The shape of comic book reading

Abstract

In most comics, the art and the text the visual and the verbal channels seem to be telling the same story. But, to be technical narratologically, it is actually the same fabula, not the same story which requires uniform perspective. That is, both art and text present events from the same general plot but not necessarily at the same time, in the same order, or from the same viewpoint. The captions may be disclosing a character's inner monologue, for instance, while the panels show that character leaping to safety. Or, as a reverse example, word balloons could be vocalizing a fight between two off-panel parents while the panel focalizes on a tearful child trying to sleep. It is the dreadfully boring and narrow comic that has the visual and verbal reflect exactly the same thing in each and every panel. There would be no point and, ultimately, no reason for doing this narrative in comic form. Since the visual and the verbal narratives may be telling different parts of the same fabula simultaneously, it stands to reason that there may also be two different narrators for a given panel as well. This distinction becomes particularly important when it is taken advantage of by a savvy creator (e.g., Art Spiegelman in MAUS, Alan Moore in Watchmen, Chris Ware in ACME Novelty Library) to create an intentional schism between the two narratives; that is, the visual and verbal narratives may actually be spinning different yarns. This narrative polyphony, though not unique to comics, affects the hermeneutic model for the medium to such a degree that a revised tetrahedral hybrid of Wolfgang Iser, J. Espen Aarseth, and Scott McCloud's theories bears implementation.

Graphic Novel Subtitles: Requirement Elicitation and System Implementation

“…Comic narrative is constructed specifically in the comic book medium [21]. A common approach is the four-point tetrahedral model, the four points in question are the 'medium', the 'reader', the 'verbal narrative', and the 'visual narrative' [24].…”

Mr. Siniestro: un científico en un mundo de papel y tinta

“…Varios estudios se enfocan en cómo se estructuran los distintos elementos narrativos y visuales que le dan vida al cómic como las metáforas, la composición y la estética que "debe transmitir los sucesos aunque los diálogos no existieran" (Santibáñez-Vásquez et al 2015: 126), se trata de aspectos de interés en múltiples análisis, además de aspectos de la distribución, el tamaño, la correlación entre la narrativa conformada por el texto y por las imágenes que posibilitan una interpretación especíica (Lewis, 2010). Análisis del contenido, de la forma, del contexto, de sus aspectos de producción y de su recepción en el público conforman un marco de estudio múltiple de los cómics (Smith y Duncan, 2012).…”

Releasing the potential of Shakespearean comic book adaptations in the classroom: A case study of Romeo and Juliet

“…Furthermore, although image and text need to work together in a comic, this does not necessarily mean that the two components always convey the same message. Narrative polyphony (Lewis, 2010) occurs when, for example, the picture shows the character's outward behaviour, while a thought bubble conveys his true feelings. To comprehend the comic, the reader needs to take account of both.…”