who here can advise me on FLASHBACKS?

[Jin-roh]

Hey forum community.

I am writing up my next story, and am weaving in flashbacks. I admit that I am imitating "LOST," in the sense that a flashback story arc will run parallel to the main story arc. It should be fun. The main story arc will be a road trip to one of the characters' home town. The flashbacks will be of his days in high school at an evangelical summer camp. The character has long since distanced himself from this world.

I am not sure how to communicate the flashbacks. I don't really want to do yellow text boxes that say things like "a few summers ago" or "in high school" but I don't want it to be clear when I switch back and forth. Part of what I was thinking about doing was using some kind colorization/grain filter as was done in a the Firefly episode "out of gas." Yet still, when the flashback starts, I might want the reader not to know it is a flashback first, but only that is made clear later.

As you can see, I am kind of rambling. For those of you who have done flashbacks, what worked for you? Also, if you can link to any webcomics that have done flashback story arcs, that would be grand!

Thanks for all the help.

[Phalanx]

Hey forum community.

I am writing up my next story, and am weaving in flashbacks. I admit that I am imitating "LOST," in the sense that a flashback story arc will run parallel to the main story arc. It should be fun. The main story arc will be a road trip to one of the characters' home town. The flashbacks will be of his days in high school at an evangelical summer camp. The character has long since distanced himself from this world.

I am not sure how to communicate the flashbacks. I don't really want to do yellow text boxes that say things like "a few summers ago" or "in high school" but I don't want it to be clear when I switch back and forth. Part of what I was thinking about doing was using some kind colorization/grain filter as was done in a the Firefly episode "out of gas." Yet still, when the flashback starts, I might want the reader not to know it is a flashback first, but only that is made clear later.

As you can see, I am kind of rambling. For those of you who have done flashbacks, what worked for you? Also, if you can link to any webcomics that have done flashback story arcs, that would be grand!

Thanks for all the help.

This is something I've been exploring as well... the conclusion I came to is there is no hard and fast rule for flashbacks. You need to tailor them according to what you want to convey, here's what I'm planning to go with so far:

Childhood/Distant memories - Usually faded colour or strong sepia tint, with hazy edges or blurred borders.
Bad/Suppressed memories - Inverted colours, harsh contrast, black silhouettes, odd angles, jagged edges, out of order sequence
Recent memories - More or less same as normal. Sometimes I add a little text box saying "previously" or something like that, but I find you can really go without it if you spare a panel to suggest that it's a flashback incoming (a close up of a face or eye, or a bit of relevant dialogue just before the flashback begins works well). Putting funky borders on the flashback panels can work as well.


That's as far as I've gotten, it's still a learning process for me. Hope that helps.

[Jin-roh]

Here's what I am conveying with my flashback:

Happier, more hopeful, and less cynical time (yet naive): May a yellow tint? some other "happy" color?"
Later, this happier time moves to a bit a disappointment, caused by a surprised "moral shock": Blue tint? maybe even red? I don't know...

I was also thinking about using film grain. But I am never sure what type of emotions film grain conveys...

[Wendybird]

I think film grain and grey/sepia coloring mostly convey distance or detatchment from the event, like an old memory. I agree with Phalanx that for more recent memories, the color effects should be pretty similar to the regular timeline of the comic, but I'm experimenting more with colored lighting effects overall in one of my comics. Since it does have flashbacks, I'm focusing on a somewhat subdued sepia palette, but since they're intense memories they're still high contrast and with a range of accent colors. What effects might work for you will depend largely on your drawing style.

I don't have anything against captions; it does seem to be the simplest way to convey information about time clearly.

[Ripnormality]

Yeah, captions aren't a bad idea--in general, I stick them in their own chapters and use clues in the setting or with characters being clearly identified as being at a younger age to make it clear.

[Dranxis]

I haven't had a long flashback scene yet, but I'm planning on doing flashbacks in a completely different art style from that of the present. One flashback sequence will be done in the style of old movie posters with bold lettering, another will look like a woodcut with and have flowery script. The way the flashbacks are rendered gives you an idea of how that character sees their world. In the first few pages, I had a brief flashback with the main character, which was drawn into a swirl of his cigarette smoke: the lettering was very boring, like a typrewriter style, and the setting, which was at the cubicle of his office, was bland and done in blues and whites. I wouldn't recommend these kinds of flashbacks unless you really, really want to make a statement about the character's memory, since it can be pretty jarring. But since memory's a theme in my comic I decided to go beyond just coloring it different. Just somethign to think about.

[[geoduck]]

If the flashbacks are happier than maybe they should be in full color and the current stuff should be more washed out...

I've never done an actual extended flashback in my own strip, but I often depict memories/imaginging/history as black outlines.

[Lianweijun086]

Here's what I am conveying with my flashback:

Happier, more hopeful, and less cynical time (yet naive): May a yellow tint? some other "happy" color?"
Later, this happier time moves to a bit a disappointment, caused by a surprised "moral shock": Blue tint? maybe even red? I don't know...

I was also thinking about using film grain. But I am never sure what type of emotions film grain conveys...

Flashbacks conveying hope. I would say more vivid colors, and a very slight blur. This would give everything a slight glow. Kind of dreamlike. This might not be subtle enough though, because you said you wanted to be able to cut in and out without the reader really catching on in the beginning? This is the effect I think about when I hear "happy flashback". Like in Lord of the Ring, when Aragorn flashes back to the past, or... ALOT of movies, really. Minority Report, when Tom Cruise flashes back to playing with his kid. I hope that helps!

[Lianweijun086]

I know this is a bit old, but I just put a flashback in my comic. I think it worked pretty well...

I thought that since I already used really bright colors for the comic, I'd tone down the saturation for the flashback. I also added a glow around the edges and over the entire picture. Hope that helps!

[MoonFreight3]

You can even do something as simple as drawing triangles overlapping the corners of your panels to make it look like a photograph in an album. "Funky Winkerbean" uses this trick fairly well.