From Behind the Fading Light

And now for something completely different…

Michael Johnston is one of the earliest SuperFogeys fans, going all the way back to when it was just on MySpace.  He is one of the people that really keeping me going and is always so encouraging.  Recently, he asked if I would mind if he used the SuperFogeys as the subject of a paper he was doing on “Rhetorical Analysis” at West Point in New York, where he is currently a Cadet.  Of course I said “yes.”

This week, Michael sent me a copy of the paper he wrote, and after I was able to stop gushing about how great it is, I was able to ask him if I could share it.  He agreed!  Hope you guys get as much of a kick out of this as I did.  (Personally, I think Michael should get an “A.”)

RHETORIC IN ANALYSIS

BY

CADET DAVID M. JOHNSTON ‘12, CO F4

WEST POINT, NEW YORK

26 OCTOBER 2008

Comic strips are often ignored as rhetorical situations.  However, the artist has just as much need to cause the viewer to reach certain conclusions based on their art, as does the author of a work of literature.  One example of this is the web comic, SuperFogeys by Brock Heasley.  Based in a retirement home for has-been heroes and villains, SuperFogeys follows the relationships of its characters through a myriad of intrigue and surprising situations, which often call for the use of rhetoric.  To heighten the suspense between the publications of strips twice a week, Heasley uses his images to keep the audience thinking and questioning everything about the world he has constructed.  Strip number 167 is a particularly good example of his techniques as he manipulates the reader’s thoughts just as any author does.

Four characters play an integral part in this particular strip.  The first is Captain Spectacular.  The Captain was one of the first characters introduced in the series and he continues to take part in the majority of the plot.  He was at one point much like a Superman-style hero: strength, agility, a desire to save the world, and of course a nemesis.  The second character in the strip is Jerry, Captain Spectacular’s sidekick.  Substantially younger than the Captain (only 61 years old to the Captain’s 80), Jerry even in his old age maintains a boyish admiration for his mentor.  In the third frame, the reader sees Tangerine, a more recently introduced character who was at one point a villain, and is now a hero, after befriending the Captain during a particularly difficult time.  The fourth character in the strip is still developing as a character yet.  The mysterious woman in frame four has now appeared only two or three times in the whole series, in the flashbacks that Heasley uses as he develops his plot.  Each of these characters plays their own role in inspiring questions in the reader.

Captain Spectacular has just recounted a dark time in his life in the previous strip.  He was at one point rejected by society.  No information is given about what happened, whether it was of his own actions, whether someone did something to him, or anything regarding the exact circumstances of his exile.  What is known, is that in his time of despair, Tangerine befriended him, and they began to frequent the bar scene as seen in frame 3, abandoning any responsibilities, and being men of the world.  The mysterious woman’s reappearance in this strip, in conjunction with what the reader already knows of her, gives the impression that the Captain, certainly a formidable man as a hero, with his visibly stocky strong build, become ignorant of his family.  Heasley draws the Captain as a true ladies’ man.  In the third frame with Captain and Tangerine in the bar, the Captain’s hair is styled in such a way that one would expect of the era Heasley is using.  The women flock around him, drawn to the traits that made him a hero, now aiding him to forget his family.  The reader must ask himself, how could he abandon his family when they could have helped to comfort him more than anyone?  This question is in itself a form of rhetoric.  As the reader asks himself these things, the information available in the strips previously and in future strips will cause the reader to hypothesize a certain way.  In other forms of writing and art, the same techniques are true.  Questions are used to force the reader to surmise certain things.  Like a Sudoku puzzle, assumptions are made, leading to answers to questions through reason.  This type of question-answer flow can even be considered an appeal to logos, as the reader is forced to think beyond what is immediately apparent.

