multi modal tensions in the graphic novel
TRANSCRIPT
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Multimodal Tensions in the Graphic Novel
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. 2
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 3
BACKGROUND........................................................................................................................................... 5
THE VERBAL/VISUAL TENSIONS ................................................................................................................ 5THE VISUAL/VISUAL TENSIONS ................................................................................................................. 6THE PARTIAL/WHOLE TENSION.................................................................................................................. 7THE CREATOR/AUDIENCE TENSIONS.......................................................................................................... 8CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 13
ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................................. 15
IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS .............................................................................................................. 15THE 9/11 REPORT ..................................................................................................................................... 27PRIDE OF BAGHDAD ................................................................................................................................. 33
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................... 41
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 42
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Abstract
The process of a reading a graphic novel is affected by multimodal tensions that
result from combining techniques typical to the comics medium and literary techniques
associated with the novel. Three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers, The 9/11
Report and Pride of Baghdad, are analyzed for the presence of cooperative, competitive
and overlapping tensions. These rhetorical strategies are identified by the audience,
engage readers in the construction of meaning and impact their interpretation of the
message.
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Introduction
The experience of reading and interpreting a graphic novel is affected by
multimodal tensions caused by the combination of narrative techniques of the comics
medium and literary elements associated with the novel. Here, tension refers to the
interactions between two seemingly opposing artistic elements, including cooperative,
competitive or overlapping interactions. If readers can recognize these interactions, then
they will be encouraged to resolve the tension by questioning its purpose and meaning.
Subsequently, these rhetorical strategies engage the audience in the construction of
meaning of the graphic novel and impact the audience's interpretation of its message.
Cooperation and competition between images and text is a tension applicable to
the entire medium of comics (Hatfield 36). Another tension, as described by Hatfield,
includes the interaction of images as piece of the narrative and images as a design
element (48). When a comic book or strip is serialized, each installment conveys a
message in itself but is also a piece of the larger message of the complete novel, leading
to a tension between the partial and whole messages. This tension also occurs when a
single page is designed to convey multiple narratives within a larger story arc.
As a medium, comics require audience participation in the form of what McCloud
calls "closure" in order to apply meaning to individual panels (68). Unlike in purely
written mediums, however, the use of images allows the creator to control the intensity
and perception of a scene or moment in the narrative (Witek 68). Therefore, a tension
between creator control and audience perception also exists. Lastly, the form of the
graphic novel presents a unique tension for a creator and his audience. Various beliefs
and assumptions among and outside of the comics readership have lead to conflicting
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definitions of what a graphic novel truly is, creating a tension between the creator's intent
and the audience's expectations.
In this project, three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers by Spiegelman,
The 9/11 Commission Report: a Graphic Adaptation by Jacobson and Colón, and Pride
of Baghdad by Vaughan and Henrichon, are analyzed for the presence and effect of
multimodal tensions. According to their respective creators, these graphic novels were
all written to address the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent Iraq War. Although
their messages and styles are different, they all use narrative techniques common to the
comics medium, including panels and levels of abstraction, and literary techniques such
as metaphor to contend with very serious subject matter. The analysis demonstrates that
these rhetorical strategies developed by the creator require an audience familiar with the
techniques in order to identify the tensions, engage the audience in the construction of
meaning, and impact the audience's interpretation of the creators' message.
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BackgroundThe experience of reading and interpreting a graphic novel is affected by
multimodal tensions caused by the combination of narrative techniques of the comics
medium and literary elements associated with the novel. Here, tension refers to the
interaction between two seemingly opposing artistic elements, including cooperation,
competition or overlap between these elements. Tension may exist between a verbal and
visual element, two visual elements or two verbal elements. The origin and composition
of these rhetorical strategies are identified and discussed in relation to their effect on the
audience.
The Verbal/Visual Tensions
As a medium that uses static images and text to drive the narrative, it is the
cooperation and competition between these two elements that defines comics. When
seeking to define the medium, McCloud identifies the “juxtaposition of pictorial and
other images” as one the central requirements. Technically, words and pictures are both
icons, which are images that represent people, things or ideas. The difference is that
words are much more abstract symbols than pictures, and often have a much more
definite meaning than a picture (McCloud 27). Words and pictures are codes that must
be interpreted in order to understand a comic, and are decoded separately by the reader
(Hatfield 37). Words tell and pictures show, and so the verbal narrative and visual
narrative are considered to be two different elements. These two may cooperate in order
to direct a straightforward narrative, but they can also compete for the reader’s
interpretation, such as by seeming to tell two different narratives. Overlap can then
possibly occur in two ways. Images can “tell” rather than show, which is what a word
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balloon does, and words can “show” by becoming more pictorial, like by changing size
according to the volume the creator wishes to convey (Hatfield 40). Furthermore, the
interaction between words and pictures, whether they are telling the same story or not, is
usually a form of collaboration. An apparent competitive tension between images and
text may actually be cooperating to convey the creator’s meaning. However, as Hatfield
claims, it becomes the reader’s responsibility to interpret that tension and apply a
meaning to it (41). The creator develops the tension through his narrative tools, but it is
the reader who must then apply a meaning to it.
Tension may also exist between the verbal narrative and the visual style of the
comic. What does the way a comic is drawn reveal about the message? As Hatfield
explains, the style can cooperate with the narrative, but it can also subvert the narrative
by seeming horribly mismatched to the subject matter (60). In Maus, Witek points out,
Spiegelman’s use of mice to represent the Jewish people was a creative choice (100).
Interpretation of this style evokes within the reader general feelings of predation and
extermination, even if, at first, the use of cartoon animals seems a disrespectful way of
discussing the Holocaust (Witek 114). This may initially be interpreted as a clash or
competition between the style and the subject matter, but a reader who knows that
Spiegelman used such a style specifically will identify it as cooperation. It is the reader
who must interpret and resolve that tension. The audience must assign value to the use of
a style within the context of the message.
The Visual/Visual Tensions
In addition to the interaction between verbal and visual elements, tension may
also exist between two visual elements. Hatfield points out that an image in a comic is
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both a part of the narrative and one piece of the page’s graphic design independent of the
sequence (48). The sequence of the narrative and the visual syntax of the page, therefore,
can compete. For instance, each page of In the Shadow of No Towers is designed to look
like a comics supplement page. As a result, the strips can be read independently of each
other as short sequences, or within the visual context of the whole page regardless of
sequence. It is also possible for these two elements to cooperate, such as in The 9/11
Report, where the page design enforces the idea that the graphic novel is as much a
textbook as it is a comic book. Still, it requires a reader familiar with the typical graphic
design of a comics supplement or a textbook to identify these tensions and then to
interpret the meaning of each.
