ComicAssignment



"Roller-coaster Trouble"

Andrew Perucho

996208615

CCT300H5

"Roller-coaster Trouble" tells the story of four friends adventure to an unnamed theme park. The comic shows their experience with the amusement park's roller-coaster from start to finish - from when they start their ride to when they finish unloading from the coaster. The story is simple; at the start of the comic the two friends in the back (raccoon and the panda) are excited about the ride and are teasing their two friends in front who at this point are having doubts about the roller-coaster itself. It's safe to say that the two in front (bear, rabbit) are scared out of their minds as shown in the third panel as the rabbit's speech bubble reads "think happy thoughts". However as the ride resumes to proceed to its first steep drop, a quick change of attitude takes place as the friends in the front are actually enjoying themselves - their fears have now converted to sheer enjoyment (as seen by the speech bubble that reads "whoo-hoo!!!!". The sudden reversal of attitudes does not end there however, and as the ride continues it is further evident that the two friends in the back are beginning to freak out about the ride! As they approach the loop, the friends in the back start panicking while the ones in the front are enjoying themselves. As the ride finishes, the friends in the front ask if they would like to go again - the response they get is ironic but hilarious at the same time in that the two who were both excited for the ride at the beginning - are now running for their lives unwilling to go for a second ride.
 * Description:**

Scott McCloud's concepts in "How to Read a Comic" are prevalent throughout the short comic 'Roller-coaster Trouble'. I tried to incorporate most if not all the important elements of a comic in an effective, coherent manner.
 * Analysis:**

McCloud states that comics are a type of sequential art, with each panel showing a single moment in time. As one of the main subjects in my comic, the roller-coaster (and especially the ride) was a very tricky thing for me to control. It would be ridiculous if I tried telling the story through moment-to-moment transitions. Action-to-action, subject-to-subject and scene-to-scene (for the last panel) are the prevalent transitions in the comic. McCloud states that "the gutter is the space between where things happen, human imagination comes into play". The gutters in 'Roller-coaster trouble' were important in the sense that I needed the readers to fill in the blanks of the roller-coaster ride since moment-to-moment transitions were non-existent in the comic. A leap of one's imagination was needed and hopefully nothing would be lost in translation jumping from one panel to the next. It is because of this that the ride itself is very choppy and jumpy - more than anything I relied on the gutter and the reader’s imagination to ease the transition from panel to panel, which was a very tricky thing to do.

Roller-coasters denote a sense of speed, motion and in comic form they just look stagnant and still because the images are still and not in motion. To counteract this, I added motion lines to give the coaster a sense of speed. It wouldn't make much sense to the reader to see the two friends being scared of the ride if it just looked static. McCloud states that motion lines are 'wild, messy, almost desperate attempts to represent the paths of moving objects through space.' I also wanted the reader to feel as if they were also in the ride with the characters, with their eyes traveling at a speed similar to the speed of the coaster and the use of the motion lines makes this possible.

Sound in 'Roller-coaster Trouble' was also one of my main focuses. McCloud broke down sound into two subsets - word balloons and sound effects (all of which can be found within the comic). The incorporation of sound effects only adds to the experience of witnessing an actual roller-coaster ride. The sounds actually make it feel as if the audience is engaged with the ride - a simple 'woosh' sound effect enhances the image and extends the 'time' of the panel. 'Creak, creak' in the 3rd panel makes the readers feel nervous for the characters as we might believe the coaster might break down during the ride. The addition of word balloons to show what the characters are feeling also add depth to the comic and are the tools in which the story is used to communicate in. Sound enhances the overall comic experience - and this comic is no exception.

With all these elements combined, I formed the blueprint of creating an effective and successful comic.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics-the invisible art. New York: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.
 * Bibliography**