Let’s take a quick moment to review the types of panels and the focus they take as McCloud discusses in Ch. 6 of Understanding Comics that we just looked at.
Specifically, McCloud highlights SEVEN combinations (see above):
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Word Specific –basically relies on the words to tell the narrative while imagery acts as a kind of ornamentation.
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Picture Specific –is the inverse of Word Specific. Here the use of words acts as ornamentation to the imagery or pictures that are conveying the actual narrative.
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Duo Specific –acts as a situation where words and images are complimentary to one another in the fact that they basically convey “the same message.”
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Additive –is where the words serve as a means of amplifying or elaborating on the image that is communicating the narrative.
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Parallel –demonstrates a situation where the words and images appear to be conveying “parallel” but separate narratives. This can be more easily identified or isolated often times when one is only shown a page or panel or two of a comic or graphic novel without knowing the entire context. It can also represent some esoteric storytelling too.
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Montage –is where the words and images are part of the same framework. This is where the words in particular become part of the actual image.
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Inter-Dependent –is noted by McCloud to be the “most common” combination. This is where words and pictures/images convey different meanings separately but in combination convey a meaning that neither has without the other.
LET US APPLY THIS BY DETERMINING THE TYPE OF PANELS FROM SOME EXAMPLES
Let’s Look Closer at this page:
IMAGE CREDITS
Images 1-3- Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow by Alan Moore and Curt Swan and George Perez
Images 4-5- Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Image 6- Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
Images 7-9- Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
Images 10-11- All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Image 12 – Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
COMPOSITION 2 