The Partial/Whole Tension
Traditionally, many comic books and strips are serialized. Each installment is
both a smaller piece of a wider narrative arc and its own independent story. The tension
here is caused by the interaction between whole and partial messages. How do the
individual installments fit into the wider arc? What is the significance of the creator’s
choice to end one installment here, rather than provide one more page? This particular
tension is much less present in graphic novels that are published as one volume, but other
GNs such as Maus and Watchmen were originally serialized and, even though they are
currently printed and available as whole volumes, this must be taken into account when
reading and interpreting the work. Only a reader familiar with the narrative technique of
serialization would be able to identify the presence of this tension.
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The Creator/Audience Tensions
Comics are what McLuhan referred to as a “cool” medium; it requires great
audience participation to give the message meaning (23). Like television, closure is
required for the message to be understood by the audience, and this requires active
participation on the part of the reader (McCloud 65). In comics, therefore, the creator
and audience enter a relationship where the reader’s perceived meaning is just as
important as the writer’s intended message. These two elements are also capable of
tension. A creator will attempt to control the reader’s interpretation with his narrative
tools. For instance, as Witek explains, a descriptive sentence in a book can be
manufactured into an image chosen by the reader, but when an image is already supplied,
there is no way for the reader to decrease its intensity (68). Just as important as what is
shown are the details or moments that are not. According to McCloud, every detail left
out of the creator’s control is given up to the imagination of the audience (85). There will
be certain sequences where the creator’s intention will be in line with that which the
audience has interpreted from it, and sequences where they will not cooperate. By
exploring why a creator may have relinquished full control of certain moments, the
audience maybe able to resolve the tension between his intent and their perception.
Another type of creator/audience interaction is the “contract,” described by Will
Eisner as an agreement where the “[story]teller expects that the audience will
comprehend, while the audience expects the author will deliver something
comprehensible” (49). Within rhetoric such an agreement refers to the logic of the
rhetor’s argument. If the argument is illogical it will be incomprehensible, thereby
rendering the discourse ineffective. This relationship also requires active involvement
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from the audience. A comics artist can use tools such as speech balloons and panels to
manipulate time, space and sensory details. The reader must then use personal experience
to interpret these techniques and, therefore, must have had previous experience with
reading comics. This particular tension also relies on an overlap between the visual and
verbal elements, for panels and balloons are images that “show” like any other picture,
but also “tell” like text (Hatfield 40). The visual/verbal tension impacts the
creator/audience tension and, as such, both impact the eventual interpretation.
The aforementioned tensions are common to the entire medium of comics. There
is one last tension between creator and audience that significantly impacts the reading of
a graphic novel, a specific form of the medium. This tension is derived from controversy
concerning the definition of the graphic novel. The credit for writing the first graphic
novel – and for creating the term – goes to Will Eisner. The comics industry veteran
published A Contract With God in 1978 (Bettley 135). While not a comic book of
standard length or the magazine format, Eisner’s novel still used the medium he referred
to as “sequential art” in order to tell his story. It was the creators of the underground
comix scene who inspired Eisner; he felt they were demonstrating the true potential of the
medium by telling personal and political stories (Weiner 19). Their movement produced
books “that were as politically radical as they were artistically innovative” and were
“antithetical” to the mainstream (Sabin 92). Hatfield credits this as the movement that
“established the idea of comics as a form for adults” and “trumpeted the arrival of not
simply comics for adults but comic books for adults” (7). But, as Witek points out, they
also played an integral role in developing comics as a means of artistic expression (52).
They showed that it was possible to be a creator without the endorsement of the dominant
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publishing industry and focused on the expression of the “creator-owned” rather than of
“company-owned” characters (Hatfield 16). These comics were in direct contrast to the
Comics Code Authority sanctioned books with which the wider public was familiar.
It was the earlier creation of the Comics Code Authority that perpetuated the
public sentiment that comic books were just for kids. At the height of their popularity in
the 1950s, 80 million comic books were being sold each month in America (“Horror on
the Newsstands”). These comics were not limited by subject matter and covered many
genres from horror and crime to history and romance (Weiner 5). While gory horror
comics were gaining in popularity, America was falling prey to McCarthyism and the
paranoia that followed (Weiner 8). Comic books were the frequent target of criticism
throughout the late 40’s and early 50’s, but it is Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist, who
is most often credited with destroying the creative freedom of the industry. Riding the
wave of worry that parents had of their children becoming Communists, Wertham
published a book claiming that comic books were having a significant negative impact on
America’s youth. Wertham wrote, “… I have come to the conclusion that this chronic
stimulation, temptation and seduction by comic books… are contributing factors to many
children’s maladjustment. All comic books with their words and expletives in balloons
are bad for reading…” (10). The US Senate called for an investigation of comic books
and their impact on youth (Weiner 8). The hearings scared the comic book publishers
into action and they formed the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which ultimately
eliminated mature subject matter from mainstream comics (Wright 175). It was this
institution that Witek claims, “led to the thematic stagnation of the sequential art medium
for several decades” (7) and “squelched the few postwar comic books that were groping
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toward a sophisticated audience…” (48). Simple plot lines and simple art, combined
with an overall message that authority was good, no doubt contributed to the perception
of comics as being just for kids (Hatfield 11). As comics creators attempted to reach
adults, then, they had to overcome this stereotype of the medium.
Eisner tried to do just that in order to market his book length comic to a wider,
more mature audience. Originally, he adopted the term “graphic novel” as a way to get
what he thought was a much more serious comic book into bookstores instead of comics
specialty shops and, therefore, within the reach of an audience that had never read comic
books or had not read them in quite some time (Hatfield 29). From its conception, the
graphic novel faced conflict. Here was a medium intended for children, but attempting to
tell serious stories meant for adults. To people unfamiliar with the medium, the graphic
novel was a paradox.
The term was commandeered by two comics camps: those who wanted to
distinguish themselves from mainstream comic books and those who wanted to use the
inherent merit of the word to sell comics that did not match the sophistication of books
like Eisner’s. As Harvey discusses, “graphic novel” became a marketing term to describe
any comic book that was lengthier and printed on heavier paper than comic books printed
in the standard magazine format (116). Mainstream companies often combined several
standard comic book issues into anthologies and labeled them as graphic novels even
though, suggests Hatfield, “those books typically offered a reading experience that fell
well short of the novel, or even the literary short story, in terms of length and
complexity” (29). This marketing method most likely only added to the public
perception that comics were not sophisticated, and perpetuated conflict between “serious”
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comics creators and “mainstream” creators about its definition. Audiences continued to
receive conflicting messages about the merit of the graphic novel.
With the arrival of Maus, Spiegelman’s two-volume graphic novel that addresses
the Holocaust, however, graphic novels were given a new direction. The possibility for
the format and the medium to deal with serious subject matter had become a reality. Yet,
even this innovation was met with conflict. According to Witek, Spiegelman was
awarded the Nobel Prize for his work and embraced by his audience, but plenty of people
balked at the use of comics to tell a narrative concerning the Holocaust (97). The
stereotype persisted despite proof that comics were no longer just for juvenile audiences.
