comics essay

Comics - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

Comics are a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information, providing a unique way to tell stories or present ideas. Essays on comics could delve into the history of comics, the various genres and styles, the cultural impact and significance of comics, or the artistic and narrative techniques unique to the medium. They might also explore the representation of social, political, and cultural issues in comics, the reception and criticism of comics, or the evolution of the comics industry in the digital age. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Comics you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Exploring History and Identity through ‘Persepolis’ Comics

Marjane Satrapi's graphic work, "Persepolis," is a moving memoir that details her early years in Iran both before and after the Islamic Revolution. First published in 2000, this ground-breaking book explores topics of identity, culture, and the intricacies of living in post-revolutionary Iran by fusing the storytelling potential of comics with graphic storytelling. This article explores the distinctive storytelling technique of "Persepolis," looking at its influence on the viewer, its thematic depth, and its historical background. "Persepolis" is a personal […]

Breaking the Mold: the Impact of Batman Killing the Joker on Comics Storytelling

The idea of Batman killing the Joker is a narrative concept that has sparked debates among comic book enthusiasts and scholars alike. It challenges the traditional ethos of one of the most iconic superheroes in comic book history, Batman, known for his strict moral code against killing. This essay delves into the implications of such a storyline, exploring how it would reshape the long-established dynamics between Batman and the Joker and its broader impact on comic book storytelling. Traditionally, Batman […]

Marvel Vs DC Compare and Contrast

The introduction of comics and graphic novels began in the 16th century in Japan, but their popularization in America took place in the 30s. From that moment on, the popularity of comics has grown in Europe and around the world. The two most famous comic book companies are, of course, Marvel and DC. While fans on both sides sometimes look to the other side with a belligerent stance, it is important to look at the similarities in both of these […]

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Female Comics and Social Justice

"In a similar vein, ideas expressed by women who identify as feminists are often dismissed under the idea that they are angry and unable to take a joke. Thus, the stand-up stage is a space where homophobic, sexist, and all together insensitive jokes not only occur, but thrive. The comedy business is hard and unforgiving to queer audiences, fueling anxiety and self-hatred, as has been pointed out by queer comedians such as Hannah Gatsby. In her standup special Nanette, Gatsby […]

Black Panther Film Review Essay

For my review essay, I chose to critique the movie Black Panther. This film was released on February 16, 2018, in Pinewood Studios, that is located in Atlanta, Georgia. The writer/director of this film goes by the name Ryan Coogler. He has co-written and directed the film Creed (2015) and Fruitvale Station (2013). The co-scriptwriter of this film goes by the name Joe Robert Cole, and the cinematographer, Rachel Morrison. A couple main characters of the cast are: Martin Freeman […]

Understanding Anime Culture: Distinguishing between True Fans and Pretenders

The True Essence of Anime Anime is for everybody, but a percentage has yet to get it. Those are fake anime fans. Those people seem to have problems when they like it, but they do not know what it is and what it stands for. Even after you try to teach them what is honest about it, they still do not know the difference between manga and a Harry Potter tale. Today, my guide to anime will describe how to […]

Development of the Image of Peter Parker

Peter Parker was brought up as an orphan by Ben and May who were his Uncle and Aunt respectively. He was introverted as he couldn't tell his neighbourhood friend Mary Jane that he had a crush on her, and he was also picked on by bullies in school. Peter alongside his friends, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane and schoolmates went on a school trip where they visited a genetics laboratory. Peter got bitten by a genetically engineered spider that had […]

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: a Personal and Political Narrative

Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel "Persepolis" intricately weaves together a tapestry of personal and political narratives against the backdrop of Iran's turbulent history. Through the lens of her own coming-of-age story, Satrapi paints a vivid picture of life during and after the Islamic Revolution, offering readers a deeply human perspective on the impact of socio-political upheaval. The novel opens with Satrapi's childhood in Tehran, where she navigates a rapidly changing society under the regime of the Shah. Through her youthful eyes, […]

The Power of Panels: Analyzing the Role of Layout and Composition in Comics

Comics, often regarded as a form of sequential art, derive their narrative strength not only from the words that inhabit speech bubbles but also from the meticulously crafted layouts and compositions that guide the reader's visual journey. The power of panels, those individual frames that make up the tapestry of a comic, lies in their ability to shape the narrative, evoke emotions, and engage the audience in a dynamic dance between text and image. At the core of comic artistry […]

Dynamic Duos and Complex Narratives: the Evolution of Character Relationships in Comics

In the kaleidoscopic universe of comic book narratives, the synergy between characters emerges as a vibrant tapestry, weaving intricate patterns of connection and evolution. The exploration of relationships, particularly within the dynamic duos that populate the pages of these graphic narratives, transcends the conventional boundaries of heroism and villainy. Instead, it unfolds as a nuanced interplay that injects layers of complexity into the vibrant landscape of comic book storytelling. Embarking on this exploration inevitably leads us to one of the […]

Exploring the Multifaceted World of Comics: a Scholarly Inquiry

This essay critically examines the complex and dynamic realm of comics, elucidating their diverse forms, cultural significance, and evolving role in shaping popular narratives. Through an interdisciplinary lens, it delves into the historical roots of comics, their artistic merits, and their enduring appeal across different cultures and demographics. Introduction: Comics have emerged as a potent medium for storytelling, blending visual artistry with narrative prowess to captivate audiences of all ages and backgrounds. From the whimsical world of superhero sagas to […]

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Introduction to Comics Studies

Introduction to Comics Studies

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on October 22, 2017 • ( 1 )

Although both film and comics in their currently recognized forms emerged in the nineteenth century, film acquired much earlier critical academic recognition, even though as early as the 1830s the comic strip began to distinguish itself from already established fields of printmaking and caricature. Despite its being the older medium, the comic strip and its cultural significance have only recently begun to be appreciated in academic studies. As a result, the relatively recent rise in comics studies and comics scholarship has led to a number of different debates concerning origins and seminal influences and sources. While some scholars credit Rodolphe Töpffer (1799-1846), others cite the origins of the comic strip with either George Cruikshank (1792-1878) or William Hogarth (1679-1764), the latter’s narrative cycle The Rake’s Progress being offered as a prototype of the comic strip. Other comics scholars have, more radically, assigned the origin of the comic strip to the Bayeux Tapestries (1077), produced after the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England eleven years earlier. There is, though, no absolutely agreed starting point. This article will focus on the development and reception of, briefly, the comic strip, and subsequently the comic book, in the United States through the twentieth century.

