One Soul, From Hell and Here: The Graphic Novel Page as Time Machine

Sequential images exist not only in order as the eye transitions the page, but also at the same time, as the reader is also aware of the page as a whole and has the ability to skip ahead or decode panels in any order. Certain graphic storytellers use this aspect of comics as a narrative device – the simultaneity of panels, and their non-linear potential. To illustrate this idea, in this chapter I am going to compare three graphic novels that use non-linear storytelling, which explicitly or implicitly deal with time travel in their narratives. These are From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (Moore and Campbell 1999), Here by Richard McGuire (McGuire 2014) and One Soul by Ray Fawkes (Fawkes 2011).