Today, the industry is still not decided on what the term “graphic novel” does and
should mean. Brad Meltzer, a writer of both comic books and prose novels, claims that
there is no difference between graphic novels and comic books: “’Graphic novel’ is a
term invented to impress people who wouldn’t be impressed if you said ‘comic books’”
(Eyman, “Brad Meltzer). Likewise, for purposes of classification, librarians tend to put
all “book-length comics” together, regardless of content (Fletcher-Spear, et. al, “Truth”).
As Fletcher-Spear et. al argue, the graphic novel is a format within the comics medium
that “uses a combination of words and sequential art to convey a narrative” and which is
not limited to any single genre (“Truth”). Just as not all novels are considered to be
masterpieces equal to Elie Wiesel’s Night or George Orwell’s Animal Farm, not all
graphic novels will reach the complexity of Spiegelman’s Maus. Nevertheless, people –
especially those who read a lot of graphic novels – expect these book-length comics to
offer complex stories and characters as part of “a self-contained narrative arc… not just a
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reproduction of a series” (Razer, “A novel concept”). There are certain expectations that
a reader carries with them when encountering a graphic novel.
In the end, “graphic novel” remains an imprecise term, but it is so ingrained in the
industry and the audience that, as Hatfield claims, it cannot be ignored (29). The result of
this ambiguity is a public who is unsure of what to expect when first reading a graphic
novel, and a wide comics readership whose expectations vary form person to person.
General public perception that comic books are juvenile in nature persists today. The
expectations of someone who believes this will create tension with the intent of a creator
who has used the form of the graphic novel to tell a mature and serious story. Inversely,
a reader who is familiar with graphic novels and who is expecting a serious story may be
surprised to see that cartoon animals were the creator’s choice of characters to convey
that narrative. This tension between creator intent and audience expectation is by no
means exclusive to the graphic novel, but it continues to play a significant role in the
development of the form and the interaction of the creator-audience relationship.
Conclusion
Note that these tensions, when present, are not independent of each other. Often,
the development of one tension is the result of the existence of another. The result is
intricate layers and overlapping of interactions, leading to secondary tensions among
primary interactions. As Hatfield explains, there is no one way to read a comic, and these
multiple reading choices give the medium the potential for complexity (66). Each
reading experience will be affected by the audience’s previous experience with reading
(or not reading) comics.
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In McCloud’s definition, the other criteria for a narrative to be considered a comic
is that those juxtaposed images are “in deliberate sequence, intended to convey
information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud 9). Every
picture, word, and arrangement is a conscious choice of the creator, meant to affect his
audience in some way. The tensions the creator developed are rhetorical strategies, not
arbitrary decisions. There is meaning between the panels and within the pages of a comic
book, it needs only a reader to interpret it.
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Analysis
In the following analysis, three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers by
Spiegelman, The 9/11 Commission Report: a Graphic Adaptation by Jacobson and
Colón, and Pride of Baghdad by Vaughan and Henrichon, are examined for the presence
and effect of multimodal tensions. The analysis demonstrates that the rhetorical
strategies developed by the creators require an audience capable of identifying the
tensions, engage the audience in the construction of meaning, and impact the audience's
interpretation of the creators' message.
In the Shadow of No Towers
Arguably one of the most influential comics creators who came out of the
underground comic scene is Art Spiegelman. It was his graphic novel Maus that brought
wider attention to the form and set a precedent for sophistication in subject matter. His
newest graphic novel, In the Shadow of No Towers, is markedly different in format from
most other graphic novels. Essentially, it is a collection of ten newspaper broadsheets
originally published as a series in several European papers. In the Shadow of No Towers
is as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the political atmosphere in America that
followed the tragedy for two years after. Spiegelman resides in Manhattan and, as he
explains, was in New York City the day that the World Trade Center was attacked by
terrorists (2). Unlike most Americans, he experienced the attack first hand without the
filter of the media. In Towers, he documents his attempt to understand the tragedy and
his criticism of the ways in which the government responded. The format, which evokes
sentiments of humor, is in stark contrast to the serious nature of the subject matter. In
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Towers, the tensions between design and narrative require an audience familiar with
comics strips for interpretation, engage the audience in the construction of its meaning
and impact the audience’s perception of Spiegelman’s message.
According to Hatfield, images in comics can be read in multiple ways, either as
moments in a sequence or as design elements independent of the sequence (48). This is a
tension between two visual elements of the work, the narrative sequence and the visual
syntax. As a graphic novel, Towers’ design is somewhat atypical of the graphic novel.
Each page is a reproduction of a full-page newspaper broadsheet purposefully designed to
resemble the comic strip supplements of early 20th century American newspapers
(Spiegelman 11). This has partially to do with the original publishing format. As
Spiegelman explains, each page of Towers was first published in the German broadsheet
newspaper Die Zeit (i). The design immediately identifies his work with America, a
technique that works to capture the attention of a German audience who may be curious
about an American’s perception of the terrorist attacks. Spiegelman explicitly says that
his “political views hardly seemed extreme” to the Europeans who were reading his
comics (ii). His criticism of the governments reactions is material that many of them may
have already heard and agree with themselves. His audience, therefore, consists of well-
informed people whose attention may be difficult to attract and hold when discussing a
familiar topic. The unconventional design puts a fresh spin on the content, giving it an
appearance of novelty. An audience is more likely to respond to something new and
radical in design than to something they’ve already seen and to which they’ve become
accustomed. Of course, the design itself is not new, nor is the use of cartoons to criticize
a government. It is the use of a full page and a design usually associated with comic
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strips – whose main goal is entertainment – in order to discuss serious political events,
which has rarely been done before and therefore would appear fresh to the audience.
Spiegelman’s audience must be able to recognize that the design is similar to that of a
comics supplement, and then the visual syntax can cooperate with the sequence to engage
the audience in the construction of its meaning.
Would Spiegelman’s German audience be able to identify the graphic design?
The format he uses is not so new that a German audience wouldn’t understand how to
interpret it. Comic strips, Boime explains, in addition to being easily recognized by
Americans, are also an established form in Europe, the development of which predates
that of the American strip (21). Spiegelman is writing for an audience that knows how to
read a comic strip but may not be expecting a page of strips that are personal and political
in nature. In this way, the design of the broadsheets conflicts with the audience’s
expectations, and this leads to a competitive interaction between the visual element of the
design and the textual element of the subject matter. While some of the individual strips
are humorous, much of the content is serious, especially Spiegelman’s account of the fear
and hysteria in the city (and across the country) immediately following the attack. As
McAllister et. al explains, very early 20th century comic strips such as The Yellow Kid
have a history of political or social commentary, but more recent comic strips are known
for their humor and expected to entertain, hence the common name “funnies” (1).
Modern comic strip readers would not expect to see images of the World Trade Center
vaporizing or of a mob panicking in their newspaper’s comics supplement. The defiance
of conventional comic strips is another fresh aspect to Spiegelman’s book that engages
the audience.