Comic strips preceded the comic book in North America, but publishers soon realized the potential of reprinting strips in comic book form. The once widely held view that R. F. Outcault (1863-1928) created what was recognized as the first modern American comic strip with The Yellow Kid (1895) is now discredited, even though Outcault ‘s creation, The Yellow Kid , was a hugely popular phenomenon of its time, boosting newspaper sales in which the comic appeared. Amongst scholars of the comic strip, the first American comic book proper is now generally considered to be Funnies on Parade (1933), which was not produced specifically as a comic book, but was reprinted from already published newspaper strips. The early twentieth century was a particularly fruitful period for comic strips: Windsor McCay ‘s Little Nemo (1904-13, revived briefly in 1924) and George Herriman’s Krazy Kat (1916-44) are discussed in almost every scholarly work on comic strips. By 1935, in the midst of the Depression , the comic book established itself as a medium of mass entertainment and communication. As a result, comic-book reproduction of previously printed material in newspapers and magazines was superseded by the regular publication of original material. Soon afterwards, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster ‘s Superman opened the floodgates of superhero comics in Action Comics #1 (1938) . The ‘Golden Age’ of comic books, a term developed by the collectors’ market, continues from around this time until the early 1950s and has been the subject of much amateur, trade and academic writing over the years.

The number of popular books published about Superman , Batman and other superhero icons born in the Golden Age is, at an initial glance, overwhelming, but as yet, no definitive academic monograph on this period or any of its cartoonists has emerged. The first critical commentaries contemporaneous with the first half of the twentieth century and its comics output were generally less than favourable, tending to dismiss the field as harmful at worst or vapid at best. Favourable criticism was limited to arguments that a specific strip or book was an exception to the rule. Jeet Heer and Kent Worcester ‘s Arguing Comics (2004) recovers such ‘lost’ criticism, sampling articles from 1895 through to the early 1960s. The most negative and damaging critical attack on comics was Fredric Wertham ‘s Seduction of the Innocent (1954). Presently out of print, it was of great significance both at the time of its publication and subsequently, in that it brought about comics’ self-censorship via the institution of the Comics Code Authority (CCA). As a result comic books established in the genres of horror and crime narrative were occasionally forced out of business. EC Comics , the best-regarded of the Horror and Crime comics publishers, all but went under, surviving only in the form of Harvey Kurtzman ‘s Mad Magazine . Around the same time at the end of the 1950s, fanzines began to appear, discussing and defending comics, as well as serving to establish art and writing credits (most comic books being, up to this time, uncredited). The turmoil caused by the Comics Code did not have any substantial impact on what are known as ‘funny animal’ comics, one of the medium’s most enduring and best selling genres. Little critical attention has been paid to these comics, or their greatest talent, Carl Barks . After the institution of the Comics Code, the Silver Age of Comics begins, characterized by Spiderman and the X-Men , and given their most significant and inventive interpreters in artist Jack Kirby and editor/writer Stan Lee.

By the end of the 1950s, scholarship on comic strips and comic books had begun to develop in North American universities, even though publication of articles was not modern north american criticism and theory forthcoming. Sol Davidson earned his Ph.D. with a thousand-page dissertation on comics (the first on the subject in the US) in 1959, but no academic books on comics would appear until the 1970s. The underground comics of the 1960s and 1970s varied as widely in quality as they did in distribution, but they contained elements that opened doors for future work and scholarship: the countercultural impulse to break taboos, the artist-writer (already a staple of comic strips), and autobiographical elements. Robert Crumb is the most famous of the underground artists, and his mixture of self-loathing and extreme sexual candor has had a lasting influence. Visual art and design journal Graphis put out two issues, one on comic strips and one on comic books, in 1972. Out of print now, this is an early and key example of how to bring serious writing and lavish art reproductions together and is, in addition, one of the very few transatlantic works on comics.

Amongst the first monographs on comics are David Kunzle’s The Early Comic Strip: Picture Stories and Narrative Strips in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825 and the second volume, The History of the Comic Strip: The Nineteenth Century. Kunzle’s books offer histories and necessary cultural contextualization, while focusing exclusively on comic strips. The nineteenth-century volume is of particular interest, establishing the centrality to comic strip study of early innovators such as Topffer , Hogarth and George Cruikshank , and later popular caricaturists such as Amédée de Noé (Cham) , Wilhelm Busch and Léonce Petit – all of whose work appeared in popular magazines of the day, particularly Le Charivari, Punch and Fliegende Blatter . Out of necessity, Kunzle formulates a working definition of the comic strip as dominated by images rather than text and consisting of a sequence of images. However, while such a focus may be now considered as misplaced, Kunzle’s work did effect important changes. One of Kunzle’s key insights was to describe comics as mass-produced and topical, thereby anticipating the ‘cultural history’ genre of comics scholarship. Additionally, he established the necessity of taking the comic strip seriously as a field of academic inquiry, while also drawing attention to the lack of such interest. Furthermore, Kunzle’s groundbreaking publications more or less irreversibly exploded the fallacy that comic strips began in North America and are a uniquely North American art form. Since the publication of Kunzle’s work, there has been a great deal of debate as to whether it is primarily sequential images or the combination of text and image that defines comics, but his significance is not to be diminished.

At the same time as Kunzle’s work appeared in print, comics study made its first forays into the university classroom. In 1974, Donald Ault created a ‘Literature and Popular Culture’ course at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the first to include comic books as course readings, placing them alongside animated films, conventional literature and literary theory in the classroom. As a result chiefly of the initiatives of Kunzle and Ault , comics studies has emerged subsequently as a field over a period ironically in which comic book sales have continued to decline and comic strips are increasingly cramped for space. In such difficult times, post-underground comics have taken off in an increasing variety of directions, from Art Spiegelman ‘s avant-garde comic Raw to self-published ‘ground level’ comics and, in addition, to deliberately unpolished mini-comics.

Will Eisner ‘s groundbreaking A Contract With God (1979), is often incorrectly identified as ‘the first graphic novel’. It was neither the first graphic novel, nor was it properly a ‘novel’, being instead a collection of short stories. In retrospect such determinations merely reveal on the one hand the lack of academic awareness of the widespread extent of avant- garde and underground work already under way, and on the other, something which comic book readers had known for some time: that the comic book had already established itself, via counter-cultural means, as a serious aesthetic medium. This is not to diminish Eisner ‘s significance, however. Eisner did popularize the term ‘graphic novel’, his book proving a crucial turning-point in its being among the first works to reach a wider audience than hitherto. It drew attention to itself in being the work of a single author-artist (it is also, interestingly, semi-autobiographical), like much other underground material, and was intended from the start as a book, not just a comic, for distribution and sale primarily in bookstores, aimed at a general – though generally adult -audience.

