Revelations by Christian Hill. 2003. 24p., b+w, $3.50. Available from Kameleo Comics.
In the wake of the ongoing “pictureless comics” investigation, I was made aware of Christian Hill’s mini “Revelations”. While the whole comic is not “pictureless” it is, for the most part (18 pages), a comic that takes place in total darkness with only word balloons and panel divisions to tell the story. The story involves a couple on a romantic getaway and a blackout which opens the story. Hill cleverly uses different style word balloons for his two characters, the man’s is rectangular while the woman’s is round, which enables the reader to more easily follow the conversation. A sense of time and space is skillfully created by varying panel size and the location of the word balloons (more particularly where the word balloon’s arrows point). Blank panels, or long panels with a word balloon at the far right side create a sense of time passing, while the distance between the two characters balloons allows the reader to see the space between them. In a way it is a kind of minimal example of McCloud’s chapter on time in comics panels in Understanding Comics.
The story is nothing spectacular in itself, and I found the ending, which creates a narrative frame around the tale, unnecessary. But this is worth picking up as an interesting experiment in form.