Changing The Way A Reader Feels Through Comic Art

How do you subtly change mood tone in your design without your viewer—or in our case our reader—knowing it? It can be a challenge. The treatment for “Mí Barrio” is much different than any other comic book we’ve worked on before. And creating a subconscious change in mood throughout the artwork is critical in capturing the essence of Robert Renteria’s story in comic form.

Robert transforms through certain stages in his life—from poverty to gang life to military life and then to the corporate world—but in the design of the comic book, we want to not only tell a story around these life changes, but also change the mood visually as these transitions take place. We want these changes to be subtle and not jarring as the story progresses. Because Mí Barrio’s design treatment is only black and white instead of four color, we are limited in how we can manipulate design elements to make those subtle life-stage changes. Robert’s story starts off dark and dreary and ends with a message of hope. So at the beginning of the comic book, we’re using treatments that include darker, heavier lines and tighter. Shades of gray tones are used to create dark and light effects. At the end, the treatment will feel wide and open—very light—with more spacious variations. When finished, if you compared page 1 to page 49 you’d see a different feeling though the treatment of the art. It is our hope that the reader can thumb through the book and see a transition happening even before reading each page.

Below is the first page of “Mí Barrio”