Hey Look At This Comic: Hilda the 13th
I picked up Mellodillo's gag strip Hilda the 13th recently and basically from the jump I've been trying to figure out a good way to highlight it that isn't just me saying "waow cartooning good". cause the cartooning's real good! expressive and gestural but still really clear, with great sense of strip-based pacing and joke development. it might not update daily but it's exactly the kind of thing that draws me to a daily strip. Oh, and I'm really enjoying the development of the urban fantasy sapphic and witchy setting and its many quirks. Like the appearance of Hilda's mother trapped in her blocky desktop computer:
This specific strip was actually perfect for me, cause it's got such an elegant command of its space and composition. I don't think it comes across as very flashy, but it's the kind of understated control that really impresses me.
Look at the way the "camera" in the scene gradually rotates through the three panels. We start with a head on view, with each character in order of their speech bubbles. Pretty straightforward. The next panel is at something like a 3/4 view (more like 30 degrees or something ,but who's counting). This allows us to focus in getting more detail on Hilda and her mom's expressions. It's a panel where just the two of them have dialogue, so retaining the same shot composition wouldn't make a lot of sense, right? I also just like the shot. It introduces some dynamism to what another strip cartoonist might simplify to a flat composition because that's a bit easier. (If you recall I was similarly wowed by the dynamic compositions in Ted Shearer's Quincy.) Having Hilda at an angle here emphasizes her defensive posture and expression of irritation (and, I'd read, a guilty conscience). And it creates the impression of Mrs G turning to berate Hilda despite the fact that she is, remember, a flat image on a bulky computer screen! There's some real utility in the composition choices.
By the last panel Mellodillo's transitioned us cleanly a full 90 degrees from the first angle, allowing them to once again effectively line the characters up for their dialogue, with Hilda's mom moved to the left so she can more easily set up the punchline exchange. I like that here there's a bit of a zig zag motion through the panel. It's not as straightforward as p1, but that works for me--Hilda's boxed in here by her critics on either side, after all, even if she gets the last word in. Imagine if the composition remained static throughout: the word balloons would have to criss-cross each other awkwardly to accommodate the backward speaking order between Mrs G and Hilda's covenmate Cole. I guess Hilda positioned on the right would more conventionally fit her being the punchline-deliverer but I think the tradeoff to a consistent, static composition adds little and loses lots.
None of this is the kind of flashy weird paneling I tend to highlight, but that's all the more reason for me to do so, I think. It's just good solid technique that's notable precisely because it's meant to work below our direct awareness. Which I suppose makes this a bit like explaining the magic trick, but how else are you going to learn how to cast spells?
I write extremely variable length reviews of comics under my Hey Look At This Comic tag here, and also on my website, so please follow for more talk about comics off the beaten path. If this piece helped you appreciate art more deeply, consider following me on patreon, adding me to your rss reader, and tipping me.
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