Eisner followed this up with the seminal text Comics and Sequential Art (1985). There were already guides to cartooning technique, but Eisner ‘s book was broader in scope, conveying a lifetime’s experience about how to use the elements of the medium to achieve dramatic effect. The following year, collected editions were released of Frank Miller ‘s revisionist Batman tales , The Dark Knight Returns , Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ‘s Watchmen and Spiegelman’s Maus , thereby consolidating previous work and establishing irrevocably the graphic novel as its own genre. This ‘holy trinity’ of comic books would result in the first of many furores over the ‘new’ comics, and all have subsequently become staples of academic teaching and research. Maus is taught in many Holocaust literature classes, while both it and Watchmen have become de rigeur for classes on comics as literature. All three have been the subject of many journal articles book chapters, but as yet none have received dedicated monographs.

A major entry into the field occurred in 1990 with the publication of M. Thomas Inge ‘s Comics as Culture and Joseph Witek’s Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson , Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar . Comics as Culture anthologizes Inge ‘s essays, published between 1983 and 1990. Inge, who had studied under Eisner, persistently contextualized American comics, showing how specific writers and artists were influenced by works and cultural influences outside the field of comics and how they, in turn, influenced others, in counterpoint to often-insular fan and popular work. Witek, who had been one of Ault’s students, took an opposite tack, considering how Jackson, Spiegelman and Pekar depicted history in and through their work. Witek’s tightly focused monograph may be the first to consider a small number of comics in great detail, to offer close readings of the genre and, moreover, to give careful cultural and historical grounding to the narratives. Comics as Culture and Comic Books as History were the first Comics Studies titles published by the University Press of Mississippi , which has since become a major publisher of monographs, essay collections and interview books in the field.

The 1990s witnessed something of a tumult in the comic book industry, the meteoric rise and fall of Image Comics and the collapse of an over-inflated collector’s market being amongst the most notable phenomena. At the same time, there was a marked shift in critical interest, as a result, largely, of the influence of Scott McCloud ‘s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1990) as readers started to be more interested in scholarship and the general public became more aware of comics. No book has done more to shape Comics Studies as a field, or readers’ perceptions of comics. From McCloud ‘s work, academic readers became more interested in the field as a scholarly concern, while a greater awareness of the comic book and graphic novel developed among the general reading public. Written entirely as a comic book, McCloud ‘s Understanding Comics is something of a sea-change. It takes Eisner’s definition of comics as ‘sequential art’ and founds a theory on that definition, making the ‘gutter’ or space between panels the single most important element in any comic. He follows from Kunzle and others in excluding single-panel cartoons and caricatures as ‘not comics’, providing a widely used typology of the transitions modern north american criticism and theory between panels. McCloud , not an academic himself, has drawn some fire from those who feel Understanding Comics is too proscriptive or lacks scholarly rigor. Nonetheless, virtually all books and papers on comics since have cited McCloud , even if only to refute him.

Robert C. Harvey’ s The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History (1994) and follow-up book The Art of the Comic Book (1996) are both published by a university press, though Harvey , like McCloud and Eisner, is not an academic but a professional comics creator. Harvey unapologetically focuses on the works he considers to be the best and most innovative, making his books more formal critiques than survey histories. Like McCloud , he takes a proscriptive stance, but his criterion for aesthetic and formal evaluation is governed by elements of verbal-visual blending. He favours comics where image and text are as complementary as possible and only allows for wordless or ‘pantomine’ comics as the exceptions that prove the rule.

One particular critical voice of note emerged during the 1990s from within the university: that of British academic Roger Sabin . His Adult Comics: An Introduction (1993) examines the origins of comics written for adults, both in and before the under-ground commix. It was written largely as a corrective to the idea that comics `grew up’ in the 1980s. Sabin draws examples from manga, bandes dessinees (French comics) and fumetti (Italian comics), but is mostly interested in Anglo-American comics. His follow-up book, Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels (1996), is a coffee-table book in a similar vein, though broader in scope. Here, Sabin made the case that British work generally leads rather than follows the American comics scene.

Sabin was not alone, however. By the mid-1990s, two major threads of Comics Scholarship had been established: cultural histories placing and contextualizing comics on the one hand and, on the other, explanatory theories of what the medium is and can do. Notably, writing in the field up to this point tends largely to be defensive, with many publications offering not only critical analysis but also acting as apologia: intent on establishing the bona fides of the field and its subject, showing why comic books are relevant and worth studying, and establishing that they are different from and not inferior to movies, novels and picture-books. As the decade proceeded, the number of academic works on comics increased dramatically and the amount of defensive manoeuvring decreased. By 1998, Amy Kyste Nyberg , typical of comics scholarship at the end of the decade, could produce Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code, speaking of the much-reviled CCA as a forerunner to other industry self-regulation, such as the MPAA movie ratings. Similarly, Ian Gordon , in Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890-1945 (1998), was free to focus on consumer culture and merchandising as a driving force behind comic strips, ignoring many of the most renowned strips.

The turn of the century witnessed a redoubling of the volume and scope of Comics Studies. It also attracted scholars from other fields with an interest in the subject. David Carrier , for example, brought his background as an analytic philosopher and an art historian to The Aesthetics of Comics (2000). Bradford D. Wright compared Golden and Silver Age comics to American culture more broadly perceived in Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America (2001). The work of these two men is noteworthy for particular reasons. Carrier’s text offers an explanatory theory most notable for giving credibility to the comparison between Honore Daumier ‘s caricatures and other work by `fine’ artists and that of comics; Wright, on the other hand, offers a cultural history that combines extensive cultural analysis grounded in a sense of the historical specificity of popular national identity in the US as this is mediated in the singular form of the comic.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, the breadth and diversity of disciplinary approaches to comics studies has increased markedly, with works applying techniques from the areas of Cultural Studies , Film Studies and Postcolonial Studies . Geoff Klock ‘s How to Read Superhero Comics and Why (2002) applies Harold Bloom ‘s theory of the anxiety of influence to comics, and Neil Cohn ‘s self-published work (2002-present), departing from McCloud ‘s work, argues that there is a sentence-like grammar to the comic strip or page and that visual elements can be ‘read’. At present, there are no clear divisions among comics scholars, though the emergence of one or more dominant ‘schools’ of comics studies seems likely. There is, though, increasing availability of, and ease of access to, source material and institutional support for those working in the field. The first academic journal devoted to comics studies, Inks: Cartoon and Comic Art Studies (1994-7), was of great significance to the field, only to disappear after three years, leaving a void not filled until 1999 by John Lent ‘s The International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), notable for its proactive internationalism. In 2004, Donald Ault inaugurated ImageTexT , an e-journal for comics and animation studies that places an emphasis on theoretical reflection on and intervention into the field, as the necessary means of producing rigorous analysis from a multidisciplinary base. In 2002 M. Todd Hignite ‘s Comic Art emerged as a serious trade publication that welcomed academic input. The other serious trade magazine, Gary Groth ‘s The Comics Journal (1977-present) has, unfortunately, traditionally been skeptical of academics and academic writing.

