Comic+Book



CCT300 Melissa Stepanians Wednesday November 4, 2010 Superhero Failure Comic  McCloud analyses many efficient techniques in his book that I referred to when creating this comic in order to convey the message of the story efficiently, and make the experience of the read enjoyable for the reader. The pictures used in this Superhero Comic are not very abstract; therefore the reader does not solely need to rely on the captions and word bubbles to understand the story. The message of the story is clearly conveyed through the pictures in each panel. The different shapes of panels provide a different experience for the reader making the comic more visually entertaining since the panels differ from page to page. Originally my comic was crammed into five panels, but I worked more efficiently with the pictures and realized that it makes for a better visual experience to the reader if the pictures are divided into different panels with different shapes and sizes. In between the transition of the panels the reader cannot see the continuation of the story but it is left up to their imagination to fill in the blanks and connect the pieces to make a story. In page three of my comic the transition is a subject to subject transition. In the first panel you see Fly and Bam hanging out drinking some vodka because their bored, and all the sudden the next panel shows an incoming phone call from “Super Duper Crime Fighters” declaring an emergency and calling the Superheroes to come out to help. In the following panel you do not see Bam or Fly physically answer the phone but the reader acknowledges the Superheroes have received the message based on their reaction and also based on the message within the word balloon from the panel before. Page five displays action to action transitions between the panels. The reader sees Bam approaching Fly to put makeup on her face and in the next panel you see Bam applying the lipstick to Fly’s lips. This comic is made up of both action to action and subject to subject transitioning. In the continuing panels you see the Superheroes putting on makeup in order to look good so they can go out and save the day! The reader understands the passing of time through the action and word displayed in the panels. Time is an important aspect to the story line because Bam and Fly are on a tight schedule since they received an emergency call at 12:58 from “Super Duper Crime Fighters” pleading for their help. The duration of time is described by the actions and words included in the pictures within each panel. The reader understand how much time is going by as they see Bam and Fly put on their makeup, try on different heels, do their nails, and even have a dance party! In page nine panel three the reader realizes how much time has actually gone by since Fly says “Shit dude it’s like 3!”. Bam and Fly became very preoccupied with making sure they looked fantastic, which resulted in them being two hours late to rescue those in danger. Although they were two hours late they still decided to go ahead and take one more shot before they left, which turned into two shots then ten! Bam and Fly ended up passing out and not even stepping foot out of the house, they failed to respond to their emergency call which resulted in them getting fired, yet they did not care the next morning since they know they are the only Superheroes in town and there is absolutely no way their employers are not going to be begging them to come back to work within twenty four hours. The reader can understand the carelessness of Bam and Fly by their facial expressions in page ten; the pictures in the second and third panel give off a careless emotion to the reader. McCloud states in his book “Understanding Comics” that the different ways in which words and pictures can combine in comics is virtually unlimited(McCloud 152). I used the combination of pictures and words to better portray emotion, for example in page nine the words are only there to describe the picture to get the emotion across more clearly to the reader. The first panel reads “donezo” since Fly and Bam are passed out and done! The second panel reads “Plastered” to show how wasted Fly is that she is passed out with the bottle of Vodka still in her hand. The panels on page nine have no word bubbles yet the reader still understands what is going on, and the story line continues to progress. My goal was to make a Superhero comic different from any other, with humor and naive Superheroes.