During the break
Broadly speaking, the fourth wall is the boundary between an audience and fiction. It comes from the theatre, where a set has three solid walls and an invisible one through which the audience view the stage.
Breaking the fourth wall is a phrase used to describe the act of involving the audience in the fiction, un-suspending their disbelief, so to speak. It’s normally used for dramatic effect, like when Ferris Bueller turns to the camera and talks to you directly.
These terms are also applicable with other types of fiction – films, novels, video games and even comics.
But not really webcomics…
The reason is that most webcomics break the fourth wall with such alarming regularity that no one has time to reconstruct it again. It’s not intentional, it’s just their nature… the stop-start of the narrative (if they have one), the now obligatory blog, advertising all over the place, not to mention that mostly they are viewed through a monitor or screen…
You’re always aware you’re reading a webcomic – it’s as if we’ve gone out of our way to eliminate the line that separates.
…which is why I have no guilt in asking you to get involved with The Flowfield Unity (it’s always strange typing that, it’s a bit like saying your own name aloud) – I was looking through the archives when I noticed that there are seven comics without any discussion to go with them. They’re from the time I moved the original site, and I have never gone back to fill them in. Here they are:
So… what I want you to do is simple. I want you to write something to fill the space. If used (and it probably will be) it will be set as a quote and attributed to you.
Begone fourth wall.
Breaking the 4th wall in American comics has become almost cliche, its done so much. During the silver age, it was a big joke if the Flash or Superman traveled to “Earth-Prime” and visited the DC comics offices. At one point it was actually a birthday present done in secret by the staff for the editor-in-chief at the time.
Now, though… Ambush Bug, the Sandman, Deadpool, Animal Man, the Joker, Lobo… the 4th wall is broken so often it is no longer a shocking thing or a way to reach out to readers. Its just a gimmick used to seem edgy.
You forgot She-Hulk. I blame her for all of this.
I did indeed forget She-Hulk.
And Stan Lee. Damn man breaks the 4th wall all the time.
I had a dream about your “Gary, I found your microbe” picture the other night. I don’t remember much about the dream except the idea that it was described by someone as a techno-organic spermatozoa. Then we saw a “Mystery of Life” video about the Transformers.
I have strange dreams. Not as strange as Eunsuk’s, but strange enough.
That’s a pretty good one… all my dreams look like the intellectual love-child of Tanguy and Dali. I wonder what that says about my personality?
Funnily enough, the last week I did a project with a woman who almost always breaks the fourth wall in theatre productions. She’s a performance designer and creates awesome “promenade” pieces where the audience has to walk through the performance.
Pretty awesome.
That’s cool! Just Friday, I saw a production of “By the Sea, By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea,” which broke down that fourth wall quite effectively. The audience sat on stage.
Starting from stage left, and counting clockwise, my comic will eventually break the 7th wall.
i run into walls when i’m sober.
again and again it seems,
same mistakes.
i only break walls when i’m drunk
or something
and then i’m embarrassed.
boook book book my book got here yesterday thanks adam!
Brilliant, it made it through security… is everything OK with it?
Just so you know, I was so pissed off about the fourth wall thing, I took a shit between your third and fourth wall. And then threw it over.