This page demonstrates one of my favorite elements of Rachel’s prowess for visual storytelling: onomatopoeias. Or, for those not familiar with the term, words that signify sounds. I’ve talked a little about this many years ago, but I absolutely love the addition of onomatopoeia as a “scene builder.” By that, I don’t mean a literal scene with a script and characters and a location — I mean the prospect of building a reality in your mind as you read the panels and look at the actions within the art. There is always a time and place for onomatopoeia in visual storytelling — it’s a tool like any other.

I’m sure Rachel could expound on her technique a lot more than I, but I always see onomatopoeia as something built into general “feel”. Does an action feel like it’s heavy enough or expressive enough without the sound? Does the action feel like it’s actually happening in front of you without the sound? In the page this week, there’s very little dialog, but a lot of action. The scene itself, therefore is kind of acting in a way — speaking lines to tell you things. The familiar sounds of a heavy iron key in a lock, the creaking of hinges on a heavy wooden door, the slam of wood and metal and stone, and the telltale klunk (with a period no less!) to suggest the finality and inevitable silent beat of a lock being reapplied.

Let’s take a moment to look at one of the masters of onomatopoeia: Bill Watterson:

This is a mostly silent scene, but Watterson’s use of onomatopoeia drives home every single action you see. In panel 4, when the spring launches Calvin into the air, you might not need the SPROING sound to show what’s happening, but you can feel that it needs to be there. It adds to the humor, and doesn’t detract. Every use of it helps build an imagine and sound in your mind of this preposterous “bedtime machine”.

But even Watterson knew when to hold back, because onomatopoeia can also detract from a scene if used improperly. Let’s take a look at another Calvin and Hobbes comic:

The final panel is a water balloon gag. Very visual, very effective! There’s definitely a sound we can hear when Hobbes does this, but why didn’t Watterson plug it in? I mean, in the previous comic, he had a “SPLOOSH” sound for when Calvin fell into a tub, so why the inconsistency?

To put it simply, it’s because we don’t need to know what the sound is here. The joke is 100% built on the visual of Hobbes spraying Calvin with the water. Adding a “FFSSSH” or something else there would have, objectively, helped you complete the image of this scene in your mind, but it wouldn’t have added anything to the joke. The onomatopoeia would have, in this case, compromised the flow and aim of the comic’s story.

Before guest art this week, I’ve wanted to share this spoof Rachel put together of the Chapter 3 title image for a very very long time, but I’ve repeatedly kept forgetting for reasons passing understanding.

See?! How could I forget to post that up for you?? I feel like it captures Chapter 3 perfectly.

Anyway, sorry, Rachel — I couldn’t resist.

LASTLY! For guest art, I wanted to share this amazing (and timely) piece from reader RM Fung, who was inspired by the wonderful new PS4 open-world action adventure game Horizon: Zero Dawn. For those not in the know, Horizon takes place in a post-post-apocalyptic future where human society has collapsed and reverted to tribalism, and the world is overrun by giant robot animals. The protagonist hunts these robots with a sweet suite of bows and arrows (and other trap-making tools), so Quin might be right at home here!

I’ve been playing Horizon for a while now and I love it, though Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has kinda grabbed all my attention as of late. But I love the idea of a giant mechanical robo-treewalker! And I love the detail in the piece — it really does sell the idea. Hopefully Quin isn’t too far out of his depth here!