Superstring Comics
By Scott O. Brown.

If you think about it, comics are a two-dimensional rendering of four-dimensional space. A panel contains everything from a moment to an eternity. Two in succession are two moments up to an eternity apart. In many ways, the nature of the comics medium is similar to superstring theory's ten-plus dimensional structure.

To get everyone up to speed, superstring theory is the only mainstream quantum theory that has the potential to unify the four basic forces of the universe: electromagnetism, gravity, weak force, and strong force. It proposes that matter and energy are made up of these tiny little things (10^-33 cm. long) called strings that vibrate, rotate, disconnect, and reform through a ten to twenty-six dimensional space. I'm oversimplifying things a bit, but that's the gist.

Where do those extra six-plus dimensions come from? It's a theory called compactification proposed by Kaluza-Klein. Imagine standing outside and seeing a garden hose a good way off in the distance. It looks like a line. The only obvious dimension is width. I know it has to have at lest a minimal height, without it, the hose would be imperceptible, but let's assume it appears as a straight thin line. Approach the hose. It gains height as you draw closer. Once you're only a few feet away, walk around the hose. We now have breadth, as you perceive the hole on one end of the hose. That's where those extra dimensions are: some angle or space of which we only perceive a fraction, but lack the mobility to move in the appropriate direction to see the whole. And it doesn't help that these dimensions are so damn small.

Comics are a lot like that: Not three panel newspaper comics, but a bound 22-page monthly book or a trade paperback. Now try part two of the experiment. Grab the closest comic (What?!? You don't keep them handy?). Open it to a two-page spread somewhere in the middle. Pick a panel with a dynamic angle, physical action, and a word balloon. To the denizens of this comic, they exist in 4D space, but to us, they are only two-dimensional pictures. Assuming you're looking at a well-drawn panel, the three dimensions should be apparent through light, shading, vanishing points, and all that groovy stuff. Either motion lines or the words in the word balloon define time. Poof! Four dimensions in two.

What happens when you turn the page? That piece of paper imitating 4D space moves 180 degrees on its axis, the spine of the book. Since the Flatlanders exist in full 4D space, the motion along the axis/spine is imperceptible to them because it happens outside their reality at an imperceptible angle. Next thing you know, you've uncovered another layer of comic book space. It's continuous to Flatlanders, but it's the motion of their entire space-time continuum to use. Our reality is their garden hose--an additional four dimensions on top of their four. So that's eight. Where are the other two? Another two axes outside our perception.

Complicated? Yes, but so is quantum mechanics. This is just something to think about.

The bulk of research for this essay was done at: http://www.superstringtheory.com
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/~jpierre/strings/
Go visit them and explore the links. It's a strange world out there.

Next month: Bleeding Through the Gutters. The application of Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics to closure.

In two months: Are Comics an Adamic Language? What is comics' potential to explain the nature of things?

Scott O. Brown is a regular contributor to PopImage.

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