
Color has been one of the most important motifs in the history of mankind. It does not require words to mean anything, we often associate colors with certain messages if they are used in the right context. But colors can do more than just making a message clear, for example somebody can come in peace because he/she has a white flag. This shows that color can also be associated with symbolism. By looking at the colors of a picture we can see if it is a peaceful environment, if tension is there, or figure out the overall mood. Almost always we do not even notice the effect of colors though, because our brain already does that for us. In every picture there is certainly a message behind the colors used. The internet blog Hyperbole and a Half provides a great place for comic artist Allie to upload self-made comics. One of the stories is called “Menace”, which uses a certain pattern and contrast of background colors, facial expressions and the costume of the girl/boy (probably herself though) to highlight the protagonist throughout the whole comic story and to create tension.

The first picture is the seventh panel of the comic. Here the girl is shown in her dinosaur costume standing in the middle of a circle of other kids. In the background there is a banner with “Happy Halloween” hanging at the wall. All the kids, who are surrounding the protagonist, also wear costumes and they sit on a red carpet on the floor. Everybody is smiling, except for the girl in the middle. She has a very confused facial expression. The colors used in the picture are warm, there is a lot of dark red on the floor and the wall in the back is mostly dark yellow. The kids around the protagonist are also wearing warm colors like purple or yellow. However, her costume is very bright green. The perspective is a medium shot, you can see the protagonist and what surrounds her, but you cannot see her entirely, only from the waist up. This makes her the center of the picture, she is in the middle of the circle and the perspective centers her. The gaze for this picture is also intra-diegetic, which indicates that the gaze is focused on her being inside the world of the panel.

The second picture is the fifth last picture of the comic. Again, the girl is shown in her dinosaur costume. This time she stands in the kitchen and is coloring the fridge with her hands. In the background you can see the wooden shelves and the tiling floor of a kitchen. The floor behind her is also colored and the Crayola is still laying there. The colors in this picture, used by the girl to draw on the floor and the fridge, are red and yellow. Also brown and a dark green cover the background of the picture. Again, the perspective in this picture is a medium shot, you can see the protagonist’s surroundings, but not her whole body. The gaze is just like in the seventh slide intra-diegetic.

The artist almost always uses warm and darker colors like red, a darker yellow, or a darker green. Through this the protagonist in her costume is always visible and is clearly the center of every picture. You could say she is the glowing center of everything. Another important aspect in this comic is the lack of dialogue, the parents and the teacher talk to the protagonist, but she never replies. And because of this colors have to provide a source of emotions and mood in the different scenes. But they show the thematic concerns in this comic, too. The colors emphasize the girl, and she feels special and different from the others. The protagonist thinks because of this costume she has all the power in the world, so she assumes she is the center of everything. And the colors do support this by highlighting her on every picture she is on because of that bright green.

The artist also has a very specific pattern of using background colors in this comic, important here is the commentary between the panels. Between each commentary there is a certain amount of panels and the setting and especially the colors stay the same in those. It is not a wild change of colors in every picture. Every picture series in this comic has its own unique colors, the most dominant are red, blue and yellow (counted beige as yellow) in the background. Each one of them highlights the protagonist, so the artist not only uses the specific colors to highlight, she also follows a very specific order to make it easier for the reader to follow, and easier to understand in general. Because readers do not need to get used to a huge variety of new colors in each picture, you do not have to get used to a lot of emotions throughout the story. That makes it very easy to read, and the fact that readers need to adjust themselves to the surroundings only in the first picture and can focus on the content of the rest of the picture series, supports this assumption.

The different facial expressions are a very important part of the story as well. There is actually not much variety of facial expression throughout the comic, but they do have a very specific effect. Colors obviously support the mood and the emotions, the facial expressions support this by roughly telling you what is going on in the particular picture. The artist only uses three different expressions. One of them is the protagonist having a dot as a mouth, which means there is nothing good or bad going on. The other two expressions are the mouth angle pointing downwards and the other one is the same with the difference that the protagonist here shows her teeth like she is desperate. A reader could argue here that there are three different tension levels. Theoretically an artist can draw a tension line or a mood line for the entire comic by just considering the colors and the facial expressions. Except for one picture a reader could argue that the facial expressions are never positive and that this is a very dramatic story. The artist wants to show by that the effect power can have on people, especially on a four-year-old girl. It is something which can change people, change their entire character and their values they stand for, like in this case to be serious all the time and explode when your power is threatened.

To sum everything up the comic “Menace” consists of many different aspects, which finally make up the story we know. The impact the colors and facial expressions have in this comic are huge. Just by using certain colors and almost no words the protagonist is the undisputed center of the story, and her facial expressions create the tension, which usually is created by words. Of course some dialogue is used, but you do not actually need it to understand the story and the message behind it. Power changes people, history has demonstrated this many times. The artist provides a great example of a case in an everyday life, and the impact it has on people no matter which age.



