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Multimodal Tensions in the Graphic Novel

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. 2

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 3

BACKGROUND........................................................................................................................................... 5

THE VERBAL/VISUAL TENSIONS ................................................................................................................ 5THE VISUAL/VISUAL TENSIONS ................................................................................................................. 6THE PARTIAL/WHOLE TENSION.................................................................................................................. 7THE CREATOR/AUDIENCE TENSIONS.......................................................................................................... 8CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 13

ANALYSIS.................................................................................................................................................. 15

IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS .............................................................................................................. 15THE 9/11 REPORT ..................................................................................................................................... 27PRIDE OF BAGHDAD ................................................................................................................................. 33

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................... 41

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 42

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Abstract

The process of a reading a graphic novel is affected by multimodal tensions that

result from combining techniques typical to the comics medium and literary techniques

associated with the novel. Three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers, The 9/11

Report and Pride of Baghdad, are analyzed for the presence of cooperative, competitive

and overlapping tensions. These rhetorical strategies are identified by the audience,

engage readers in the construction of meaning and impact their interpretation of the

message.

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Introduction

The experience of reading and interpreting a graphic novel is affected by

multimodal tensions caused by the combination of narrative techniques of the comics

medium and literary elements associated with the novel. Here, tension refers to the

interactions between two seemingly opposing artistic elements, including cooperative,

competitive or overlapping interactions. If readers can recognize these interactions, then

they will be encouraged to resolve the tension by questioning its purpose and meaning.

Subsequently, these rhetorical strategies engage the audience in the construction of

meaning of the graphic novel and impact the audience's interpretation of its message.

Cooperation and competition between images and text is a tension applicable to

the entire medium of comics (Hatfield 36). Another tension, as described by Hatfield,

includes the interaction of images as piece of the narrative and images as a design

element (48). When a comic book or strip is serialized, each installment conveys a

message in itself but is also a piece of the larger message of the complete novel, leading

to a tension between the partial and whole messages. This tension also occurs when a

single page is designed to convey multiple narratives within a larger story arc.

As a medium, comics require audience participation in the form of what McCloud

calls "closure" in order to apply meaning to individual panels (68). Unlike in purely

written mediums, however, the use of images allows the creator to control the intensity

and perception of a scene or moment in the narrative (Witek 68). Therefore, a tension

between creator control and audience perception also exists. Lastly, the form of the

graphic novel presents a unique tension for a creator and his audience. Various beliefs

and assumptions among and outside of the comics readership have lead to conflicting

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definitions of what a graphic novel truly is, creating a tension between the creator's intent

and the audience's expectations.

In this project, three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers by Spiegelman,

The 9/11 Commission Report: a Graphic Adaptation by Jacobson and Colón, and Pride

of Baghdad by Vaughan and Henrichon, are analyzed for the presence and effect of

multimodal tensions. According to their respective creators, these graphic novels were

all written to address the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent Iraq War. Although

their messages and styles are different, they all use narrative techniques common to the

comics medium, including panels and levels of abstraction, and literary techniques such

as metaphor to contend with very serious subject matter. The analysis demonstrates that

these rhetorical strategies developed by the creator require an audience familiar with the

techniques in order to identify the tensions, engage the audience in the construction of

meaning, and impact the audience's interpretation of the creators' message.

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BackgroundThe experience of reading and interpreting a graphic novel is affected by

multimodal tensions caused by the combination of narrative techniques of the comics

medium and literary elements associated with the novel. Here, tension refers to the

interaction between two seemingly opposing artistic elements, including cooperation,

competition or overlap between these elements. Tension may exist between a verbal and

visual element, two visual elements or two verbal elements. The origin and composition

of these rhetorical strategies are identified and discussed in relation to their effect on the

audience.

The Verbal/Visual Tensions

As a medium that uses static images and text to drive the narrative, it is the

cooperation and competition between these two elements that defines comics. When

seeking to define the medium, McCloud identifies the “juxtaposition of pictorial and

other images” as one the central requirements. Technically, words and pictures are both

icons, which are images that represent people, things or ideas. The difference is that

words are much more abstract symbols than pictures, and often have a much more

definite meaning than a picture (McCloud 27). Words and pictures are codes that must

be interpreted in order to understand a comic, and are decoded separately by the reader

(Hatfield 37). Words tell and pictures show, and so the verbal narrative and visual

narrative are considered to be two different elements. These two may cooperate in order

to direct a straightforward narrative, but they can also compete for the reader’s

interpretation, such as by seeming to tell two different narratives. Overlap can then

possibly occur in two ways. Images can “tell” rather than show, which is what a word

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balloon does, and words can “show” by becoming more pictorial, like by changing size

according to the volume the creator wishes to convey (Hatfield 40). Furthermore, the

interaction between words and pictures, whether they are telling the same story or not, is

usually a form of collaboration. An apparent competitive tension between images and

text may actually be cooperating to convey the creator’s meaning. However, as Hatfield

claims, it becomes the reader’s responsibility to interpret that tension and apply a

meaning to it (41). The creator develops the tension through his narrative tools, but it is

the reader who must then apply a meaning to it.

Tension may also exist between the verbal narrative and the visual style of the

comic. What does the way a comic is drawn reveal about the message? As Hatfield

explains, the style can cooperate with the narrative, but it can also subvert the narrative

by seeming horribly mismatched to the subject matter (60). In Maus, Witek points out,

Spiegelman’s use of mice to represent the Jewish people was a creative choice (100).

Interpretation of this style evokes within the reader general feelings of predation and

extermination, even if, at first, the use of cartoon animals seems a disrespectful way of

discussing the Holocaust (Witek 114). This may initially be interpreted as a clash or

competition between the style and the subject matter, but a reader who knows that

Spiegelman used such a style specifically will identify it as cooperation. It is the reader

who must interpret and resolve that tension. The audience must assign value to the use of

a style within the context of the message.

The Visual/Visual Tensions

In addition to the interaction between verbal and visual elements, tension may

also exist between two visual elements. Hatfield points out that an image in a comic is

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both a part of the narrative and one piece of the page’s graphic design independent of the

sequence (48). The sequence of the narrative and the visual syntax of the page, therefore,

can compete. For instance, each page of In the Shadow of No Towers is designed to look

like a comics supplement page. As a result, the strips can be read independently of each

other as short sequences, or within the visual context of the whole page regardless of

sequence. It is also possible for these two elements to cooperate, such as in The 9/11

Report, where the page design enforces the idea that the graphic novel is as much a

textbook as it is a comic book. Still, it requires a reader familiar with the typical graphic

design of a comics supplement or a textbook to identify these tensions and then to

interpret the meaning of each.

