The excerpt from Jonathan Hennessy’s graphic novel The United States Constitution, a Graphic Adaptation acts as both a summary of the Preamble of the Constitution and an analysis of its historical context. This critical simplification of the document effectively provides a symbolic visual depiction of how the evolution of the Constitution’s content mirrors the evolution of individual rights in American society. The technical elements of Hennessy’s comic encourage his audience to draw conclusions based on previous background knowledge and historical context. The comic examines political and socioeconomic issues through the use of such elements as color, captions and closure to relate to the average reader how the United States’ government has evolved in conjunction with its social climate. 

The most immediately evident characteristic of Hennessy’s style is his manipulation of color to place certain connotations on different images. The comic's varying color palette displays contrast between different scenes in American history by alternating between warm and cooler colors. The panels with the warmest colors such as reds and oranges seem to convey the harshest connotations of different American social, economic, and political characteristics. Some warm colors show eras of less balanced equality and distribution of power, for example, in the lower and right most image in the splash in which American citizens cast votes in a ballot box.  This can be seen as criticism of a history of a political culture marked by discriminatory election fraud. Warm and neutral colors in the top of the splash (orange, yellows and bluish greens) which color in a scene of a suburban neighborhood that appears to exist in the mid 20th century could be mild criticism of American domestic during a time of perceived cultural homogeneity and social inequality. It could also be symbolic of unstable American industries such as the housing and automobile industries, which at certain times in American history have been a staple of economic growth, but more recently have proven to be susceptible to shady business practices and foreign competition. On the second page, the warm and cool colors contrast historic and modern technology in the first tier to compare technological change with America’s societal moral progression through the juxtaposition of old-fashioned and modern navigational technologies. In the next two tiers, the first displays warm yellows, oranges and reds which can be interpreted to represent conflict between an exclusive group of people holding power and the victims of their abuses of power; the second displays darker purples and blues to show to relative ease of tension between government and its subjects in the United States due to changes in the Constitution. 

Captions also play an important role in developing Hennessy’s argument throughout the excerpt. The first page’s captions serve simply to remind the reader of the statutes of the United States Constitution. This technique serves to condemn the idealization of the Constitution and to analyze the progress of its realization. In the second pages, Hennessy uses captions explicitly to form an argument and associates each point in his argument with an image or set of images that provides more historical context to what is stated with language. The caption in the first tier of the second page cites a vastly different “moral universe” between The United States’ past and present social landscapes. This serves as a thesis for Hennessy’s argument that the moral characteristics of those who hold power in America have developed positively since the country’s beginning, when an exclusive group of white land-owning men held power. As the caption explains, “Only members of that group could vote or be elected to office,” referring to the nations restrictive electorate access. In the middle tiers of the second page, early US citizens clash with Native Americans as they try to defend an American flag locked in a safe which is symbolic of the government not granting true sovereignty to its constituents. The third tier establishes the essentiality of the Constitution’s amendments in coming to better serve all Americans by expanding eligibility to benefit from its provisions, as a result of different Suffrage movements in American history. Finally, the last tier’s caption concludes Hennessy’s argument by reflecting more upon America’s history of political exclusion, citing these events as “the most unflattering chapters of the nation’s history.” This establishes Hennessy’s firm condemnation of the history of American politics and finishes the excerpt with an unambiguous thought-provoking remark. 

 Finally, the style of the comic is meant to supplement Hennessy’s written message; his bleak, vaguely realistic depictions of different American landscapes provide somewhat of  a disorganized timeline of America’s political, social and economic history. The main stylistic tool Hennessy employs to enhance his argument is closure. His careful manipulation of the individual elements of each panel provoke further analysis of the images after which the viewer can draw conclusions about the context of his argument. This is especially evident on the second page where Hennessy divides panels using several different gutters and borders to more distinctly separate similar elements. For example, the first tier of the second page is isolated by the borders underlining its images separating it form the next tier and the borders and gutter bisecting them to indicate the juxtaposition of the compass and the mobile GPS. The next two tiers are grouped together by a lack of significant borders; their arrangement highlights the American government’s development and expansion of sovereignty. The final tier is separated by one border and a slight gutter between the second and third tiers. This tier is the most isolated as it is the only tier separated by a continuous border across the page. Its solitude reinforces its purpose as the conclusion of Hennessy’s argument.

Hennessy’s use of graphic imagery to analyze the effects of the Constitution and its variable format serves a purpose beyond simple casual entertainment. The art used in the excerpt of the graphic novel is supplemental to its message, affecting the reader subliminally and influencing their perception of the argument and its historical context. The cartoonist effectively communicates his opinion without revealing too much with language. Graphics, captions and style are all mixed to conceive a uniquely cryptic argument that requires some understanding of current and historical issues, even if they are relatively familiar.