Oh, the maddening frustration, the
lack of completion, the irresistible lure of needing to know what
happens next. The dreaded words %26#8220;To Be Continued%26#8221; flashing up on a
black TV screen. The movie that fades out before we find out if the
heroes reach their destination. The comic book that ends with one
character%26#8217;s shocked face, seeing something we won%26#8217;t for another thirty
days.
Some of us wait patiently. Some of us bite our nails and post to
speculation threads at online message boards. Some of us cheat and
sniff out spoilers (spoilers will be addressed in a separate entry in
the future).
Although novel series do leave questions answered, conflicts
unresolved, at the end of each volume, books less frequently leave off
with the characters literally on the brink of death. Even if the bigger
conflict remains unresolved, novels end with some rounding off of the
story.
Novels used to be serialized more often than they are now, however.
Charles Dickens%26#8217; nineteenth century fans mobbed the dock waiting for
the next chapter of The Old Curiosity Shop to arrive, shouting their questions
about a beloved character%26#8217;s fate to the boat%26#8217;s crew rather than waiting
until they had the pages in hand. The modern form of cliffhangers got
its start in the silent films
of the 1920%26#8217;s, which ended with the hero or heroine on the brink of
death or destruction as a hook to get the audience to come back next
week. They evolved from there, and are a frequent tool of storytelling
in every format, but most rampant in comics, TV, and movies.
However you slice it, cliffhangers are a permanent and primal part
of storytelling. But are they necessary? Recent changes in format and
technology have lessened the need to wait, just as changes in book
publishing in the early 20th century lessened the need for
serialization. It%26#8217;s easier now to consume series in whole chunks rather
than waiting in between episodes or issues.
With comics, there is the trade paperback collection (not to be
confused with the graphic novel, which is intended as a single,
self-contained longer work), which bundles together five or six months
of individual comics. Trade paperbacks usually follow one story arc.
Although often even a collected volume will end unresolved. But it%26#8217;s
one big cliffhanger instead of several over a period of months.
Comics by their very nature lend themselves to unresolved suspense.
The lower right-hand page frequently tantalizes and sets things up for
the big reveal, or resolution, at the top of the next upper left-hand
page, a storytelling technique that rises from the format itself. When
reading individual issues, we have to wait an entire month to get to
the next chapter.
amp,comic book,Graphic Novel,Novel
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