Not too long ago, I was saddled up at a bar, silently drinking a pint. I was meeting a friend, but arrived a little early. A beer by myself seemed like the best way to shake another long day at the office. All I wanted was to be left alone to wonder how at such a young age, I was spending so much time at a desk or at a bar. In doing so, I did not notice another patron pull up beside me and order a drink. Taking me by surprise, the mystery patron made an innocuous comment about the bartender. I do not remember what he said to me, for I turned to him to respond and sat face to face with a full-grown version of the child who had ridiculed, beaten and harassed me through childhood. Immediately, he realized who I was and I realized who he was. We both sat stunned, staring at each others, mouths agape, both of us struggling to make words, and instead were, as my mother said when we were children, "catching flies." This moment carried on for longer than it could have in actuality occurred. Eventually, overcome with the awkwardness of the moment, my former assailant received his drink and simply walked to the other end of the bar. No words were exchanged, nor would any be exchanged. Shared between us was merely an awkward moment, mouths hanging wide open, staring at each other in disbelief.
Chris Ware's
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth would work well as an in depth study on awkward moments such as that. While speaking with other students, words tossed around to describe the feel of the book were "awkward," "uncomfortable," and "tense." In Adrian Tomine's Sleepwalk, the same thing can be said for almost every story.
What techniques do Tomine and Ware use to create this tension in their works?
The character is off-the-charts awkward to begin with in Jimmy Corrigan. Jimmy is in Ware's words, "emotionally impaired." He spends a substantial amount of time day dreaming, staring off into space, not making eye contact with people and just being generally awkward. How is this illustrated about Jimmy? First, other than Jimmy's father, grandfather and Amy, the reader never sees another person's face. This accomplished a few things. One, it isolates our characters. More importantly though, we see how little Jimmy notices other characters in this book. His day dreams and his anxieties get the better of him repeatedly. Jimmy actively avoids human interaction with everyone. When forced to interact with people, Jimmy is tenative and many long moments can pass before he responds, if he responds at all. Ware does an excellent job of illustrating this with "silent" panels. McCloud talks about how a panel void of dialog or narration can be used to show a passage of time. Through the text, there are examples of little to nothing being said between two characters over a series of many panels. The more panels, the more time the reader is to assume has passed.
An identical tactic is put into use in Tomine's Sleepwalk. Each character has silent frame moments. We draw the same closure. Time passes, words are not exchanged. Few words, spread over many panels indicates that awkward conversation we've all had. Long pauses between exchanges are filled with looming silence. Each vignette features a emotionally dysfunctional protagonist which can be seen to be more dysfunctional through these techniques.
What are you getting at Mr. Hotshot College Student? How does making the reader uncomfortable lend anything to the work (or more importantly, does the protagonist being awkward actually achieve tension?) What is the end result of these characters "emotional dysfunction," "awkwardness," and "tension?" Whatever happened to that old bully you ran into at the bar?
Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down, dear reader. One question at a time. The tension these panels create for the reader is very real. Not only is the character demonstrated to be awkward, the reader become awkward for them. Don't believe me? Reread the scene in Jimmy Corrigan when the doctor looks at Jimmy after he is hit by a car. I'll wait. Done? It made you squirm a little, didn't it? The end result of all this tension is in each story, these characters being utterly alone. Each Sleepwalk story and the Jimmy Corrigan story the characters are left alone because of their crippling awkwardness. Many of these seem like possibly autobiographic gestures about loneliness.
And that bully, well I was told by a mutual friend that he married recently. Also, they informed me that she cheats on him....a lot. Oh sweet justice.
*I WILL PROOF READ THIS IN THE MORNING! SO IF YOU READ IT TONIGHT, TOUGH COOKIES!*