The Partial/Whole Tension

Traditionally, many comic books and strips are serialized. Each installment is

both a smaller piece of a wider narrative arc and its own independent story. The tension

here is caused by the interaction between whole and partial messages. How do the

individual installments fit into the wider arc? What is the significance of the creator’s

choice to end one installment here, rather than provide one more page? This particular

tension is much less present in graphic novels that are published as one volume, but other

GNs such as Maus and Watchmen were originally serialized and, even though they are

currently printed and available as whole volumes, this must be taken into account when

reading and interpreting the work. Only a reader familiar with the narrative technique of

serialization would be able to identify the presence of this tension.

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The Creator/Audience Tensions

Comics are what McLuhan referred to as a “cool” medium; it requires great

audience participation to give the message meaning (23). Like television, closure is

required for the message to be understood by the audience, and this requires active

participation on the part of the reader (McCloud 65). In comics, therefore, the creator

and audience enter a relationship where the reader’s perceived meaning is just as

important as the writer’s intended message. These two elements are also capable of

tension. A creator will attempt to control the reader’s interpretation with his narrative

tools. For instance, as Witek explains, a descriptive sentence in a book can be

manufactured into an image chosen by the reader, but when an image is already supplied,

there is no way for the reader to decrease its intensity (68). Just as important as what is

shown are the details or moments that are not. According to McCloud, every detail left

out of the creator’s control is given up to the imagination of the audience (85). There will

be certain sequences where the creator’s intention will be in line with that which the

audience has interpreted from it, and sequences where they will not cooperate. By

exploring why a creator may have relinquished full control of certain moments, the

audience maybe able to resolve the tension between his intent and their perception.

Another type of creator/audience interaction is the “contract,” described by Will

Eisner as an agreement where the “[story]teller expects that the audience will

comprehend, while the audience expects the author will deliver something

comprehensible” (49). Within rhetoric such an agreement refers to the logic of the

rhetor’s argument. If the argument is illogical it will be incomprehensible, thereby

rendering the discourse ineffective. This relationship also requires active involvement

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from the audience. A comics artist can use tools such as speech balloons and panels to

manipulate time, space and sensory details. The reader must then use personal experience

to interpret these techniques and, therefore, must have had previous experience with

reading comics. This particular tension also relies on an overlap between the visual and

verbal elements, for panels and balloons are images that “show” like any other picture,

but also “tell” like text (Hatfield 40). The visual/verbal tension impacts the

creator/audience tension and, as such, both impact the eventual interpretation.

The aforementioned tensions are common to the entire medium of comics. There

is one last tension between creator and audience that significantly impacts the reading of

a graphic novel, a specific form of the medium. This tension is derived from controversy

concerning the definition of the graphic novel. The credit for writing the first graphic

novel – and for creating the term – goes to Will Eisner. The comics industry veteran

published A Contract With God in 1978 (Bettley 135). While not a comic book of

standard length or the magazine format, Eisner’s novel still used the medium he referred

to as “sequential art” in order to tell his story. It was the creators of the underground

comix scene who inspired Eisner; he felt they were demonstrating the true potential of the

medium by telling personal and political stories (Weiner 19). Their movement produced

books “that were as politically radical as they were artistically innovative” and were

“antithetical” to the mainstream (Sabin 92). Hatfield credits this as the movement that

“established the idea of comics as a form for adults” and “trumpeted the arrival of not

simply comics for adults but comic books for adults” (7). But, as Witek points out, they

also played an integral role in developing comics as a means of artistic expression (52).

They showed that it was possible to be a creator without the endorsement of the dominant

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publishing industry and focused on the expression of the “creator-owned” rather than of

“company-owned” characters (Hatfield 16). These comics were in direct contrast to the

Comics Code Authority sanctioned books with which the wider public was familiar.

It was the earlier creation of the Comics Code Authority that perpetuated the

public sentiment that comic books were just for kids. At the height of their popularity in

the 1950s, 80 million comic books were being sold each month in America (“Horror on

the Newsstands”). These comics were not limited by subject matter and covered many

genres from horror and crime to history and romance (Weiner 5). While gory horror

comics were gaining in popularity, America was falling prey to McCarthyism and the

paranoia that followed (Weiner 8). Comic books were the frequent target of criticism

throughout the late 40’s and early 50’s, but it is Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist, who

is most often credited with destroying the creative freedom of the industry. Riding the

wave of worry that parents had of their children becoming Communists, Wertham

published a book claiming that comic books were having a significant negative impact on

America’s youth. Wertham wrote, “… I have come to the conclusion that this chronic

stimulation, temptation and seduction by comic books… are contributing factors to many

children’s maladjustment. All comic books with their words and expletives in balloons

are bad for reading…” (10). The US Senate called for an investigation of comic books

and their impact on youth (Weiner 8). The hearings scared the comic book publishers

into action and they formed the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which ultimately

eliminated mature subject matter from mainstream comics (Wright 175). It was this

institution that Witek claims, “led to the thematic stagnation of the sequential art medium

for several decades” (7) and “squelched the few postwar comic books that were groping

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toward a sophisticated audience…” (48). Simple plot lines and simple art, combined

with an overall message that authority was good, no doubt contributed to the perception

of comics as being just for kids (Hatfield 11). As comics creators attempted to reach

adults, then, they had to overcome this stereotype of the medium.

Eisner tried to do just that in order to market his book length comic to a wider,

more mature audience. Originally, he adopted the term “graphic novel” as a way to get

what he thought was a much more serious comic book into bookstores instead of comics

specialty shops and, therefore, within the reach of an audience that had never read comic

books or had not read them in quite some time (Hatfield 29). From its conception, the

graphic novel faced conflict. Here was a medium intended for children, but attempting to

tell serious stories meant for adults. To people unfamiliar with the medium, the graphic

novel was a paradox.

The term was commandeered by two comics camps: those who wanted to

distinguish themselves from mainstream comic books and those who wanted to use the

inherent merit of the word to sell comics that did not match the sophistication of books

like Eisner’s. As Harvey discusses, “graphic novel” became a marketing term to describe

any comic book that was lengthier and printed on heavier paper than comic books printed

in the standard magazine format (116). Mainstream companies often combined several

standard comic book issues into anthologies and labeled them as graphic novels even

though, suggests Hatfield, “those books typically offered a reading experience that fell

well short of the novel, or even the literary short story, in terms of length and

complexity” (29). This marketing method most likely only added to the public

perception that comics were not sophisticated, and perpetuated conflict between “serious”

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comics creators and “mainstream” creators about its definition. Audiences continued to

receive conflicting messages about the merit of the graphic novel.

With the arrival of Maus, Spiegelman’s two-volume graphic novel that addresses

the Holocaust, however, graphic novels were given a new direction. The possibility for

the format and the medium to deal with serious subject matter had become a reality. Yet,

even this innovation was met with conflict. According to Witek, Spiegelman was

awarded the Nobel Prize for his work and embraced by his audience, but plenty of people

balked at the use of comics to tell a narrative concerning the Holocaust (97). The

stereotype persisted despite proof that comics were no longer just for juvenile audiences.

