Comic Book Glossary: Transitions, Part 2

Welcome to a new installment of Comic Book Glossary! One of the aims of the Comics Cube! has always been to help out the newer readers who may be interested in, but aren't all that knowledgeable in comics, and one thing everyone needs to know if they're interested are the terms. Click here for the index!

Last week, we talked about the three most often-used transition types in comics. Now, we'll look at the other three transition types that aren't so widely used.

The moment-to-moment transition is like action-to-action, except that it comprises more moments and shows the action slower. So, for example, where an action-to-action transition may show a guy about to throw a punch in one panel and actually throwing the punch the next, the moment-to-moment transition would show each stage of the punch being thrown. Here's an example from Alex Toth's rare Batman work. From a certain perspective, this may look like action-to-action, but consider that most artists would probably omit the third panel, and it becomes moment-to-moment.

The aspect-to-aspect transition is one where a bunch of panels take place in one given moment. In this one-pager by Art Spiegelman ("Don't Get Around Much Anymore"), he shows a person's apartment and the various things in it. Each panel takes place in the same moment as the one before, and with this technique, he shows us the entire apartment unit. (On a side note, take note of the fact that each caption refers to the previous panel, which causes some disorientation.)

These two transition types are seen rarely in American and European comics, but very often in Japanese comics. A part of the reason is that manga is just typically produced in larger products than American and European comics, but another reason is just cultural. Western culture is very goal-oriented, while Japanese culture very much emphasizes the journey over the destination. Here's an example from Osamu Tezuka's SWALLOWING THE EARTH, which could be either moment-to-moment or aspect-to-aspect, dependingon whether or not time is passing within these panels.

The final transition type is the one least-used, pretty much anywhere and by anyone. This is the non-sequitur, where the panels in sequence don't have any sort of logical connection. This is used mainly usually in experimental comics, and quite honestly, the only comic I can think of that actually uses it to service a longer narrative is the adaptation of PAUL AUSTER'S CITY OF GLASS, by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli. In this sequence, Peter Stillman is narrating the backstory of the book. Stillman's not exactly all right in the head, and Karasik (who did layouts) and Mazzucchelli (who actually drew it) expressed this by attributing his speech to various non-sequitur materials.

I'd be hard-pressed to think what else the non-sequitur could be used for.

These definitions are, once again, from Scott McCloud's UNDERSTANDING COMICS!

Gateway Comics: TOP TEN by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon

If you want to buy your friends a comic book for Christmas, there's one comic I can always recommend.

In all my years of reading comics, I've tried getting friends and acquaintances alike to at least appreciate the medium I love so much. And there are some comics that just don't work as gateway comics — they're too entrenched in history, they fail to blow the reader away, they don't really show anything special right off the bat, or whatever other reason — but there is one comic I've found has always worked and has always amused people, entertained them, given them a good story, and made them want to read more.

That comic? TOP 10 by Alan Moore, Gene Ha, and Zander Cannon.

The concept of TOP 10is very simple, and provides the hook right off the bat. TOP 10 focuses on Precinct 10, the police precinct in a city called Neopolis, where everyone has superpowers.

Moore's inspiration for the series was the TV show NYPD Blue, and I think it's particularly inspired to make everyone a superbeing in the city because it prevented the cops of Precinct 10 to function as really just another superteam. This way, it's their personalities that shine, not their powers.

So it's actually structured a lot like a cop TV show, where certain characters exit a scene at the same time others enter. It's episodic, with running subplots but also with full stories in each issue. And there's a wonderful balance of seriousness and humor, as we try to examine what living in this city would really be like. As you can imagine, it leads to a lot of absurdity, and even if it's serious on the page, we the reader can laugh at it.

For example, the racial minority in Neopolis are Ferro-Americans, or robots. The derogatory term for them is "clickers." They have "scrap" music instead of rap music, where their "homes" are "ohms." And when Joe Pi, Ferro-American, has to deal with bigoted Shock-Headed Peter, hilarity ensues.

There really isn't a main character in the book, and it's all about the group dynamics of the characters and the actual short stories they get caught into. And they're doozies.

