Journal #5- Citizen Rex

The idea that McCloud brought up about closure really made me start thinking. Looking at the panel on page 21, this is the scene when Dr. Zazie finds Citizen Rex for the first time impersonating as Tango Bangaree. It goes in a pretty logical order, you can see Dr. Zazie with the hatchet after her men dog-pilled on Rex and how she’s trying to cut off a finger. This panel uses action-to-action transition because there is lines of motion; the lines of the hatchet moving in the first panel with the accompaniment of the ‘Whonk’ sound of her chopping off a finger. McCloud had said in his Understanding Comics piece that closure was what connected the reader to the story, and not only did closure do its work during the comic, but during the breaks between panels. In this page, I thought it was interesting because Gilbert and Mario Hernandez really leave nothing to the imagination here. In the book, McCloud had given the example of the knife slicing the guy and how it was the readers own perception that had given that impression. In the third panel in the middle of the page, it starts off with Zazie building up for a swing, one of her men planting Rex’s hand on the ground, and then, in the middle of the panel, this mini panel interjects with a giant ‘WHUNK!’ sound and a picture of the hatchet cutting off a finger, with blood spurting. It then goes to Zazie looking evilly at the finger and saying that she has the right one. The Hernandez brothers left no doubt in the readers mind that Zazie just got any finger. They made it very clear that it was Rex’s right index finger, and that she was purposely looking for that finger. This interjection shows that this particular finger was important because when she hacked off the other one, it didn’t show in nearly as much detail what finger it was, mostly because it wasn’t important. For me, no closure was used and when I read over it, I was taken back because I wasn’t expecting to see it; I expected to see something like her with the finger saying that she got it. The panel kind of shocked me, in a good way. In the next scene, Rex throws off the ‘Dogpilers’ and runs away, with the dogpilers flying in different direction. This section presents a certain jolt to the reader, it’s only a few pages in, and if they weren’t already confused, with this boss with half of his face falling off, and then there are all these other pawns throwing themselves on him to contain him; and there was this lady with a huge knife wanting this certain finger, and a panel vividly showing this.

               But what I really want to know is: Of what other use could this mini action panel have on not only to the reader, but to the story as well? Why would they add it?