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For example, in the strip, “The New Normal,” a series of three panels displays an
image of an American family watching their television (Spiegelman 1). Terror is
depicted in the second panel, by taking the characters and drawing them with frazzled
hair and shocked facial expressions. In the third panel, however, the characters maintain
their frazzled hair but retract to their sleepy nonchalance of the first panel. The audience
laughs at the humor of this strip because it is acceptable; that is what they are supposed to
do when they read a comic strip. Upon closer inspection, however, the audience sees
something unexpected: a calendar nestled into the background of the panels. A date of
“Sept. 11” reveals that the second panel occurred on 9/11, the family’s fear and shock the
result of terrorism. Here, overlap occurs, as the text is also a visual element, both
showing and telling what the date is. In the third panel, an American flag replaces the
calendar. Now, the strip takes on a much more serious message. Spiegelman is saying –
with a minimal use of words – that America woke up for a split second on 9/11, long
enough to hang up their flags, but returned to their indifference soon after. The design
and the humor are at odds with the seriousness of the subject matter. The strip mirrors
the effect of this conflict on the audience: Spiegelman has interrupted the routine of and
shocked an easily bored audience with his comic, but will it make a lasting impression on
them? It is this first strip of the series that draws his audience in and keeps their
attention. Overall, the visual design of the pages supports a verbal content that might
otherwise appear uninteresting by appealing to an audience’s desire for something new
and original. The involvement of the reader is made possible by the tension between the
verbal and visual elements.
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Once the tension works to engage the audience, it then impacts the reader’s
process of constructing Spiegelman’s message. As previously explained, merely looking
at the design of one of Towers’ pages immediately invokes notions of humor and brief
entertainment. The audience must read the verbal aspect of the text in order to realize
that Spiegelman’s book is actually dealing with themes of paranoia and dissent. There
are image sequences, as well, that directly convey paranoia, and will seem to align with
the similar themes, but then they are often matched with verbal narrative that conveys a
humorous story. The visual and the verbal are once again in competition and, as Hatfield
suggests, the reader is urged to consider the meaning of that interaction in order to
resolve it (38). One example of this is a three panel, untitled strip printed in the ninth
installment. In the first panel, Spiegelman is the main character and he is wide-awake
with anxiety while, around him, several other men sleep soundly (Spiegelman 9). He
expresses his paranoia about the end of the world and slightly wakes these men from their
sleep, their facial expressions clearly showing fear and surprise at Spiegelman’s words.
Finally, he shouts, “THE SKY IS FALLING,” and fully wakes everyone else in the strip.
In the final panel, Spiegelman is able to sleep, but the other characters are now awake,
anxious and paranoid. The irony is humorous, and engages the reader’s attention, but the
images of paranoia conflict with the anecdote. The audience must ask why Spiegelman
chose to narrate and show such heavy fear through a humorous anecdote. Their
interpretation, whether wrong or right, becomes a part of the discourse, and the discourse
then relies on the audience for a meaning.
Such audience involvement and questions continue with the overall page design.
A comics supplement usually features several separate strips by different creators, none
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of which connect to each other in meaning. In Towers, the same visual design is used,
suggesting that certain sequences may be read separately and creating a tension between
the partial and whole messages. For instance, in the ninth installment, first printed in
summer 2003, a sequence of four panels is a complete vignette of a short anecdote
overheard at a party. There is no title to the sequence and the only thing to distinguish it
from the rest of the page is the art style and the panels that close it off. On the same
broadsheet, a series of six panels is titled separately (as “Weapons of Mass
Displacement”) and tells a different anecdote. These two strips break up the three panel
strip discussed earlier in which Spiegelman wakes a group of men with talk of his own
fears. The design betrays the fact that each broadsheet is essentially a part of the same
narrative. Despite the fact that these panels can be read and interpreted separately, the
audience is once again encouraged to question how they connect. Why has Spiegelman
placed these particular scenes on the same page? Why are they featured in the same
narrative? By answering these questions, the reader constructs a meaning for the page
that is not immediately evident. The reader’s meaning then becomes a part of the
argument set forth by the writer. This creates a complex relationship between the writer
and audience, where the audience’s interpretation holds equal weight with the writer’s
purpose. Here, the tension between two visual elements has led to the development of a
tension between the creator’s intent and the audience’s interpretation. The former
impacts the latter, and both have affected the audience’s ultimate interpretation of the
message.
The interaction between Spiegelman and his audience shifts from cooperative to
competitive when the creator asserts control over certain aspects of the interpretation.
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Witek claims that readers cannot hide from an image like they can from words (68). By
supplying the images, the author has greater control over how the audience interprets his
rhetoric. There is no way for a reader to decrease the intensity of a particularly jarring
image. In Towers, Spiegelman repeats the image of the second World Trade Center
vaporizing. Sometimes it appears as a single image, such as in the third and fourth
sheets, though Spiegelman also depicts the fall in sequence, giving it a horrifying slow-
motion effect in the first and second installments. Just as he cannot escape from this
image or reduce its impact on him, neither can his audience. Without the image to dictate
how the reader interprets the fall, the reader could not fully comprehend what the
experience was like for the writer. Therefore, even though the audience is actively
involved with the interpretation of the comic, the writer still holds some degree of
control, and can guide the audience to the message he intended.
Another type of writer-audience interaction is the “contract,” described by Will
Eisner as an agreement where the “[story]teller expects that the audience will
comprehend, while the audience expects the author will deliver something
comprehensible” (49). If the organization of sequences is illogical it will be
incomprehensible, thereby rendering the discourse ineffective. This relationship requires
active involvement from the audience for interpretation and depends on the ability of the
audience to recognize the meaning of icons that are an overlapping interaction between
images and text. These icons would be speech balloons and panels used to manipulate
time, space and sensory details, or in the case of organization, a simple horizontal and
left-to-right placement for ease of reading. In Towers, while Spiegelman uses such icons
and placement, there still seems to be a lack of logic. Several panels are placed
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haphazardly, and these seemingly misplaced panels interrupt the logical flow of the
narrative. For instance, returning to the ninth installment mentioned earlier, the three
panel strip where Spiegelman screams that the sky is falling is interrupted between the
first and second panels by the party anecdote and the second and third panels by
“Weapons of Mass Displacement.” The writer’s creation process seems erratic due to the
unsystematic positioning of sequences, and that is exactly what Spiegelman wants his
audience to experience. In the end, this lack of logic and competition between the
creator’s intent and audience’s expectations does not detract from Spiegelman’s message,
but impacts its interpretation. The chaos of these pages echoes the chaos and irrational
fear that must have overcome Spiegelman’s thoughts in the moments and days following
the attacks. However, because the well informed comic reader is able to discern through
the use of panels and the text within speech balloons which sequences go together to tell
a small yet complete piece of the narrative, and then is able to look at the page
holistically to determine the meaning of the entire design, the seemingly irrational is
perceived rationally. Once again, Spiegelman has actively involved the audience in the
interpretation of Towers, by interacting with their expectations.
