Author notes

Page 16

Scott D

on Dec. 27, 2019

Hope everybody had a lovely Christmas! I wanted this page to be largely devoid of dialogue compared to previous ones, and tried to put much more emphasis on Adrienne's expressions to convey the mood. Of course, the world isn't actually silent (I've heard even the famous anechoic room at Minnesota's Orfield Laboratories lets you hear your own heartbeat!), so it just felt incomplete without at least some sounds. I've recently been watching Genndy Tartakovsky's series Primal, which is exclusively dialogue-free, not counting grunts, howls, and roars. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to children, but it uses its visuals masterfully, hearkening back to certain episodes of the creator's earlier animated work, Samurai Jack. Sergio Leone's famous trilogy starring Clint Eastwood also featured extended sequences in which characters communicate purely through the use of body language, and other filmmakers who've made use of similar techniques include Kaneto Shindo (The Naked Island, 1960), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Quest for Fire, 1981), and the animator Chuck Jones in his work on the Wil E. Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons. Circling back around to animation, how could I not mention the many unspoken ripostes of Tom and Jerry? True, sometimes Tom would speak, but only for the sake of a quick gag, and his voice was never as consistent as his inarticulate yelling, typically leaving the supporting cast to deliver any witty banter. I wonder if there are any comics out there that purely use visuals without sound?
—Scott D.

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