The use of 3x3 grid in watchmen

from the context of storytelling and typographic grids

Introduction :

Comic books use different panel grids to pace the artwork with different types of storytelling.It is interesting to study the correlation of different types of comic panels and different typographic grids. Its also interesting to see how constraint with grids the series run and when they break in their run of the issue/arc to show different way of pacing and highlighting elements.

Recently while doing a course on visual design I was asked the question : Find one example of a design that uses a typographic grid system. In your own words, please describe which typographic grid system the design uses and whether the design works, or not.

Just for context if u want to read about Type Grids read this article :https://web.archive.org/web/20210725023618/http://thinkingwithtype.com/grid/

The answer to the question to find one design which uses a typographic grid system, I went to history of comics. As the history is enriched with many variants and different grids which sometimes are indirectly correlated i would like to use only one eg , i.e the infamous 9 grid system used in watchmen ,hence this article.

About The infamous 3x3 grid:

now coming the evaluation of the watchmen comic . The watchmen comic uses a 9 gird panel , also known as 3X3 panel grid.The grid is a 3 column modular grid.

In how many different ways can a 9-panel comic grid be used?

Turns out 9 panels allow for 322 variations, which is more that a 6-panel grid and a 4-panel grid allow — 32, and 8 variations, respectively (for comparison, 6-by-3 grid, i.e. 2 pages, allows 314662 variations, while 16-panel grid allows 70878). This gives the writer and the artist sufficiently many ways to divide the page in any shape that is most suitable for the story.

-Gallifreyan

image courtesy of Tom Carpenter

But fair warning : These numbers come from combinatorics, not from comic theory. They count every possible way of merging adjacent cells into larger rectangles. Most of those possibilities would never be used by a cartoonist because they produce awkward layouts.As the mathematical counts include layouts that are technically valid but visually poor.

Examples of impractical layouts:

• tiny isolated panels
• zig-zag reading paths
• awkward compositions
• layouts with no clear focal point
• shapes that interrupt eye flow
• One might argue about how many of them are actually usable , but in the case of 3x3 grid from a thread i found that at-least 175 of them are definitely usable(figure below) .Some might argue that some other variants other than these from 322 possibilities might also be usable in some cases.

image courtesy of Erik Larsen

Moore and Gibbons were able to set up a comfortable framework for readers, and slight changes — or repetition — in layout or imagery easily conveyed meaning even if readers weren’t consciously aware of the technique. It’s most likely one of the reasons why Watchmen remains a gateway for even beginning comics readers.

*-comicbeats*

Watchmen uses the 3x3 grid very rigorously. Dave gibbons(the artist) says that , “he choose the grid and gave alan moore (the writer) great control & its restriction challenged him to compose more creatively.” Nearly all are based on the same underlying 3×3 modular grid, although adjacent cells are often merged.The geometry remains the same by using the grid variants mentioned above.

Restriction as a creative tool:

I think most artists would tell you that restrictions enhance creativity. - dave gibbons

• The 3×3 grid modular system has 322 possible rectangular partitions, yet Watchmen deliberately reuses a relatively small vocabulary of layouts. This is analogous to a filmmaker repeatedly using a handful of shot types rather than every possible camera angle.Because consistency improves : readability,pacing memory, dramatic timing and visual rhythm rather than showcasing novelty.

Predictable pacing and grid creates rhythm:

• Regular grid produces something close to a visual metronome.Readers unconsciously begin reading at a constant speed.That consistency allows small disruptions to have enormous impact.One of the biggest storytelling effects is psychological because readers become accustomed to pages using grid in format of : 3×3
• 3×3
• 3×3
• 3×3 … and so on…. So when the layout changes, the reader immediately feels “Something important is happening.”This is known in design as establishing a pattern before violating it.Without the pattern,here is no violation.
• It almost never breaks the 3x3 modular grid except for 1–2 exception in layout where formating like gapping(margin between panels is still same) but the number of column/horizontal panels are more. here are some examples :
• 1)horizontally dividing into 4 column instead of 3 :

examples pages using a 4X 3 panel grid

2. dividing the panel sizes in half horizontally(making it a 6x3 grid):

eg of 6x3 grid used in single pages

Why Issue #5 is famous :

• “Fearful Symmetry”(issue #5) is one of the most analyzed comic issues ever. Every page mirrors another.It is deliberately constructed as a mirror or palindrome.
• Page 1 mirrors Page 28.
• Page 2 mirrors Page 27.
• Page 3 mirrors Page 26.
• The structure converges at the center spread (Pages 14–15), which is itself broadly symmetrical.

• This symmetry is not just in the panel shapes. It also appears in character pairings,compositions,reflections and mirrors,color rhythms,and some narrative parallels.
• here is one eg : page 1 and page 28 :

pg 1 and pg 2 mirroring color scheme panel by panel

If u see in this image , the color schemes are mirrored and notice that the colors of the panels alternate.

conclusion :

Overall in the case of watchmen i feel the grid is used very effeciently and also has influenced how to use this grids restrictions(in context to comic panels) to focus more on the story and make the user feel deeply immersed in the plot and make pace so consistent that the the user is deeply immersed in reading . With the context of watchmen this monotonus/ restrictive grid works more then other comics who might consider to this grid because of the nature of writing of watchmen.It is diagolue heavy comic and more importantly and very rich world building is been done with a lot of political and dense history of characthers shown. Here the the 3x3 even with the only few layouts works the best because it give way to condense these rich story driven and highly rich context and world builded situations to flow.I also feel it gives a proper evident response to the debate of the restrictions making the artwork work feel boring or too static by giving great visuals with so few of the layouts out of the so many possible in 3x3 modular grid.