Comics Gutter Activity Two Panels Mysterious

Aka panel frame the edge or outline of the comic page shaded red in this example.

Comics gutter activity two panels mysterious.

If visual iconography is the vocabulary of comics closure is its grammar. Notice how the gutter in comics is similar to the pivot between two juxtaposed images in haiku. Gutter what happens between the sixth and seventh panel of figure 2 1 4a. In comics most movements in time and space are hidden in the gutters between panels.

This blank space creates a transition from one moment to the next within a story. In comics the reader actively has to fill in the gap and make assumptions about what happens between frames or panels. Comics is used as a non count noun and thus is used with the singular form of a verb in the way the words politics or economics are to refer to the medium so that one refers to the comics industry rather than the comics industry. This is an obvious observation that has not so obvious implications.

In their very basic form comics consist of two structural parts the panels and the gutter. At its simplest form the gutter is a blank space that separates two panels. Figure 2 1 4b places the reader at a distance from the subjects making the reader feel like he or she is looking in or eavesdropping. Gutters can also be used to split a panel with just one background to imply the passage of time between both panels as demonstrated here by craig thompson and good bye chunky rice.

Open panels aka borderless panels panels where one or more or even all of the sides of the comic panel are open to show dramatic effect. In between the panels human imagination takes two unconnected images and mentally constructs transforms them into a single idea turns them into a continuous reality. To follow the story readers logically connect panels together by inferring unseen actions through a process called clo sure. Okay now some comics scholars believe that the power of comics is all contained within the gutter as it s what makes comics interactive.

The gutter is essential. As comic book scholar scott mccloud explains the gutter is used to take two separate images and transform them into a single idea mccloud 1993 p. Comics designed by traci gardner. Gutters the space between the panels of the comic shaded red in this example.

The space between the panels of a comics. Our imagination takes the two images that boarder the gutter and transforms then into a single idea. The invisible messenger if one were to look at a comic they would see empty space between the panels that contain the illustrations and dialogue of the text. According to scott mccloud the gutter is a significant part of the story telling.