Today, the industry is still not decided on what the term “graphic novel” does and

should mean. Brad Meltzer, a writer of both comic books and prose novels, claims that

there is no difference between graphic novels and comic books: “’Graphic novel’ is a

term invented to impress people who wouldn’t be impressed if you said ‘comic books’”

(Eyman, “Brad Meltzer). Likewise, for purposes of classification, librarians tend to put

all “book-length comics” together, regardless of content (Fletcher-Spear, et. al, “Truth”).

As Fletcher-Spear et. al argue, the graphic novel is a format within the comics medium

that “uses a combination of words and sequential art to convey a narrative” and which is

not limited to any single genre (“Truth”). Just as not all novels are considered to be

masterpieces equal to Elie Wiesel’s Night or George Orwell’s Animal Farm, not all

graphic novels will reach the complexity of Spiegelman’s Maus. Nevertheless, people –

especially those who read a lot of graphic novels – expect these book-length comics to

offer complex stories and characters as part of “a self-contained narrative arc… not just a

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reproduction of a series” (Razer, “A novel concept”). There are certain expectations that

a reader carries with them when encountering a graphic novel.

In the end, “graphic novel” remains an imprecise term, but it is so ingrained in the

industry and the audience that, as Hatfield claims, it cannot be ignored (29). The result of

this ambiguity is a public who is unsure of what to expect when first reading a graphic

novel, and a wide comics readership whose expectations vary form person to person.

General public perception that comic books are juvenile in nature persists today. The

expectations of someone who believes this will create tension with the intent of a creator

who has used the form of the graphic novel to tell a mature and serious story. Inversely,

a reader who is familiar with graphic novels and who is expecting a serious story may be

surprised to see that cartoon animals were the creator’s choice of characters to convey

that narrative. This tension between creator intent and audience expectation is by no

means exclusive to the graphic novel, but it continues to play a significant role in the

development of the form and the interaction of the creator-audience relationship.

Conclusion

Note that these tensions, when present, are not independent of each other. Often,

the development of one tension is the result of the existence of another. The result is

intricate layers and overlapping of interactions, leading to secondary tensions among

primary interactions. As Hatfield explains, there is no one way to read a comic, and these

multiple reading choices give the medium the potential for complexity (66). Each

reading experience will be affected by the audience’s previous experience with reading

(or not reading) comics.

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In McCloud’s definition, the other criteria for a narrative to be considered a comic

is that those juxtaposed images are “in deliberate sequence, intended to convey

information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (McCloud 9). Every

picture, word, and arrangement is a conscious choice of the creator, meant to affect his

audience in some way. The tensions the creator developed are rhetorical strategies, not

arbitrary decisions. There is meaning between the panels and within the pages of a comic

book, it needs only a reader to interpret it.

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Analysis

In the following analysis, three graphic novels, In the Shadow of No Towers by

Spiegelman, The 9/11 Commission Report: a Graphic Adaptation by Jacobson and

Colón, and Pride of Baghdad by Vaughan and Henrichon, are examined for the presence

and effect of multimodal tensions. The analysis demonstrates that the rhetorical

strategies developed by the creators require an audience capable of identifying the

tensions, engage the audience in the construction of meaning, and impact the audience's

interpretation of the creators' message.

In the Shadow of No Towers

Arguably one of the most influential comics creators who came out of the

underground comic scene is Art Spiegelman. It was his graphic novel Maus that brought

wider attention to the form and set a precedent for sophistication in subject matter. His

newest graphic novel, In the Shadow of No Towers, is markedly different in format from

most other graphic novels. Essentially, it is a collection of ten newspaper broadsheets

originally published as a series in several European papers. In the Shadow of No Towers

is as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the political atmosphere in America that

followed the tragedy for two years after. Spiegelman resides in Manhattan and, as he

explains, was in New York City the day that the World Trade Center was attacked by

terrorists (2). Unlike most Americans, he experienced the attack first hand without the

filter of the media. In Towers, he documents his attempt to understand the tragedy and

his criticism of the ways in which the government responded. The format, which evokes

sentiments of humor, is in stark contrast to the serious nature of the subject matter. In

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Towers, the tensions between design and narrative require an audience familiar with

comics strips for interpretation, engage the audience in the construction of its meaning

and impact the audience’s perception of Spiegelman’s message.

According to Hatfield, images in comics can be read in multiple ways, either as

moments in a sequence or as design elements independent of the sequence (48). This is a

tension between two visual elements of the work, the narrative sequence and the visual

syntax. As a graphic novel, Towers’ design is somewhat atypical of the graphic novel.

Each page is a reproduction of a full-page newspaper broadsheet purposefully designed to

resemble the comic strip supplements of early 20th century American newspapers

(Spiegelman 11). This has partially to do with the original publishing format. As

Spiegelman explains, each page of Towers was first published in the German broadsheet

newspaper Die Zeit (i). The design immediately identifies his work with America, a

technique that works to capture the attention of a German audience who may be curious

about an American’s perception of the terrorist attacks. Spiegelman explicitly says that

his “political views hardly seemed extreme” to the Europeans who were reading his

comics (ii). His criticism of the governments reactions is material that many of them may

have already heard and agree with themselves. His audience, therefore, consists of well-

informed people whose attention may be difficult to attract and hold when discussing a

familiar topic. The unconventional design puts a fresh spin on the content, giving it an

appearance of novelty. An audience is more likely to respond to something new and

radical in design than to something they’ve already seen and to which they’ve become

accustomed. Of course, the design itself is not new, nor is the use of cartoons to criticize

a government. It is the use of a full page and a design usually associated with comic

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strips – whose main goal is entertainment – in order to discuss serious political events,

which has rarely been done before and therefore would appear fresh to the audience.

Spiegelman’s audience must be able to recognize that the design is similar to that of a

comics supplement, and then the visual syntax can cooperate with the sequence to engage

the audience in the construction of its meaning.

Would Spiegelman’s German audience be able to identify the graphic design?

The format he uses is not so new that a German audience wouldn’t understand how to

interpret it. Comic strips, Boime explains, in addition to being easily recognized by

Americans, are also an established form in Europe, the development of which predates

that of the American strip (21). Spiegelman is writing for an audience that knows how to

read a comic strip but may not be expecting a page of strips that are personal and political

in nature. In this way, the design of the broadsheets conflicts with the audience’s

expectations, and this leads to a competitive interaction between the visual element of the

design and the textual element of the subject matter. While some of the individual strips

are humorous, much of the content is serious, especially Spiegelman’s account of the fear

and hysteria in the city (and across the country) immediately following the attack. As

McAllister et. al explains, very early 20th century comic strips such as The Yellow Kid

have a history of political or social commentary, but more recent comic strips are known

for their humor and expected to entertain, hence the common name “funnies” (1).

Modern comic strip readers would not expect to see images of the World Trade Center

vaporizing or of a mob panicking in their newspaper’s comics supplement. The defiance

of conventional comic strips is another fresh aspect to Spiegelman’s book that engages

the audience.

