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Sara Diab
Professor Haas
1/29/15
Literature Review
The Art of Frames
The comic book medium, We 3, by Morrison and Quitely is creatively
relayed to the readers through the myriad of framing techniques intertwined
throughout. Frames are a very crucial device that comic authors must
incorporate in order to direct the readers in the direction that they desire.
The placement of each individual frame within the greater scheme of things
signals to the readers a change in setting, idea, topic, scene, and so forth;
this accounts for the lack of text within comics. Will Eisner an American
comics writer, artist, teacher, and entrepreneur delivers the different
functions that frames have within comics, in his book Comics and Sequential
Art-The Frame. Mark Singer, assistant professor in English at Howard
University and coeditor of Detective Fiction in a Postcolonial and
Transnational World, similarly identifies the function of frames, specifically
within the We3 comic. Singer explicitly highlights scenes within the We3
medium in which the frames successfully convey the message that Morrison
and Quitely want to deliver. Quitely agrees with the two authors perspective
on framing throughout the masterclass video, in which he describes the

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elements behind the different frames used and provides examples of how
some frames should be perceived by the readers.
Readers of comic strips may overlook the importance of the order and
arrangement of each frame, but in reality these details are key to
comprehending the passage of time throughout the scenes. This, in the
greater scheme of things, leads to an overall understanding of the events
occurring in the comic. Frames, as Eisner elicits, are the controlling device
in sequential art and are meant to freeze the position of characters in a
setting (39/41). These frozen time periods are then reflected to the readers
as the flow of events (Eisner 39). Singer builds upon this idea through the
example of figure 5-10 in We3 that freezes the soldiers within a subsequent
series of frames, while the cat is able to leap from the beginning of the two
page sequence, through and within the frames, to the end of the sequence.
Singer elaborates on the framing limitations upon the soldiers and describes
it as locking them into a slower passage of time, while the freedom that
pertains to the cat relates to her pace [that] they cannot even perceive, let
alone match (fig. 5-10) (216). Quitely concludes this same point when he
converses about the same figure in We3. He initiates that the body panels
are acting as slices through time which are ordered in a fashion that tells the
reader time is moving from left to right (Quitely). Quitely also adds to
Singers analysis of the freedom of the cat when he shares that the cat can
be outside and inside the panel boarders because the cat is moving through
time (Quitely). Time is a very biased perception that is unique to each

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individual, thus the correct portrayal of the passage of time within a comic
strip falls upon the author. Figure 5-9 in We3 is yet another paradigm that
Quitely describes as frozen moments that describe the movement of time in
an orderly arrangement of panels. Quitely describes the smaller panels as
close-ups of scenes of carnage: very graphic images of the different aspects
of the fight between the soldiers and the We3 animals (Quitely). He relates
the panels back to time when he asserts that the bullets are held in a
moment of time, and within one frame a bullet is directly in front of the
soldiers eye, in the next panel there is blood coming out of a helmet,
implying that these events are occurring within seconds of each other
(Quitely). Singer agrees with this explanation and explicates that the static
imagesreflect both the frantic experience of combat and the animals
radically different perceptions of time and space (214). While frames are
very significant in delivering the passage and viewpoint of time to the
readers they also contribute to igniting a readers imagination.
The images and pictures that fill comics are divided by frames that are
arbitrarily placed in a way to force the reader to draw upon their own
experience and imagination. Eisner prompts that panel[s]attempts to deal
with the broadest elements of dialogue: cognitive and perceptive as well as
visual literacy (38). He continues to note that the gaps of action within the
sequence implies to the readers to fill in the intervening events from
experience (38). Singer supports this stance through the assertion that
neither panel is further complicated or subdivided, but readers can draw a

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few inferences about 3 from these images (216). This statement suggests
that in order to fully understand the characters, the readers must incorporate
their own thoughts and ideas towards the frame at hand. Quitely also
reinforces this idea when he points out the panel with the truck driving on a
path, a frame split, the truck reaches its destination, another frame split, and
a gate closing behind the truck. These subsequent panels compel the
readers to infer the movement within these splits that are not portrayed: the
truck reaches its destination and the truck passes through the gates after
talking to the guards (Quitely). Lastly, the striking importance of frames is
substantiated when Eisner notes, the use of panelsundertakes the
containment of thoughts, ideas, actions, location or site (38).
Overall, the variety of frames within the We3 comic series was a
substantial factor in relaying to the readers the passage of time as well as
allowing the readers to each fill in the missing sequence based on their own
experience and intellect.
1. Singer, Marc. Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary
Comics. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2012. Print. 20 Jan. 2015.
2. Quitely, Frank. Interview with Leeds Film Festival. 06 December 2009.
3. Eisner, Will. The Frame. Comics & Sequential Art. Tamarac, Fla.:
Poorhouse;, 1985.8-46. Print.