Narrative theory by Mike Garley

‘Reading Between the Panels’ aims to describe the unique techniques used in Sequential Art to influence the reader’s participation and evoke an extra level of sensory involvement. Through this explanation of panel involvement, Reading Between the Panels attempts to redefine Sequential Art, by shining a scholarly light on the subject and expand the limitations of this medium, which is commonly perceived as lacking academic authority.

Eisner invented the term Sequential art in 1985 as the title for his educational book Comics and Sequential Art. The term is now widely accepted as sequential art looks for validity as an intellectual medium. Whereas Eisner discussed sequential art at length, he never produced a precise definition, whilst briefly explaining the medium Eisner states:

The format of comics presents a montage of both word and image, and the reader is thus required to exercise both visual and verbal interpretive skills.

(Eisner 1985, p.3)

McCloud (1994) re-iterates the term Sequential art as the most appropriate name to categorize comics and attempts to build on Eisner’s (1985) body of work by offering a definition. However, his description strangely lacks the word narrative or mention of involvement of panels. McCloud’s definition also does very little to imply it has any intellectual content past producing an aesthetic response. For example as McCloud’s definition of Sequential Art requires:

Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.

(McCloud 1994, p.7-9)

The following is an example of McCloud’s definition of Sequential Art that challenges this contention:

I have deliberately juxtaposed these images, in sequence, to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer. Of course the response is subjective and idiosyncratic (as a bad film is still a film). Clearly these images lack narrative, and the only possible participatory involvement of the reader, is that it may lead to them asking questions. This does not engender intellectual involvement, other than the intellectual effort of the reader who is asking the questions. To be truly participatory it is necessary to lead or dictate the reader’s response, and/or predict what conclusions they may reach independently, with their emotional response being a possible answer to their own question. I purposefully avoided this approach, rather I copied pictures from Google image searches and pasted them on a page to demonstrate how essential narrative and/or reader-participation is.

Further to Eisner and McCloud’s definition of the media, Thierry Groensteen discusses Comics’ lack of social acceptance.

Although comics have been in existence for over a century and a half, they suffer from a considerable lack of legitimacy…If its validity as an art form appears self-evident, it is curious that the legitimizing authorities (universities, museums, the media) still regularly charge it with being infantile, vulgar, or insignificant... Comic art suffers from an extraordinary narrow image, given the richness and diversity of its manifestations.

(Groensteen 2009, p.3)

Groensteen (2009) lists the accomplishments of artist and creators and the role they play in media. Whilst I agree with Groensteen, I feel he has missed what is truly individual to the Comic medium: the experience of involved reading within a visual narrative, not the quality of written material - as stories can be adapted to other media whereas the participation of panels cannot.

Sequential art refers to the medium, whereas comic refers to the form, and is a vague term commonly used within the ‘comic’ industry.

Panels are the individual segments of information within the page and can be pictorial, text or a combination of both. The creative team - the individual(s) responsible for creating the comic, for example writer, artist, letterer and colourer - selects this information to further the narrative.

Mark Millar and Steve McNiven use a single panel showing Spider-man in a variety of positions within a panel - of Civil war - to emphasize his speed and then cleverly insert a reflective panel with the character Reed Richards (Mr Incredible - Fantastic Four) commenting on the action, which they could have fitted into the previous panel. This page also uses ‘comic timing’, conveyed in the second panel.

Bryan Lee O'Malley uses the text "(weird pause)" to convey the emotional context of a moment in Scott Pilgrim (panel 3), as an alternative to the conventional repeated panels. Visual devices such as this can be applied without affecting the narrative flow within sequential art, as the readers’ participation is not disturbed.

Sequential Art through its various forms and methods of display, is broken down into a series of panels, which when viewed in sequence, convey both a sense of movement and of time.

Sequential narrative unlike traditional visual media such as film or Television, relies on the participation of the reader to unite the panels and the various information which they convey. For example, when watching a film at the cinema, the size of the screen is a constant, as is the film itself, in the sense that a two-hour film, will last two hours. (Note: pausing a film, or rewinding it to play again, does not allow intellectual control of the medium, as the depictions are predetermined by the film makers).

So the experience is more voyeuristic than participatory. In sequential narrative, the panels can take any number of shapes or sizes, to convey an extra level of sensory involvement, it is the reader who must decipher the importance of the choices the creative team have made in the selection of any given panel.

Within the strict physical dimensions of the page, the creative team must create work to evoke an emotional response from the reader. Pursuing this theory, I discussed reader involvement and subsequent emotional responses with scriptwriter and author Craig Batty (2008) who believes this experience is vital to connect the audience with the narrative and create a response that resonates ‘beyond’ the narrative and is more often than not, an emotional experience generated by the character’s journey. According to Batty this experience is in essence, manipulation and control of thoughts and feelings. I believe that sequential art is unique, as to be successful it must communicate to the audience, and provoke an emotional experience, whilst simultaneously immersing them in a participatory media - with a physical format -which can at any time be put down or discarded at the reader’s discretion. Will Eisner discusses the importance of reader attention and control, explaining how this can be achieved both visually and through narrative.

In comics, reader control is attained in two stages-attention and retention. Attention is accomplished by provocative and attractive imagery. Retention is achieved by the logical and intelligible arrangement of the images.

(Eisner 2008, p.51)

Only through the process of cleverly designed and positioned panels of artwork, used to convey a cohesively sequential narrative, can the creative team evoke an emotionally involved process for the reader.

