ENGL362
Confusion is indicated in Panel 1 by a question mark, yet remains outside of speech bubbles( unlike, for example, Tintin) thus depicting the confusion as unvoiced. Symbolic lines are present in Panel 4 to indicate stress and movement, as‘ You’ begins to shout. In the final panel, lines are further utilised, paired with an awkward facial expression, and a wavy panel border, to indicate mounting confusion.
The page uses the ninepanel structure as its basis, altered where necessary for effect. Panel 4 is stretched to double the size of the previous panels, to allow the large, bold speech bubble to take up the centre of the page and draw the reader’ s eye. This increase of panel size depicts an increase in volume to accommodate the medium’ s absence of sound, the words so large( and therefore loud) that the panel and page layout must alter to contain it.
The bottom third of the page shows a series of small, panelless images as‘ You’ obediently follows textbox narrator’ s instructions in order to sit comfortably. The“ duo specific” wordimage combination, where word and picture essentially convey the same message, is utilised to show the forceful, constant presence of the omniscient narrator, and‘ You’ s bewildered compliance, still adjusting to their own, and the narrator’ s presence in place of what should be, by now, the‘ real’ narrative.
The subsequent page( above right) takes the imperative“ Adjust the light so it won’ t strain your eyes”
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and lays it over the entire page, spreading shadow and light over gutters and panels alike. The fade to white in the bottom right corner also has an effect within the panel, as it obscures the location of the comic the staff member points to, setting up the struggle to find it overleaf. Having this content affect both the inner and outer area of the panel breaches conventions of the medium in the same disorientating manner as Calvino’ s work.
Panel 5 is decagon shaped to echo the cover design. The aim of the motif is to encapsulate key literary moments in the same structure, the shape becoming associated with the whole comic. Here it contains the first solid block of information( physical as well as abstract) about‘ You’