Jerry’s participation in this strip gives another good example of rhetoric.  In the second frame, he sits before a court in reference to Captain Spectacular.  Visibly nervous, as illustrated by Heasley, he reveals information that no hero should ever give out, especially about his mentor and friend.  Again, the reader wonders, why would Jerry betray the Captain?  The mind wanders through the events of the series.  Jerry’s jealousy of the Captain’s relationship with Spy Gal (the Captain’s former wife and once again fiancée), his apparent feeling of inferiority when compared to the Captain, and other events which make the reader wonder if the Captain did something to Jerry in that dark time that would cause Jerry to betray him.  Additionally, Jerry’s courtroom environment in this strip is in some ways an appeal to ethos.  While this strip and its characters are of course fictional, using a court of law or a senatorial hearing as Heasley seems to portray here gives a feeling of truth and truth.  Ethos used in this way helps to put the reader in even a fictional environment with the characters, furthering the ability of the art to influence them.

In the same manner, questions arise about Tangerine’s motives.  Why would a villain befriend a hero?  Moreover, why would the Captain allow Tangerine to pull him from his family?  If Tangerine were as good a person deep down as the Captain claims to Jerry in the previous strip, why would he not do what would actually be better for the Captain as a person?  Heasley seems to bring the Captain’s ethos into question, leaving the reader to wonder what he can truly call the truth about Captain Spectacular as a hero, a friend, and a husband and father.  As the reader sees the bubbles of alcohol floating through the air and the women drunkenly clinging to the two men in frame three, disdain at the evident lack of concern is an easy emotion for Heasley to invoke.  Bottles and mixed drinks are strewn across the table, indicating that the night is certainly not young and that the Captain is spending large chunks of time with Tangerine in this environment.  This also brings into question any assumptions the reader has already made about the Captain in relation to other events in what would be called the current events of Valhalla (the name of the retirement home that serves as the base strip).  If the Captain would so quickly abandon his family and friends once when things got hard, what would prevent him from doing it again?  Interestingly, Heasley is able to use his art of flashbacks in his strips as not only a means to provide additional background information for his ethos appeal and logos appeal through the reader’s logic paths, but also to show times of happiness and sadness to increase his pathos appeal.

Along those lines, the mysterious woman—clenching her love’s picture and bowing her head in despair as her baby tosses food about the room—gives a powerful pathos appeal.  Gripped by compassion and sympathy or even empathy for the woman, the reader cannot help but be persuaded against the Captain as his own sidekick reveals his identity; leaving his wife and child alone and moping, while he is out carousing with a villain, apparently unconcerned with those who really matter.  The woman’s anguish is reiterated as one knee rests to the ground, head sullen, allowing her hair to cover her no longer smiling face.  More questions arise in the reader’s mind: Who is this woman really?  Who is the child?  Left to ponder these inquiries, the reader waits anxiously for the next strip to roll around, to gain more tidbits of information to build on the foundation of knowledge that has been left in ruin after astonishing revelations.  This also increases the importance of hidden clues in Heasley’s artwork.  The reader searches for characteristics in these mysterious characters to compare to those who are well known.

Through his use of questions as a rhetorical device, and the details which he weaves into his images, Heasley keeps his audience guessing, never sure until the truth is revealed, often as a huge surprise.  These details help to bring his readers into the world he has created, allowing them to feel the emotions of a firsthand observer and draw conclusions as anyone who was there would be able to.  Heasley applies to the reader’s deductive reasoning through logos, his goodness, and virtues through pathos, and his appreciation for things that make sense and are believable, even in an unreal environment, through ethos.  In a sense, Heasley’s purpose is quite simply to entertain through his intriguing story and his diverse characters.  However, this style also allows him to create a deeper commentary on life, the morals that we see, and the ideals that society holds, even in a fictitious world.

Works Cited
Heasley, Brock.  The SuperFogeys.  27 October 2008.  27 October 2008 <http://www.th3rdworld.com/web-comic/The-SuperFogeys>.

Heasley, Brock.  “Rhetorical Analysis.”  E-mail to David M. Johnston.  9 October 2008.

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