University libraries are expanding their holdings in comics, particularly Michigan State University, whose collection of comics may exceed that of the Library of Congress. Bowling Green State University and the University of California , Riverside also have large collections. Masters and doctoral tracks in Comics Studies have been introduced at the University of Florida (UF), and the library there is expanding its holdings in comics. The University of Mississippi Press is putting out a series of interview books with notable comics creators and animators, including Robert Crumb , Carl Barks , Charles M. Schulz and Milton Caniff . Forums for comics scholarship are well established: the Comics Arts Conference at the San Diego Comic-Con has been going since 1992 and the International Comics Art Fest since 1996. The UF Conference on Comics is fifteen years old and the Pop Culture Association/ American Culture Association has an Area Chair for Comics .

Increasingly specialized works are being put out by popular presses, including Patrick Rosencranz ‘s definitive work on the Underground Comics Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963-1975 (2002) and Trina Robbins ‘s books on many aspects of women and comics, including most recently, The Great Women Cartoonists (2001). Academic publications are likewise becoming more focused, as with Jeffrey A. Brown ‘s press-specific look at race in comics: Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics and their Fans (2001). In recent years there has also been a steady growth in the market for ‘alternative’ comics, `zines’, mini-comics and graphic novels, against a continued decline in sales of `mainstream’ comics. Charles Hatfield ‘s Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (2005) describes these phenomena and links alternative comics to the underground comix, while Daniel Raeburn ‘s Chris Ware (2004) takes a fine-art approach to Ware’s comics, design and objects d’art. As a field, Comics Studies has grown to embrace galley exhibitions and counter-culture(s), art history, cultural studies and the gap between old and new media. Thus, both in the university and beyond, comics studies has developed, often despite prejudice and in unexpected ways, and shows every sign of continuing to do so.

Sourcce: Modern North American Criticism and Theory A Critical Guide Edited by Julian Wolfreys Edinburgh University Press 2002

Further reading and works cited Barker, M. A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign. Jackson, MS,1984. Brown, J. A. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics and their Fans. Jackson, MS, 2001. Carrier, D. The Aesthetics of Comics. University Park, PA, 2000. Cohn, N. Early Writings on Visual Language. Carlsbad, CA, 2003. Dowd, D. B. and Hignite, M. T. (eds) The Rubber Frame: Essays in Culture and Comics. St Louis, MI, 2004. Eisner, W. Comics and Sequential Art. Tamarack, FL, 1985. Ð. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. Tamarack, FL, 1996. ÐÐ. A Contract with God. Tamarack, FL, 1979. Fingeroth, D. Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and our Society. New York, 2004. Gordon, I. Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890±1945. Washington, DC, 1998. Groth, G. and Fiore, R. (eds) The New Comics. New York, 1988. Hatfield, C. Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson, 2005. Harvey, R. C. The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History. Jackson, MS, 1994. Ð. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Jackson, MS, 1996. Heer, J. and Worcester, K. (eds) Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium. Jackson, MS, 2004. Herdeg, W. and Pascal, D. (eds) Comics: The Art of The Comic Strip. Zurich, 1972. Jones, G. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book. New York, 2004. Klock, G. How to Read Superhero Comics and Why. New York, 2002. Kunzle, D. The Early Comic Strip: Picture Stories and Narrative Strips in the European Broadsheet from c.1450 to 1825. Berkeley, CA, 1973. Ð. The History of the Comic Strip: The Nineteenth Century. Berkeley, CA, 1990. Juno, A. (ed.) Dangerous Drawings: Interviews with Comix and Graphix Artists. New York, 1997. McAllister, M. P. et al. (eds) Comics and Ideology. New York, 2001. McCloud, S. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Northampton, MA, 1993. Ð. Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form. New York, 2000. Nyeberg, A. K. Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. Jackson, MS, 1998. Phelps, D. Reading the Funnies. Seattle, WA, 2001. Raeburn, D. Chris Ware. New Haven, CT, 2004. Robbins, T. The Great Women Superheroes. Northampton, MA, 1996. Ð. From Girls to Grrlz: A History of Women’s Comics from Teens to Zines. San Francisco, 1999. Ð. The Great Women Cartoonists. New York, 2001. Rosenkranz, P. Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution 1963±1975. Seattle, 2002. Sabin, R. Adult Comics: An Introduction. New York, 1993. Ð. Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels. New York, 1996. Schutz, D. and Kitchen, D. (eds) Will Eisner’s Shop Talk. Milwaukie, OR, 2001. Thomas, I. M. Comics as Culture. Jackson, MS, 2000. Varnum, R. and Gibbons, C. T. (eds) The Language of Comics: Word and Image. Jackson, MS, 2001. Wertham, F. Seduction of the Innocent. New York, 1954. Wiater, S. and Bissette, S. R. (eds) Comic Book Rebels: Conversations with the Creators of the New Comics. New York, 1993. Wright, B. D. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore, MD, 2001.

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How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels. A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies

2021, How to Study Comics & Graphic Novels. A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies

You want to study comics but are uncertain about where and how to start? In this book (in comics form!) we cover some of the main aspects to take into account when reading comics. From how comics are produced and read to the various approaches to studying them. From comics traditions and genres around the world to their distribution methods. With a Further reading section and an interview with Nick Sousanis.

