Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 6)

Promethea Annotation #6: When New York is Normal...














Issue 4, pgs. 17-19

Before delving into the complex issues of time and space associated with the Immateria, it is useful to establish a baseline against which these excerpts can be judged. While the characters are in New York, the frames of the panels are made of clean lines and forms. Often, they are typical rectangles; sometimes the frame shape is more creative, though no less cleanly executed (see above, pgs. 17-19). In the Immateria, however, frames are always formed of unsteady, wavy lines, rough edges, or highly decorative lines.

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 5)

Promethea Annotation #5: Symbolic Space

Arguably one of the most spatially complicated spreads in the book is in issue 5 on pages 18 and 19.
















The time in this panel is measured once again by the dialogue. What is not readily apparent, though, is that space seems to be measured by the dialogue as well. What appear at first glance to be panels containing symbols and images laid over a continuous background are in fact backgrounds that, at certain points in time, become the continuous background themselves. As the characters fly over each panel, the symbols and colors shown within that panel are actually being experienced by the characters as an entire environment, as filling the immediate area around them for as long as the dialogue placed over that panel takes. This is proven by the dialogue on page 19 as the characters fly over the red panel characterized by the symbols of the scales and the sword:

Sophie: "Whoah! Th-the weather feels like it's getting rougher!"
Margaret: " We're moving through the stern and martial stratospheres of universal judgement, tilting in the very balance of the cosmos. Hold tight, Sophie. Hold tight..."
Sophie: "...Where did all these rain clouds come from?
Margaret: "Past universal judgement are the sheltering, Jupiterian skies of universal mercy, where the gods of storm and lightning play."

It can be seen from this dialogue that the characters are experiencing these thematic panels not just as images projected in space, but as dynamic, physical spaces. This is further proven by the final panel of the page, referred to by Margaret as the "skies of universal mercy", where we see the lightning not only inside the panel, but outside as well.

Promethea: Temporal Analysis (example 4)

Promethea Annotation #4: Where You Most Expect It

As is typical of most of JHW3's art in this book, the dividing line caused by the binding of the book should be ignored and the two facing pages should be treated as one large spread.

This spread, when taken by itself, is one of the most temporally and spatially normal layouts in the book. The background forms a continuous space, and time passes as Sophie stands on the beach, climbs up the hill, and stands overlooking the shore. The panels magnify small portions of this space from the recent past (left, page 22) and immediate future (right, page 23), with the time of the background space as a temporal reference point. These panels also serve to direct the reader's eye through the correct chronology, leading us down the first column of panels, across the beach, up the middle, and then from the top of page 23 down. Easy to follow, logically shaped and laid out.

However, there is one small artistic clue JHW3 gives us about the sudden spatial shift that comes on page 24. The very edge of page 23, the portion bounded by the panels and the edge of the page, is dark gray and filled with sharp, black plants. As the reader turns the page, the brightly colored, sparkling beach gives way to the ominous, forbidding gates of Hy Brasil. This phenomenon shows how space and time can be altered by mere thoughts in the Immateria. Just before the page turn, Sophie says, "They wander out of the safe and sane areas of their minds, and they wind up somewhere bad and wild," and when she looks up, the bad and wild has come to her, manifested by her thoughts. The fact that space is so malleable in this world has an impact on temporal issues as well. Does it take time to travel, or are you always where you need to be going? Does traveling take an unexpected amount of time, because your thoughts keep accidentally manifesting, distracting from the journey (if there is one)? The implications are quite complicated.












Issue 5, pgs. 22-24