The Thesis of my essay talked about the two main characters’ relationships with their mother through images in the graphic novel and through their actions and words. My argument was that the mothers and their behaviors were very similar, especially when it came to emotional manipulation, after finding out their children were different from others.
Before writing my essay, I think I would say I had the most trouble with picking my pages. I would find an interesting page in one book, but when having to look for another one that had similarities, I struggled with finding another one. Therefore, I started thinking of themes that we had discussed in class about Stitches, and then flipped through Spinning to hopefully find a match. Things that helped me through this process were looking at similarities within the images on the pages that I was planning on using to compare.
Personally, I am used to writing a comparison essay where you talk about the 2 books in the same paragraph. However, this was my first time using ABT for my thesis at the end, and I would say it was somewhat difficult. I had trouble putting my entire essay into just a few sentences and making sure it would stick to the proper format.
Doing this assignment allowed me to do a deep dive into the images of the comics. Specifically, I think the biggest thing I notice was that in Spinning Tillie’s mother was represented with light, while in Stitches, David’s mother was represented with shadows. Light played a big role in contrasting the child from their mother in emotional times throughout the text.
The Tracing process that I endured before beginning my essay was quite a long process for me. I used this part of the assignment as a moment to plan for the actual essay. I brainstormed for a couple of days on what pages I wanted to trace and how they would relate to each other and the little differences that they would have. I then went through the process of annotating. This part of the planning is where I gathered my thoughts on the two pages and began to understand the pages and plan for my essay.
Writing in the ABT format was very different than what I grew up doing and was something that I felt took some getting used to. In my original draft that I made before starting my finished essay, I found myself often slipping back into old habits. I really tried to stay focused on the ABT structure and as I began to write more, I felt that writing in this format became a little clearer to me.
This assignment where we took a deeper look into these two comics allowed me to analyze a piece of writing unlike what I’ve ever done before. While reading through, I looked for little details that stood out to me as something that the author was trying to convey. I noticed the acts of realism that David small used to convey important scenes and Tillie Walden’s use of exploding color to illustrate emotions that she was feeling.
My backpack holds my laptop, ipad, air pods, gum, a claw clip, lip balms, pens, a water bottle, and a small bag. This assignment made me realize how few things I carry in my backpack. I feel as through this picture represents how simple I am by the minimal objects I carry in my bag. I prioritize comfort over everything which is why I try to carry as few items as possible.
Working on this tracing project was honestly a lot different from most essays I’ve written, but I actually ended up learning a ton from it. Tracing and annotating the pages from Stitches and Spinning made me slow down and really look at the panels, the spaces, and the way the authors used light, repetition, and silence to tell the story. I noticed things I probably would have missed if I had just read the pages normally, like how the small details in panel layout can make a moment feel lonely, scary, or comforting. Writing the essay with the ABT thesis at the end was also new for me—I had to hold back from stating my main argument at the start and instead build up to it, which actually made me think harder about the patterns I was seeing across both books. Overall, the biggest thing I learned is just how much the visuals in these comics do the storytelling. They’re not just pictures to go along with the words, but a whole language on their own. My thesis is that silence works differently in each book. Forced and traumatic in Spinning, chosen and protective in Stitches. In both cases, the authors use visual techniques to make those silent moments meaningful, showing that silence in comics is its own kind of expression.
https://engrd101f25.davidmorgen.org/assignments/tracing-pages/
Silent Spaces
In graphic memoirs, silence can be just as powerful as dialogue. Both David Small in Stitches and Tillie Walden in Spinning use silence, space, and repetition to diagram how adolescents deal with isolation, trauma, and self-expression. On page 169 of Spinning, after a car accident, Tillie states, “I feel like I swallowed my own voice.” The panels are minimal and filled with soft blues, making her sense of isolation feel very real. Tillie’s figure appears small and confined within the car, highlighting her emotional constriction. In a similar way, on page 215 of Stitches, the scene where David is alone in a dark auditorium watching the same film over and over again, uses darkness, shadows, and a comically small figure to depict a quiet refuge. Both pages depend on the visual layout of panels, light, and space instead of words to convey internal feelings.
