Technique: Decrying the "Pregnant Pause"""

Max Leibman · Post by **Max Leibman** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 8:04 am

I would like to point out that <a href="http://www.zwol.org/archive.php3?date=2 ... l">today's "No Contest" comic</a> by Ben Brockert incorporates a pregnant pause in the same panel as the punchline, avoiding the extra, dialogue-empty pregnant pause panel whose overuse inspired this thread.

I find that this alternative is far preferable, as it is much less often used in web comics (I see it less often, anyway) and more effecient (cuts out a whole panel of the dialogue-pause-punchline progression).

I also liked the way the text just steamrolled right over the art in Panel 2 of this comic, but that's a topic for another thread...

-Max Leibman

Wikkit · Post by **Wikkit** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 3:40 pm

I didn't even consider making a fourth frame for the pause. It would be completely useless, and I think that by having it in three frames compresses it in real time as I wanted it compressed in strip-time. In other words, I wanted a pause between her dialogues, but not a long one.

Some people dislike the '...', though. One of my favorite webcomics, Triangle and Robert, often uses '....'. You'll have to ask Patrick what he means by it, though.

As for the text steamrolling the picture in panel two: I had two reasons for that. One was that the text ended up being that large and I didn't feel like redoing the first panel to resize the text; the second being that the strip was entirely dependant on the text so overriding the picture didn't matter in the least (like Triagle and Robert).

Ben Brockert

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 4:26 pm

I see the use of "..." most often in, and associate it most strongly with, manga (or, at least, English translations of manga), though I don't know if that's the origin of the technique.

For anyone who doesn't know, Triangle & Robert is a wonderfully unique comic. Now that you've metnioned it, the influence is apparent.

Jack Masters · Post by **Jack Masters** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 5:46 pm

I like word balloons only containing a "....." because by definition, no one actually says them. You can have interesting mutant word balloons like this one:
<img src="http://castlezzt.net/dotdotdot.gif">
And they make just as much sense as they would if either one (or both!) of the characters had word-balloon-pointing-things aimed at them. (What do we call those, anyway?)

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 6:28 pm

They're called "tails."

Jack Masters · Post by **Jack Masters** » Mon Sep 10, 2001 6:45 pm

Works for me.

Jim Newberry · Post by **Jim Newberry** » Sat Sep 15, 2001 5:28 pm

Wow--this thread is one great discussion. I think Greg has tried to make his point a little too controversially, however. Decrying the use of Pregnant Pauses seems a bit much. Perhaps what we should do is start of with the assertion that excessive 3P is just one of the factors contributing to webcomic laziness. But controversy always has habit of starting good discussion, doesn't it?

In my own mediocre experience, I've decided if a strip doesn't fit right in four panels, I either rewrite the dialogue, or throw it out entirely. Or add extra panels, if need be.

Anyway, sorry to break into your discussion from Left Field. That is all!

[ This Message was edited by: Jim Newberry on 2001-09-15 17:29 ]

Jack Masters · Post by **Jack Masters** » Sun Sep 16, 2001 9:08 am

Yes, I think a lot of people underestimate the impact of a strip's rhythm. If your comic has a set number and arangement of panels every day, it sets up a pattern of basic panel structure that sticks in the reader's mind.

Somebody Strange · Post by **Somebody Strange** » Thu Oct 18, 2001 4:29 pm

I hope that bumping this thread won't irritate anyone. I'm new here, having followed a link to this thread from altbrand.com.

My opinion on the 3P is similar to many others here, but I think the joke is often that there's a character processing information. The examples above from Alice are great -- the first one shows a very necessary pause. The girls are processing information, and the reader is given a brief, often subconscious opportunity to imagine their own response. The second one is completely unnecessary and breaks the flow of the strip.

I've used the pause a couple times, and I know full well I misused it once, and recently. I was never happy with the strip, and I'm always conscious of using 3P, so I've been unhappy with it since the day I wrote it. There's some real irony there, however... the comic was ABOUT an overused technique: namely, the technique of replacing dialogue with descriptors.

Example:
Character A: <innocent comment>
Character B: <request for clarification>
Character A: <deeper explanation>
Character B: <witty retort>

I hate that technique. (Not the formula -- the fact that there will be no dialogue in a comic, merely a list of the formulaic elements.)

The 3P, however, DOES provide a sense of time. While it may be possible that some readers don't see comic strips in a chronologically stable fashion, I believe that most of us subconsciously give same-sized panels an approximate same-time feature in our minds. The beat that a 3P provides can be absolutely necessary, if the joke is well-constructed.

Here's an example, paraphrased from an old comic of mine. I personally DO think this is a semi-well-constructed joke that needs a 3P pause. The pictures were all Dave, talking on the phone.

P1:
Kellie (on phone): Hello?
Dave: Kellie -- thank goodness you're home. I'm having trouble coming up with a joke for my comic strip. Say something funny.

P2:
Kellie (on phone): It's 3:30 in the morning.
Dave: ...I don't get why that's funny.

P3:
(Pause.)

P4:
Dave: (with his eyes shut tight, now that it's dawned on him) It's really 3:30 in the morning, isn't it?
Kellie: Please beat yourself about the head with the telephone. I'm too tired to come over and do it myself.

Anyway, sometimes, watching people figure something out IS the joke. I agree that the technique is overused, but I personally LIKE it if it's used well. The trouble is people mis-using it. I'm just as tired of seeing people quote Monty Python or SNL skits in their comics; it's so rarely funny anymore.

