The Symbolic Meaning of Widescreen Panels in “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr”

“The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” by Ram V and Filipe Andrade makes ample use of wide panels that take up the entire width of the comics page. This is not an unusual technique, but this story uses it more than most. How does this affect our interactions with the story? 1/11

The frequent use of wide panels might recall the “widescreen comics” style, typified by Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch’s work on “The Authority.” For Ellis & Hitch, “widescreen comics” was a way of creating a cinematic atmosphere, appropriate for tableaus of spectacularly devastating violence. 2/11
In “Laila Starr,” Andrade is as likely to use wide panels for quiet moments as bombastic ones. But his wide panels still evoke cinematic proportions. While comics pages are always much smaller than movie screens, Andrade is making moments bigger by using as much space as possible. 3/11
This pursuit of “big moments” reflects this story’s ambitious scale. This is a story about big concepts like gods and the nature of mortality, spotlighting a protagonist who both is Death and repeatedly defies it. It’s also a story that often skips across large stretches of time. 4/11

In “Understanding Comics,” Scott McCloud discusses panel width and spacing as ways of using space to communicate time. Longer panels or longer spaces between panels can create the illusion of longer spaces of time, encouraging us to pause in the emptiness. 5/11

In “Laila Starr,” the use of wide panels tends to be less literal than in the examples McCloud uses. Yet in many cases, the wide panels do correspond with the omniscient narrator summarizing major events or the passage of time, which can still be a way of using space to communicate time. 6/11

Choices about panel size and spacing can also, of course, have symbolic meanings. For instance, removing a panel border or isolating characters in space can conjure a timeless or contemplative atmosphere. McCloud argues that the “unresolved nature” of such panels compels the reader to linger. 7/11

In different moments of articulation, the wide panels in “Laila Starr” might have different symbolic meanings. But in general, one possible interpretation would be that these wide panels symbolize the negotiation of omniscience and vulnerability that informs Death’s journey in Laila’s body. 8/11

On the one hand, the wide panels show us a lot; each panel is a cinematic tableau. On the other hand, it’s a narrow view, which Andrade can further restrict by using thinner panels or expressionistic close-ups. Like Death/Laila, our experience of this world is at once expansive and restricted. 9/11

The use of wide panels can also suggest an equivalency between separate scenes and moments, suggesting the interconnection of big moments and small ones, all of which are blown up to equal proportions and presented in symmetrical relations on the page. 10/11

Other techniques might be used to communicate similar symbolism. But Ram V and Filipe Andrade’s choice to tell this particular story in this particular way is deeply meaningful, showcasing the thoughtful interconnection of form and content. 11/11

Back to Threads!