In Spinning, the repetition of panels and steady pacing create a pattern that reflects Tillie’s internal thoughts. The lack of dialogue forces the reader to pay attention to her body language, the shading, and the surrounding space. Her “swallowed voice” becomes apparent through visual elements, such as the emptiness of the car’s interior, and the soft color of the page. Hillary Chute notes that “comics can represent the unspeakable not by filling in but by leaving open—by making space for absence” (Chute, Comics for Grown-Ups?). Walden puts this idea into use by showing how her silence takes up space, and the reader engages by interpreting the emotional severity of the scene.
In Stitches, Small also uses panel arrangement and lighting to convey deeper meaning of David’s thoughts. The auditorium is shrouded in darkness except for the light from the film, which emphasizes David’s small figure alone at the center of the theater. Unlike Tillie’s silence, which signifies trauma and limitation, David’s chosen silence provides solace and comfort. His isolation is a choice, allowing him to escape the overwhelming noise of his home life. The large and constant panels and the projection beam slow down the narrative, giving the audience a moment to breathe. Both methods illustrate how comics can manipulate our sense of time to enhance emotional effects.
Ultimately, these pages reveal how silence is used differently depending on context. Spinning shows silence as involuntary, imposed by trauma and internalized repression, and Stitches shows silence as voluntary, a protective retreat chosen by the narrator, but in both cases, the authors use visual strategies—light, space, repetition, and panel arrangement—to make these silent experiences emotionally legible, therefore both memoirs demonstrate that silence and stillness in comics are not emptiness but powerful forms of expression and agency.
Before writing your essay, you went through a pretty involved process of tracing and annotating two pages from the books. Briefly explain what that process was like for you — probably this was very different from most other writing you’ve done, so try to explain what was useful about the process for you. What productive thoughts or analysis occurred through the act of tracing and annotating?
This process challenged me to move away from the traditional high school five-paragraph essay format. Tracing and annotating pushed me to think more visually and analytically rather than just structurally. It helped me compare the two comics in a more connected and meaningful way, since I was looking at how their artistic techniques worked together instead of writing about each one separately. Overall, it made me focus on the comics as complete visual arguments and encouraged me to analyze how form, design, and storytelling interact on the page.
For this assignment, I asked you to be very conscious of writing an inductive essay with an ABT thesis at the end, which is probably a pretty foreign way to structure an essay for you. How did your writing process change to address this assignment?
Instead of placing the thesis at the beginning of my essay, I decided to include it in the final paragraph because it reflects the natural flow of my thinking — I developed idea A first, then idea B, and the thesis emerged as a conclusion that tied them together. Writing inductively felt more like building an argument step by step rather than announcing it upfront. I also found it interesting to write without a traditional introduction, since it allowed me to dive directly into analysis and let my ideas unfold more organically.
This assignment is a close reading exercise focused on identifying aspects of the “secret language of comics,” the series of choices the authors make in crafting comics that probably pass by many readers with little or no conscious notice. Do you feel that this assignment helped you to get in on this secret language? Do you understand Stitches and Spinning better after having written this project? What’s the single biggest insight you gained about the two books during the process of tracing, annotating, and analyzing these pages (maybe something you “knew” on some level before you started but that you really get now, or maybe something you hadn’t really noticed until you worked on the project)?
Yes, I do think this assignment helped me understand the “secret language of comics” more deeply, and I definitely understand Stitches and Spinning better after completing it. The project pushed me to look beyond the surface and notice how artistic choices—like framing, shading, and color—communicate meaning just as powerfully as words. I found it especially valuable to slow down and compare the two pages closely, since comics require a kind of careful, visual reading that traditional literature does not. I really enjoyed annotating the artists’ styles and thinking about why they chose specific visual techniques to convey emotion. My biggest realization was how both artists express emotional repression through their limited use of color—Small’s grayscale and Walden’s muted tones both reveal silence and pain without directly showing it. It made me appreciate how subtle design choices can hold so much emotional weight.
Assignment Prompt / Project
Thesis: My thesis for my project was (in and, but, therefore structure): The organization of panels to manipulate time and disposition of images to stimulate emotion are formal tools within the production of comics, but their subtle integration allows readers to unconsciously dwell on a scene which the author wants to emphasize, therefore catalyzing a deeper interpretive engagement between the reader and the text.
