“Comics are time turned into space.”

Ivan Brunetti on Lynda Barry, and all the things that can happen in the space of four panels.

In his new column “Line Readings,” Ivan Brunetti begins with a close read of a single comics unit—a panel, a page, or a spread—and expands outward to encompass the history of comics, and the world as a whole.

The true undergirding of lasting works of art is the embrace of contradictions, and ‘Peanuts’ is no exception.

I learned not only how to read from comic books, but also how to see. I learned about line, shape, color, value, space, texture, color, balance, harmony, unity, contrast, variety, rhythm, repetition, emphasis, continuity, spatial systems, structures …