Traveling carnivals are a part of an American summer tradition that many people are familiar with. The modern carnival has undergone evolutions and transformations since the debut of the amusement park at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 (Amusement Parks). The first traveling carnivals developed a bad reputation because of the shady nature of many of their workers, the exhibits themselves, and the nature of society at the time to judge what was not up to certain standards (Traveling Carnivals). However, after the first Chicago World's Fair that introduced amusement park rides, carnivals began to change. They started to drop the less delightful aspects of freak shows and other adverse exhibits and added more fun rides from the amusement parks. This has developed to the common traveling carnival of today that evokes the feeling of letting go and enjoying the moment with adrenaline-rush inducing rides, deep fried food and arcade games that have a limited chance of winning but you do it anyways.
The comic above uses this image of a carnival ride that represents this feeling of simply having fun. It is called “I’ve been waiting” and is a part of the “A Softer World” collection that is designed and produced by Emily Horne and Joey Comeau. The comic is comprised of three panels that are in the style of a triptych which means the background image is continuous across the separation of the three panels. The photograph is taken from the perspective of someone that is on the ride which is evident by the aspect of the motion of the carts of the ride with the background lights as a point of reference. Each panel contains writing in the form of text with a white background that is split up across the panels. The typography of the text is that of a typewriter and is very simple. The statement that the comic is making is “clean living is no fun and you wind up feeling stupid when you still die” and it is split up across the panels.
The comic’s most important aspect is the relationship that develops between the image that provides the background of the comic and the words. It uses this effectiveness of combining images and words to communicate with pathos through logos that no matter what life ends in death so one should not worry about living ‘cleanly.’ The pairing of this with the image of a carnival, where the whole point is to have fun and not care about the supposed cleanliness of what you’re doing, enhances this message. The element of time progression that is present in the comic is the most important aspect of the relationship between the words and the image. This is shown in the motion of the photograph, the framing of the photograph that makes up the three panels, and the separation of the statements in accordance with the photograph panels.
The most obvious evidence of a progression of time in the comic is the motion that is present in the photograph. The photograph seems to be taken by a person who is riding the carnival ride while the ride is in motion. The lights on the other ride carts in the first and second panels and on the center spindle that is in the third panel are clear and easily distinguished as what they are which tells the observer what the ride looks like. On the other hand, the lights that seem to be of a different ride are blurry and are the point of reference that tells the observer that the perspective is moving.
The framing of the photograph also establishes a feeling of time progression because of the continuance of the photograph beyond the separation of the panels. Each panel at first looks like individual photographs that have been left in an almost unfinished process of their development. However the panels are close enough together to recognize that each panel is just part of a whole. When observing the comic, one takes in each panel at a time during the process of reading it but then takes it in as a whole at the end. In the first panel, two carts are visible and give the first indication that the picture is of a carnival ride which represents something fun. The second panel shows a cart that is partially covered up by the words in the panel and not much else is present in the photograph. This brings the focus on the words in that particular panel. The third panel only shows the center spindle of the ride that contains bright lights that may also represent this aspect of the fun carnival. This also brings focus on the final words of the comic.
In accordance with this separation of the photograph that contains certain representations for each panel, there is a separation of the words across the comic. As with the aspect of observing each panel separately, the observer of the comic also reads each statement on its own and processes it that way, and then evaluates the entire sentence at the end. The first panel contains the statement “clean living is less fun” that is itself split in half with the first half at the top of the panel and the second half at the bottom of the panel. The pairing of this statement with the image of the two ride carts that are in the panel is what primes the reader of the comic to this notion of having fun.
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Works Cited:
Michael Baers "Traveling Carnivals". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture. FindArticles.com. 21 Mar, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101246/
Stan Barker "Amusement Parks". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Encyclopedia.ChicagoHistory.org. 21 Mar, 2010. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/48.html
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