The magic: The man holding the ax actually dropped it on his foot.
(Image Source: Flikr, originally from "Understanding Comics")
During our in-class discussion of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art," the composer brought up gutters, the space in between frames of a comic (or newspaper, cartoon or other media).  In a comic, as McCloud states in the image to the right, gutters "play host to the magic and mystery that are at the very heart of comics."  These gutters are vital, and can serve as more than a space to let the reader's mind wander.  While these gutters are often empty, brave artists in comics and other visual fields have placed notes, drawings, even actions in and across the gutter. This can build on the readers' imaginations and pull them into whatever they may be reading or watching.


The gutter space can also be used to set the audience up for an unexpected turn.  One of my all-time favorite gutter space violations comes from an animated sketch from the TV show Wonder Showzen, a mature-audiences parody of a children's show, which is known for its controversial (and often offensive) dark humor.  In the sketch, a bionically reconstructed drunkard (a parody of the Six Million Dollar Man) is shown running toward the screen in two split frames.  This is practiced broadly in animation, and, as McCloud classifies it, an action-to-action cut, which American viewers readily interpret as a left-to right time progression. 

Na na na na na na na na...



In this case, however, that logical progression is thrown out the window. 

Winobot Knockout
Take that, space-time continuum!

As the man on the left reaches across the gutter space and hits his future self across the head with a bottle, viewers suffer a moment of confusion, resulting in (ideally) a chuckle or two.  While completely disregarding the gutter space like this would not hold water in any serious work, it was perfect for the show's humorous purpose and extremely unusual audience.

Depending on the action that crosses the gutter (not to mention the context, audience and purpose), this approach can be used to credible ends, in comics and in other fields.  Perhaps a boxer throws a punch in one frame and lands it across the gutter space, or a bullet is fired in one frame, passes through a wall (gutter) and hits a target in the next frame.  Bold composers in any area can use gutters to nearly infinite ends, expected or otherwise.
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