Macro-Closure

China
February 18, 2007 10:50pm CST
That's a fine exploration, Alex! Of course the idea applies to other media as much as comics. In Vertigo, for instance, Jimmy Stewart is the voyeur observing a haunted Kim Novak in the first half, and Kim Novak is the voyeur watching a haunted Jimmy Stewart in the second half. And as Robin Cook pointed out, there is a pattern of movement that pervades the entire film to create the sensation of spiralling (i.e., Jimmy Stewart repeatedly turning the car as he follows Kim Noval through the city.) Even though the idea isn't unique to comics, it's certainly something that cartoonists should take advantage of. The artistic decisions made in the early sequences should have reverberations that carry into the later sequences. I know it's self-indulgent to pull an example from my own work, but heck, I know it pretty well, and can guarantee you that this was the artist's intent. In The Ice Queen, the early sequences include many scenes that suggest the onset of night and the atmosphere of quiet and loneliness-- the view of the city from the window with Kay's reflection in it, the "click, click, click" walking scenes, the shadowy lobby. To use your example, they're all like soldiers in the army of lonely night. There's also a fairly obvious closure attempted between the scene where Kay looks back while walking in the garage, and the later scene where Dr. Vincent looks back. It ain't Hitchcock by a long shot, but serviceable examples of closure that spans a number of pages.
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