Blog Post #13: Comic Analysis

In today’s world, being connected seems to be becoming more and more important. It seems that every day there is a new way to get in touch with friends and let them know what you are thinking, where you’re going, and even what you had for breakfast. With the invention of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, it is now possible to connect with old friends, new friends, and unknown people all over the world and let them know, in the world of Facebook, “what’s on your mind,” in 140 characters or less. These social networks have become such an integral part of our popular culture, it is now comical how much thought importance we put on having “friends” or “followers,” and how frequently we use and rely on them as a form of communication.

This particular comic from the comic strip “Geek And Poke,” outlines and pokes fun at our extreme dependence on social networks, particularly Twitter. The comic entitled, “The Genesis Of A Tweet,” features a man sitting at his computer deciding what he is going to “tweet” next. He is worried that since he hasn’t tweeted since the previous day he will begin to lose followers, and believes that he needs to find something cool to say to compensate for his lack of postings. In the final panel we see that he has posted, “sitting at the computer, thinking about my next tweet.” It seems that even a tweet about his inability to think of something to tweet is preferable to tweeting nothing at all.

There are several elements that make this comic effective. The man at the computer is very easy for the average person to relate to, and every one of the 6 million Twitter users can see themselves sitting at a computer thinking about what they are going to Tweet next. The setting is established and the character introduced in three panels. The first panel introduces us to the character and we learn thought his thoughts and the thought bubble above his head that he is a Twitter user and hasn’t tweeted anything since the day before. In the second panel, his next thought is conveyed. He is worried that because of his lack of tweets he will lose followers and he thinks that he needs to come up with something cool to say. The third and final panel is the resulting tweet, stating that he is sitting at his computer thinking about what to tweet. The relationship between the panels is formed through the readers’ knowledge that each panel is a depicting a different thought about what to tweet and then the resulting tweet.

Although the comic is hand drawn, the stylistic choices made still allow the reader to examine the topography of the composition. Both of the first two thought bubbles have the same font and size, but the third thought is the tweet that he has posted, and it is formatted in what is traditionally known as the default computer font so that we know it is indeed what he has posted and not just another thought. This topographical analysis adds greatly to our understanding of the message the comic is attempting to convey.