21st May 2021, 7:32 AM
No, seriously, please, tell a friend -- about this comic! Spread the word!
As I’ve said in previous Commentaries, I write the comic with an eventual goal of printing it, and so I’m always having to consider whether I’m on an odd-numbered or an even-numbered page. Every even-numbered page is going to be seen by turning over an odd-numbered page, giving the reader what I call a “page-turn reveal”. Such will be the case on this page, so originally I planned this as a full-page panel, AKA a “splash” page. If you have been reading the comic for a while, you may have noticed that almost every time I do a full-page splash, it’s on an even-numbered page. It stops the reader in their tracks for a second, and is a great way to create a dramatic moment or introduce an important piece of information. I love doing this kind of reveal!
I encountered a dilemma, however. I ended the previous page with Paige still on the ground after her fall. It didn’t feel right to have her just stand up and have the Gingerbread Golem (who I’m hereby christening Tough Cookie) be looming over her, right where she fell. I needed to create the impression that she had gotten up and started limping some distance before Tough Cookie found her. I still wanted the panel with Tough Cookie to dominate the page, so that meant creating the single horizontal band at the top.
So how was I going to create the impression of Paige traveling some distance using a single, static image? By using some of the elements of comics magic!
All of the text in the first panel works to create the impression that Paige is walking further into the factory. I broke up her inner monologue into multiple thought balloons, trailing behind her, and even the content of her thoughts is about walking forward on her busted ankle. As you read her thoughts from left to right you are also subconsciously following her across the page. The “SSSHHHFF TMPP” sound effects hopefully represent the sound of her limping - dragging one foot with each step. (It occurred to me that in a factory filled with industrial machines this may be misconstrued as a machine sound, but hopefully not.) By repeating this four times across the panel, I’m giving the reader a precise measure of how far she’s walked and how much time she’s taken to do it.
BIFF! BAM! POW! Comic sound effects aren’t just for fight scenes, kids!
I think I first noticed this technique in Katsuhiro Otomo’s seminal masterwork, Akira (for anyone who didn’t know, it was a long-running comic before it was an animated movie and you should definitely read it). Here’s an example of the technique that I was able to find online - Otomo uses “TOK TOK TOK” to represent the sound of a character’s footsteps on the tiled floor.
The magic of comics!
BONUS CONTENT: Follow this link to see a timelapse of the creation of this page!
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