and respect that verbal composition has been treated, the entire book is in the same form as comics. The book, narrated by a cartoon, bespectacled avatar of McCloud, touches on the finer points of comic creation. He explains the use of line, color, time, frames, and the unique jargon of comics. His conclusion is that comics have their own place in the world of composition and offer unique, uncompromising freedom to the writer and artist. “[Comics] offer range and versatility with all the potential imagery of film and painting plus the intimacy of the written word” (212). There is very little limit to what is possible in comics, or as Eisner, the famous cartoonist, called it, “sequential art.”

Click for full size example of sequential art

Mark Luetke's piece, "Alligators in the Air!", pictured and linked above, perfectly demonstrates how comics are able to capture so much without a single written word. While words can add a certain amount of coherence to some pieces, often times, pieces can stand on their own without words. The visual rhetoric is strong without having to be propped up by prose or formal verbal argument. This piece is an example of the value of visual composition that Hill references in his paper. Hill states, "Rather, [images] are essential for expressing, and therefore knowing things that cannot be expressed in any other form" (110). Luetke's work is a great example of this. The expression here would be hard to capture in words. Even if Luetke were to find a way to describe this fantastic voyage in words a long, much of the expression would be lost. For example, the arrangement of frames to illustrate the height of the balloon and the left to right motion to imply the passage of time is something unique to sequential art. In no other form of composition, visual or otherwise, can something such as height or time be perceived in such a manner.

While “Alligators in the Air!” is a purely visual text, sequential art can work seamlessly and be aided by the use of words and traditional text. In fact, the sequential art can take a written text and make it even more powerful. Take for example the famous words of Astronomer Carl Sagan:

 

“Communication has always been a hybrid blending of visual, written and aural forms, and the new electronic technologies are making this melding of media easier and more common, requires readers and writers to have a richer understanding of how words and images work to produce meaning” (Hill 109). Hill is absolutely correct in observing that the most powerful messages in our lives are now a blend of visual and written. The visual or the written could easily stand on their own, but together they convey a powerful, humbling rhetoric. The words can encapsulate the human experience, but only to an extent. Without actually seeing that pale blue dot, the words are just that: words. The sequential nature of this piece makes it even more powerful. The uncreditted creator of this simple piece starts with the all too familiar picture of planet Earth. It can be recognized by almost anyone. By slowly panning out, one gains the feeling of moving farther and farther away from the only home a human has ever known. We move away between the panels; this space is known in sequential art as the gutter. As McCould puts it, “despite its unceremonious title, the gutter plays host to much of the magic and mystery that are at the very heart of comics” (66). It is through this magic as McCloud calls it, that Sagan’s words come to life and gain an even stronger meaning.

 In our ever changing world, we are constantly flooded with images and visual rhetoric. It is paramount that as people of the world and of our technology that we be able to understand and interperate these images. Without such a skill, not only are we possible victims to clever marketing or visual styling, we are also depriving ourselves of one of the most power forms of communication and composition. The visual is powerful. The word is powerful. Combined, they are the most powerful form of composition.