So Easy a Chimp Can Do It

“HELLRAISER – THE TEST,” written by BEN MEARES & CHRISTIAN FRANCIS, illustrated by MARK TORRES http://www.heavymetal.com/news/lets-get-weird-13-page-preview-of-heavy-metal-288-the-weird-issue/

Heavy Metal, an American science fiction and fantasy comic magazine, began in the mid-1970s as a way for social commentary to be presented as a form of entertainment. These graphic novels would often lean to the darker side of the fantasy and science fiction genre, with overt or outright eroticism. A heavy metal comic often takes on subjects that are socially not accepted, depicting the charters in hyper sexualized situations, and with extreme role reversals. Women in particular are highly sexualized with tiny waists and large bust lines, yet these women are also depicted with excessive musculature and able to perform many masculine tasks. Their strength and raw emotions blend together in an often dark fantasy epic. These darker science-fiction fantasies and the demand for them were demonstrated with the production of the movie “Heavy Metal” in 1981 with the movie having a cult like following similar to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. The movie itself is several individual novelettes woven into a movie. The only common unit was that all the artists were to begin and end their individual section with a glowing green orb. Each section of the movie was panned by a different artist and artistic collaboration with the movie being put together in the editing room, much in a similar format way as the magazine.

Depicted above is a comic, or rather a graphic panel from the most current issues of Heavy Metal Magazine, in the “Let’s Get Weird Issue”(“HELLRAISER – THE TEST,” written by BEN MEARES & CHRISTIAN FRANCIS, illustrated by MARK TORRES http://www.heavymetal.com/news/lets-get-weird-13-page-preview-of-heavy-metal-288-the-weird-issue/). We see, in this graphic panel, what we expect to see. IT opens with the view of scientists observing a chimpanzee that appears to be part of an experiment. Yet, within this experiment there is the setup for the age-old argument that humans are the only species that are able to conduct problem solving skills. We see a balding white male in a lab coat speaking with individuals who are viewed from the backside. In deconstructing these “windows” one must first start with the use of the colors, everything has a bluish cast to it.  Upon closer inspection the first window of this particular comic panel we see that it is actually a man standing in an observation unit, with the other scientists watching from behind either a mirror or glass. The fact that there is a physical separation between the scientists also sets the stage for direct interaction and passive observation.

The next panel we see the chimpanzee either showing signs of distress that the object was removed from their possession or humor that the scientist is now going to try. When the argumentative scientist is in with the chimpanzee we see that even though he may have physically taken the object away from the champ, he feels the need to wipe it off on his sleeve. We all know that just dropping something off does not render it clean, so are we to assume that the champ had been utilizing aspects of paramastication or was it exploring the texture orally. Moving farther into the panels, we see only the scientist’s hands manipulating the object, instead of a full view of the frame. This focuses our attention onto each step of the manipulation that transforms the object from a cylindrical to a square. In some ways it demonstrates that being a square and resistant to open-mindedness can cause fatal results. Our male scientist, with his sophisticated higher ego is arguing that his counterparts are not approaching this in a scientific way. As were led to the next panels we see this individual hands “manipulate-the-box-one-step-at-a-time” with one word at a time spoken to emphasize that he in fact is smarter than the rest. This is done in a very methodical way, demonstrating each movement equals a point of emphasis. As we proceed through the panel we see continued manipulation of the object which finally turns into a cube. According to the scientist this proves that the chimpanzee would never be able to solve the mystery of the puzzle and completed. We are to assume that when we see the “KLINK” that there is look of “OH NO” on this arrogant scientists face. And then, we are to assume, that the last panel of this comic is the scientist blown up.

When we were reading about the graphic novel “Love and Rockets” we are led through how the characters are in a world that is realistic, but not quite like what we currently live in. Here the characters are lesbians, Hispanic and have an unusual family history. When the person is reading a graphic novel there is an underlying desire to move into another world, leaving this one behind. How believable this new world is dictates how involved the reader is to become. In addition to verbal components such as the storyline we also have components much like what we experience with moving pictures. Within each frame there is a camera set, lighting, spatial arrangement and other aspects that draw a person to view deeper into the frame. With the comic panel that I selected, there is no need to be told that the scientist is still in the chamber with the chimp, we have already assumed that. The focus on the scientist’s hands draws our attention more than just the words because within each frame we see the object that is being manipulated within the center. We have all been conditioned to believe that the most important aspect of the image is within the center. The ending frame, where the scientist has been blown out is just as telling. We were probably expecting this outcome when we saw the prior panel, but the way in which the red “blood” is splattered we see it within the frame. This splatter pattern continues outside the black frame and even onto what appears to be the outer page, the bridging the gap between the panel page and reality. We see within many different comics the ability of the artists to bring forth pinup type girls, macho men, and other stereo typical genres and clichés. We also are able to sit back, in a voyeuristic way, and peer into other worlds other than our own. Some of the clichés that we adopt in our day-to-day lives, such as we can never teach the lower primate to do something that a human can, can actually backfire.