Long John

The technique in panel 3 is one of my favorite tools to use that I blatantly stole from ’90s superhero comics, something I’m going to call “graphic silhouettes,” though I’m sure there’s a name for it. It’s when a character is mostly framed in silhouette––heightening the drama of the moment and/or the pose––but with some details from the figure highlighted, some design element endemic to the character or, in the case of this page, some narrative-relevant element.

This technique was either created or brought to prominence by Frank Miller in his book, The Dark Knight Returns.

From my limited research, it seems to have started with Frank Miller (as with most modern comics tropes) in his paradigm-shifting work, The Dark Knight Returns, and one he used extensively with his independent series, Sin City. It’s different from a standard silhouette where everything is blacked out, and it’s not a partial silhouette that has lighting highlighting limited surfaces on the figure; instead, elements of the figure are clearly seen with no apparent or logical light source.

Examples of Lee using this graphic silhouette method. On the left, he highlighted elements on the background character to make it clear it’s the X-Men character Cyclops; on the right we have highlighted elements that are iconic to the cast of the comic, WildC.A.T.s. Click for larger version.

What I love about it is that it is an example of taking advantage of the medium of comics to not only make the image interesting, but you can use this technique to enhance the theme or tone you’re trying to get across by choosing specific elements to emphasize while also making it look cool. Though it is one of my favorite techniques, I rarely use it because it’s something that I could easily make into an artistic crutch. I surprisingly only found one previous use of it in the comic, but my use of full silhouette panels is notable. Just know any time I put characters in silhouette, I was secretly thinking of elements to pull out from the darkness in homage of the comics I loved as a kid.

Thumbnail drawing for this page. Click for larger version.