Steve —

In the world of comics, as in the world of general relativity, size = time. (Okay I suppose in the case of general relativity size = distortion of time, or more properly ‘mass’ = distortion of time) So when we’re not talking about the lensing of the first light from the early universe, we are talking about a readers’ experience with an image, a page.

In the world of comics, size = time.

Now the truth is our incredible artist Lucas is in actuality a Cylon sent from beyond the Moon to distract us with amazing art while the toasters implement their “plan” (Seriously what was the Cylons plan in BSG ‘04? The ‘destroy all humans’ part  was working for them but the Human internment camp seemed like too much squeeze for not enough juice.) His machine quality production has gifted us with some absolutely amazing pages, frames and spreads. Today’s image is no less moving, if not as grand as the first glimpse of the Hanging Village.

In the world of comics, size = time.

Jea has a mission, given to her by Oba. She is on her way to spread word to the Villagers. The Kut, the terrain she must cross has been a great expanse for story telling before. Now it’s obscured, uncertain. Always a dangerous place, the sudden gusts of wind and storms of dust cast a more sinister veil over what had been presented before as a beautiful landscape. To Jea this is simply her walk home. To us, the storytellers, it’s a chance to place her in her time and space, to place the reader in the same experience as Jea, if only for a page and a brief animation. The whole image is her experience in this particular place and time. It may not be a renaissance fresco, but it does hold you, the reader, in the moment with our heroine. A kind of ‘Mercerian’ shared experience where Lucas’s incredible (destroy all humans!) animation serves as an ersatz empathy box. (Points in the comments if you can tell me what I’m talking about.)

In the world of comics, size = time.

When your whole presentation is one simple image, it’s not meant for readers to scan and click past with expediency. When the whole presentation is one image, that image is the entirety of the experience being shared. For this time Jea is alone, on The Kut, battered by wind and blasted by dust. She knows where she’s going next, but do we?