Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 2)

Promethea Annotation #2: The Story of Charlton Sennet

In issue 4, Sophie decides she needs to learn more about Promethea and goes to the library to research one of the men known to have manifested her through his writing. The final panel on page 7 shows Sophie opening to the first page of chapter one of a book about the man's life. Page 8 is a sudden contrast to the previous spread as we move from the flowing illustrations of a hybrid of 1999/immateria to a dreary day in the early 1800s, featuring a desolate man surrounded by fairies. This image begins an 8-page sequence portraying the man's accidental summoning of Promethea into his servant, Anna, and their subsequent affair. The text tells of the timelessness of their experience together, saying, "Each kiss endured while mountains wore to dust. Whole lives passed 'twixt each measured bedboard squeak. So lost were they in their transcendant lust that they knew not the hour, not the day, nor week." JHW3 portrays the contrast between the way time flows when Anna is herself and when Anna is Promethea through page layout and design. On those pages where Promethea dominates, or where the world of the fantastic holds sway, the images usually completely cover the page, bleeding off the edge in a show of continuous time and space (see pages 8, 10, and 12). The layout and shape of the panels on these pages are non-traditional, featuring panels layered overtop a larger image, placed in whatever way suits the background, and usually more than one shape of panel per page.












Issue 4, pgs. 8, 10, and 12

This smooth, expansive style is markedly different from the techniques used on panels where Anna is merely a servant and the material plane is dominant. These areas have more traditional layouts, leaving the gutters between their evenly spaced squares and rectangles empty and white. Panel 1 on page 13 shows this contrast more sharply, placing the two styles directly against each other on the same page. Panel 1 on page 9 is similar. The familiar layout automatically switches the reader back into a more typical mode of comprehending the passage of time by providing a measured, even pace.















Issue 4, pgs. 11 and 13

JHW3 deliberately combines these two conflicting stylistic ideas on the penultimate page of Sennet's story, as a human Anna gives birth to a baby that is only "half real", an idea created between two people and born from the Immateria. While he retains the empty white gutters, the panels take the shape of three vertical columns of varying sizes, bringing back the odd layout and panel shapes.















Issue 4, pg. 14


All images are copyright Alan Moore, J.H. Williams, America's Best Comics, and everyone else involved in Promethea's creation. Not me, in other words.