Understanding Comics: Maus

In Scott McCloud's "Understand Comics: The Invisible Art," the author discusses the very basics of comic books and how they function in today's world with modern readers. While reading Art Spiegelman's "Maus," I observed many of these concepts in action. One of these concepts discussed by McCloud was the idea of the style of the comic being directly related to how the story is told by the narrator and characters and how it is received by the audience. 

In this panel, found on page 30, McCloud talks about the abstracting of the human image, "eliminating details" so that the reader is forced to focus on those specific details the artist wishes the reader to focus on. 

In the case of "Maus," the characters aren't even human. So, not only is the artist taking away specific facial features, he is taking away all recognizable human features. (To an extent; the mice in "Maus" are anthropomorphized with hands, walking on two feet and talking.) Since the face is where most body language is read by humans, this is interesting. However, the choice to use mice, as well as cats and pigs, is a deliberate one that forces the reader to - just as McCloud states - focus on specific details other than the humanness of the characters. By stripping away the human features, these characters become even more relatable, in a way. They don't look like a certain person, so it could potentially be anyone. Also, mice are often depicted comically as meek, so it adds more to the pathos side of the story. 

In these panels, McCloud discusses why his comic character isn't drawn realistically. He states, "You would have been far too aware of the messenger to fully receive the message!" In the same way, "Maus" is focused on the message of the story, not the messenger. With such strong characters, it is important to the author that the reader understands more than the plight of Vladek and realizes his struggles were shared by an entire race of people. By making these characters mice, Spiegelman has successfully stripped them of their individual identities and made them a symbol of Holocaust survivors and their kin alike. 

However, that does mean that "Maus" is entirely stripped of its humanity. 

These panels show how the son wishes to tell his father's story how it really happened because "it makes everything more real - more human." Indeed, having Vladek's story be personalized does humanize the story and including the love interests shows how Vladek's life did not start and stop with the Holocaust, just as every other Jewish person's life affected by the massacre did not start and stop with the Holocaust. 

Framing in "Eightball"

In this image from the comic "Eightball" by Daniel Clowes, framing plays a very specific role in the narration. While the majority of the comic is told in regular rectangular frames, indicating a very fluid and sequential action sequence, this particular scene breaks just a little from the usual. 

As seen in panels one, two, and three, the frame is no longer made of straight lines. At first glance, one may not even notice the subtle change and that is purposeful. The first three panels on this page are actually a depiction of a film that the character (seen in panel four) is watching. The fact that the frame is not radically different from a regular straight-lined frame shows how the film the character is watching is not very different from the reality of the comic (either stylistically - i.e. it is a live-action film, or emotionally, i.e. this scene means something more to the character than is meant by the film producer, etc.). The subtle change in framing also indicates the mood of the movie. It appears to be strained, if a little romantic, and it causes the character in panel four some discomfort or, at the very least, confusion. As seen in the final two panels, he asks about the movie and is unable to get an answer.