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For example, in the strip, “The New Normal,” a series of three panels displays an

image of an American family watching their television (Spiegelman 1). Terror is

depicted in the second panel, by taking the characters and drawing them with frazzled

hair and shocked facial expressions. In the third panel, however, the characters maintain

their frazzled hair but retract to their sleepy nonchalance of the first panel. The audience

laughs at the humor of this strip because it is acceptable; that is what they are supposed to

do when they read a comic strip. Upon closer inspection, however, the audience sees

something unexpected: a calendar nestled into the background of the panels. A date of

“Sept. 11” reveals that the second panel occurred on 9/11, the family’s fear and shock the

result of terrorism. Here, overlap occurs, as the text is also a visual element, both

showing and telling what the date is. In the third panel, an American flag replaces the

calendar. Now, the strip takes on a much more serious message. Spiegelman is saying –

with a minimal use of words – that America woke up for a split second on 9/11, long

enough to hang up their flags, but returned to their indifference soon after. The design

and the humor are at odds with the seriousness of the subject matter. The strip mirrors

the effect of this conflict on the audience: Spiegelman has interrupted the routine of and

shocked an easily bored audience with his comic, but will it make a lasting impression on

them? It is this first strip of the series that draws his audience in and keeps their

attention. Overall, the visual design of the pages supports a verbal content that might

otherwise appear uninteresting by appealing to an audience’s desire for something new

and original. The involvement of the reader is made possible by the tension between the

verbal and visual elements.

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Once the tension works to engage the audience, it then impacts the reader’s

process of constructing Spiegelman’s message. As previously explained, merely looking

at the design of one of Towers’ pages immediately invokes notions of humor and brief

entertainment. The audience must read the verbal aspect of the text in order to realize

that Spiegelman’s book is actually dealing with themes of paranoia and dissent. There

are image sequences, as well, that directly convey paranoia, and will seem to align with

the similar themes, but then they are often matched with verbal narrative that conveys a

humorous story. The visual and the verbal are once again in competition and, as Hatfield

suggests, the reader is urged to consider the meaning of that interaction in order to

resolve it (38). One example of this is a three panel, untitled strip printed in the ninth

installment. In the first panel, Spiegelman is the main character and he is wide-awake

with anxiety while, around him, several other men sleep soundly (Spiegelman 9). He

expresses his paranoia about the end of the world and slightly wakes these men from their

sleep, their facial expressions clearly showing fear and surprise at Spiegelman’s words.

Finally, he shouts, “THE SKY IS FALLING,” and fully wakes everyone else in the strip.

In the final panel, Spiegelman is able to sleep, but the other characters are now awake,

anxious and paranoid. The irony is humorous, and engages the reader’s attention, but the

images of paranoia conflict with the anecdote. The audience must ask why Spiegelman

chose to narrate and show such heavy fear through a humorous anecdote. Their

interpretation, whether wrong or right, becomes a part of the discourse, and the discourse

then relies on the audience for a meaning.

Such audience involvement and questions continue with the overall page design.

A comics supplement usually features several separate strips by different creators, none

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of which connect to each other in meaning. In Towers, the same visual design is used,

suggesting that certain sequences may be read separately and creating a tension between

the partial and whole messages. For instance, in the ninth installment, first printed in

summer 2003, a sequence of four panels is a complete vignette of a short anecdote

overheard at a party. There is no title to the sequence and the only thing to distinguish it

from the rest of the page is the art style and the panels that close it off. On the same

broadsheet, a series of six panels is titled separately (as “Weapons of Mass

Displacement”) and tells a different anecdote. These two strips break up the three panel

strip discussed earlier in which Spiegelman wakes a group of men with talk of his own

fears. The design betrays the fact that each broadsheet is essentially a part of the same

narrative. Despite the fact that these panels can be read and interpreted separately, the

audience is once again encouraged to question how they connect. Why has Spiegelman

placed these particular scenes on the same page? Why are they featured in the same

narrative? By answering these questions, the reader constructs a meaning for the page

that is not immediately evident. The reader’s meaning then becomes a part of the

argument set forth by the writer. This creates a complex relationship between the writer

and audience, where the audience’s interpretation holds equal weight with the writer’s

purpose. Here, the tension between two visual elements has led to the development of a

tension between the creator’s intent and the audience’s interpretation. The former

impacts the latter, and both have affected the audience’s ultimate interpretation of the

message.

The interaction between Spiegelman and his audience shifts from cooperative to

competitive when the creator asserts control over certain aspects of the interpretation.

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Witek claims that readers cannot hide from an image like they can from words (68). By

supplying the images, the author has greater control over how the audience interprets his

rhetoric. There is no way for a reader to decrease the intensity of a particularly jarring

image. In Towers, Spiegelman repeats the image of the second World Trade Center

vaporizing. Sometimes it appears as a single image, such as in the third and fourth

sheets, though Spiegelman also depicts the fall in sequence, giving it a horrifying slow-

motion effect in the first and second installments. Just as he cannot escape from this

image or reduce its impact on him, neither can his audience. Without the image to dictate

how the reader interprets the fall, the reader could not fully comprehend what the

experience was like for the writer. Therefore, even though the audience is actively

involved with the interpretation of the comic, the writer still holds some degree of

control, and can guide the audience to the message he intended.

Another type of writer-audience interaction is the “contract,” described by Will

Eisner as an agreement where the “[story]teller expects that the audience will

comprehend, while the audience expects the author will deliver something

comprehensible” (49). If the organization of sequences is illogical it will be

incomprehensible, thereby rendering the discourse ineffective. This relationship requires

active involvement from the audience for interpretation and depends on the ability of the

audience to recognize the meaning of icons that are an overlapping interaction between

images and text. These icons would be speech balloons and panels used to manipulate

time, space and sensory details, or in the case of organization, a simple horizontal and

left-to-right placement for ease of reading. In Towers, while Spiegelman uses such icons

and placement, there still seems to be a lack of logic. Several panels are placed

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haphazardly, and these seemingly misplaced panels interrupt the logical flow of the

narrative. For instance, returning to the ninth installment mentioned earlier, the three

panel strip where Spiegelman screams that the sky is falling is interrupted between the

first and second panels by the party anecdote and the second and third panels by

“Weapons of Mass Displacement.” The writer’s creation process seems erratic due to the

unsystematic positioning of sequences, and that is exactly what Spiegelman wants his

audience to experience. In the end, this lack of logic and competition between the

creator’s intent and audience’s expectations does not detract from Spiegelman’s message,

but impacts its interpretation. The chaos of these pages echoes the chaos and irrational

fear that must have overcome Spiegelman’s thoughts in the moments and days following

the attacks. However, because the well informed comic reader is able to discern through

the use of panels and the text within speech balloons which sequences go together to tell

a small yet complete piece of the narrative, and then is able to look at the page

holistically to determine the meaning of the entire design, the seemingly irrational is

perceived rationally. Once again, Spiegelman has actively involved the audience in the

interpretation of Towers, by interacting with their expectations.