For example, they have to deal with a murder at the Godz bar. The case? The death of Baldur, setting the mythological tale in a modern cop setting.

They have to deal with their version of a car collision: a teleporter collision. (In addition, this is one of the most touching 22 pages I've ever read.)

Dust Devil's mom has a vermin problem, but of course, in Neopolis, the mice are superpowered. See if you can spot Mighty Mouse and Danger Mouse.

And in terms of the art, Gene Ha and Zander Cannon kill it. I've said that it reads like a TV show, and that's good for fans unaccustomed to the comics medium, but it does utilize exactly one technique that only comics can fully utilize: packing a panel, as Harvey Kurtzman did. And in a city full of superheroes, you can just imagine, there are a lot of inside jokes and Easter eggs. In fact, they were there from the first panel of the first issue. 

From ads about Wolverine's healing factor to Superman's phone booth changes, the first page of TOP 10 is already visually stunning. Add to that some renditions of some familiar characters, changed to fit the world of TOP 10 (and to avoid copyright infringement problems). From the aforementioned Mighty Mouse:

To Spaceman Spiff, from CALVIN AND HOBBES:

To just about every Roman-themed character you can find, from Asterix to Marvin the Martian:

Hell, even to the Hamburglar:

Well, I'm not going to show you everything! Part of the fun is finding them!

TOP 10 was popular enough even with a minimal amount of advertising that they were able to put out a four spin-off series. The two that were written by Moore are SMAX, illustrated by Zander Cannon:

And THE 49ERS, illustrated by Gene Ha:

SMAX is a more hilarious tale, and Cannon's cartoony style fits it nicely. It involves two of Precinct 10 returning to one of their homeworlds, which is a fantasy adventureland. So instead of getting superheroes in the background, we get things like trolls and white rabbits. Here's two trolls dealing drugs.

THE 49ERS is more serious, and Ha's wash-tone artwork suits it, as it details the origins of Neopolis. Just to sell you, spot Bluto.

I would completely avoid the spin-offs not written by Moore. TOP 10: BEYOND THE FARTHEST PRECINCT by Paul DiFilippo and Jerry Ordway just falls flat and doesn't feel organic, while TOP TEN SEASON TWO, by Zander Cannon and Gene Ha was ridiculously shortchanged by DC in that it seems we will never see it come to an end.

Having said that, I wouldn't give any of these books to a kid under the age of 14, so buy at your own risk. If you ARE over the age of 14, then buy it now, I say!

Comic Book Glossary: Transitions, Part 1

Welcome to a new installment of Comic Book Glossary! One of the aims of the Comics Cube! has always been to help out the newer readers who may be interested in, but aren't all that knowledgeable in comics, and one thing everyone needs to know if they're interested are the terms. Click here for the index!

Last time, we discussed a gutter, and how the reader interaction with comics comes from it. Today, we'll discuss some of the transitions that take place in those gutters. Scott McCloud defined six main transition types in UNDERSTANDING COMICS (essential reading for those who want to know more about the technical aspects of the medium), and we'll look at three here.

The most often-used transition type by any storyteller is the action-to-action transition. This is pretty self-explanatory. It's when you show one character doing something in the course of two panels. This is essential for anyone who wants to tell a story properly. Case in point: Wonder Woman flips Superman, drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. (Read my analysis of the execution of this scene here.)

The next most used transition type is subject-to-subject. This is when you keep things in the same scene, but the subject of the panel changes. Obviously, this is important to keep the scene interesting (especially, I'd argue, when people are talking).  Here's a sequence from THE ESCAPISTS, written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Steve Rolston.

And the next most-used type is the obvious scene-to-scene. Unless your story all occurs in one place and no one moves (it's happened), the scene has to change. Here, you've got Steve Ditko jumping around the Marvel Universe for an opinion on Spider-Man (note the lack of borders, although the gutters are implied, to show a montage effect).

Comics can and have been told using just these three transition types. But what if you want to achieve another effect? Say, a larger sense of place, more buildup? Well, next time, we'll look at the three scene transitions that are used significantly less!

Thanks to Scott McCloud and UNDERSTANDING COMICS for his definitions!