Spiegelman’s use of color is another technique that engages the attention of the
audience through tensions while simultaneously requiring the reader to question the ways
in which he uses it. The color scheme in Towers is not constant in order to distinguish
specific strips from others and to change the emotional reaction of the audience to certain
aspects of the narrative. For instance, in the third installment, Spiegelman includes a
lengthy 15 panel self-reflective piece in which the colors are dull and muted shades of
gray while the surrounding panels are neither distinctly dull nor bright. In this case, the
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use of gray colors creates tension between the surrounding panels and, as McCloud
would say, objectifies that panel of hysteria to give it importance over other aspects of the
sequence (189). Likewise, an anecdote about a homeless woman rendered in a neutral
color scheme is interrupted by a single panel in the middle filled with bright hues of pink,
red, yellow and orange (Spiegelman 6). This technique calls attention to the woman’s
hysteria, but the contrast between the colors of that panel and the colors used in the
panels of the remainder of the sequence also serve to create a distinction between his
reality and her invented unreality. Overall, no page is dominated by any one color, which
also lends to the author’s seemingly erratic designs. However, too many bright colors
can lead to the narrative being emotionally colorless (McCloud 188). The color scheme
may connect further to Spiegelman’s commentary on the American people and the way
they are affected by the media, which is to say not at all. We have grown so accustomed
to constant bright colors or flashy phrases meant to get our attention, that we have instead
been dulled and learned to tune out all of the hysteria. For Spiegelman the hysteria and
panic have been refreshed by his experience, and he wants his audience to experience it,
as well. The competition between the visual elements of color have engaged the
audience in interpretation and contributed to the resulting message they construct.
In addition to captivating the audience, the use of these standard comic techniques
requires that the audience understand how to read a comic strip, and reveals that
Spiegelman was writing for an audience that knew how his work should be read or were,
at least, willing to learn how to read it. This is a general statement about the identity of
his intended audience, but it is an important one. The comics supplement design matched
with the serious subject matter brought the audience in and kept their attention, but there
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were potential audience members who saw the broadsheet design and were driven away
by the use of comics to tell this narrative. Spiegelman wanted an audience with an open-
mind, one that would spend the time to figure out the meaning in his designs and use of
colors. With his European audience, Spiegelman probably found sympathy for his
political ideas, but his visual designs suggest that his intended audience was really
Americans of various ages who could identify with reading newspaper comics
supplements and who would recognize and respond to the artistic styles that he emulates.
In several individual strips, he uses the same artistic style as historical comic strips
including “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (6 and 7) and “Bringing up Father” (8). Such
strips would have been much more familiar to an American audience than a European
one and to an audience whose age was closer to Spiegelman’s. Germans can certainly
develop opinions of American politics and way of life, but they have not directly
experienced them, nor can they directly impact them. The response of a German reader
is going to be significantly different from an American who, even though they may not
have resided in New York, was still attacked on 9/11. Spiegelman is writing for two
separate and very different audiences, both of which bring different experiences to the
reading process and, therefore, will be impacted differently by the tensions he has
developed.
Much of the verbal discourse of Towers is directed towards its American and
European audiences, but the primary audience of this graphic novel is Spiegelman
himself, an identity revealed specifically by the images. In the comics medium, as
McCloud explains, the high level of abstraction in pictures, especially characters, tends to
make them iconic. The images of faces are simplified down to the most important,
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universal details such as the presence of two eyes, a nose and a mouth (30). The more
iconic a cartoon or image is, the more people it describes and the more people who will
identify with it (McCloud 31). As a result, when reading a comic, the audience tends to
insert themselves into the characters (McCloud 59). This identification is another form of
reader participation, which leads to a tension between the creator’s control and the
audience’s interpretation. Rather than constructing meaning and adding to the argument,
however, the reader becomes more emotionally attached to the characters and is more
likely to be affected by the argument set forth by the writer.
In Towers, Spiegelman does several things that suggest he is the intended
audience of his own response. In many of the comic strips, including “An Upside Down
World” (7) and “Marital Blitz” (8), Spiegelman inserts himself into the iconic cartoon
forms of other artists like any comics reader would be apt to do. Spiegelman also depicts
himself in several strips with a greater level of detail that would make other readers less
likely to insert themselves, but makes it very easy for Spiegelman to do so. Finally, in
several sequences, he depicts himself as his Maus counterpart, the mouse cartoon that he
used to represent himself in his first graphic novel. He uses this form in particular when
reflecting on his parents, a deeply personal experience that perhaps he does not want
anyone else to relate to on quite so personal a level as himself. As the audience,
Spiegelman’s intent and interpretation are now in complete cooperation. He is writing
for himself and interpreting himself, and there is no competition between the two like
there would be when the audience is external. Furthermore, this tension competes with
the tension of the creator and his external audience. To resolve this, the readers might
now question Spiegelman’s reason for pushing them away. This tension suggests that
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these comics are less about helping others understand 9/11 and, instead, are Spiegelman’s
attempt at understanding the attacks for his self.
Yet, this notion of Spiegelman as both writer and audience is also at odds with the
verbal elements. The conflict between text and image is once again a major component
of the work. Spiegelman refers to himself in the third person as if it were someone else
telling his story. When he reads his work, it’s as though he is speaking to himself. When
anyone else reads it, they will think Spiegelman is recounting his experience for them and
not himself. Alone, the verbal suggests that Spiegelman’s only audience is external. It is
the visual representations of the author that reveal Spiegelman is both writer and
audience. The competitive tension between the verbal and the visual requires that the
audience recognize the significance of Spiegelman’s self-depictions. To resolve this
tension, the audience questions it’s meaning and thereby it has initiated the construction
of meaning by the audience. The eventual interpretation then contributes to the message
that the audience applies to the work.
Throughout In the Shadow of No Towers, Spiegelman develops numerous
tensions of every variety. Elements cooperate and compete to create tensions, and then
those tensions overlap with others in order to continue building up the interactions. The
amount of questioning and interpreting necessary to reach a resolution may seem
overwhelming to the audience. Yet, for a people looking to understand 9/11, the meaning
behind Spiegelman’s chaos of elements is conveyed clearly. It may be impossible to turn
the chaos of this event into a comprehensible logic, but we must do what we can to make
sense of it and to prevent it from happening again.