Spiegelman’s use of color is another technique that engages the attention of the

audience through tensions while simultaneously requiring the reader to question the ways

in which he uses it. The color scheme in Towers is not constant in order to distinguish

specific strips from others and to change the emotional reaction of the audience to certain

aspects of the narrative. For instance, in the third installment, Spiegelman includes a

lengthy 15 panel self-reflective piece in which the colors are dull and muted shades of

gray while the surrounding panels are neither distinctly dull nor bright. In this case, the

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use of gray colors creates tension between the surrounding panels and, as McCloud

would say, objectifies that panel of hysteria to give it importance over other aspects of the

sequence (189). Likewise, an anecdote about a homeless woman rendered in a neutral

color scheme is interrupted by a single panel in the middle filled with bright hues of pink,

red, yellow and orange (Spiegelman 6). This technique calls attention to the woman’s

hysteria, but the contrast between the colors of that panel and the colors used in the

panels of the remainder of the sequence also serve to create a distinction between his

reality and her invented unreality. Overall, no page is dominated by any one color, which

also lends to the author’s seemingly erratic designs. However, too many bright colors

can lead to the narrative being emotionally colorless (McCloud 188). The color scheme

may connect further to Spiegelman’s commentary on the American people and the way

they are affected by the media, which is to say not at all. We have grown so accustomed

to constant bright colors or flashy phrases meant to get our attention, that we have instead

been dulled and learned to tune out all of the hysteria. For Spiegelman the hysteria and

panic have been refreshed by his experience, and he wants his audience to experience it,

as well. The competition between the visual elements of color have engaged the

audience in interpretation and contributed to the resulting message they construct.

In addition to captivating the audience, the use of these standard comic techniques

requires that the audience understand how to read a comic strip, and reveals that

Spiegelman was writing for an audience that knew how his work should be read or were,

at least, willing to learn how to read it. This is a general statement about the identity of

his intended audience, but it is an important one. The comics supplement design matched

with the serious subject matter brought the audience in and kept their attention, but there

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were potential audience members who saw the broadsheet design and were driven away

by the use of comics to tell this narrative. Spiegelman wanted an audience with an open-

mind, one that would spend the time to figure out the meaning in his designs and use of

colors. With his European audience, Spiegelman probably found sympathy for his

political ideas, but his visual designs suggest that his intended audience was really

Americans of various ages who could identify with reading newspaper comics

supplements and who would recognize and respond to the artistic styles that he emulates.

In several individual strips, he uses the same artistic style as historical comic strips

including “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (6 and 7) and “Bringing up Father” (8). Such

strips would have been much more familiar to an American audience than a European

one and to an audience whose age was closer to Spiegelman’s. Germans can certainly

develop opinions of American politics and way of life, but they have not directly

experienced them, nor can they directly impact them. The response of a German reader

is going to be significantly different from an American who, even though they may not

have resided in New York, was still attacked on 9/11. Spiegelman is writing for two

separate and very different audiences, both of which bring different experiences to the

reading process and, therefore, will be impacted differently by the tensions he has

developed.

Much of the verbal discourse of Towers is directed towards its American and

European audiences, but the primary audience of this graphic novel is Spiegelman

himself, an identity revealed specifically by the images. In the comics medium, as

McCloud explains, the high level of abstraction in pictures, especially characters, tends to

make them iconic. The images of faces are simplified down to the most important,

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universal details such as the presence of two eyes, a nose and a mouth (30). The more

iconic a cartoon or image is, the more people it describes and the more people who will

identify with it (McCloud 31). As a result, when reading a comic, the audience tends to

insert themselves into the characters (McCloud 59). This identification is another form of

reader participation, which leads to a tension between the creator’s control and the

audience’s interpretation. Rather than constructing meaning and adding to the argument,

however, the reader becomes more emotionally attached to the characters and is more

likely to be affected by the argument set forth by the writer.

In Towers, Spiegelman does several things that suggest he is the intended

audience of his own response. In many of the comic strips, including “An Upside Down

World” (7) and “Marital Blitz” (8), Spiegelman inserts himself into the iconic cartoon

forms of other artists like any comics reader would be apt to do. Spiegelman also depicts

himself in several strips with a greater level of detail that would make other readers less

likely to insert themselves, but makes it very easy for Spiegelman to do so. Finally, in

several sequences, he depicts himself as his Maus counterpart, the mouse cartoon that he

used to represent himself in his first graphic novel. He uses this form in particular when

reflecting on his parents, a deeply personal experience that perhaps he does not want

anyone else to relate to on quite so personal a level as himself. As the audience,

Spiegelman’s intent and interpretation are now in complete cooperation. He is writing

for himself and interpreting himself, and there is no competition between the two like

there would be when the audience is external. Furthermore, this tension competes with

the tension of the creator and his external audience. To resolve this, the readers might

now question Spiegelman’s reason for pushing them away. This tension suggests that

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these comics are less about helping others understand 9/11 and, instead, are Spiegelman’s

attempt at understanding the attacks for his self.

Yet, this notion of Spiegelman as both writer and audience is also at odds with the

verbal elements. The conflict between text and image is once again a major component

of the work. Spiegelman refers to himself in the third person as if it were someone else

telling his story. When he reads his work, it’s as though he is speaking to himself. When

anyone else reads it, they will think Spiegelman is recounting his experience for them and

not himself. Alone, the verbal suggests that Spiegelman’s only audience is external. It is

the visual representations of the author that reveal Spiegelman is both writer and

audience. The competitive tension between the verbal and the visual requires that the

audience recognize the significance of Spiegelman’s self-depictions. To resolve this

tension, the audience questions it’s meaning and thereby it has initiated the construction

of meaning by the audience. The eventual interpretation then contributes to the message

that the audience applies to the work.

Throughout In the Shadow of No Towers, Spiegelman develops numerous

tensions of every variety. Elements cooperate and compete to create tensions, and then

those tensions overlap with others in order to continue building up the interactions. The

amount of questioning and interpreting necessary to reach a resolution may seem

overwhelming to the audience. Yet, for a people looking to understand 9/11, the meaning

behind Spiegelman’s chaos of elements is conveyed clearly. It may be impossible to turn

the chaos of this event into a comprehensible logic, but we must do what we can to make

sense of it and to prevent it from happening again.

