Page 25 of Tove Jansson’s graphic novel, Moomin

Scale is a very important concept in graphic novels and comics which allows for the illusion of movement, feelings of depth and a sense of tension. In the text book, Graphic Design: The New Concepts by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, scale is said to be considered objective and subjective. When scale is being referred to in an objective sense, one is speaking of the literal dimensions of a physical object. When speaking subjectively, scale is one’s impression of an object’s size. If you look at the comic Moomin, by Tove  Jansson, there are various examples of both objective and subjective scaling. In all of the frames there are the Moomin characters and a small child like character. When comparing these, you could argue that objective scaling is present. Moomin, the main character, was once referred to as being a Hippopotamus and also looks a lot like one. If you were to compare the size of a small child, like the one in these frames, it would appear to be a lot smaller than a hippo. Objectively, they are much like that of a scale model to real life objects. Looking at the first frame in the last strip, you could argue that there is subjective scaling taking place. With the Moomin characters in the jungle and various foliage, the reader can safely assume that they are nearly the size of a hippo because there are clues that can be related back to a real experience. For example, if the reader has been in a forest like area before they can compare that to the image and give it a certain sense of scale.  Scale can also be relative. This means that depending on the size, placement and color of an object it can appear to be closer or further in a scene. A perfect example of this is in the third frame of the first strip. The small child character is much smaller while the Moomin characters are slightly larger, creating the appearance of the girl having run further into the distance than the others.  By contrasting the scales in this image the author has successfully added the illusion of depth and movement into her graphics. By just changing the size scale and placement of objects both depth and movement can be created.