Recently, comic book writers have allowed art and visuals to tell more story than dialogue or narration. This technique is called decompression. For the uninitiated, here's a primer on this popular technique:
In comics, words and pictures combine to create dynamic, compelling stories. Despite integrating visual and textual storytelling for decades, many pre-Modern age (arguably before 1990) comic book writers emphasized text over visuals, creating short stories with pictures rather than works of visual storytelling. Recently, comic writers have begun emphasizing visuals over text in comic storytelling. This emphasis on visual storytelling is called decompression. Decompression is a comic book storytelling style that uses visuals to establish mood, develop plot, and enhance characterization. visual narration to develop story and characterization. This style is generally marked by visual mood, widescreen panels, nuanced characterization, and multi-part stories, or story arcs. Decompression rapidly gained popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the influence of decompressed-style comics such as The Authority and Ultimate Spider-Man. Despite its popularity, decompression has been criticized for contributing to slower pacing and plot padding.
Pre-Modern age comic creators established mood and developed character through text and dialogue. In decompressed-style comics, mood is revealed through widescreen panels that display establishing shots, reaction shots, and atmosphere effects. Comic writers instruct artists to use widescreen panels to convey mood without in-depth textual description. Widescreen panels are panels with oversized illustrations, similar to film storyboards; these panels allow creators to establish mood, progress plot, and depict characterization through visual, rather than textual, narration. Comic writers collaborate with illustrators to create widescreen-style visuals, which emulate a cinematic feel. Full-page illustrations, or Splash pages, panoramic scenery shots, and tight close-ups are examples of widescreen visual techniques. Widescreen panels usually have a low text bubble count, which keeps the focus on visuals. This technique contrasts pre modern-age comic panels, which contained considerable text and smaller visuals.
Characterization is another major focus in decompressed storytelling. Decompressed-style writers explore character through visuals, dialogue, and character interaction more than narration or character monologues. Decompressed-style writers encourage collaborating illustrators to develop close-up shots of characters to clearly display the characters’ reactions. Additionally, writers craft dialogue that focuses more on motivation and introspection than exposition. In decompressed comics, character examination and development takes precedence over plot progression. As a result, plot progression is rather slower paced in decompressed comics. Slow plot progression creates multi-part stories. Multi-part stories, or a story-arc, unfold over the course of more than one monthly issue. Prior to the rise of decompression, comic stories were primarily self-contained, single-issue stories. Most decompressed story arcs are released in four to six issues, and, upon completion, collected in a bound format known as the trade paperback. Trade paperbacks are valuable for allowing readers to catch up without having to seek single issues.
The rise of the trade paperback format led to decompressed storytelling becoming the dominant storytelling style in American comics between in the late 90s and the early 2000s. Despite its recent popularity, the origins of decompression can be traced to the early 1980s and Frank Miller’s Ronin. Following influences from Japanese comics, or manga, writer-artist Frank Miller created a six-issue story that diverged from the style of American comics. Manga utilize a visual narrative style that, due to cheaper printing costs and weekly publishing schedules, focuses on character more than plot. Miller used splash pages and visual panels, some sans text, to establish mood and explore the protagonist’s emotional journey. Through the efforts of writers like Miller, decompression slowly became the preferred storytelling style among comic writers. The manga invasion of the late 80s and early 90s would empower the decompression trend that swept the industry near the end of the decade. Manga became a major force in the comic scene due to importing and sales of collected manga editions, or tankoubon, by major booksellers. Consequently, comic creators began using manga visual and narrative styles to reach audiences enthralled by the manga invasion.
In addition to trade paperbacks and manga, the popularity of superstar artists also contributed to the rise of decompression. Superstar artists, like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, were popular for their stylized approaches to comic art. They used their popularity to develop comics where visuals dominated the narrative. By 2001, decompressed comics became the standard, due in large part to the commercial success of titles such as Wildstorm Comics’ The Authority and Marvel Comics’ Ultimate Spider-Man. These factors, combined with successful trade paperback sales, led to decompression becoming the dominant storytelling style in domestic comics. Additionally, trade paperbacks flourished because of comics increasing niche-style market and the growth of national bookseller chains. Today, many comic writers write for the trade. Writing for trade is, essentially, plotting a contained story arc that can be easily collected.
Notable decompressed style writers include Warren Ellis, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar. Warren Ellis’ twelve-issue run on The Authority was one of the first critically and financially successful decompressed titles. Ellis’ The Authority is often regarded as the standard of decompression by many modern comic writers. Brian Michael Bendis is also recognized as a prominent, if controversial, writer of decompressed comics. He is known for using decompression on Marvel titles Ultimate Spider-Man, New Avengers, House of M, and Secret Invasion. Bendis is praised for a deft ability with dialogue and deep characterization. But he is reviled for slow pacing and producing issues with scant plot progression. Mark Millar gained acclaim as writer of two volumes of the critically praised The Ultimates. Millar continued in the tradition of Ellis’ The Authority with The Ultimates where he used decompression to deconstruct popular heroes, in this case Marvel’s revered The Avengers. Millar, along with artist collaborator Brian Hitch, perfected the art of combining widescreen visuals with decompressed storytelling to produce cinematic-style, or widescreen, comics. Titles known for utilizing decompression include Marvel Comic’s Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates, Astonishing X-Men, New Avengers and Wildstorm’s The Authority. Among major publishers, Marvel Comics produces more decompressed style comics than any other publisher.
Decompression has garnered a great deal of controversy due to its divergence from traditional comic storytelling norms. Before decompression, most comics were either an anthology of multiple short stories or single issue, “one-and-done,” narratives. Decompression while praised for deep characterization, palpable mood and engaging visuals is often criticized for slow pacing and padded plotlines. Fans of compressed storytelling find decompressed comics to be financially taxing, as it requires purchasing more issues to obtain a complete story. Financial limitations and preferences for fast paced storytelling have led many fans to criticize decompression. Some creators are reversing the trend by reintroducing compression to comics. Marvel Comics’ Nextwave and The Thing are contemporary examples of compressed comics. However, most modern compressed comics share similarities with decompressed comics including widescreen visuals and deep characterization. But the two styles differ in approaches to plot progression. Plot progression in compressed comics is fast paced with storylines wrapped within one or two issues. Recently the gap between compressed and decompressed comics narrowed as comic creators integrated both styles in titles like Image comics’ Fell and DC Comics’ Pride of Baghdad.
The rise of decompression signals a shift in comics from niche market to mainstream consumption. Competition from other entertainment mediums forced comic publishers to develop a format that appeals to modern audiences while maintaining the basic nature of the comic medium. Decompressed storytelling incorporates universally recognized entertainment conventions, such as widescreen visuals and nuanced characterization, to create comics that appeal to a wider audience. In addition, the practice of writing for trade encourages a streamlined collection of issues that allows readers to quickly catch up with ongoing plots. Despite surrounding controversy, decompression is the preferred storytelling style among comic creators. Decompression integrates visuals and text in a manner pleasing to seasoned collectors and new readers, while pushing the medium beyond its “one and done” roots.
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