Page - 25 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

On the History and Hermeneutics of Comics | 25www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 17–44 the depiction of moment or phase. the comic can comprise a single image, a number of images, or many pages of images, but in each case, decisively, a pro- cess is depicted that goes beyond the moment. this narrative quality is both an essential element of a comic and simultaneously the comic’s main signifier. As scott McCloud has pointed out, the “gutter” – the term for the spacing be- tween panels on a page – also plays a significant role in the narration. McCloud has argued that comic drawings only sketch selected phases and that readers are required to fill the gaps with their creative phantasy,23 but his argument can be challenged, for (1) a single panel in a series can cover a longer timespan and (2) some comics have no gutter simply because they consist of a single image. fig. 6, a cartoon by Dik Browne, provides an excellent example of narration in a single image. helga, hagar’s wife, is a great proponent of cleanliness, as evinced by her spotless attire, neat hair, and decorative belt. she returns home after a brief trip away (the front door is open although it is night time) to find the house turned upside down. her husband, her complete opposite when it comes to orderliness and hygiene (scruffy attire, sloppy shaving, spotty helmet), is sit- ting on the floor, defeated and, according to his grim facial expression, some- what angry. helga’s exclamation “What has happened here?!!” makes evident the disparity between her knowledge and that of the reader: helga, literally unbalanced by what she sees, asks about the cause of the chaos; the reader can see a single insect circling somewhat provocatively above hagar, who still holds a flyswatter, as a weapon, in his hand. At the heart of this narration is the victory of the tiny fly over the mighty Viking. My description makes all too clear that no matter how detailed the explanation, when a visual gag (whether joke or cartoon) is expressed in words, it readily loses something of its subtext or humour. it speaks for the quality of the drawing that the cartoon can still amuse and divert readers even after my explanation. if we are to understand the humour of this image, we need to know of the nature and function of furniture and of the status of orderliness and cleanliness 23 McCloud 1994, 66–68. Fig. 6: Hagar the Horrible, from Browne, Harte Zeiten, n. p.