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Historically, comics and graphic novels have been marginalized as quality texts and significant mediums for study. However, in the past decade comics have found their place in educational establishments. This essay offers a brief literature review of attitudes toward comics/graphic novels as a medium and then explores the use of comics/graphic novels within multigenre units of study that challenge student’s assumptions about genre and text. These unit examples include interrelated works by William Blake and Alan Moore and by Tori Amos and Neil Gaiman. The piece ends by examining the range of subgenres within comics/graphic novels, including traditional views of genre literature (mystery, western, etc.) and considerations of text as adaptation (graphic novel adaptations of traditional literature, film adaptations, etc.). Keywords: comic books; graphic novels; genre; multigenre; text adaptation; canon

Doug Singsen

Because of the nature of the comics medium, teaching comics and graphic novels in an art history class requires making a number of adjustments to the normal teaching methods of the field. One of the most important skills art historians need to acquire is an understanding of panel flow and page layout, which are essential to analyzing the formal language of comics. Comics’ and graphic novels’ use of extended narratives presents another set of challenges because they cannot be fully displayed in a single slide. There are also historical difficulties that have to be dealt with in relating comics to the canonical history of modern and contemporary art and placing comics in the context of a larger mass visual culture that is normally excluded from art historical narratives.

Florian Groß

ZAA Special Issue Literary Approaches to Contemporary Comics

Tim Lanzendörfer

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10 Tips for Writing an Extended Essay on Comic Books

Over the past few decades, comic books have emerged as an art form with a serious purpose and an adult audience. Today, thousands of comics are published in a variety of print and online formats. Consequently, a growing number of writers are producing extended essays in which they attempt to analyze and understand the complex world of comics and the audiences who consume them. However, the longer the essay, the more difficult it can be to sustain a good idea over many pages. In this post, we’ll look at ten tips for writing an extended essay on comic books to help you produce the best possible essay when you start writing about comics.

1. Read comics. It may serve to state the obvious, but you need to actually read comics in order to write about them. Before you begin your essay, start by reading the comics you are writing about. The more that you read, the more you will understand the overarching themes and ideas that animate the comics industry. If you don’t have time to read every issue, choose a representative sampling so you can get a sense of how the comic has changed over time.

2. Read what others have written. It’s important to know what other people have written about the same comics you’re writing about. There is no point in writing a massive essay only to discover that someone else has already written about the same topic. Instead, carefully review the literature so you can develop your own unique ideas.

3. Understand what is unique about comics. Comics are a unique art form, but it is important to understand what makes them different from other types of literature. Your essay should highlight these differences and adjust the theoretical underpinnings to account for the differences and to ensure that your explanatory analysis fits the topic.

4. Outline your essay. Before you start writing, begin with an outline. This will help you to stay on track and will also help to ensure that you are pacing out the main topics of your essay evenly across its length in order to sustain the reader’s interest. You don’t want to run out of ideas before you get to the end.

5. Collect your research before you write. Gather and organize your research before you start writing. By pulling out key quotes and developing your ideas about what information you’ll need and how to use it, you’ll be able to write more quickly and efficiently without stopping to gather more facts.

6. Save the introduction for the end. The introduction is often the most difficult part to write, especially if you aren’t entirely sure where your paper is going. If you save it until the end of the essay, you can create a more comprehensive and compelling introduction because you already know how the paper is going to end. That way you’ll be able to set the reader up to expect the ending you have coming for them.

7. Remember to request permission for illustrations. Comic book art is generally protected by copyright except for some older titles whose copyrights were not renewed on time or have expired. Always obtain permission from the copyright holder before reproducing any comic art in an essay to ensure that you stay on the right side of the law. While reproducing a single panel is often considered fair use, there are some companies that can be very litigious and many not see it that way. Save yourself legal fees by doing things the right way.

8. Take breaks as you write. > Writing an essay from start to finish in one sitting is a recipe for disaster. Avoid stress and keep your mind fresh by taking breaks between sections of the essay to give yourself a chance to rest and refresh.

9. Proofread carefully. It’s always a good idea to revise and proofread several times. The longer the essay, the more likely you are to miss something important after just one proofread. Try reading sentences in reverse order to give yourself a fresh perspective and catch lingering errors.

10. Seek out professional help. If all else fails and your extended essay isn’t quite coming together, look for someone who could provide you with professional essay writing help online to get you over the hump. There are many great pros online who are willing to help you develop your paper into the best it can be.

About Author

Giovanni Aria

Geo, is the Guido of Greatness, the King of Comics and the Toa of Techies. Its not cool until Geo certifies it cool. He likes everything from Archie to WWE and everything in-between, as long as its funny, edgey, or over the top exciting.

See author's posts

Julia Schneider, aka Doc J Snyder, is a Berlin-based comic essayist, PhD economist, and former consultant in the field of artificial intelligence. Her handgeschneiderte comic essays aim to bridge the gap between intellect and intuition; to be profound but never pedagogical. They have been read, bought, quoted, and shared by a wide and passionate audience, exhibited in museums, science centers and at conferences, and reviewed favorably in both national and international media. Her work explores complex matters at the intersection of science and art, addressing questions of technology, economics, and social change, such as Artificial Intelligence, Sustainability, Money. In her work, Doc J Snyder typically handles the brainstorming, conceptualizing, researching, storytelling, and writing, often scribbling associations alongside the text. While she sometimes works with co-writers, she enjoys collaborating with various visual artists for the comic illustrations. In the summer of 2024, she curated her first exhibition at a science center, featuring comics on the walls alongside films, further exploring the fusion of science and art and comic essays. Equal access to opportunities is important to her, which is why most of her work is published under an open license.

Get in touch if you also enjoy approaching complex issues creatively and respectfully – and are tired of cliché: [email protected] @docjsnyder

Current projects of interest:

>> “ Absurdität für Deutschland—Ein Comic Essay“ (2024, 7 p., in German) & „Absurdity for Germany — A Comic Essay on Why Outdated Right-Wing Ideas Must Fail in Seven Pages, 2024, 7 p., in English)

>> “AI, What’s Up?” exhibition by Science Center Universum Bremen : wall comics for the Blackbox AI, and comic films to think about AI in the Thinktank, alongside content curation and consultancy, with Archimedes Agency (opening May 2024)

>> A Pigeon’s Tale -‒ A Comic Essay on Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability , with Pauline Cremer , together with Birds on Mars ( 2023 , 12 p., in English and German, also available for purchase as a German print edition )

>> Internet of Bodies ‒- A Comic Essay on Artificial Intelligence and Connectedness, with Wolfgang Kerler (work in progress, in English)

Other works:

Book-length comic essays:

