All Star Comics No. 8, page 8
Comics have increasingly become a legitimate art form in literature. Comics are powerful tools for teaching by a system of pairing visual images with texts to help readers better develop visual literacy. The combination of image and text in comic books is undoubtedly one of the most essential features of the genre. This dynamic is not exclusively new. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, painting and manuscripts included the use of images combined with textual elements. In this particular essay, we study the use of image and text in the All Star Comics No. 8, page 8, “In the Queen’s Solitude…” to “…bullets and bracelets!”. This helps gain a better understanding of the comic.
From page 8 of the comic, in the first dialogue between the spirits of Aphrodite and Athena, it first becomes evident that the text is out of sync with the image. We are told that the spirits of Aphrodite and Athena appear in the queen’s solitude in the form of a mist. Yet, the visual representation in the novel emerges as a normal Amazonian who has come to offer the queen a piece of advice. At first glance, it would appear that they are just a form of human element contrary to the narrative that they are a form of a spiritual element often characterized by the appearance of a mist. Though the comic strip is a form of fictional events, it would appear that the image and textual representation fail to grasp the actual occurrence of the event in which the spirits occur. The colourful illustration of the event that brings together the queen, Aphrodite and Athena suggests that it is not an imaginary thing happening, instead the seamless blending of colour with the rest of the story. Most of the time, when reading a comic book, changes in the theme of the colour will often suggest probably the connection to another account, such as flashback. The fact that it looked flawlessly connected to the rest of the story shows how the depiction of the two forms of spirits was live and in person and not in any other types we are used to. In many comic books, different colour schemes and styles are used to highlight different periods. The conversation too is genuine and not a thought inside the head of the queen.
Time is also another essential element that comic books use to tell their story. In the comic book, it is evident in highlighting the time passage. Soon after Queen Hippolyte has been visited by the two spirits of Aphrodite and Athena, she immediately heeds their advice. She immediately sets in motion plans to organize for and event that will bring forth the strongest Amazonian to escort the soldier ack to America. By the narration of the story, it was evident that the sooner they get the man back to America, the sooner the fight for democracy and equal rights for women. In this portrayal, the American man is believed to be at the forefront for the fight against hate and oppression. Though there seems to be no exact account of events based on missing elements that could serve as a reference, the sequences of events following the queen’s meeting with the spirit forms of Athena and Aphrodite clearly highlight that timeline. The queen’s daughter who seems to have received the message of the search for a capable woman and offers to go as she believes she is qualified. After her mother dismisses her and organizes an event, we can see the sequences building up a series of timelines through the story. Comic books also can convey emotion to the readers through their use of textual and images. They achieve this by changes in perspectives and symbolic elements in the background. When the spirits tell the queen of the importance of the American army officer, there is a mood shift to acknowledgement. When the queen informs her daughter that she cannot go for the mission, there is a worry in her text “No. daughter. No! I forbid you to enter the contest!”. The mood in the arena is that of anticipation when the queen gets up to announce the winners of the contest which turns to joy and celebration when the queen selects contestants 7 and 12 as seen from the background. The crowd also appears to be chanting “Bullets and braces” from the background. These instances blend the pictures to the general mood of the story that the author is trying to tell the readers.
The layout of the comic is also important when analyzing a comic pattern. The overall layout is broken into panels. The variations in sizes of the panels indicate changes in the tone of the images. Layouts influence the images by influencing their number, sizes, shapes and arrangements, which gives the text more meaning than it would have received individually. The shape of the panels in the comic book are generally square and rectangular. All the layout bits have been used as independent structures that connect to the previous story. Individual panels are used to jump timelines. After the queen and her daughter had a conversation in which the queen refused her daughter to perform the task, the panel shift become wider to encompass more characters to join the storyline. The rest of the story from then involves shifts in focus from multiple figures to a few characters and thus changes in panels. The perspectives of the comic characters in terms of angles put the emphasis on specific roles as well as providing a reference base to surrounding elements. When contestant number 7 catches up with the deer and eventually passes it, the perspective shifts to show the distance of the contestant about the deer. This provides us with a definite conclusion that the contestant has passed the deer.
By analyzing all these features of comic books, it is now clear that the emergence of image and text should not be perceived as a conflict between reading and perceiving. The use of other various literary elements such as choice of words, tone, imagery and voice should not be interpreted as being just a requirement, but rather an expression of artistic literature or art in comics. Each manner of telling a story has its own strengths and weaknesses, and when and how the writer uses these forms literary and graphic elements such as layout, perspectives and style will greatly influence how the audience will absorb the story. In the comic, “In the Queen’s Solitude…” to “…bullets and bracelets!”, the author has succeeded in finding a middle ground for image and text all while employing these literary and graphic forms to give the audience a better understanding of the story.
Works Cited
Marston, W. M., and H. G. Peter. “Wonder Woman (All Star Comics# 8).” Nueva York: DC Comics (1941).