Chapter 3 Summary and Analysis

"'Timing'" examines how the sequential artist must deal with humans immersed in space and time. People learn to measure distance by sight and sound, but time is more illusory. In comics, time produces immediate results, while timing arranges illusions and symbols to stretch time and enhance emotion. Balloons frame speech and make sound visible. The earliest use of balloons is in Mayan friezes. The balloon's shape has meaning. Lettering reflects character and emotion as well as the artist's style.

Panels (or boxes) are used to move a reader/viewer through time. Panels measure time much as Morse code and musical notation do. Framing with lines acts as punctuation. Balloon and symbols help the storyteller involve the reader/viewer. Eisner analyzes a long Spirit story, "Foul Play," to show how time is realized through the sequence of events. The number and size...