>> Schokoroboter und Deepfakes -‒ Ein Comic-Essay über Künstliche Intelligenz aus der Perspektive von Jugendlichen (Chocolate Robots and Deepfakes ‒ A Comic Essay on Artificial Intelligence from the Perspective of Teenagers) with Nele Konopka and Kristina Laube (2022, 80 p., in German, also available for purchase as a print edition)

>> The Non-Fungible Comic -‒ A Comic Essay about Non-Fungible Tokens , with Noëlle Kröger (2022, 56 p., in English, exhibition and digital release at re:publica22 , release in print at 1E9 conferenc e, also available for purchase as a print edition)

>> Money Matters -‒ A Comic Essay about Money , with Pauline Cremer and Miriam Beblo (2021, 164 p., in German, also available for purchase as a print edition)

>> We Need to Talk, AI ‒- A Comic Essay on Artificial Intelligence , with Lena Kadriye Ziyal (2019, 56 p., in English, German (“KI, wir müssen reden – Ein Comic Essay über Künstliche Intelligenz”), Turkish, Spanish, Russian, Slovenian and Czech, also available for purchase as a print edition and as open online course )

>> The Corona Scribbles , a Comic Column about Life in times of Corona, on 1E9 magazine (April 2020-May 2023, 31 episodes, in German)

Shorter comic essays:

>> Coworker or Overlord? -‒ A Comic Essay about ChatGPT+ , with dall-e-2 and ChatGPT (2023, 2 p., in English)

>> The Big Third and the Blockchain -‒ A Comic Essay , inspired by Ka trin Becker (2022, 12 p., in English), release 2023 on 1E9

>> Overcoming the Flaschenhals -‒ Ein Comic-Essay zu neuen Computing-Konzepten (Overcoming the Bottleneck ‒ A Comic Essay on New Computing Concepts) with Noëlle Kröger in cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (2023, 3 p., in German)

>> AI in a Biased World, comic essay and artistic research project for the South African University of Stellenbosch’s Journal HERRI, Special Theme AI in Africa , illustrated by an AI to use the BIAS inherent in the algorithm, curated by Vulane Mthembu (2023, 1 p., in English)

>> Urheberrechte, oder: On the Shoulders of Giants – A Comic Essay about Copyright, with Karina Filusch , Eric Eitel and Nele Konopka (2022, 3 p., in German)

>> #teilenstattsplitten ‒- ein Comic über das Ehegattensplitting (a Comic Essay about German Tax Splitting for Spouses), with Pauline Cremer , Miriam Beblo , Jutta Allmendinger , Janina Kugel and Monika Schnitzer (2021, 3 p., in German)

>> Abtreibung -‒ ein Comic Essay , with Maren Burkhardt (2020, 2 p., in German)

On this subpage , you’ll find three of my most important comic essays in German.

Other projects:

>> AI 🐂💩 Bingo ‒- A playful intervention for panels, keynotes and workshops on Artificial Intelligence, with Katrin Fritsch and Theresa Reimann-Dubbers (2022, 4 variations of cards, in English)

Sample press coverage:

Absurdität für Deutschland.

Introducing “A Pigeon’s Tale”

Exhibition at ZKM Karlsruhe: the intelligent.museum is around the corner

AI and the Future of Education – Panel Discussion

✨ ✨ ✨ “NFT’s are down, AI looms: How can creatives keep their cash flowing?”

Interview on AI and its impact on society

KI und seine Bedeutung für die Kreativwirtschaft

New Release: Coworker or Overlord? A Comic Essay about ChatGPT+

Overcoming the Flaschenhals

Release: Schokoroboter und Deepfakes – Ein Comic Essay über Künstliche Intelligenz aus der Perspektive von Jugendlichen

Review and Release: Copyright, or On the Shoulders of Giants

“The Big Third and the Blockchain” – A Comic Essay

The Non-Fungible Comic as Oversized Exhibition

Release: Non-Fungible Comic – A Comic Essay on Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)

Interview with CCB Magazine

Interview with irights.org on self-publishing and Creative Commons

Talk at txt_conference

Release and Exhibition of Non-Fungible Comic

Exhibition of the Non-Fungible Comic

Artist Talk on our Non-Fungible Comic

We Need to Talk, AI!

Künstliche Intelligenz: Revolutionär oder nur gehyped?

Collaboration: Campaign against joint tax deductions for married couples (“Ehegattensplitting”)

Yay! Money Matters became Book of the Month!

https://tredition.de/buchshop/buch-des-monats/

Release: Money Matters – A Comic Essay about Money

Radio Interview

TV Portrait

Internet Health Report 2020

Exhibition Human Sovereignty

Tenemos que Hablar, IA

Disruption: Essay in the Annual Report 2019 of the Stiftung Niedersachsen

Community Spotlight

The Corona Scribbles

“KI, wir müssen reden” at SpyOnMe#2

Meet-Up at KI-Campus, Stifterverband

Review at fluter

Exhibition at Netzpolitik-Konferenz “That’s Netzpolitik”

Exhibition and Release at Creative City Berlin print magazine “The Big Good Future #2”

Exhibition and Discussion at the “AI-Camp 2019”

Meet-Up at Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, Stifterverband

Release of “ki, wir müssen reden”.

Interview on “KI, wir müssen reden”

Exhibition and talk at futurium.

Exhibition in Hamburg-Altona’s bookstore “ZweiEinsDrei”

Live radio show at goethe institute’s kultursymposium.

Kultur Magazine 29 by Goethe-Institut Australia

Exhibition at Turing-Bus for AI

TV-Interview at Museum of Communication

Interview with mdr, review at netzpolitik.org.

Presentation of “We Need to Talk, AI”

ComicInvasion Podcast

Review at Süddeutsche Zeitung

Release, talk and exibition of “we need to talk, ai” at re:publica19.

Talk: We Need to Talk AI: Ein Einblick in die Entstehung des Comic Essays

Radio-day “artificial intelligence”, review at 1e9.

Panel Event at Museum of Work, Hamburg: The Genuinely Human – Artificial Intelligence and Creativity

Colloquium on “Artistic Intelligence”

Pauline Cremer
Miriam Beblo
Noëlle Kröger
Nele Konopka
Lena Kadriye Ziyal
Sebastian Schneider
Katrin Becker
Katrin Fritsch
Theresa Reimann-Dubbers
Maren Burkhardt
Karina Filusch
Birds on Mars
Tübingen AI Center
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – atingi
Bundeswettbewerb Künstliche Intelligenz
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Bundesagentur für Sprunginnovationen – SPRIN-D

Comic Books and Picture Books Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Comic books

Picture books.

