Comic+Creation

Analysis of THE BACKSTABBER. This comic contains 4 characters; June, Sally, Jack and a receptionist( the snitch). June is Sally’s friend. Jack recently cheated on June with an unknown woman and the comic starts with June explaining to her friend Sally how she has forgiven Jack for cheating on her but will not go back to him. Sally pretends to be a caring friend and tells her that the choice is all on her. Later that night, Sally meets Jack outside his office where they later decide to go to Jacks house. Meanwhile, Jacks receptionist is watching her boss from the window of her office. The next day while walking on the road, the receptionist bumps into June, whom she had seen at the office on previous occasions and told her about her husband who she had seen the previous night with a girl who fits Sally’s description. Later on that day, June confronts Sally and Sally admits to have been the girl who was ‘treating Jack right’ since June could not do that. This steamy confrontation ends with June beating Sally as a result of anger. The scenario depicted in this comic is a realistic one and therefore the audience/reader can easily relate to the comic as stated by Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics page 67 that ‘Our culture is so in thrall to the simplified reality of the cartoon.’ (McCloud, 1994) Several concepts and techniques used in this comic, The Backstabber, were borrowed from McCloud’s analysis of comics. In chapter 3 of Understanding Comics, McCloud explains the use of ‘gutters’(spacing within the panels) whichiserves as a transition between panels, and it is within these transitions where “closure” occurs within comics. Closure is the “phenomenon of observing the parts but perceiving the whole,” (McCloud, 63) allowing us to “connect these moments and mentally construct a continuous unified reality,” (McCloud, 67). In ‘The Backstabber’, the panels were not designed to give the illusion of time as the next scene follows immediately. The images used in this comic connect the character to what they are saying. For example, when Jack meets Sally, it happens outside his office and he is dressed in a suit, most of the correspondence between June and Sally happens in houses which presents a comfortable environment where people can have casual conversations. The background used in images can “affect our ‘reading’ of characters’ inner states” (McCloud, 132). In ‘The Backstabber’ a person’s thought is expressed using air bubbles while speech is depicted using sharp rectangles. Therefore the audience or the reader can understand what the character is saying and thinking. Another concept used in this comic is the ‘scene-to-scene’ technique as states by Scott McCloud in chapter 4 of Understanding comics. This technique transports us across distances of time and space. In ‘The Backstabber’, words like ‘That afternoon’ or ‘later on’ show how time progresses in the comic. The use of colour also shows the aspect of time, for example, when Sally meets Jack at night, the colour black is used to signify ‘darkness’. In conclusion, a comic is more than just a combination of words and pictures. The placement of panels, the words used, the characters depicted have all been chosen because of their traits and the impact they will have on the person reading the comic.  __ Works Cited __ Mccloud, Scott. //Understanding Comics The Invisible Art//. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1994. Print. "MyToonDoos at." //ToonDoo - The Cartoon Strip Creator - Create, Publish, Share, Discuss!// Web. 03 Nov. 2009. .