This emotionally involved process has the potential to blur the reader’s perception of the point at which the stationary, juxtaposed images and words turn in to a motion-filled, time-conscious narrative.

The physicality of sequential art and the control that they offer, provide a challenge for the creative team in terms of maintaining the reader’s involvement.

Alan Moore notes how delicate the reader’s involvement is outlining the storytelling devices which he uses to maintain this involvement.

Transitions … are one of the most tricky and intriguing elements of the whole writing process. The problem is to move from one place or one time to another without doing anything violent or clumsy that would disturb the reader’s delicate thread of involvement in the story. If a transition is handled incorrectly, what it does is to bring the reader up short against the fact that he or she is reading a story.

(Moore 2008, p.16)

Moore (2008), in describing the importance of maintaining the readers involvement, highlights the control given to the reader, supporting the contention that sequential art is participatory rather then voyeuristic.

Jaime Hernandez writer of Love and Rockets, deliberately skips a sequence of events vital to the narrative and whereas in film you are forced to understand what has happened quickly, in sequential art the reader can come to an understanding at their own pace. The readers’ opportunity to interpret the moments between the panels without disturbing the narrative flow is what makes sequential art unique from other visual media.

Sequential art, unlike the majority of visual media, does not have the ability to ‘control time’ (as previously discussed). Creative teams within sequential art are restricted in their attempts to manipulate the reader’s perception of time. Creative teams employ a range of storytelling devices in order to guide the reader through the narrative at an appropriate pace. This manipulation can never be complete as it relies on the perception of the individual, and perception is, in itself, individual.

Devices used by creative teams include the number of panels and varying the amount of detail within these panels. The amount of visual data to interpret, and the number of panels used to display this visual data plays a significant part in the narrative flow of sequential art, with early creative decision on the use of panels having major ramifications on the readers’ experience.

The seemingly simple decision to use twenty-five panels on a page or five panels on a page actually turns out to be the most sophisticated area of the cartoonist’s art.

(Gallant 2009, p.30)

Furthermore, within each individual panel, elements are in contention and need to be carefully resolved and related. It’s always seemed to me that where and what size you draw something is more important than how you draw it, as far as narrative is concerned.

(Gibbons 2009, p.6)

Robert Kirkman uses a device called ‘repeated panels’ in Invincible to add an element of comic timing. These panels (5-6 and 8-9) are lacking any new visual information and are used to simulate time in a timeless medium.

As sequential art allows the readers to absorb the narrative at their own pace jokes, which could otherwise be missed, are given an extra opportunity with the reader.

In the images taken from We3, Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison use a greater number of (small) panels than is typical to emphasize the amount of smaller moments happening in the single moment. Even though it efficiently conveys the quickest of moments, the readers can still take time to absorb the visual information at their own pace.

The amount of dialogue used in a narrative is also a factor in the manipulation of timing. Moore estimates the approximate time it takes the ‘average’ reader to decipher a single panel as follows:

A panel containing the standard 35 words of dialogue will take maybe seven or eight seconds to read, depending on the complexity of the image accompanying it.

(Moore 2008, p.18)

Redefining sequential art is not only important in order to understand how the medium should be perceived but also shapes where the media is going.

Sequential art has already moved on from its humble beginnings as a paper-bound form, with applications being developed for mobile phones, for example:

Online comics, which is the term given to web based comic sites, such as Act-i-vate, Zuda, Marvel and Longbox, have intuitive navigation systems, designed with reader participation in mind. Online comics maintain the reader’s narrative involvement by exploiting the potentials of intuitive navigation.

Another potential step in Sequential evolution is the Motion comic. Marvel are making significant strides within this area by turning pre-existing work into motion comics, and also producing original straight-to-motion comic releases.

The below is the issue one trailer for Marvel’s Spider-woman motion comic.

Motion comic’s constant, pre-determined pace cannot be considered sequential art, as the narrative control is not at the viewer’s discretion. Motion comics do not allow reader involvement between the panels, nor do they allow the reader the opportunity to interpret the narrative at their own pace, consequently, motion comics would not be considered a legitimate form of sequential art.

3D offers a possible evolutionary step for visual media. However 3D is no more participatory than 2D, nor does it allow extra interpretation opportunities within media. Thus preventing potential issues with redefining sequential art.

In conclusion, sequential art is unique not through its use of image and text within panels, but through the relationship the reader has with the panels in creation of an emotionally involved narrative. Reader participation is essential for the creative team to evoke an emotional response from the reader as they navigate the narrative at their own pace. To provide a successful emotional experience for the reader, the creative team must address various elements such as panel layout and use of panel placement.

As Reading between the Panels has now demonstrated, McCloud’s (1994) definition of sequential art’s preference towards creating an aesthetic response is less important than creating an emotional experience for the reader.

My classification will have to apply to the cerebral and more tangible aspects of the media as to appropriately convey sequential arts true definition. Below is the culmination of Reading between the panels and its attempt to redefine a medium through redefinition of title.

SEQUENTIAL ART

A visual narrative produced by juxtaposing static images, to evoke an emotional response through reader participation.

My new definition is designed to show the intellectual importance of selection of panel to create participation and emotion in the narrative. This more intellectually focused definition, aims to shine a scholarly light on sequential art as less of a series of aesthetically pleasing images, and more of a participatory emotional narrative experience.