Comic Relief through Comic Review

This article explores the existing narrative arcs within Jason's Hey, Wait... by contextualizing a critical framework for stylistic and content interpretation that influence a possible perception of the text's constituent structure.         Narrative arcs, theorist Neil Cohn discusses in The Visual Language of Comics , exist as a “narrative grammar” in the graphic novel and comic genres that function as “visual sentence[s]” (70). Unlike sentences, though, “Arcs do not overtly mark their beginnings (such as with capital letters) or endings (such as with periods). […] Despite this lack of overt markings, readers can intuitively sense where these segments begin and end in an ongoing sequence” (70). Though I agree with his notion regarding this typical intuition we have as readers, I posit that our understanding of a narrative arc can individually shift based on each individual interpretation of the entirety of the visual language elements incorporated throughout a work. Coh

The text utilized for this review is Snider’s hardcover, illustrated edition of The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity . For those interested in taking a closer look at this text and/or Grant Snider's work, please consult the following citation, ISBN information, and URL: Snider, Grant. The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity . Illustrated Edition ed. New York: Abram Comicarts, 2017. Print.   ISBN: 978-1419723179 http://www.incidentalcomics.com/ Through his website entitled Incidental Comics , Grant Snider—featured in The Best American Comics in 2013—publishes a myriad of subject matter through comic strips that frequently demonstrate seemingly universal truths and experiences. Within topics ranging from “Character Development” and “The Ingredients of Shakespeare” to “Starlight (a comic for Father’s Day), Snider personally, literally, figuratively, and humorously communicates his perspective on commonly shared human experien