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The 9/11 Report

Another graphic novel which uses tensions as rhetorical strategies is the graphic

adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report. The purpose of the original 9/11

Commission, as the cover to the graphic adaptation states, was to research how the

terrorist attacks happened in order to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the

future. In The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón attempt

to make this research text more accessible to the public. “I had just tried to read the report

and found it very difficult because I couldn’t keep track of all the names, places and

events. Sid Jacobson and I are in the business of clarifying things, so I called him up,”

said Colón when interviewed about the novel (Epstein, “Colón”). Their exigence was

two-fold: they needed to preserve the original intent of the report to inform the public, but

they had their own goal, as well, which was to make the report appeal to a wider

audience. In this graphic novel, both the text and images are used to explain the report,

but the images are also used as a commentary on the people discussed in the report,

creating a competition between the verbal and visual elements, as well as between the

creators’ intent and the audience’s expectations. These interactions, which require the

audience to understand several visual narrative techniques, subvert the objectivity of the

original report and thereby engage the audience beyond a superficial level.

On the surface, the entire graphic novel maintains a logical narrative

accomplished through the use of standard comic techniques. Unlike Spiegelman’s erratic

panel placements, the panel sequences and arrangement in The 9/11 Report play a

significant role in developing the argument of this response. An illogical sequence of

events or clusters of information will not be easily understood by the audience. The most

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striking example of logical images is at the very beginning of the book, in which the

creators set up a timeline of events on the morning of 9/11, following each airplane that

was involved in the attacks (6 – 17). There is no comic storytelling method more

straightforward that a chronological placement of panels. In this instance, and in many

others throughout the book, presenting a logical, easily understood argument is the

primary goal of the creators. On the surface, the interpretation is fairly straightforward

and the tensions are of the cooperative variety, requiring only that the reader understand

sequential storytelling at it’s most basic level.

The logical narrative suggests that Jacobson’s and Colón’s intent was an

educational one, and so they have designed the graphic novel to match this purpose and

appeal to a scholarly audience. To do this, the images have been designed to look much

like those found in a textbook, including usage of maps, flags and government insignia.

The panels often overlap or are connected by captions, signifying connections between

causes and effects of choices and actions. Speech balloons are used to designate direct

quotes and separate such dialogue from the reports of facts and events. For instance,

under a section entitled “Policy,” a map of the Middle East makes up the background of

one page (110). The panels placed up on it are displaying four separate narratives, but

they are all connected pieces of the on larger narrative concerning domestic

vulnerabilities, which is told through the use of captions surrounding the characters

panels. The techniques are distinctly typical to comics, but the information they show

and the narrative they tell are typical of a textbook. The overall layout which is

collaborating with the text, therefore, contributes to the development of the purpose and

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its acceptance among the audience. There is no competition between the creator’s intent

and the audience’s expectations.

Their audience is one that wants to understand how the 9/11 attacks occurred, but

wants to comprehend through objective facts and not a subjective narrative like In the

Shadow of No Towers. This reinforces the idea that the creators must maintain their

objectivity in order to cooperate with the audience’s expectations. Whereas in Towers

the narrative voice was completely personal and therefore subjective, an educational text

needs to have a much more objective voice. The self-insertion, and therefore audience

participation, that is common in a subjective graphic novel is going to be much less

frequent in a comic book that is meant to inform or explain. Jacobson and Colón assert

their role as objective and analytical rhetors through the verbal and visual cooperative

tension. They assume the voice of the original reporters in the textual elements, which is

taken from The 9/11 Commission Report. “To Americans, Afghanistan seemed very far

away. To Al Qaeda, America seemed very close. In a sense, they were more globalized

than we were” (108). The voice is admittedly American in perspective, noted by the use

of “we” throughout the text in relation to Americans. However, the verbal is strictly facts

and analysis that lead to possible solutions. Sentimentality or personality of the rhetors is

not injected into the narrative. The verbal components of the graphic novel maintain

objectivity.

The creators must also maintain a certain level of objectivity in the readers. As

was explained earlier, comics readers are inclined to identify with the iconic, more

abstract characters. This self-insertion creates an emotional connection between the

audience and the discourse. To eliminate that emotional connection, the artist can make

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the characters less iconic and more detailed. If they draw the character with a level of

detail that makes them easily recognizable as a real person, the reader will be less likely

to make that emotional connection and may even distance themselves from a character to

whom they cannot relate. In The 9/11 Report, many of the characters of the novel are

based on real people who made real decisions concerning a real government. Some of

these decisions were, as it was discovered, ineffective and possibly detrimental to the

safety of the United States. It is unlikely that any reader would even want to associate

themselves with such characters. These characters, including Presidents Clinton and

G.W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice, are depicted with a level of realism that makes it nearly

impossible for them to be identified as anyone else. Therefore, objectivity is preserved

through the visual elements, as well, and the tension between the verbal and the visual

appears to be a cooperative one.

It is unlikely that the creators wished for their audience to identify with the

terrorists that they depict. However, Jacobson and Colón do not draw the minor terrorists

at the same level of detail as they do many government officials. In fact, they go to

lengths to make each terrorist an individual character with unique physical features, but

they still appear to be very cartoon in style. Does this mean that the artists want the

audience to empathize with these characters? On the contrary, these people did horrible

things and the audience would be unlikely to identify with them even if they were drawn

at the most appealing level of abstraction. The audience automatically sets themselves

apart from the villains of the story. The artists know this, and so they are free to depict

the terrorists without drawing them in detail, which keeps them from being on the same

level of distinction or importance as more detailed characters. The level of detail used on

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the terrorists allows them to blend in with the other background players of less

importance. In both cases, it is not the clerks or the soldiers who are important to the

narrative, but their actions, which were directed by the few above them in command.

Therefore, while the level of abstraction seems to be competing with the goal of

objectivity, it is actually a collaboration that depends on the audience recognizing the

meaning of abstraction in the book’s style.

For the most part, the creators infuse their novel with attempts at objectivity.

However, the use of certain images prevents them from accomplishing complete

impartiality, and this is where the competitive tension between text and image becomes

apparent and eventually leads to a competitive tension between the creators and their

audience. Association through characters is not the only way in which the audience can

be emotionally attached to the discourse. When an audience perceives an image, they

interpret its meaning according to their own life experiences and can empathize with

various images, eliciting an emotional reaction based on memory. Eisner argues that this

is because in humans “as the visual system evolved, it became more connected to the

emotional centers of the brain” (48). McCloud supports this in his claim that pictures in

comics have an immediate emotional impact on the audience (135). For anyone reading

The 9/11 Report who witnessed the plane crashes first hand or who watched the towers

collapse on television, an image of either of those moments is going to have an emotional

impact no matter how much you objectify the characters or the text. For those who did

not personally see the tragedy and who may look at this graphic novel years from now for

its historical information, the resulting emotion of the audience will be different, but not

nonexistent.

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Anyone who has experienced a tragedy or a profound loss will be struck by

Jacobson’s and Colón’s timeline of the events that took place on the planes prior to the

crashes. In this aforementioned timeline, which opens the book, images of the towers are

repeated much like that of the second tower vaporizing in Towers. However, rather than

repeat the same moment over and over again, Jacobson and Colon depict the WTC at

different moments of time in the attacks. This use of sequential narrative reinforces the

excruciating length of time it took before the WTC completely and finally fell. It recalls

the feeling of hope rescue workers must have had that the towers would stand long

enough to get everyone out, and the crushing defeat they must have felt when the

structures disintegrated and collapsed. No matter how objective and instructional the

artists have tried to make their graphic novel, the experience of the audience will elicit

some type of emotion from them that will affect how they perceive the entire work.

