III. Choosing a specific passage from any of the comics we've read, analyze the ways in which the combination of text AND image in your chosen passage shapes the relationship between the narrator and the events he narrates? And, following from your analysis, what conclusions can you draw about the ways in which the combination of text and image works together (through disjuncture, conjucture, opposition, or any other variation you see at work on these pages) to create meaning for the implied reader?
Gaiman's Death: The high cost of living uses panel construction and placement of text and images in blocks and balloons to enhance the reality in the comic of the character Death and her role in surveying everyday life. A prime example of the simplistic yet symbolic portrayal is found in the first issue of the series, on the unmarked pages 21-24. These pages can be dived into three parts: First, the actual argument between Didi and Sexton about her family. Second, Didi's assertion that she in fact is "Death". And third, Sexton's leaving the apartment, his descending down the stairway where Mad Hattie waiting for him outside. Within these three parts there are three major uses of pictures and text that can be discussed. These three are use of colored borders, and panel number and size. Gaiman uses these three methods express the thoughts and emotions that the narrator Sexton experiences in a situation that are all so familiar to all of us. A friendly conversation with an attractive stranger that turns sour followed by a rushed exit, a long period of bitter reflection, and a silent conversation with a spirit of the stairway. The first panel on the first page features a picture frame in Didi's hand of her family. This brings to mind the framed picture on Sexton's desk while he is typing his suicide note on his computer. It creates a subtle similarity unseen bond between the two; Didi has no family, just as Sexton has no family, although while Didi's parents were killed in a car accident, and she claims they don't even exist, Sexton has a similar detached feeling towards his Lawyer father and manic-depressive Mother. This sets the tone of the page, an underlined suggestion that perhaps Sexton has found a friend who understands him. The panels following continue this comfortable tone as they show most of the character's bodies, along this their word balloons, but as Didi starts to talk about her parents never existing, Sexton starts to get defensive and on the guard. This is amplified by the way the panels move from an off shot of the fish in the bowl, to Sexton and Didi's torso, to short, narrow single panels with parts of either character's face. The number of panels follow this flow, as the conversation goes sour, the number of panels per section increases, and the size of each panel narrows. On the first unmarked page, first section, there is one panel narrower then the other two, the one that shows Didi holding the picture of her family. The next section is split with two horizontal panels, while the third contains one normal sized panel, and three narrow panels. On the second page, there are four narrow panels and one normal sized. The climax of the argument is the middle section on the second page. The climax of the argument features four angled alternating shots of Didi and Sexton. The two angled shots of Didi's face are accompanied by her two one-line responses to Sexton's questions: "Life" and "Of course I know what happens when you die, Sexton. I do. I'm Death." The size of the panels is staggered with one larger off centered shot of Didi smiling and saying simply "I'm Death". These four panels stick out as the climax of the conflict, as the once friendly tone starts to spiral downward. The three final panels at the bottom of the page directly after the climax are divided between Didi's statement and Sexton's rushed insult, Didi's snappy retort, and a speechless, steaming Sexton. These panels mark the speechless, hurried exit from the conflict that all so commonly follows: The rushed closure to an argument, an angry frown, a slamming door, a smirk and a shrug. 
The final two pages deal with the "spirit of the stairway" that Sexton mentions in the narration. The first panel on the third page starts off as a horizontal panel, only displaying Sexton's eyes in a silent frown, the door to Didi's apartment in the background juxtaposed with the hallway and the shaded black void from which Sexton is moving from. The middle section in which sexton speaks with Mrs. Robbins contains three panels, suggesting the still heated ego of Sexton as he makes a snide comment about Didi when she conveniently unavailable to comment. The bottom panels on the page contain a polyptych as McCloud describes it (Understanding Comics pg. 115). It presents to the implied reader a sort of parallel universe between the event of Sexton's descent down the staircase, and what he wished he would be doing back in the apartment with Didi. Here Sexton introduces the idea of the "Spirit of the Stairway" to the implied audience, both
visually as he is descending a real staircase, and metaphorically as he is himself conversing with his own "Spirit of the stairway". Sexton's head is split and repeated in the single split panel, accompanied by his thoughts presented in rectangles also descending like steps on an invisible staircase. The final unmarked page contains only one bordered panel, in which there is a picture of Didi looming under and over the stairway. Sexton's face is not shown, but his thoughts are. They continue to cascade down the stairway, it seems as if with each step he loses himself in his thoughts, as the narration overlaps the panels as they merge together as one in the final page. The specified use of border also adds to the overall mood of each page; the first two pages are engulfed by pitch-black border, which symbolizes the presence of the girl who calls herself Death. As Sexton leaves Didi's apartment, the borders change from a pitch black to a brown spiral pattern symbolizing the staircase he is descending juxtaposed by the image of a kneeling Didi and a matching brown silhouette of Sexton. However, between the brown spiral border and the panels themselves, is another black border, not as apparent as before, but still present, as the memory of that strange girl who calls herself death is still lingering in the stairway, a specter haunting sexton's ego. Death: the High cost of Living is a story about the normal, everyday things in life seen through the eyes of a disillusioned teenager, and his random meeting with a girl who calls herself Death. Using panel construction, panel size and frequency, and border construction, Gaiman amplifies the deeper feelings and flow of the argument between Didi and Sexton, from escalation, climax, conclusion, and reflection. In many ways life is nothing more then a constant struggle, full of suffering, pain and conflict. And at the end of the big conflict we call of life, we all will slowly descend our own personal flight of stairs, and speak our mind to her, a mere figure waiting there patiently kneeling, wide-eyed silently listening. |