We now return to this episode of adamroll13's attempts to explain comic books to those who care deeply or those who should recognize them as a valid if under appreciated American art form.   The reader, our hero, is struggling with how to understand the structure of comic books in terms of story arcs, single issue episodes, and long term epics.  While the forces of apathy combat the efforts of the truly interested, the reader recovers and reads on into exciting territory.

The beginning of a comic book is meant to draw you in quickly, completely, and to keep you from placing it back on the rack of comic books you are browseing through, in an attempt to get you to indulge and perhaps begin collecting another storyline.  Such beginnings are also ways to excite fans about the format.  If the beginning of a comic is flat or discursive, the comic book can drag, and excitement and anticipation are the name of the game when drawing in the reader and getting her to part with his hard earned cash.

Crisis and resolution are the key words in any attempt to write comic books with successful structure.  The tradition and history of comic books is long, and there are exceptions to the rule, but I would say at least 90 percent of the time a comic begins with the resolution of a crisis, then a stage is set for the next movement, this excitement builds to a climax, and at the end of the comic book a new crisis is introduced to get you salivating for another month of comic book hunger.  Long time readers can picture that attention grabbing scene at the end of their favorite comic that has them waiting with baited breath for the next issue.

The history of the modern cliffhanger begins in the pulp magazines of the 1920s-30s where the same purpose was served only the crisis was introduced in prose instead of a brilliant full page image.  The ideas are the same: the hero is captured by the villain with only moments left to live, a revelation is made that would change everything if it is true, or a battle is joined by another adventurer who will now assist our hero in seeking vengeance.  This structural accoutrement is crucial to maintaining interest in comic books over the long term, but there are variants to the cliffhanger mainstay.

While the comic books I describe above are told in a multi-issue story arc, there are a fair number of single issue stories where the crisis is resolved and solved within the 21, or 22, pages of a traditional comic book.  Ultimately they serve as movements in a larger story about a character that is always journying towards or away from a multi-issue storyline.

Every once in a long while the comic book companies try to publish serialized books where there are three or more separate stories written in an even shorter form in one comic.  In only five or six pages an episode begins, excites, and climaxes.  These are rare; Solo Avengers, Marvel Presents, and Dark Horse Presents stand out as good examples of the form from the eighties.

It is also important to remember that many comic books are epic tales about the same character that have taken place collectively over as many as eighty years of transformations, deaths, resurrections, and journeys through a world where the hero learns what it means to serve the world while constantly threatened by the forces of evil.  In  the long term the structure of the comic is similar to that of classic mythology, a hero is born, fights, wins, loses, returns from loss to rise again and then transcends.  This can be viewed best in long running series such as Superman, Batman, or Captain America.  While there are times when the hero from long ago looks nothing like her modern day counterpart, there are other times when it is amazing how well the tone has been maintained through the decades.

The shape of multi-issue crossovers can be ungainly or well balanced.  Using two DC examples to keep from sounding biased: the Green Lantern Epics of the past couple of years have been incredible, while the Final Crisis story was generally found lacking by many readers.  It is difficult to the extreme to get all the separate writers and artists to participate in a schedule where each book has ramifications for all the others.  The best balance is set when one writer in particular helms the cross-overs and directs the other writers towards a common goal.  The old adage "too many cooks spoil the soup" is adequate in this regard.  But these comics can have so many interlocking pieces that it is the connections between the different books that heightens the suspense and makes anticipation of the resolution exciting, instead of just necessary.

In the end the hub reader has more questions, is fraught with conviction that there is even more going on in this complicated art form, but is stymied by the author who has said all he has to say this morning as he hungers for revenge, more comic books, and breakfast.  Stay tuned to see if the reader will have comments, questions, or violent complaints in future episodes of: adamroll13!