I dunno. I think I'm gonna have to come here more often -- I like this discussion.

--Strange/Dave
Vicious Lies

Bo Lindbergh · Post by **Bo Lindbergh** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 11:51 am

Blatant thread necromancy to point out this piece of mockery.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed Dec 05, 2001 12:41 pm

And it surprises exactly nobody that I find that amusing.

gazorenzoku · Post by **gazorenzoku** » Thu Dec 06, 2001 4:58 am

I appologize for replying before reading everyone's responses, but here is my 2 cents:

I think it all comes down to creativity. When you use an existing technique, are you doing it because someone else does it and you thought it was cool, and if you use it maybe people will think you are cool? Or are you using it because you feel that it fits into your own personal creative message?

I think this kind of grafts over onto the discussion about the definition of comics. If some sort of message is in your blood, and you have to get it out or you will die, then just let it flow on out. If it doesn't fit a definition, or if it goes against standards, or if it is cliche, then so be it. But if you do something either within or without of the boundries of the norm just because you can't think of anything else, or because it seemed "cool" when someone else did it, then it is destined to be mundane (though usually forgivable).

vince
gazorenzoku@hotmail.com

sandy carruthers · Post by **sandy carruthers** » Thu Dec 06, 2001 8:24 am

Ah, yes. The pregnat pause.

If used right, an effective tool to get a point driven home. Used wrong... a tacky device utilized to open the FIERY PITS OF HELL AND CAST YOUR SOUL TO EVERLASTING DAMNATION!!!!

Too much coffee. Way, too much coffee.

(If you groan at this example.... thank you.)

reinder · Post by **reinder** » Thu Dec 06, 2001 12:57 pm

Just so you know.... I've had a script accepted for a well-known magazine comic in the Netherlands, only to find that a script-doctor had gone over it and inserted a pregnant pause in the penultimate panel.
...

I was pretty miffed at that.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 8:06 pm

Dredging this topic up from the depths...

This Checkerboard Nighmare just reminded me of it all over again.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Tue Jul 08, 2003 2:28 pm

Funny verbal exchanges often contain a pause near the end. When I think of the ones I've had in real life, they more often do than not, I think.
I would argue the reason they crop up is that the four panel format calls them to mind, not because people really have a three panel joke that they have to stick an empty panel into to make fit.

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 11:10 am

Ah yes, now that this thread has been pulled back, I can input my two cents worth (and probably get change back).

The most resent example given with Checkboard shows the common misuse of the pregnate pause. I hear the complaint by somebody here in which a four panel comic is draw presented in a square as a usual format and the excuse of people saying that a panel without dialog can indicate a "beat" for timing. In both of these cases the problem can be solved by making the punchline panel longer wide. The square can be a square if you use two small panels on top and a wide panel on the bottom and still look like a square. The passage of time can be the fact that you have the first two panels above the last better than it would if you just had it all horizontal in a line. Furthermore, didn't McCloud and Eisner teach how lenths of panels can also indicate time? A wider panel can be read longer ... perhaps having the characters in the same postion as the previous two panels all on the far right while just drawing "blank" background and foregound objects in the left of the wide panel.

Funny how I now look back in some of my own comic to see if I actualy ever used the pregnate pause. Once I used it as a young child had time to process what was being said and her responce ... and the other was used to introduce a character. In both of the cases, they were weak, however had a perpose. An odd anomoly I found in my earlier comics was the use of a pregnate pause in the last panel of the comic ... letting the reader fill in the punchline.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 10:41 pm

losttoy wrote:I hear the complaint by somebody here in which a four panel comic is draw presented in a square as a usual format and the excuse of people saying that a panel without dialog can indicate a "beat" for timing. In both of these cases the problem can be solved by making the punchline panel longer wide.

How, exactly, is that an improvement?

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 4:39 pm

I drew a quick illustration to demonstraight in my opinion works better at
http://www.geocities.com/dalosttoy/sample2.html

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 6:33 pm

Ed Zachery.

And once you've got a larger panel, you can do many other things with it, compositionally which will also affect perception of time. I realize that your examples were quickly drawn, but just to extrapolate:

Panel 1: medium distance two-shot, both speakers in view
Panel 2: same as 1
Panel 3: long distance shot, both speakers seen in the middle of an open field, trees in the far distance, clouds overhead, a leaf blowing by. Ah, peace, serenity, time goes by.

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 11:14 am

good point

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 11:23 am

... and we all forgot about all the different panel transitions there can be. The pregnant pause seems to fall victim to the moment to moment panels or action to action panels. Why not a scene to scene or non-squential panel transition. If you have to have FOUR panels ... why not have a character's eye view, looking down at their feet? Or zoom in on one of the foreground, background objects? Or have an open panel without a frame, in which time seems longer. I wish I had time to come up with quick illustrations for those examples (sigh), but if I keep on doing this I will never get back to drawing my own comics. Just thumb through your copy of Understanding Comics and you will see what I mean.

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Sat Jul 19, 2003 11:26 pm

Jokes are almost always funnier when viewed from a non-moving vantage point in the middle distance. This is why you can immediately tell funny tv commercials from commercials with other intented emotional tones, before anything even happens.

I'd like to see an example of a long panel being better using an existing pregnant pause comic.