Comic+Creation



The comic takes place during the Christmas season where children can visit Santa at the local mall. The story starts off with the elf helper interacting with the kids standing in line waiting for their session with Santa. He asks them what they all wanted for Christmas, mainly to create conversation. The kids reply with their wish list of what they expect for Christmas this year. So the elf takes the first girl in line to go see Santa, where she goes and sits on his lap in the following panel. The little girl goes on to tell Santa about how well behaved she was this year, which should result in a new Barbie doll for her. She gets her present and proceeds to open it while sitting on Santa’s lap. Elongating her reaction, she discovers that all she got from Santa was a sock. So she asks why couldn’t Santa give her a Barbie doll this year. Santa in this story turns out to be Jimmy McMillan, who represents the Rent is Too Damn High party and tells the girl that she didn’t get the doll because the rent is too damn high. This comic is more of a spoof, placing the character of Jimmy McMillan as the punch line.
 * Narrative: **

The inspiration for this comic was really the growing popularity of Jimmy McMillan and being an online celebrity with his eccentric personality. So the approach was setting up a story where the punch line is mainly unrelated, setting the viewer up to something unexpected.
 * Analysis: **

Traditional print comics are crisper than comics seen on the web; therefore the characters and settings were drawn using vectors to create sharp and clean lines. The cartoon representations are drawn with little detail, but enough to clearly make out the people and reactions. This was more effective than using photography or a more realistic drawing because this way readers can enter “the world of the cartoon and see [ones] self” (McCloud, 36). Viewers can transpose their selves in the character because it acts on the memory of visiting Santa at the local mall. So the audience is more directly involved in the comic. This comic was created in colour versus in black and white because colour identifies a more realistic world. This scene with Santa at a mall with children is an actual experience in reality so subjecting it to colour makes the audience aware of the “physical form of objects” (McCloud 189).

This story is told in a ten-panel comic, mainly through moment-to-moment transitions. Panels 4 to 9 instigate one single moment of when the little girl is sitting on Santa’s lap awaiting and opening her present. Frames 5 to 8 uses moment-to-moment transitions well because it shows the different emotions the girl is going through. But stretching it out and prolonging the story with time creates suspense, setting the viewer up for the last panel. Many of the panels are silent which McCloud states can “produce a sense of timelessness” (109). It is unresolved so the viewer keeps the moment in mind before reaching the conclusion to provide the closure to the comic.

The way a comic is laid-out, as well as the size and shape of each panel affects the way the comic is read, its fluidity and the time spent on each panel (McCloud, 98). The first panel is large because it contains the name of the comic and also sets up the entire scene. It sets the setting (of being Christmas) and foreshadows ideas about presents. The three reaction faces in frames 6-8 are much smaller in comparison to the others because they do not contain as much detailed information. It was created so audiences will linger on each frame, lengthening out the time and suspense. By putting the last two frames beside each other, the audience shortens the length of time from the set up to the conclusion. It’s the immediate reaction of the Santa that follows the girls question that creates an effect transition between the two.

This comic will probably have a better reaction if read from the web because commentary is based on a current Internet meme. If the readers are not aware of who Jimmy McMillan is or what he represents, the viewer might take a different reaction to the conclusion.

**__ Works Cited: __** McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins, Inc., 1994. Print.