A Short History of Western Comics, Part #1: What are Comics and how do they work? (original) (raw)
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A Short History of Western Comics, Part #2: Origins and Predecessors
Lecture Series: The History of Western Comics, 2023
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, April 18, 2023. - Part 2 of a lecture series on the history of Western Comics. - The main part of this lecture deals with the origins and predecessors of Western Comics, from 16th century political and religious broadsheets to prominent examples from the 18th and 19th centuries, including William Hogarth and the Victorian character Ally Sloper (Britain), the picture books of Rodolphe Töpffer (Switzerland), and German artist Wilhelm Busch. We will also discuss the impact of the Western invention of the printing press in the 1400s. In the second part of the lecture, we will talk about chapter 3 from Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics, covering transitions between panels. Note: For copyright rea-sons, images are not embedded in the text. Instead, links to external sources are provided.
On the History and Hermeneutics of Comics
2017
What is a comic? The simple answer states that a comic is a drawn story that is picture- rather than text-oriented and told serially. In other words, a comic is a type of illustration. Realism is not its goal; rather a narrative is developed through reduction according to specific stylistic means. I start this article with a definition of the term “comic”, and move on to highlight the complexity of the comic and to argue that insight into this complexity is necessary for its correct interpretation. Only then can we recognise that the comic is not only entertaining but also, in its own way, a vehicle for content that might be system confirming and propagandistic but can also be system critical. Doing so allows us to see the potential of the comic that is embedded in its particular affinity with nonlinear interactive audiovisual media.
A Short History of Western Comics - Part #6: The Graphic Novel Revolution
Lecture Series: The History of Western Comics, 2023
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, May 16, 2023. - Part 6 of a lecture series on the history of Western Comics. - This section deals with the advent of the graphic novel, a segment of the Comics market that has continually gained in importance in the Western Comics market since the 1970s. The term was first coined by Comic fanzine author Richard Kyle and then first gained traction in the American Comics scene; we will look at a preliminary definition of the term by American critic Isaac Cates. We will then look at a number of prominent examples from North America and Europe “A Contract with God”, the sophisticated book that popularized the term; “Maus”, which was the first Comic to win America’s most prestigious literary award; “Persepolis”, the first-hand account of a woman growing up under a repressive Iranian government; “Fun Home”, a Lesbian artist’s exploration of her relationship with her gay father; and two adaptations of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s seminal German drama “Faust”. After going over these examples, we will eventually return to our definition of what a graphic novel is and check its validity. Note: For copyright reasons, this text does not provide illustrations. Instead, links to online sources are provided.
A Short History of Western Comics, Part #4: New Frontiers: Comic Books and Superheroes
Lecture Series: The History of Western Comics, 2023
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan, May 2, 2023. - Part 4 of a lecture series on the history of Western Comics. - In this lecture, we will discuss the history of the American Comic book from the 1930s to the present. This includes the advent of the first Comic books in the 1930s, the invention of the superhero genre, but also the tem-porary downfall Comics took in the Fifties, when critics like psychologist Fredric Wertham accused the medium of giving children and adolescents wrong ideas about life and inciting them to sex and violence – a process that was answered with underground Comix from 1960s counterculture, which capitalized just on these “forbidden” things. We will then see how the superhero genre recovered in the 1960s, namely with the work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, how the Comics trade changed from newsstands to Comic book stores, and how new superhero artists paved the way for the triumph of the graphic novel. The second part of the lecture will then cover two chapters from Scott McCloud’s book – the relationship between words and images and his model of artistic creation, which he calls “The Six Steps.” Note: For copyright reasons, images are not embedded in the text. Instead, links to external sources are provided.
" But Seriously, Folks...": Comic Art and History
1991
THESE TWO WORKS, SO DIFFERENT IN STYLE AND CONTENT, ARE UNITED by the desire to bring academic respectability to" graphic narrative"(Kunzle) or" sequential art"(Witek). The difference between the works can be gauged by the lack of a common term to describe their subject.
2017
What is a comic? the simple answer states that a comic is a drawn story that is picturerather than text-oriented and told serially. in other words, a comic is a type of illustration. Realism is not its goal; rather a narrative is developed through reduction according to specific stylistic means. I start this article with a definition of the term “comic”, and move on to highlight the complexity of the comic and to argue that insight into this complexity is necessary for its correct interpretation. Only then can we recognise that the comic is not only entertaining but also, in its own way, a vehicle for content that might be system confirming and propagandistic but can also be system critical. Doing so allows us to see the potential of the comic that is embedded in its particular affinity with nonlinear interactive audiovisual media.
Comics' Mobility Across Time, Space, and Media: Introduction
New Readings, 2022
The articles in this themed issue explore the processes, devices, and strategies that characterize comics’ mobility across time, space, and media. Mobility is understood here to include all processes of transformation undergone by comics in their journey across history (time), cultural and linguistic boundaries (space), and different forms of artistic production (media). These three axes of comics’ mobility are often interconnected but have so far mostly been explored in isolation and from the perspective of a single discipline or language. In his seminal study The Textual Condition, Jerome J. McGann affirmed: “What is textually possible cannot be theoretically established. What can be done is to sketch, through close and highly particular case studies, the general framework within which textuality is constrained to exhibit its transformations” (30). The articles in this issue of New Readings set out to examine some of comics’ specific transformations from the vantage point of the medium’s multidimensional mobility with the aim of advancing our understanding of the textual possibilities of this art form, looking beyond the universe of anglophone mainstream superhero comics.