What Is Understated In Richard Mcguire's Here

McCloud may have said it best, “... unlike other media, in comics the past is more than just memories for the audience and the future is more than just possibilities. Both the past and future are real and visible and all around us!” (McCloud, p.104) McGuire uses the medium of comics to his advantage. While the panels are understated in the opening of Here, McGuire creates a vigorous form of story through the layout of the page as the story progresses. He manipulates panel constructions, panel transitions, and sequential dynamism to achieve this. Here was published first in 1989 as a part of McGuire’s comic strip in RAW Magazine, it is the story of what happens in a corner of a room throughout time. Time is defined as the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future. In simple terms, it is ongoing events that have happened, are happening, and will continue to happen. Richard McGuire showcases those events through a circular timeline where the opening and closing of the comic mimic
The reader has to make connections and draw conclusions. On the second page, Billy’s family prompts him to say something, in the next a mouse “squeak” and then a small child in the year 1928 “grrr” with his toy dinosaur, followed by a panel of an actual dinosaur with an insert of Billy in 1986 laughing, and another of the same mouse from 1999 caught in a trap. Though there are large jumps in time, the dinosaur toy-to-actual dinosaur provide a visual connection, in addition to what is being said. The insert of Billy laughing is playful and connects to the young boy’s play. As for the panels that don’t appear to have a visual or textual connection, they’re useful in telling the story because they are like aspect-to-aspect images, adding to the mood of the overall comic, filling out and completing the life of the