Framing In A Graphic Novel: Hellboy

Hellboy: The Third Wish 1

This page caught my eye for it's highly non-linear organization within very clean, straight forward boxes.

These panels are all very straightforward in shape. The rectangular feel holds the action in the pages. The exception is that other pages in the book have dialogue bubbles leaving the panels to rest centered on the borders. In this, we see that the words are the only things not held neatly.

So far as the narrative, these panels don't really give us a sense of order. We see a sequence of events unfold, but are somewhat oblivious to the order of the events.

For the principle of closure, I'd actually like more panels to make more sense of what's happening. Because of a lack of panels going one way or another, I cannot tell if the characters are sinking or floating.

The one really interesting thing in these pages is the di-chromatic frame within a frame. It's there probably because the frame itself is too dark to notice the action without it, but it also manages to catch one's eye before the fish in the other frames do, making the setting somewhat ambiguous at first glance.