The Graphic code of Comic Strips

Lecture Notes 

On Scott McCloud's Closure and Transition 

In this section, McCloud discusses what closure in comic books is and how it is used. Closure is the space between panels in which the readers mind can freely associate how one panel leads to another. This can be filling in the gaps in a walking cycle or the death of a character. The gutter is a space of infinite possibilities, that utilises the audience's imagination to conclude or connect panels. 
McCloud supposes that the amount of closure required of the readers imagination is dependent on the type of transition between panels. He then goes on to define six transition types (these are listed in the Lecture Notes under "the potency of negative space").

Art Spiegelman and Maus 

Spiegelman was born in 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden and immigrated with his parents to the USA in 1951. He began drawing cartoons in 1960 imitating the style he found in the comic books he owned. He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College. He began work on Maus, his most well-known work, in 1972 as a three-page strip for the first issue of “Funny Animals” he wanted to do the strip about racism choosing to write about the Holocaust that his parents had survived. His parents were Polish Jews, and both were imprisoned in Auschwitz, Maus drew from his father’s recollections of the Holocaust.
From 1980 Maus, was printed one chapter at a time as in insert in Raw (a magazine that Spiegelman co-edited). By 1986 Spiegelman published the first six chapters with Pantheon, the book found a large audience and was released in book stores rather than comic book stores, which were then main outlet for comics in the 1980’s. 

The panel transitions used in Maus

1-1 = Moment to Moment
2-2 = Moment to Moment
3-3= Moment to Moment
4-4= Moment to Moment
5-5= Moment to Moment
6-6=Moment to Moment 
​7-7= Scene to Scene

The prevalence of moment to moment transitions on this page, emphasizes the the more relaxed nature of the scene, and the conversational tone there in. This allows the final panel to contrast greatly from the rest of the page more so that it all ready is, due to it's circular shape. I think the way in which the outer circles around the frame merge into the panels suggest that the past still pervades Vladek's life, especially into panel where his body is so dominant in the composition. This is compounded by his reluctance to talk about his life to his son, conveying the weight of his past.

1-1 = Scene to Scene
2-2 = Scene to Scene
3-3 = Moment to Moment
4-4 = Scene to Scene
5-5= Moment to Moment
​6-6= Scene to Scene

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Notably the final panel has been pushed forward in front of the others, suggesting that the previous panels are nested with in it. This is a visual metaphor for the end of Vladek Spiegelman's (Art Spiegelman's father) life and in turn the end of the story which has been draw from it.

For additional content on the page design of Maus, I would implore you to watch the following Nerdwriter1 video essay, which focuses on the design of page 12 above. ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dQEfL2BfUM