Additionally, even though the terrorist characters are depicted in a simplified

manner, the images are not completely non-judgmental either. Often, the terrorists are

shown with mean, angry and even devious looks on their faces. Many are unshaven and

their clothes are rumpled, feeding into the stereotype of what a radical “must” look like.

In contrast, the American characters are almost always well groomed and professional in

their images. Presidents, like Reagan, are given dignified sketches even when discussing

the Iran-Contra scandal of his administration (44). The “average” Americans who fought

back against the airplane hijackers look frightened but courageous next to their mean

looking terrorists (14). When compared side-by-side in the same image, an American

soldier carrying a wounded man looks much more heroic than the Afghans running

towards them wildly with guns and swords raised (34). These may, of course, be true to

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life renderings of certain events. However, the implications of such images cannot be

ignored. The non-objective message conveyed through this is that Americans are good

and civilized and our enemies are not.

Perhaps, however, this is exactly what the artists wanted. A competitive tension

in need of resolution encourages the audience to participate in the interpretation of the

novel. While the verbal discourse explains the research findings and facts in an objective

tone in order to make logical recommendations, the images provide the emotional impact

that will capture the audience’s attention and clash with their expectations for objectivity.

As the authors of the original report explain in the Foreword, their intent was to

encourage a “well-informed public to hold its elected leaders to account” (x). Jacobson

and Colón recognized that it is not enough to be informed. It takes emotion to “energize

and engage… on behalf of reform and change” (ix). Though there are competitive

tensions between the verbal and visual elements and the creator intent and audience

expectations, this interaction then becomes a cooperative effort to encourage the audience

to become emotionally and intellectually involved with the novel. Once involved, the

tensions developed by Jacobson’s and Colón’s graphic novel impact the audience’s

interpretation of the narrative. Eager to understand the events of 9/11, the audience sees

that separating our emotions from the event is impractical, and that staying connecting to

the tragedy is the way by which the momentum to implement change will be fostered.

Pride of Baghdad

The two graphic novels discussed previously were, for the most part, based on

real events. Towers was a personal account, an autobiography, and The 9/11 Report was

a factual and instructional account, both of which responded mainly to the 9/11 terrorist

34

attacks. Yet, fictional narratives that use metaphor and allegory as the main narrative

tools are just as common in graphic novels as nonfiction accounts. Brian K. Vaughan

and Niko Henrichon employ allegory in Pride of Baghdad, a graphic novel written in

response to the Iraq War. While the Iraq War did not begin immediately after the 9/11

attacks, leaders gave terrorist activities as one reason for initiating an invasion. The Iraq

War has become the inconclusive aftermath of 9/11, an event that has many people

conflicted, and is far from being a simple topic to address in any medium. As Vaughan

explains, “Pride of Baghdad was born out of the fact that I had a lot of conflicted feelings

about the war… [it] is about me exploring those questions” (Gustines, “Life”). Like

Spiegelman in Towers and Jacobson and Colón in The 9/11 Report, this graphic novel

was born out of the need to understand, and the recognition that a change in perception

among the audience is necessary. In Pride of Baghdad, interpretation of the graphic

novel once again requires an audience familiar with comics techniques in order to

identify its multimodal tensions, which engage the audience in the construction of

meaning and impact the audience’s perception of the message.

It is understandable that a society would be unwilling to sympathize with another

society with which they are at war. The primary audience of Pride is Americans, a group

of people unlikely to want to understand what the current war is like for the people in

Iraq. To bridge this gap, Vaughan chose to use animals to convey his message. The

main characters are a pride of lions who, until air strikes began, were housed in the

Baghdad zoo. Their story is partially based on fact. In 2003, a pride of lions was

liberated from the Baghdad Zoo and, several days later, the starving animals were shot

and killed by U.S. forces. This decision to use cartoon animals presents the first conflict

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of image and text. The subject matter of Pride is serious and controversial, dealing with

themes of freedom in relation to America’s invasion of Iraq. Public perception of cartoon

animals is that they are for children or lighter stories that children would be able to

understand, such as fables or animated cartoons. Anyone who reads Pride with the

expectation of a lighthearted story will immediately create tension. The audience’s

expectations will be in competition with the creators’ intentions. To resolve this tension,

the audience is urged to ask why the creators would have used cartoon animals to address

such heavy subject matter. This initiates an attempt to apply meaning to the characters

and interpret their role in the allegory. When viewed as symbols, rather than meaningless

characters, the entire perception of the message is changed. The creator/audience

interaction impacts the perception of the graphic novel’s purpose.

Anthropomorphized animals are nothing new to comics or graphic novels. It was

Spiegelman who used animals to address a serious rhetorical situation to monumental

results in Maus (Witek 4). It is unknown whether Spiegelman’s work influenced

Vaughan, but he has used anthropomorphism to the same effect. The audience will be

more likely to become emotionally connected to a group of innocent animals affected by

war than human characters that may be viewed as a potential enemy. The visual

portrayal of the animals is surprisingly realistic, most likely so that the characters in

Pride will not be automatically compared to cartoon lions of a much more famous

animated narrative that has no direct connection to the Iraq War. The backgrounds are

also very detailed, allowing the audience to become immersed in the world but not

necessarily assume the roles of the characters. Having anticipated that the audience will

empathize with the animal characters without inserting themselves into the parts, the

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artist uses this knowledge to his advantage, and forgoes iconic depictions for a more

realistic style. Furthermore, the tensions developed from the use of animals in the

narrative actively engage the audience in the construction of its meaning. By choosing to

portray the main characters of Pride as animals, the author is imploring the audience to

accept that lions and bears can communicate on the same level as and experience emotion

equal to that of humans. Realism in all aspects except for the dialogue makes it easier for

the audience to suspend their disbelief and accept the lions as human-like characters. The

dialogue is the anthropomorphizing element, but it is also in competition with what is

logically known about animals. It draws the audience’s attention and, without it, the

characters could not be interpreted as having thoughts and feelings on a human scale.

This tension between the realistic imagery in Pride and the use of dialogue is critical to

the participation of the audience.

As if to ease the reader into a world populated by talking animals, Vaughan and

Henrichon keep the narrative straightforward, with the panels in a logical order, a stark

contrast from Spiegelman’s seemingly erratic placement of strips in Towers. The

audience’s involvement, therefore, comes from interpreting the use of other techniques,

rather than interpreting the page design. For example, on several pages, Henrichon does

not close off the panels with the usual box. McCloud refers to this technique as using

“bleeds” because the image bleeds off the page and affects the mood or atmosphere of the

comic (103). In Pride, this effect suggests freedom. The closed off panels are like the

zoo, an absence of freedom. Beyond the thin black lines, there is another world to be

seen and experienced. To run out of the panel and off the page would be to grant

freedom. The audience is not forced out of the panel, but has the option to allow their

37

imagination to wander if they want it to do so. However, bleeds are often used in this

book during scenes of danger. The audience and the lions can have their freedom, but not

without consequences.

