The Manhattan Perspective: Sequence and Simultaneity in Comics and Film

The medium of comics has long been associated with the concept of sequence; narrative meaning is produced by the sequential, spatial juxtaposition of images. Film too is a sequential medium that generates meaning through sequences of images, albeit ones that are juxtaposed temporally within the same space. In this essay I propose to consider the nature of the sequence in the two media, using Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel Watchmen and the recent film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder to do so. Specifically, I will aim to consider the difficulties inherent in presenting the character of Dr. Manhattan, who perceives all time simultaneously (i.e. for him there is no distinction between past, present and future), and look at the differing ways in which the two media do so. I will discuss the roles of both sequence and simultaneity in the reading/viewing experience and look at areas where the narrative of Watchmen is predicated upon the concurrence of the two, paying close attention to the ways in which the graphic novel demands that the reader break the apparently natural bond between reading and seeing, and considering whether it is possible to replicate this on screen or whether the book is, as Alan Moore has described it, ‘impossible to reproduce in terms of cinema’. Finally, I will seek to use this discussion to consider the broader problems associated with the employment of film studies techniques to analyse comics and vice-versa, arguing that the two media are not as similar as they may superficially appear.