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The 9/11 Report
Another graphic novel which uses tensions as rhetorical strategies is the graphic
adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report. The purpose of the original 9/11
Commission, as the cover to the graphic adaptation states, was to research how the
terrorist attacks happened in order to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the
future. In The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón attempt
to make this research text more accessible to the public. “I had just tried to read the report
and found it very difficult because I couldn’t keep track of all the names, places and
events. Sid Jacobson and I are in the business of clarifying things, so I called him up,”
said Colón when interviewed about the novel (Epstein, “Colón”). Their exigence was
two-fold: they needed to preserve the original intent of the report to inform the public, but
they had their own goal, as well, which was to make the report appeal to a wider
audience. In this graphic novel, both the text and images are used to explain the report,
but the images are also used as a commentary on the people discussed in the report,
creating a competition between the verbal and visual elements, as well as between the
creators’ intent and the audience’s expectations. These interactions, which require the
audience to understand several visual narrative techniques, subvert the objectivity of the
original report and thereby engage the audience beyond a superficial level.
On the surface, the entire graphic novel maintains a logical narrative
accomplished through the use of standard comic techniques. Unlike Spiegelman’s erratic
panel placements, the panel sequences and arrangement in The 9/11 Report play a
significant role in developing the argument of this response. An illogical sequence of
events or clusters of information will not be easily understood by the audience. The most
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striking example of logical images is at the very beginning of the book, in which the
creators set up a timeline of events on the morning of 9/11, following each airplane that
was involved in the attacks (6 – 17). There is no comic storytelling method more
straightforward that a chronological placement of panels. In this instance, and in many
others throughout the book, presenting a logical, easily understood argument is the
primary goal of the creators. On the surface, the interpretation is fairly straightforward
and the tensions are of the cooperative variety, requiring only that the reader understand
sequential storytelling at it’s most basic level.
The logical narrative suggests that Jacobson’s and Colón’s intent was an
educational one, and so they have designed the graphic novel to match this purpose and
appeal to a scholarly audience. To do this, the images have been designed to look much
like those found in a textbook, including usage of maps, flags and government insignia.
The panels often overlap or are connected by captions, signifying connections between
causes and effects of choices and actions. Speech balloons are used to designate direct
quotes and separate such dialogue from the reports of facts and events. For instance,
under a section entitled “Policy,” a map of the Middle East makes up the background of
one page (110). The panels placed up on it are displaying four separate narratives, but
they are all connected pieces of the on larger narrative concerning domestic
vulnerabilities, which is told through the use of captions surrounding the characters
panels. The techniques are distinctly typical to comics, but the information they show
and the narrative they tell are typical of a textbook. The overall layout which is
collaborating with the text, therefore, contributes to the development of the purpose and
29
its acceptance among the audience. There is no competition between the creator’s intent
and the audience’s expectations.
Their audience is one that wants to understand how the 9/11 attacks occurred, but
wants to comprehend through objective facts and not a subjective narrative like In the
Shadow of No Towers. This reinforces the idea that the creators must maintain their
objectivity in order to cooperate with the audience’s expectations. Whereas in Towers
the narrative voice was completely personal and therefore subjective, an educational text
needs to have a much more objective voice. The self-insertion, and therefore audience
participation, that is common in a subjective graphic novel is going to be much less
frequent in a comic book that is meant to inform or explain. Jacobson and Colón assert
their role as objective and analytical rhetors through the verbal and visual cooperative
tension. They assume the voice of the original reporters in the textual elements, which is
taken from The 9/11 Commission Report. “To Americans, Afghanistan seemed very far
away. To Al Qaeda, America seemed very close. In a sense, they were more globalized
than we were” (108). The voice is admittedly American in perspective, noted by the use
of “we” throughout the text in relation to Americans. However, the verbal is strictly facts
and analysis that lead to possible solutions. Sentimentality or personality of the rhetors is
not injected into the narrative. The verbal components of the graphic novel maintain
objectivity.
The creators must also maintain a certain level of objectivity in the readers. As
was explained earlier, comics readers are inclined to identify with the iconic, more
abstract characters. This self-insertion creates an emotional connection between the
audience and the discourse. To eliminate that emotional connection, the artist can make
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the characters less iconic and more detailed. If they draw the character with a level of
detail that makes them easily recognizable as a real person, the reader will be less likely
to make that emotional connection and may even distance themselves from a character to
whom they cannot relate. In The 9/11 Report, many of the characters of the novel are
based on real people who made real decisions concerning a real government. Some of
these decisions were, as it was discovered, ineffective and possibly detrimental to the
safety of the United States. It is unlikely that any reader would even want to associate
themselves with such characters. These characters, including Presidents Clinton and
G.W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice, are depicted with a level of realism that makes it nearly
impossible for them to be identified as anyone else. Therefore, objectivity is preserved
through the visual elements, as well, and the tension between the verbal and the visual
appears to be a cooperative one.
It is unlikely that the creators wished for their audience to identify with the
terrorists that they depict. However, Jacobson and Colón do not draw the minor terrorists
at the same level of detail as they do many government officials. In fact, they go to
lengths to make each terrorist an individual character with unique physical features, but
they still appear to be very cartoon in style. Does this mean that the artists want the
audience to empathize with these characters? On the contrary, these people did horrible
things and the audience would be unlikely to identify with them even if they were drawn
at the most appealing level of abstraction. The audience automatically sets themselves
apart from the villains of the story. The artists know this, and so they are free to depict
the terrorists without drawing them in detail, which keeps them from being on the same
level of distinction or importance as more detailed characters. The level of detail used on
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the terrorists allows them to blend in with the other background players of less
importance. In both cases, it is not the clerks or the soldiers who are important to the
narrative, but their actions, which were directed by the few above them in command.
Therefore, while the level of abstraction seems to be competing with the goal of
objectivity, it is actually a collaboration that depends on the audience recognizing the
meaning of abstraction in the book’s style.
For the most part, the creators infuse their novel with attempts at objectivity.
However, the use of certain images prevents them from accomplishing complete
impartiality, and this is where the competitive tension between text and image becomes
apparent and eventually leads to a competitive tension between the creators and their
audience. Association through characters is not the only way in which the audience can
be emotionally attached to the discourse. When an audience perceives an image, they
interpret its meaning according to their own life experiences and can empathize with
various images, eliciting an emotional reaction based on memory. Eisner argues that this
is because in humans “as the visual system evolved, it became more connected to the
emotional centers of the brain” (48). McCloud supports this in his claim that pictures in
comics have an immediate emotional impact on the audience (135). For anyone reading
The 9/11 Report who witnessed the plane crashes first hand or who watched the towers
collapse on television, an image of either of those moments is going to have an emotional
impact no matter how much you objectify the characters or the text. For those who did
not personally see the tragedy and who may look at this graphic novel years from now for
its historical information, the resulting emotion of the audience will be different, but not
nonexistent.
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Anyone who has experienced a tragedy or a profound loss will be struck by
Jacobson’s and Colón’s timeline of the events that took place on the planes prior to the
crashes. In this aforementioned timeline, which opens the book, images of the towers are
repeated much like that of the second tower vaporizing in Towers. However, rather than
repeat the same moment over and over again, Jacobson and Colon depict the WTC at
different moments of time in the attacks. This use of sequential narrative reinforces the
excruciating length of time it took before the WTC completely and finally fell. It recalls
the feeling of hope rescue workers must have had that the towers would stand long
enough to get everyone out, and the crushing defeat they must have felt when the
structures disintegrated and collapsed. No matter how objective and instructional the
artists have tried to make their graphic novel, the experience of the audience will elicit
some type of emotion from them that will affect how they perceive the entire work.
