Week 4- The Graphic Code of Comic Books

Key Components
panel - contains the content
gutter - separates each panel
speech bubble - provides a base for speech to be interpreted by the reader.
Onomatopoeia - sound effects
Symbolic Icons - Varies from culture to culture. 
Character abstraction - appearances can change to a degree, some artists draw simplified characters that readers can project themselves onto. 

Transition Types 

Moment to Moment
 - Small lapses in time, little closure needed. EG, a smile forming, spider moving up a blanket

Action to Action
 - Same character / setting but different actions. EG, A car driving on one panel, crashing on the next.

Subject to Subject
 - Same scene / concept but different subject / character. EG two characters perspectives.
Slightly more cognitive engagement required by reader to make sense.

Scene to Scene 
 - Geographical location - Significiant.
 - Movement of time / space EG, "10 Years later..."
 - Deductive Reasoning required to decipher.

Aspect to Aspect 
 - Scene setting - no apparent shift in time.
 - Shows different aspects / views of the same scene. EG, focusing on different objects in a room.

Non Sequitur 
 - No logical relationship between panels
 - Closure? Up to the reader to decipher.

'Curse of the Molemen' by Charles Burns (2007)

​The exchange between the mother and Tony is a subject transition, as it shows a shift between the two characters. When Tony gets out of bed to look out of his window, it's an action transition. When he notices movement out of the window it is a moment transition as there is very little time between the two panels, he is half way through his sentence when the panel moves on. There is a subject transition as it shows the monster climbing out of the hole and there are two more subject changes in the next two panels as tension builds between the two characters. ​