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Image credit: Victor GAD. Marija Dalbello Comics . Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello. Comics _______________________________________ History Comic book culture
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Image credit: Victor GAD Marija Dalbello Comics Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies dalbello@scils.rutgers.edu http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~dalbello
Comics _______________________________________ History Comic book culture Visual language of comics (Comic literacy) Artists / Publishers / Readers Taxonomies
Comic Book History _______________________________________ Turn of the century (pictorial storytelling) 1940s superhero comics Comic Book Code (Fredric Wertham’s The Seduction of the Innocent (NY: Random, 1954) 1960s adult comics 1980s slump 1990s to date revival; alternative comics (Vertigo); graphic novel boom
Visual Language of Comics • _______________________________________ • Fundamental elements of comics literacy Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993) • Visual iconography established vocabulary of comics • Narrative closure (constructing a continuous unified reality) • Panel layout • Color • Visual conventions (balloons and types of speech, moods) • Arrangement of the panels on the page, size of panels and reading directions • Conscious breaking of rules • Self-reflexivity (convention / innovation) • Innovation: Chris Ware (matrix instead of sequence; unified panel)
Visual Language of Comics • _______________________________________ • Panel-to-panel transition (Puszt, pp. 115-120) • Numbering • Arrows to show progression • Traditional left-to-right reading direction • Action-to-action transitions (single subject in a brief sequence of movement or change; character swinging a fistt) • Subject-to-subject transitions (focuses on a single scene or idea but moves its focus from place to place during the sequence for example showing an anguished face of characters in the same scene) • Scene-to-scene transitions (deductive reasoning because reader fills in the gaps of time and space between the panels; to separate 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”)
Artists / Writers • _______________________________________ • Harvey Pekar (writer: American Splendor)(http://www.harveypekar.com) • Chris Ware (innovative visual language) (http://orion.it.luc.edu/~dcihla/ware.htm) • Robert Crumb (http://www.fantagraphics.com/artist/crumb/crumb.html) • Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons (Watchmen-cinematic effects) (http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/3840/watchmen.html) • Neil Gaiman (Death, The Cost of Living, Sandman - horror, supernatural) (http://www.neilgaiman.com) • Art Spiegelman (Mauss - Pulitzer prize) (http://www.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html) • DC comics, Vertigo, Marvel, minicomics (Samizdat editions), comix
CW RC Artists / Writers _______________________________________ Watchmen HP NG
Readers • _______________________________________ • Extensive reading / Collecting (“fanboys” / “true believers”) • Reading within a niche culture (in-crowd) • Published letters (interaction between readers and with the writers) • Close relationship with production (readers as participants and producers in the culture) • Male readership (superhero comics; connection to adolescence) • Female readership (alternative comix, manga) • Mainstream vs. Alternative audience • Comic book culture (specialized bookstores, Comicon)
Taxonomies • _______________________________________ • Manga (anime) • Superhero comics (young adult, adult) • Alternative comics (adult) • Genres: action, horror, supernatural, SF