Additionally, even though the terrorist characters are depicted in a simplified
manner, the images are not completely non-judgmental either. Often, the terrorists are
shown with mean, angry and even devious looks on their faces. Many are unshaven and
their clothes are rumpled, feeding into the stereotype of what a radical “must” look like.
In contrast, the American characters are almost always well groomed and professional in
their images. Presidents, like Reagan, are given dignified sketches even when discussing
the Iran-Contra scandal of his administration (44). The “average” Americans who fought
back against the airplane hijackers look frightened but courageous next to their mean
looking terrorists (14). When compared side-by-side in the same image, an American
soldier carrying a wounded man looks much more heroic than the Afghans running
towards them wildly with guns and swords raised (34). These may, of course, be true to
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life renderings of certain events. However, the implications of such images cannot be
ignored. The non-objective message conveyed through this is that Americans are good
and civilized and our enemies are not.
Perhaps, however, this is exactly what the artists wanted. A competitive tension
in need of resolution encourages the audience to participate in the interpretation of the
novel. While the verbal discourse explains the research findings and facts in an objective
tone in order to make logical recommendations, the images provide the emotional impact
that will capture the audience’s attention and clash with their expectations for objectivity.
As the authors of the original report explain in the Foreword, their intent was to
encourage a “well-informed public to hold its elected leaders to account” (x). Jacobson
and Colón recognized that it is not enough to be informed. It takes emotion to “energize
and engage… on behalf of reform and change” (ix). Though there are competitive
tensions between the verbal and visual elements and the creator intent and audience
expectations, this interaction then becomes a cooperative effort to encourage the audience
to become emotionally and intellectually involved with the novel. Once involved, the
tensions developed by Jacobson’s and Colón’s graphic novel impact the audience’s
interpretation of the narrative. Eager to understand the events of 9/11, the audience sees
that separating our emotions from the event is impractical, and that staying connecting to
the tragedy is the way by which the momentum to implement change will be fostered.
Pride of Baghdad
The two graphic novels discussed previously were, for the most part, based on
real events. Towers was a personal account, an autobiography, and The 9/11 Report was
a factual and instructional account, both of which responded mainly to the 9/11 terrorist
34
attacks. Yet, fictional narratives that use metaphor and allegory as the main narrative
tools are just as common in graphic novels as nonfiction accounts. Brian K. Vaughan
and Niko Henrichon employ allegory in Pride of Baghdad, a graphic novel written in
response to the Iraq War. While the Iraq War did not begin immediately after the 9/11
attacks, leaders gave terrorist activities as one reason for initiating an invasion. The Iraq
War has become the inconclusive aftermath of 9/11, an event that has many people
conflicted, and is far from being a simple topic to address in any medium. As Vaughan
explains, “Pride of Baghdad was born out of the fact that I had a lot of conflicted feelings
about the war… [it] is about me exploring those questions” (Gustines, “Life”). Like
Spiegelman in Towers and Jacobson and Colón in The 9/11 Report, this graphic novel
was born out of the need to understand, and the recognition that a change in perception
among the audience is necessary. In Pride of Baghdad, interpretation of the graphic
novel once again requires an audience familiar with comics techniques in order to
identify its multimodal tensions, which engage the audience in the construction of
meaning and impact the audience’s perception of the message.
It is understandable that a society would be unwilling to sympathize with another
society with which they are at war. The primary audience of Pride is Americans, a group
of people unlikely to want to understand what the current war is like for the people in
Iraq. To bridge this gap, Vaughan chose to use animals to convey his message. The
main characters are a pride of lions who, until air strikes began, were housed in the
Baghdad zoo. Their story is partially based on fact. In 2003, a pride of lions was
liberated from the Baghdad Zoo and, several days later, the starving animals were shot
and killed by U.S. forces. This decision to use cartoon animals presents the first conflict
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of image and text. The subject matter of Pride is serious and controversial, dealing with
themes of freedom in relation to America’s invasion of Iraq. Public perception of cartoon
animals is that they are for children or lighter stories that children would be able to
understand, such as fables or animated cartoons. Anyone who reads Pride with the
expectation of a lighthearted story will immediately create tension. The audience’s
expectations will be in competition with the creators’ intentions. To resolve this tension,
the audience is urged to ask why the creators would have used cartoon animals to address
such heavy subject matter. This initiates an attempt to apply meaning to the characters
and interpret their role in the allegory. When viewed as symbols, rather than meaningless
characters, the entire perception of the message is changed. The creator/audience
interaction impacts the perception of the graphic novel’s purpose.
Anthropomorphized animals are nothing new to comics or graphic novels. It was
Spiegelman who used animals to address a serious rhetorical situation to monumental
results in Maus (Witek 4). It is unknown whether Spiegelman’s work influenced
Vaughan, but he has used anthropomorphism to the same effect. The audience will be
more likely to become emotionally connected to a group of innocent animals affected by
war than human characters that may be viewed as a potential enemy. The visual
portrayal of the animals is surprisingly realistic, most likely so that the characters in
Pride will not be automatically compared to cartoon lions of a much more famous
animated narrative that has no direct connection to the Iraq War. The backgrounds are
also very detailed, allowing the audience to become immersed in the world but not
necessarily assume the roles of the characters. Having anticipated that the audience will
empathize with the animal characters without inserting themselves into the parts, the
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artist uses this knowledge to his advantage, and forgoes iconic depictions for a more
realistic style. Furthermore, the tensions developed from the use of animals in the
narrative actively engage the audience in the construction of its meaning. By choosing to
portray the main characters of Pride as animals, the author is imploring the audience to
accept that lions and bears can communicate on the same level as and experience emotion
equal to that of humans. Realism in all aspects except for the dialogue makes it easier for
the audience to suspend their disbelief and accept the lions as human-like characters. The
dialogue is the anthropomorphizing element, but it is also in competition with what is
logically known about animals. It draws the audience’s attention and, without it, the
characters could not be interpreted as having thoughts and feelings on a human scale.
This tension between the realistic imagery in Pride and the use of dialogue is critical to
the participation of the audience.
As if to ease the reader into a world populated by talking animals, Vaughan and
Henrichon keep the narrative straightforward, with the panels in a logical order, a stark
contrast from Spiegelman’s seemingly erratic placement of strips in Towers. The
audience’s involvement, therefore, comes from interpreting the use of other techniques,
rather than interpreting the page design. For example, on several pages, Henrichon does
not close off the panels with the usual box. McCloud refers to this technique as using
“bleeds” because the image bleeds off the page and affects the mood or atmosphere of the
comic (103). In Pride, this effect suggests freedom. The closed off panels are like the
zoo, an absence of freedom. Beyond the thin black lines, there is another world to be
seen and experienced. To run out of the panel and off the page would be to grant
freedom. The audience is not forced out of the panel, but has the option to allow their
37
imagination to wander if they want it to do so. However, bleeds are often used in this
book during scenes of danger. The audience and the lions can have their freedom, but not
without consequences.
