Storytelling 7: Mystification

Back to looking at storytelling techniques again. This time, an example of "mystification" from the excellent "Zits" by Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott.

I call this technique "mystification", because it presents the reader with a riddle, a mystification, and the gag is the explanation in the final panel for this apparently inexplicable behavior or situation.

In this case, Jeremy returns home – in panel #1, we see him slamming the door of his car, giving us the valuable information that he has just arrived wherever he has just arrived. In panel #2, we see his mother sitting on the chimney, which informs us that he has apparently arrived home. We also see them exchanging normal son-mother greetings – "Hi mom.", "Hello Jeremy" – so apparently Jeremy's mom sitting on the chimney isn't particularly weird to either of them. Why on Earth is that so?

We have our mystification, and in the final panel, we get the answer: Jeremy's friend Pierce is visiting, and he can't find his snake. He has even, as he tells Jeremy, asked Jeremy's mother if she's seen it.

Now we see why the strip had to have that initial panel of Jeremy arriving home. It was necessary to have Jeremy just arriving to the house, otherwise he would have known that Pierce hadn't found his snake yet. And it was necessary for him to ask Pierce about that, because that is what prompted Pierce to divulge that he had asked Jeremy's mother – which is what resolved the mystification for the reader!

Borgman and Scott well and truly know their craft. I doff my hat in their general direction.

Storytelling (3) and your cellphone

Quick note: I've gone over to English to accomodate a couple of American friends. We'll see how long it lasts.

The use of pictorial language to denote emotion and/or tone of voice is hardly new in comics storytelling. "Astérix", for example, excels in it. Especially when it comes to depicting the character of sound, it is very innovative because it uses once sense modality – vision – to depict another – sound/hearing.

The creators of "Zits", Jim Borgman and Jerry Scott, are often visually creative in their storytelling, and here they have melded two concepts – the modern-era free choice of different ringtones for different people and the use of visual language to connote personal characteristics – in an innovative and quite funny manner.I'd say that "Zits" is probably the brightest spot on today's comics page.

(Also note that it isn't just different sounds that Brogman/Scott are depicting with their iconography, but also the somewhat more abstract concept of personal characteristics.)