In his chapter on gutters, McCloud lists the six types of frame shifts: moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and non-sequitur.
He then charts them out, showing that by far the most popular in Western comics are the action, subject and scene shifts.
While reading Watchmen I noticed some interesting ways that Moore and Gibbons use frames to create moods and tell the story. I noticed a lot of scene-to-scene cuts, something McCloud says doesn’t get used as much in the West. The thing I found especially interesting about Moore’s use of scene-to-scene framing (I will use specific examples from Chapter 3) is that Moore and Gibbons use scene-to-scene while also employing action-to-action and subject-to-subject in an interesting juxtaposition of images, words and ideas that provides an end result that hits the definition of the extremely rare (in the West) aspect-to-aspect framing McCloud describes.
This blurring creates an interesting effect on both the storytelling and early mood of the novel.
First I would like to dwell a bit on the difference between scene-to-scene and aspect-to-aspect, because I found myself confusing the two at times. McCloud writes that “deductive reasoning is often required in reading comics such as in these scene-to-scene transitions, which transport us across significant distances of time and space” (71). He differentiates these cuts from aspect cuts by defining the latter as transitions that “[bypass] time for the most part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place, idea or mood” (72).
In looking at Chapter 3, especially pages 9–15, when the panels juxtapose Dr. Manhattan’s TV appearance with Daniel and Laurie’s adventure in his apartment and on the streets, I feel like we are seeing pretty clear scene-to-scene transitions since time is a relevant factor. However, the effect of this juxtaposition actually seems to help create the different aspects of a place, idea and mood as outlined in the aspect-to-aspect definition. So let’s take a closer look at this section.
What the scene-t0-scene transitions do so well in this section is create a certain mood: one that shows the current attitude towards masked adventurers, their nostalgia, and the complexity their modern lives pose. Moore really drives this home with the juxtaposed images of Doc Manhattan and Daniel and Laurie that feature one thread of narration–the one that sticks with Manhattan in the TV studio even as the image changes. For example, the TV host says “…And believe me, we have something really special for you tonight” while Daniel and Laurie find themselves surrounded by thugs in an alleyway (12). Later on the same page, the TV host asks “will you be prepared to enter hostilities” to Doc, but the dialogue appears over Daniel and Laurie as they prepare to fight their way out of a bad situation, like they used to in the old days. Moving to page 14, we see much of the same effect. The TV host has just accused Doc of causing cancer in the people he loves, and much of this dialogue is displayed on Daniel and Laurie’s images: “I’m starting to make you feel uncomfortable” as they begin pummeling the thugs; “because from where I’m standing, it’s starting to look conclusive,” as the fight ends; and finally “but the show’s over,” says a an agent as Daniel and Laurie stand, hurt but victorious in the alleyway.
Here Moore uses juxtaposed images to convey a certain sense of the Watchmen’s place in society. Doctor Manhattan is attacked on TV just as Daniel and Laurie are attacked in the alley. Both are under attack at the same time, just in different places and in different ways. The lines of dialogue “it’s starting to look conclusive” and “but the show’s over” help reveal that the Watchmen’s show is over, even if Daniel and Laurie seem to have danced with their nostalgic past in the alleyway. Daniel and Laurie protect themselves in the streets, but their true days of donning costumes and fighting crimes, we are reminded, are long over. Doc Manhattan, the only still-active adventurer, is so hurt by the attacks that he will leave Earth, helping set the rest of the novel’s events into motion and showing that even America’s god-like protector doesn’t receive positive or warm treatment in society; a truly dark time for heroes.
This section also allows us to get a glimpse of the society the Watchmen live in. Media is as vicious as ever, attacking Doc Manhattan by surprise, blindsiding him with news he hadn’t even heard yet to sell papers and increase viewership. The streets are no safer than when the Watchmen “protected” them, as we see a group of armed thugs attack two citizens–who happened to be two of the wrong people to attack.
These juxtaposed frames essentially tell the same story of a world with no room and no trust for heroes, even if the world is still far from a safe place. Moore and Gibbons use scene-t0-scene transitions here to transport us across space and then back again over and over to drive the point home that nobody is safe. The times are dark. The mood is dark. And our heroes are physically and emotionally attacked despite their wishes (at least in the case of Doc, Laurie and Daniel) to be left alone to work (Doc) or live quiet lives (Daniel and Laurie)
What’s interesting is if we were to take away these juxtapositions, for example by stringing just the Doc Manhattan frames together, we’d see a lot of action-to-action and subject-to-subject cuts, as they still exist within the chapter, they just get broken up by the juxtaposition of Daniel and Laurie. By adding in the scene-t0-scene transitions, Moore can double down on his words, using one narrative thread to tell two stories and incorporating action, subject and the obvious scene cuts. This lets us know that the stakes lie on more than just one hero in this novel, and that the stakes are very real and far-reaching. In so doing, he also creates a strong sense of place, mood and important ideas that are more generally tied to aspect-to-aspect cuts.
And he does this all in six pages of switch-off imagery. If that’s not careful, attentive writing, I don’t know what is.
So I bring it to you now: Is this the type of effect that can only really be achieved by comics, allowing for a juxtaposition of images with one written narrative thread that links them? What other types of cuts come into play in this, and other chapters, and offer us similarly deep results? Am I way off base here and did you see something else?