This role of this freedom motif is made clear by analysis of the characters. The
audience will question the role of cartoon animals in this narrative and seek to construct
meaning for their use. The characters are allegorical and it is the role of the audience to
interpret what ideas they symbolize. Lions are associated with kings, and these zoo lions
represent the oppression of noble ideals and courage. Individually, each of the four lions
represents a different aspect of freedom. The eldest female, Safa, represents those who
have suffered in freedom and now prefer the safety of captivity. In the wild, she was
raped and lost an eye to her attacker. She has never known freedom without fear. “If you
had any real memories of the old days,” she tells one of the other lions, “I doubt you
would be so eager to revist them” (10). The other lioness, Noor, is the symbol of those
who want freedom though it continues to elude them. She had planned an unsuccessful
escape attempt for her pride and the other animals before the bombs granted it to them.
“We can’t wait around for some miracle to change the world for us. We have to take
control of our own destinies,” she tells an antelope (6). She no longer wants to be under
the oppressive control of the zookeepers. Safa and Noor are accompanied by Zill and
Ali, both males, the latter only a cub. As soon as they are liberated after the destruction
of the zoo, the lions face multiple dangers. Ali represents young innocents who
understand little and who are placed in the greatest danger. “Was that a horizon?” he
asks his mother, Safa, when the first bomb hits, not understanding what is happening
(19). He is immediately kidnapped and held hostage by a pack of monkeys representing
38
a radical political group. It is Safa, the only lion who has actually experienced freedom,
who saves him. When Ali tells her that the monkeys hurt him, she replies with, “Good.
You needed it” (38). In war, innocence cannot last, and Ali becomes progressively less
innocent throughout the narrative to the point where he eventually helps the other lions
kill.
The lions go in search of food, but their hunting abilities have been severely
diminished by captivity. They are free, but have been abandoned and they are not safe
for Noor, Zill and Ali have not learned how to fend for themselves. Still, they leave the
zoo for the wider world and are nevertheless thrust into danger. During the pursuit for
food, the lions decide to chase a herd of horses, the ultimate symbols for freedom.
“What… what are they?” Ali asks (76). None of the lions have ever seen horses before,
just as they have not known real freedom. These horses would nourish the lions if only
they could be caught, but the lionesses make for poor hunters; Safa is too old and Noor is
untrained. For them, freedom is out of reach, but they continue to chase it.
Eventually, Noor and Safa find themselves in an empty palace. On the wall hangs
a painting of a majestic lion with wings (82), a symbol for the potential strength and
courage that these lions have within them. Only a few feet away from this image lays a
starving and nearly dead lion, Rashid, once part of the royal menagerie. “Safa, no matter
how they might treat us, those who would hold us captive are always tyrants,” Noor tells
her companion upon watching Rashid take his final breath (88). His abuse is courtesy of
Fajer, a giant bear who is the embodiment of the remnants of the toppled regime. “God,
you ignorant young ‘radicals’ disgust me,” he says to Safa, showing that he is against her
ideas of freedom (95). He threatens and then attacks Noor and Safa. The lionesses do
39
their best to defend themselves, but they are weak. It is here that we learn Zill represents
those who claim freedom for themselves rather than have it given to them. “I am not a
hunter,” he tells Fajer. “I’m a fighter” (97). When it is necessary, he will fight to defend
his pride and his newly gained freedom. When Fajer offers him protection in exchange
for submission, Zill rejects the proposal because it’s against his nature to be submissive
(99). With the help of Ali, he defeats Fajer, leaving him crippled and unlikely to assert
control ever again. The lions are rewarded with the view of a horizon at sunset,
something they could not see in captivity. Yet, moments later, they have the ultimate
freedom thrust upon them when they are shot by soldiers.
In the last few panels, the inability of the animals to communicate with the
soldiers who shot them signals a return to reality for the audience. The last moments of
the lions’ lives are jarring ones, the details of the images less than welcome after the
audience has come to empathize with the pride. The writers do not give the happy ending
one would expect from a cartoon featuring animals. Once again, this tension between
what is given and what is expected encourages the audience to question the meaning
behind it. What are the authors attempting to tell the readers? The audience begins to
piece together the meanings behind the tensions developed by the comics and literary
techniques – anthropomorphism, allegory, and realism – to interpret the overall message.
Can freedom be given, or must it be earned? Through the use of an effective
metaphor and a realistic art style, we learn that this is Vaughan’s theme in Pride, a clear
response to the Iraq War, which was seen as a mission to liberate the Iraqis from a
depraved leader. The war, however, was far from an immediate success, and Iraq is now
in a state of political chaos. Would things have gone differently if they had successfully
40
campaigned their own revolution, rather than having someone do it for them? What does
it mean for a person when they claim their own freedom or choose their own destiny?
While Henrichon constructs the atmosphere of the novel, Vaughan presents the questions,
but leaves the audience with no explicit answers. It was his intent to make the audience
think and reconsider the purpose of the Iraq War without telling them exactly what to
believe. Pride of Baghdad cannot offer answers, for there are no answers to give. The
tensions between images and text, the themes and the form, mirror Vaughan’s own
conflicted feelings about the war and the inner conflict that much of his audience must
also be experiencing. Once again, readers capable of recognize the novel’s tensions are
engaged in the construction of meaning of the book and their interpretation is a result of
that interaction.
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Conclusion
The three graphic novels analyzed were of three very different genres and styles,
but all of their creators developed tensions in various combinations between the verbal
and visual elements. In all three works, understanding the tensions on a level beyond the
surface required that the audience understand how comics and literary techniques are
used in narratives like these. Once the tensions were identified, the audience was
encouraged to resolve them and discover the meaning behind their development. As a
result, the tensions affected the audience’s interpretation of the message of each work.
The common purpose among these works seemed to be to move towards understanding
the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq War. Yet, they also had components of this
message that were not immediately obvious and required the interpretation of the
interactions between comics and literary techniques, both visual and verbal, to be
uncovered.
The fact that these graphic novels needed more than a glance to be fully
understood sets them at a level of sophistication not found among all of the works using
the comics medium. It is achievements like those of Spiegelman, Jacobson and Colón,
and Vaughan and Henrichon that demonstrate the diversity of the comics medium and the
potential for complexity within the form of the graphic novel. Without a doubt, these
creators have pushed the graphic novel into memorable territory by daring to address
such a significant event of the 21st century. They have defied audience expectations in
multiple ways and utilized the art of tensions to great effect like no other medium can.
42
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