Surprise!

A confounded look into Jim Woodring's Frank in the River

How can comics instill emotions and cause emotional reactions in readers without using words to describe how they should feel or what should make them feel that way? Jim Woodring does a marvelous job with his comic Frank in the River. The drawing style is simple and colorful, there is no particular quirky appearance to the drawings until it is necessary for an emotion to be conveyed.

It starts off with a calm story of Frank the squirrel walking a round a colorful scene doing mundane tasks until he meets his employer, a swine-goblin of sorts that is difficult to look at. Surely the intention of this appearance is to cause some kind of distaste in the reader for this particular character the same way protagonist squirrel must have some negative feelings toward his new employer.

The next day Frank discovers some critters climbing the fence of his employers home and his expression is disturbingly surprised. In contrast with is calm demeanor in the rest of the comic, this face not only describes what he is feeling, but makes the reader feel the same way, not toward the critters perhaps, but toward him.

More of these stunned looks are shown throughout the comic but every time is it a shock to see in comparison to the rest of the comic. The emotions are reflected off the character and projected into the readers mind flawlessly instilling a strong emotional connection between the reader and the work without using a single word. Showing something to instill emotions is clearly better than describing it, yet we are used to reading in depth descriptions that draw us into the emotional atmosphere of the story, however in comics we are looking at cartoons with very simple features.

So how does the author convey a complicated feeling with very few lines of a drawing? By placing these lines in a masterful and thoroughly expressive arrangement setting it apart from its surroundings and stun the reader.