
Visual texts let images lead our interpretations unlike reading a book or article. For my analysis, I chose a four panel comic by “Happiness is just around the corner...work harder, earn more money, buy more things....” by Paul Fitzgerald This image illustrates the consumerism and struggle for wealth and power in America that we know as the “rat race.” The filmic and comic elements like bold panels and bold language in the background to illustrate how America and the American dream is viewed as a rat race. 

We see three main motifs in every panel that change slightly in each frame. The rats, the “Happiness is just around the corner” signs and the advertisements on either side of the frame are repeated in order to leave the audience with a clear impounding impression. The rats are animals we associate with being dirty and running around sewers and gutters, basically we associate them with being lowly creatures. In the first panel the rats have beady eyes and chattering teeth, they looked scared and fearful. The first bolded sign says “WORK HARDER” which seems to inspire fear and haste into the rats. Advertisements on the side read “Get smoother get closer” and “Taste that satisfies,” just as living in America we see these persuasive advertisements that motivate us to want more, leading us to work more. At the top an arrow pointing to the next panel reads “Happiness is just around the corner,” and we see the rats scurry away. The motif continues to the bold sign now reading “EARN MORE MONEY,” which again leaves the rat scared and moving forward into the next panel. The advertisements on the side are ominous of the message of the poem “Stay ahead of the race.” This is where the audience can put two and two together, that this is a depiction of “the rat race.” We are the rats and society is barking at us with these demands and advertisements. As the “happiness is just around the corner signs loom yet again,” the rats run into the next panel which reads “BUY MORE THINGS.” Another step in the rat race, the advertisement on the side reads “ Spoil yourself, luxury.” All of these are what we believe are happiness, and are a part of what we know as “the rat race” in our society. The last panel reads “KEEP GOING” with the same “Happiness is just around the corner” arrow at the top, even though the comic is completed. The motifs of the rats, the bolded advertisements, and the “happiness is just around the corner” arrow that leads the rats from place to place, make an impression on the audience because of their repetition and prominence in the panel. 

The language of comics is a tool that helps us interpret a visual text, here the panels, gutters and dialogue play an important role. The Comics in Education website defines comics as:

 A geometric shape that contains a scene from a visual narrative. It can occupy the whole or a part of a page. Panels are the organizational framework of comics--the moments of action--and the reader must stitch the sequence of panels together to derive meaning from the work (Comics in Education). 

 It is what makes a comic truly a comic, and here seeing each panel is like their own individual stories incorporated into one large picture. The “gutter” in between panels is the space that divides each panel, it can vary in size and gives us the blank space to develop our thoughts on each panel leading into the next. Dialogue also plays a large role in a comic, here the dialogue is provided through the signs and advertisements that lead the rats around. We do not have any actual dialogue from the rats themselves, but their facial expressions provide us with the emotion that they are feeling at that time. 

Like the language of comics, filmic language plays a role in any creative work. Here we see a simulated environment, which we can interpret to be America. This environment can also be known as diegesis, the world represented in the visual text. The “rat race” pictured is something that we see in each panel, but also here in America. The intensity of the images may not seem harmful or striking, but the shades of black and white, bold and un-bolded words make it easy for the audience to understand what is more important to the piece. It is simple, but in its simplicity the reader can decide for themselves. As far as our as attention, it is definitely drawn to the bolded signs and advertisements more than the rats. Now, the rats themselves being our main character, are more drawn to these too, and are running from panel to panel as the artist depicts. In a film work, we find there are different camera angles and shots a producer or director can choose from. Here we are in an almost close up, like a little box that becomes the rats world. 

All of these elements help us determine the main message of this comic, that in our society there is a “rat race”. The pressure of urban working life is depicted with the rats chasing happiness and being told boldly to “work hard” and “earn more money.” These repeated motifs show us the rat race they go through. Each panel transitions and the audience is almost as exhausted as the rats by the time the piece is over. The rat race here in America is an exhausting chase we go on letting others make our decisions for us. Because of the way the comic is laid out, it is a simplified depiction of this struggle. 

The elements of film and comedic strategy help us take a simple visual text and interpret it into something with much more meaning. By using them in this comic we see a view of America that is full of greed and haste. 