The Power of the Gutter in Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä’s “Abbott”

One of the things I love about graphic narratives, as I’ve pointed out numerous times, is how they engage the reader in construction of the story, specifically through the use of the gutter, that space in between panels where the reader must fill in the gaps of movement from one moment to another. The gutter, as well, serves as a visual marker that severs panels as well, providing multiple perspectives of an illustration that carries within it multiple meanings. Both of these aspects of the gutter appear through Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä’s series Abbott, and today I want to briefly look at a few of these moments, highlighting the ways that the gutter functions within the series.

Gutters call upon readers to engage in the act of closure, filling in the absent spaces on the page in our own mind, thus creating a flowing image within ourselves. Gutters provide transitions between panels, allowing us, as readers, to move from one moment to another, sometimes through action, other times through time itself, and at other times between perspectives. Scott McCloud provides us with six different types of transitions that the gutter implements: moment-to-moment; action-to-action; subject-to-subject; scene-to-scene; aspect-to-aspect; and non-sequitur.