Argument Preview: My argument for my project was that both David Small and Tillie Walden effectively used the unique format of comics to deeper engage readers and allow them to analyze the novel in a way that was beyond simply pictures.
Reflection Questions: – The process of tracing and annotating was useful and engaging for me. I have never traced a page like that before, mainly because I am only used to reading prose literature. However, in terms of annotating, it is a process that I am used to doing within my own reading. It helps me gain an understanding of a page or a piece of text beyond its surface level, and with that it becomes easier to recognize clear patterns, similarities, and differences. – My writing process itself didn’t necessarily change with the inductive ABT structure, but I did have to go back and revise my essay much more often than usual. Especially in writing the first paragraph, I had a lot of trouble differentiating between a topic sentence/opening, and a thesis statement. Countless times, I accidentally opened the paragraph with something that was too close to a thesis, resulting in constant editing and revision. – This project certainly helped me understand the secret language of comics in a better way. I wouldn’t say it necessarily helped me understand the stories themselves, but more so how they were structured. I think the biggest thing for me was that the intentionality behind the disposition of every scene and panel shone through to me. Generally, when reading prose literature, especially poems, everything is already intentional. However, with comics, I now understand how that intention carries through to the panels, the gutters, the structuring of these elements, the art, the style of the art, and all of these parts to consider.
In David Small’s Stitches and Tillie Walden’s Spinning, both authors use the intentional organization of panels as a way to manipulate the passage of time within a scene. Both novels include pages in which a single moment is divided into three panels, each depicting that moment from a different perspective. In these instances, StitchesandSpinningfollow similar patterns in the way their panels are layered. The first panel on each page zooms into a certain aspect scene from a certain perspective. For example, on page 22 of Stitches, the first panel is a zoomed-in image of the x-ray machine from beneath, likely being the from David’s perspective on the table. On page 41 of Spinning, there is a similarly zoomed-in image of Tillie, from the perspective of her glasses which are laying on the ice. The second panel on both pages acts as a reciprocity in perspective of the first one. Still zoomed-in, but this time an image of David’s face from the perspective of the x-ray machine, or Tillie’s glasses from Tillie’s perspective. Finally, the third panel on both pages is a completely zoomed-out image of both entire scenes, ‘closing out’ the scene in a sense. Through this tri-panel organization, both scenes become elastic and elongated in time, and their importance is emphasized without any additional words or details.
Within these scenes and panels, the disposition of elements in each panel also assists in manipulating the passage of time within a scene, along with stimulating emotion despite a lack of text. Within the second scene of both pages, both Small and Walden purposefully display the contents of a page in a specific manner. In Stitches, David’s facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) are extremely detailed, yet they are placed on a white background. The rest of his face, or any other details for that matter, are not included in the illustration. Similarly, in Spinning, the second scene is a very bleak illustration of Tillie’s glasses laying still on the ice, with no other details included on the page. The overpowering of white background space in respect to detailed illustrations in the panel is a major conductor of the tempo within the page. Both central panels slow the reader down when analyzing the page, as the white space leaves room for interpretation and leads the reader to evoke their own thoughts and derive their own emotions from the scene.
The organization of panels to manipulate time and disposition of images to stimulate emotion are formal tools within the production of comics, but their subtle integration allows readers to unconsciously dwell on a scene which the author wants to emphasize, therefore catalyzing a deeper interpretive engagement between the reader and the text. Small and Walden capitalize on the unique structure of comics in order to make these techniques possible, as further described in Hilary Chute’s “Risk of Representation” essay. Essentially, “comics [are] composed in frames-also called panels-and in gutters. The effect of the gutter, the rich empty space between the selected moments that direct our interpretation, is for the reader to project causality in these gaps that exist between the punctual moments of the frames.” (Chute 8). Both authors take advantage of these distinctive principles of comics within their respective works, encouraging a deeper engagement between the reader and the text and forging ideas beyond the mere images on the page.
Click here to see the annotations for Stiches, and here for the annotations for Spinning.
Chute, Hillary. “The Risk of Representation.” Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics, Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 8.
