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Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Comics

Image credit: Victor GAD. Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Comics. Rutgers School of Communication and Information dalbello@rutgers.edu. Overview _______________________________________ Introduction What is comics art? Visual language of comics

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Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Comics

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  1. Image credit: Victor GAD Marija Dalbello Reading Interests of Adults Comics Rutgers School of Communication and Informationdalbello@rutgers.edu

  2. Overview • _______________________________________ • Introduction • What is comics art? • Visual language of comics • Artists, readers and taxonomies • Conclusion

  3. What is comics art • Definition _______________________________________ • Comics denotes a graphic medium in which images are used to convey a sequential narrative, an inextricable mixing of words and pictures arranged in a deliberate sequence, intended to convey information, amuse, or provoke laughter

  4. What is comics art Comics culture _______________________________________ Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1994)

  5. What is comics art? • _______________________________________ • Eclectic visual forms, genres, and formats are all included • Comics / Comix • Graphic novels • Cartoon strip • Manga • Themes and types vary - and proliferate ever more • Superhero comics • Science fiction • Western • Fantasy • Horror • Mainstream and alternative comics • Transmedia phenomenon

  6. What is comics art • Tradition _______________________________________ • From pictorial storytelling to superhero comics - and beyond • European tradition • American tradition • Development of visual forms in comics art has a complex history • Connection to film, cartoons • Popularized in newspapers and magazines - late 1890s • Origin in narrative illustration • Comics art and comics have a social history too • Comic book code defines industry • Debates about comics literacy • Corruption of the innocent? • Adult comics of the 1960s, slump in the 1980s, revival in the 1990s (alternative comics), the graphic novels boom

  7. Narrative illustration - example From: http://thelittlechimpsociety.com/onehugeeye/cheltenham-illustration-awards/

  8. What is comics art • Tradition _______________________________________ • From pictorial storytelling to superhero comics - and beyond • European tradition • American tradition • Development of visual forms in comics art has a complex history • Connection to film, cartoons • Popularized in newspapers and magazines - late 1890s • Origin in narrative illustration • Comics art and comics have a social history too • Comic Book Code defines industry • Debates about comics literacy • Corruption of the innocent? • Adult comics of the 1960s, slump in the 1980s, revival in the 1990s (alternative comics), the graphic novels boom

  9. Comic Book Code - excerpts

  10. Comic Book Code - excerpts

  11. Visual language of comics • _______________________________________ • Fundamental elements of comics literacy • Scott McCloud’s {Understanding, Reinventing} Comics • Visual iconography and established visual vocabulary • Narrative closure - constructing a continuous unified reality • Color • Panel layout • Self-reflexivity • Deliberate breaking of rules • Visual conventions (balloons and types of speech, mood) • Arrangement of panels, size of panels, reading directions • Convention and innovation • Avant-garde authors, artists, illustrators

  12. Visual language of comics • Comics literacy _______________________________________ • A system of meanings, a language • Symbolism, convention, horizons for reading involved • Creating meaningful differences among pictures through “sequential art” • Panel-to-panel transition most common (Puszt, pp. 115-120) • Numbering • Arrows to show transitions • Traditional left-to-right reading direction • Matrix instead of sequence, unified panel, alternative and experimental comics

  13. Visual language of comics: comics literacy • Panel-to-Panel transition • _______________________________________ • Action-to-action transitions • Single subject in a brief sequence of movement or change (character swinging a fist) • Subject-to-subject transitions • Focuses on a single scene or idea but moves its focus from place to place during the sequence (showing anguished face of characters in the same scene) • Scene-to-scene transitions • Deductive reasoning involved - reader fills in the gaps of time and space between the panels; separation of specific sequences; time and space changes • Aspect-to-aspect transitions • Montage of elements reflecting a single place, idea, or mood • Non sequitur transitions • No logical relationship between panels but they can create “meaning or resonance” • FIND EXAMPLES IN YOUR READING

  14. Which ones do you recognize here? • Pictures as part of a sequence “transforms the art of the images into something more: the art of comics!” (Scott McCloud)

  15. Visual language of comics: comics literacy • Matrix instead of sequence • _______________________________________ • Unified panel • Multiple directions • Hypertextual storyspace • Avant-garde and experimental • Chris Ware • Alternative comics

  16. Artists Mainstream Avant-garde Publishers Mainstream (DC comics, Marvel) Independent (minicomics) “samizdat” Alternative Fringe (Chick tracts) • What is comics art • Comics lifecycle • _______________________________________ Readers • Adults • Adolescents

  17. Artists and Writers • _______________________________________ • Robert Crumb • Harvey Pekar • American Splendor • Daniel Clowes • Ghost World • Art Spiegelman • Mauss • Mirjam Satrapi • Persepolis • Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons • Watchmen (cinematic effects) • Neil Gaiman • Death, The Cost of Living, Sandman (horror, supernatural)

  18. Readers • _______________________________________ • Extensive reading • Collecting (“fanboys” and “true believers”) • Reading within a niche culture, in-crowd • Close relationship with production • Readers as participants and producers in the culture • Interaction between readers and writers (published letters) • Audience: mainstream and alternative • Male readership: superhero comics, connection to adolescence • Female readership: alternative comics, manga • Comic book culture: Comicon, specialized bookstores

  19. Taxonomies _______________________________________ • Manga (anime) • Superhero comics (young adult, adult) • Alternative comics (adult) • Indie comics • Genres: action (power fantasy), romance, horror, supernatural, erotica, SF

  20. Superhero comics

  21. The cover artwork for an issue of Zap Comix, featuring the character Mr. Natural. Zap Comix, featuring Mr. Natural The cover artwork for an issue of Zap Comix, featuring the character Mr. Natural.

  22. Chick tracts

  23. Manga as well, historical

  24. Manga

  25. Manga

  26. Conclusion • _______________________________________ • Narrative medium consisting of juxtaposed text-image systems • Comics are mass culture form as well as ancient graphic art • Nostalgia space for readers, reminiscent of adolescence • Visual narratives tied to a range of popular genres • A “low” art form or sophisticated form of literacy? • Multiculture, art, literature, critique

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