Comic books are also known as funny books or comic magazines that service both the young generation and also the old. Comic books contain different and individual scenes that are followed by dialog and also prose that are descriptive. Comics made the first appearance in the early 1934 in the United States though this was a reprinting of the earlier copies of comic strips. The reprinting of the strips into a general book earned the combined comic strips the term comic book. The comic book “prisoners of the sun: the adventures of Tintin is one example of the comic books and is a result of many comic strips that have been brought together to create a book (Doonan, 1993).

Modern comic books do not always give humorous stories but vary in genre. Majority of comic books in the United States and also in China are in the category of comic books that do not always offer humor. There are many genres under which comic books fall. Such examples include superhero comics such as wonder woman, X-men, Spiderman among others, adventure comics; some depict action, war and other stories. In Japan, Manga comics are very popular (Barry, Abel & Madden, 2008). Other genres of comics include science fiction comic books and fantasy books. In the science fiction comic books they have characters that are portrayed in a futuristic setting whereby there is advancement in technology and many times are seen to travel through time and space. Fantasy comics as the word suggests involving having mythological and fantasy creatures. The Conan Barbarian series is fantasy comic book. The horror comic books also as the title suggests have creatures such as zombies, vampires among other frightening creatures. The adventure comic books contain real-life characters such as detectives and police persons in battles against offenders. There are also romance comic books that mainly focus on the older generation as they are filled with themes of relationships and love.

Picture books mainly aim at the older generation and also the young children as they are a combination of both visual and also verbal narratives. The major characteristics of picture books are that they aim at different age sectors. Those that are specifically for children have words that children can understand but cannot read. In this case the parent reads to the child before the child can learn to read by itself. Picture books for young children have also termed board books as they are covered by cardboards for durability when the child plays with the book. Other categories also target the older children and picture books such as the “Tibet through the red box” is an example that targets the older generation (Doonan, 1993).

In picture books there is a balance between the pictures and also the words but the pictures usually have a much deeper effect than the words. Just as the comic books there are different kinds of genres into which picture books can be categorized into. They include the magic realism, literature that is usually in most cases traditional, animal stories or what can be termed as anthropomorphic. The picture books also have a category of non-fictional books.

The similarities of both the comic books and the picture books are that they both entail having sequential pictures. The sequential part of both books makes it easy to tell a story from the pictures. Another similarity between the two is that they both involve words other than the exceptional comic and picture books that are wordless. Among the main difference between the comic and picture books is the number of pictures that are found on a single page. Comics also are able to show the invisible or nonverbal link in characters through elements such as speech balloons and sound effects. They also both have different categories into which they can be classified. There are similarities in these categories such as nonfictional books which have real characters, magic realism where there are fantasy creatures and environments among others (Barry, Abel & Madden, 2008).

It would not prove wise to translate the comic Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun into a picture book for a variety of reasons. There is a need for high reading competency in the 21 st century as this happens to be visual culture. Comic books such as Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun give a fine representation of printed words and pictures, a unique combination that allows the reader to have an understanding of the sequence of activities and also the ability to interpret the nonverbal gestures. In the information society the comics are part of the print media. Comics offer a pervasive and influential media form as part of a popular culture. To prove that there is great interest in comics there have been several conferences held. There have been conferences and seminars such as the International Conference on Graphical novel that was held at the University of Massachusetts in 1998 and the Annual Conference on Comics at the University of Florida in 2000. According to Edmunds (page 1) although comic books offer recreational reading they are also very useful in art and literature and are thus finding their way into classrooms. According to Barry (1997, pages 75-78) images communicate more deeply than words. In comic books where there is a combination of both words and pictures or illustrations, words become secondary to pictures. It would thus not prove effective if comic books were converted into picture books. This is because of the need to cultivate the reading culture among all generations. Also it includes developing a child’s reading skills if he or she can interpret the nonverbal gestures and words. Comics offer more pictures and illustrations than picture books. It would thus prove very important to have the comic books rather than convert them into picture books.

It therefore remains that converting comic books such as the Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun that have held interest in many people into picture n books might not have the best effect as anticipated. For comic books to be seen as a success it means that it either has critics who have taken notice of the book or it has massive followers (Doonan, 1993). A classic comic book such as the Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun started as a comic strip before it was reprinted again into a book which is now known as Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun comic book. It holds an era in terms of people who can relate to it.

Comic books on the other hand create a new teaching era whereby they are used as supplements in classes. This is because they can hold the young reader’s attention for long as they incorporate the pictures and also the words. It also helps the reader to interpret the nonverbal gestures which are very critical in the 21 st century.

It therefore remains that converting classic comic books such as Herge’s Prisoners of the Sun would not result in any success. It would be just another picture book that does not reach out to many people. In the categories of which comic books can be generalized, converting the comic book into a picture book would decrease the genres into which comic books can be generalized or be classified.

Barry, L. Abel, J. & Madden, M. (2008). The Best American Comics. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin press.

Doonan, J. (1993). Looking at pictures in picture books . South Woodchester, GB: Thimble press.

Carver’s “The Cathedral” & Barthelme’s “The Balloon”
"The Everlasting Regret" and "The Autumn of the Lustrous Emperor of Tang: Rain on the Wutong Tree"
Chapter 1 in “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud
The "Cold Journey" Film by Martin Defalco
Comic nature of Lysistrata
Chekhov’s vs. Oats’ “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
Bradbury’s The Veldt & Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own vs. Wallace’s A Simple Poem for Virginia Woolf
Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe: Synthesized Approach
Separation in Two Stories from “Interpreter Of Maladies” by Jhumpa
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

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Crafting lots of Comics papers is an inherent part of contemporary studying, be it in high-school, college, or university. If you can do that all by yourself, that's just awesome; yet, other students might not be that skilled, as Comics writing can be quite laborious. The catalog of free sample Comics papers offered below was formed in order to help struggling students rise up to the challenge.

