Can you identify other scenes where Spiegelman experiments with panels/ framing?
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Breaking the Frame
In our discussion of Scott McCloud, we talked a great deal about panel shape and consistency. How might we use McCloud's vocabulary to talk about what Spiegelman does with panels in Maus?
How does Spiegelman use panels to divide the image of Vladek and how does the bottom-right round panel work in the composition? Why do you think he uses panels in this way during this particular scene?
Can you identify other scenes where Spiegelman experiments with panels/ framing?
Can you identify other scenes where Spiegelman experiments with panels/ framing?
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Spiegelman has a particular style when is comes to panels. He he'll use visual metaphors and then shift gears to the interplay between past and present. This is an excellent strategy to use when it comes to keeping the reader engaged as the story develops. He also does experimenting with the framing on page 159. On that page, there are only three panels on the top and a larger frame that is blended into the background. I believe that he does this as emphasis on how serious the situation is now. When you see something that does not belong with the style of the book, you get the sense that something important is about to happen.
ReplyDeleteFor that particular page, his panel composition/usage felt borderline cinematic (the "camera" is flying around the room), giving us all these different perspectives of the characters, and also giving us a really cool sense of the space they're in and how they are in relation to each other. It totally brings the scene to life.
ReplyDeleteI think that separating the last panel this way is almost like when you're watching a movie with a flashback scene and the screen has wavy lines on it to indicate a change in time. Spiegelman frames this panel like the audience is looking through a camera lens or telescope to indicate, "Okay, the story is starting now."
ReplyDeleteAnother page which "changes up" the panel arrangement is page 112 in my book where Vladek is describing the bunker to Artie. Vladek says,"Show to me your pencil and I can explain you..." As the panels continue on the right side of the page, there is a panel of a notebook page on the left side of the page. By arranging the panels this way, the reader is sort of pulled in and can imagine Vladek drawing the diagram for the bunker as he is explaining it at the same time. It was very clever.
In Maus there is a lot of frame by frame work. But breaking frame techniques were most often used in moment of high emotion or over stimulation of Art by his father's story. My favorite breaking frame was on pages 274 and 275 of Maus the complete edition. In these pages Vladek is showing his son photographs that survived the war of his and Anja's family. Though most of the photos were of Anja's side of the family, I felt that the frames were irregular and broken as both a sign of the high emotions of Vladek in looking through them again after so many years and of Art being overwhelmed by the reality of what his parents went through and what/who they lost. Photographs are impermanent scrapes of paper, however they survived when the people found within them did not.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part Spiegelman uses panels as a moment-to-moment within Vladek’s past while using frameless panels whenever present-day Vladek to speak in between the panels. Very rarely does he stray from this formula because it best suits the storytelling he’s trying to accomplish. Within this particular page he uses the panels to break up Vladek so that we are given a sense of constant motion. We see step for step him mounting the bike, settling himself on it, then beginning to pedal. Similarly the circle frame is like a window into the past or shows we are narrowing in on Vladek’s past in this moments so that our focus begins to shift our perspective of time.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part Spiegelman sticks to the aforementioned formal of panels with very small moments of change. One panel/frame that I found particularly poignant was the panel on page 82 that shows Vladek’s struggle in how not to attract the attention of Nazis attacking Jews in a crowd in Sosnowiec. The panel takes the shape of the Star of David while Vladek realizes that whether he passes by slowly or runs by either way he is likely to be attacked. Suddenly it becomes apparent that Vladek is victim of his religion and is trapped by it. His identity alone was enough for him to be murdered on the streets in a sudden outbreak of violence. It resonates deeply with the reader and brings a deeper perspective of how dangerous it really was as they continue reading about Vladek and his family.
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ReplyDeleteSpiegelman's use of panels to divide the image of Valdek is interesting because of how it compartmentalizes his image. When viewing the page as a whole, it's clear to see that image of him cycling dominates the center and draws our eyes naturally toward the bottom panels. By corralling off different parts of the image the reader is forced to absorb each portion separately. For example, as our eyes move, Spiegelman has an opportunity to emphasizes the tattoo on Valdek's arm. This technique of leading the eye down and out is reminiscent of how filmmakers sometimes transition into flashbacks. The circular panel at the bottom right serves as a doorway into that flashback and has a unique shape, perhaps, to help distinguish it from the prior scene.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite examples of Spiegelman's creative use of framing involves the addition of notebooks and photographs that lie on top of the panels themselves. For me, this creates an interesting texture to the page and adds a different dimension to the story. These items have the tendency to make the reader feel like they're reviewing Artie's files and collected data. It also helps remind the reader that this story actually has more depth than the characters represented on the page. These family members actually did exist and there would be such things as left over photographs and diagrams from the war.