This role of this freedom motif is made clear by analysis of the characters. The

audience will question the role of cartoon animals in this narrative and seek to construct

meaning for their use. The characters are allegorical and it is the role of the audience to

interpret what ideas they symbolize. Lions are associated with kings, and these zoo lions

represent the oppression of noble ideals and courage. Individually, each of the four lions

represents a different aspect of freedom. The eldest female, Safa, represents those who

have suffered in freedom and now prefer the safety of captivity. In the wild, she was

raped and lost an eye to her attacker. She has never known freedom without fear. “If you

had any real memories of the old days,” she tells one of the other lions, “I doubt you

would be so eager to revist them” (10). The other lioness, Noor, is the symbol of those

who want freedom though it continues to elude them. She had planned an unsuccessful

escape attempt for her pride and the other animals before the bombs granted it to them.

“We can’t wait around for some miracle to change the world for us. We have to take

control of our own destinies,” she tells an antelope (6). She no longer wants to be under

the oppressive control of the zookeepers. Safa and Noor are accompanied by Zill and

Ali, both males, the latter only a cub. As soon as they are liberated after the destruction

of the zoo, the lions face multiple dangers. Ali represents young innocents who

understand little and who are placed in the greatest danger. “Was that a horizon?” he

asks his mother, Safa, when the first bomb hits, not understanding what is happening

(19). He is immediately kidnapped and held hostage by a pack of monkeys representing

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a radical political group. It is Safa, the only lion who has actually experienced freedom,

who saves him. When Ali tells her that the monkeys hurt him, she replies with, “Good.

You needed it” (38). In war, innocence cannot last, and Ali becomes progressively less

innocent throughout the narrative to the point where he eventually helps the other lions

kill.

The lions go in search of food, but their hunting abilities have been severely

diminished by captivity. They are free, but have been abandoned and they are not safe

for Noor, Zill and Ali have not learned how to fend for themselves. Still, they leave the

zoo for the wider world and are nevertheless thrust into danger. During the pursuit for

food, the lions decide to chase a herd of horses, the ultimate symbols for freedom.

“What… what are they?” Ali asks (76). None of the lions have ever seen horses before,

just as they have not known real freedom. These horses would nourish the lions if only

they could be caught, but the lionesses make for poor hunters; Safa is too old and Noor is

untrained. For them, freedom is out of reach, but they continue to chase it.

Eventually, Noor and Safa find themselves in an empty palace. On the wall hangs

a painting of a majestic lion with wings (82), a symbol for the potential strength and

courage that these lions have within them. Only a few feet away from this image lays a

starving and nearly dead lion, Rashid, once part of the royal menagerie. “Safa, no matter

how they might treat us, those who would hold us captive are always tyrants,” Noor tells

her companion upon watching Rashid take his final breath (88). His abuse is courtesy of

Fajer, a giant bear who is the embodiment of the remnants of the toppled regime. “God,

you ignorant young ‘radicals’ disgust me,” he says to Safa, showing that he is against her

ideas of freedom (95). He threatens and then attacks Noor and Safa. The lionesses do

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their best to defend themselves, but they are weak. It is here that we learn Zill represents

those who claim freedom for themselves rather than have it given to them. “I am not a

hunter,” he tells Fajer. “I’m a fighter” (97). When it is necessary, he will fight to defend

his pride and his newly gained freedom. When Fajer offers him protection in exchange

for submission, Zill rejects the proposal because it’s against his nature to be submissive

(99). With the help of Ali, he defeats Fajer, leaving him crippled and unlikely to assert

control ever again. The lions are rewarded with the view of a horizon at sunset,

something they could not see in captivity. Yet, moments later, they have the ultimate

freedom thrust upon them when they are shot by soldiers.

In the last few panels, the inability of the animals to communicate with the

soldiers who shot them signals a return to reality for the audience. The last moments of

the lions’ lives are jarring ones, the details of the images less than welcome after the

audience has come to empathize with the pride. The writers do not give the happy ending

one would expect from a cartoon featuring animals. Once again, this tension between

what is given and what is expected encourages the audience to question the meaning

behind it. What are the authors attempting to tell the readers? The audience begins to

piece together the meanings behind the tensions developed by the comics and literary

techniques – anthropomorphism, allegory, and realism – to interpret the overall message.

Can freedom be given, or must it be earned? Through the use of an effective

metaphor and a realistic art style, we learn that this is Vaughan’s theme in Pride, a clear

response to the Iraq War, which was seen as a mission to liberate the Iraqis from a

depraved leader. The war, however, was far from an immediate success, and Iraq is now

in a state of political chaos. Would things have gone differently if they had successfully

40

campaigned their own revolution, rather than having someone do it for them? What does

it mean for a person when they claim their own freedom or choose their own destiny?

While Henrichon constructs the atmosphere of the novel, Vaughan presents the questions,

but leaves the audience with no explicit answers. It was his intent to make the audience

think and reconsider the purpose of the Iraq War without telling them exactly what to

believe. Pride of Baghdad cannot offer answers, for there are no answers to give. The

tensions between images and text, the themes and the form, mirror Vaughan’s own

conflicted feelings about the war and the inner conflict that much of his audience must

also be experiencing. Once again, readers capable of recognize the novel’s tensions are

engaged in the construction of meaning of the book and their interpretation is a result of

that interaction.

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Conclusion

The three graphic novels analyzed were of three very different genres and styles,

but all of their creators developed tensions in various combinations between the verbal

and visual elements. In all three works, understanding the tensions on a level beyond the

surface required that the audience understand how comics and literary techniques are

used in narratives like these. Once the tensions were identified, the audience was

encouraged to resolve them and discover the meaning behind their development. As a

result, the tensions affected the audience’s interpretation of the message of each work.

The common purpose among these works seemed to be to move towards understanding

the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq War. Yet, they also had components of this

message that were not immediately obvious and required the interpretation of the

interactions between comics and literary techniques, both visual and verbal, to be

uncovered.

The fact that these graphic novels needed more than a glance to be fully

understood sets them at a level of sophistication not found among all of the works using

the comics medium. It is achievements like those of Spiegelman, Jacobson and Colón,

and Vaughan and Henrichon that demonstrate the diversity of the comics medium and the

potential for complexity within the form of the graphic novel. Without a doubt, these

creators have pushed the graphic novel into memorable territory by daring to address

such a significant event of the 21st century. They have defied audience expectations in

multiple ways and utilized the art of tensions to great effect like no other medium can.

42

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