Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the theme of walking and its relationship to reading in the comics of Kevin Huizenga.Looking at several stories from his work, I discuss the way the crossing of distance in space and time re-centers the narrator and the reader in an act of dwelling.

Paper long abstract:

The suburban landscape of the Midwest is Kevin Huizenga's chosen setting, and this chapter considers how the comics format mirrors the landscape featured in Huizenga's work. Situated within a vocabulary that exploits the conventions of "situational" comics like Blondie and Gasoline Alley as well as the contemplative sparseness and restraint of John Porcellino, Huizenga's work is uniquely attentive to the marking of time through an acquaintance with space. The reader is reminded of the physical action that attaches to the production of the Comics form. Taking the rectangular frame as its basic unit of measurement, "On Walking" shows Huizenga's use of the similarly rectangular frames of sidewalk paving, and links the process of walking to the process of reading. Simultaneously, Huizenga demonstrates how the consistency of size and shape—of paving stone and of Comics panels—calls the reader to make meaningful connections between them about the nature of Dwelling.

Crossing physical distances contrasts with crossing time distances. Beginning with his short story "Walkin'," and in subsequent stories, I explore the consistently paced frames used to meditate on how time and space are traversed. By referencing the physical movements in the panels, Huizenga deftly provides instruction on the physical labor necessary to elicit the mental labor that allows a reader to cross, and make meaning from, the ellipses between frames.