Reading Comics w/ McCloud Part 2

I looked at Jeff Gerding's pick, "Slim" which can be found at http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF157-Slim.jpg. This comic is actually pretty funny. It might be short, but it manages to make you laugh in under five panels, which I think is pretty impressive. I agree with Jeff's observations. It is obvious that the artist has a very deep knowledge and understanding of comics. The way that it is drawn definitely gives an accurate portrayal of the old mobster comics. Jeff hit the nail on the head when he said that the style of art could be called iconic. He said, "there's enough detail that the images are able to clearly convey what the artist wanted them to: anyone who is even remotely familiar with the detective comics of the 1930s will recognize this as a pretty faithful parody."

The comic is a good example of of scene-to-scene transitions. It moves from setting to setting, not moment to moment. It is also easy for the reader to gain closure. It is clear that Slim has eaten the box of hamburgers in order to mask his identity, which allows him to get away with whatever he has done. Ambiguity is definitely lacking, as Jeff pointed out. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out what has transpired in the "gutter," or the empty white space between the panels.

The color scheme that is used in this comic stays pretty true to what McCloud was talking about in chapter 8 of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. The color of Slim's clothing is what the reader associates with him, which is what allows the reader to understand that the fat mobster is Slim at the end. If the artist would have changed the color of Slim's clothing, the reader would probably have ended up confused. McCloud wrote, "while comics colors were less than expressionistic, they were fixed with a new iconic power. Because costume colors remained exactly the same, panel after panel, they came to symbolize characters in the mind of the reader." (188)