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For the viewers of “The Walking Dead” Are you a fan of the zombie genre in general? yes, I read/watch all/most things in the genre; no, “The Walking Dead” is my sole interest in the genre.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Book Review — Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Comic Books and Graphic Novels

Categories: Book Review Novel

About this sample

Words: 505 |

Published: Feb 12, 2019

Words: 505 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

Gabilliet, J.-P. (2010). Of comics and men: A cultural history of American comic books. University Press of Mississippi.
Hatfield, C. (2005). Alternative comics: An emerging literature. University Press of Mississippi.
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics: The invisible art. Harper Perennial.
Duncan, R. B., & Smith, M. J. (2010). The power of comics: History, form and culture. Continuum.
How to Read Superhero Comics and Why. (2019). By Geoff Klock. Routledge.
Williams, P. (2012). Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels: A History of Graphic Narratives. Bloomsbury.
Jacobs, D. (2008). The essential guide to graphic novels. Harper Paperbacks.
Gravett, P. (2005). Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life. Aurum Press.
Wolk, D. (2007). Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean. Da Capo Press.
Reynolds, R. (2015). Superheroes: An Analysis of Popular Culture's Modern Myths. Bloomsbury Academic.

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Comic Book Essays

Comic Book Essays (Examples)

Filter by keywords:(add comma between each), example essays.

Comic Book Fun Home Fun Home by

Comic Book Fun Home "Fun Home" by Alison Bechdel American writer Alison Bechdel has been known as one of the most famous writers. She is the author of world famous comic Fun Home, written in 2006. Fun Home is often referred to as Family Tragicomic. The presence of phase transitions and queerness in the comic has made it very famous among the comic with readers. The comic has highlighted childhood and youth of the author in Pennsylvania, USA. The comic highlights the ups and downs in the life of the author surrounding around complexities in the relationship of the author with her father. Some of the main themes that have been mentioned in the book include sexual orientation, the roles of different genders, suicide, dysfunctional family and most importantly the roles that are played by the literature in understanding one's own self, life and family. More than seven years were taken by the…...

mla Works Cited Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Mariner books, Edition 001 Series. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

comic books graphic novels and literacy

Comic books have graduated from pulp entertainment to literature and even historiography. Their role in literacy development as both medium and message has become uncontested, with both traditional superhero comic books unique graphic novels being included in school libraries (Griffith 181). Whereas comic books were once derided when compared with non-illustrated texts, now educators, librarians, and sociologists recognize the value and importance of comic books as a pedagogical tool. Schwarz notes that graphic novels can "introduce students to literature they might never otherwise encounter," stimulate interest in reading in general while also providing substantive content for literary analysis (" Graphic Novels for Multiple Literacies," 282). In " 'He's Gotta Be Strong, and He's Gotta Be Fast, and He's Gotta Be Larger than Life,': Investigating the Engendered Superhero Body," Taylor uses a gender studies perspective to demonstrate the value and importance of superhero comics in understanding processes related to the social…...

Comic Book Cold War & Crime

From his high school beginnings to his entry into college life, Spider Man remained the superhero most relevant to the world of young people (Wright 234). His comic books, in fact, included some of the first mentions of the demonstrations -- the 1968 demonstrations at Columbia University. Peter Parker is in the middle of a demonstration at Empire State University, where the administration had decided to convert an empty building into a hotel for visiting alumni instead of a low-rent dormitory for minority students. He had to somehow find a middle ground between his concern for the students and the combat lawlessness as Spider Man. "As a law-upholding liberal, he finds himself caught between militant leftists and angry conservatives (234-235). He refused to join the demonstrations and wanted to listen to the university's side of the issue before taking a personal stand one way or another. The comic ended…...

mla References Cited: Costello, Matthew. Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., 2009 Horn, Maurice. The World Encyclopedia of Comics. New York: Chelsea House, 1976. Reynolds, Richard. Super Heroes. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992. Rovin, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Superheroes. New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985.

Evolution and Impact of Comic Book Art

Evolution and Impact of Comic Book Art From the early days of yellow dog comics featuring "The Yellow Kid" at the fin de siecle, to Will Eisner's innovative use of angles and white space in "The Spirit," to the genius Carl Barks and his Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and Gyro Gearloose characters, to Frank Frazetta's masterpiece covers of "Creepy" and "Eerie," to more modern colorful depictions of big-breasted women replete in futuristic armor, comic book art has been the source of interest for sociologists and the art community alike. To determine the evolution of comic book art and its impact on society, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature, followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning these issues in the conclusion. eview and Discussion According to Mellegaard (2012), in recent years, "Comics have been used as propaganda to promote messages from political ideology, religion,…...

mla References Baskind, S. (2011,Winter). Masters of the comic book universe revealed!/From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and comic books. Shofar, 29(2), 165-169. Behlman, L. (2004, Spring). The escapist: Fantasy, folklore, and the pleasures of the comic book in recent Jewish-American Holocaust fiction. Shofar, 22(3), 56. Miller, A. (2011, January 1). Comic art and commitment: An interview with Morvandiau. European Comic Art, 4(1), 105-107.

David Hajdu's History of a Comic Book Moral Panic

Hajdu, the Ten-Cent Plague "Since I have written about comic books, I have heard from quite a number of young adults who told me that their childhood emotional masturbation problem was started or aggravated by comic books."[footnoteRef:0] This is an actual quotation from Dr. Fredric Wertham's notorious mid-1950s attack on the comic book industry, Seduction of the Innocent, and it demonstrates the extent to which Wertham ignited a "moral panic" about comic books, and ultimately caused an entire industry to cave to public pressure and change the content and artwork of comics for more than a generation. Does anyone nowadays -- sixty years after Wertham got Congress to take an interest in the censorship of comic books -- still believe that masturbation is a serious moral plague? Does anyone believe that comic books seduce and corrupt the innocent? In an era where any child who can spell can have access to…...

mla Bibliography David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague. New York: Farrar Straus, 2008. Louis Menand, "The Horror: Congress Investigates The Comics." The New Yorker, March 31, 2008. Fredric Wertham, MD. Seduction of the Innocent. Introduction by James E. Rebman. Laurel, NY: Main Road Books Reprints, 2004.

Mini Comic Book

Brainstorming Ideas Track B: Comic Book - Mini Comic Book Final Assignment List out 1 to 3 central "theme" ideas here, again remember this is a draft version so rough ideas are fine. Considering the overwhelming popularity of AMC's The Walking Dead television series, which uses writer Robert Kirkman's and artist Tony Moore's eponymous comic book as its primary source material, I would like to create a parody version to highlight the racial discrepancies in character development found within both the show and the comics. The basic theme of my comic book would be the racial sanitization of mass media marketed primarily to White audiences, and how artists, writers and other creative contributors can subtly alter their work to cast minority characters as insignificant, underdeveloped, or supplementary to the overall narrative. While The Walking Dead TV series and comic books have enjoyed immense success, both with the subgenre of comic book readers and…...

Double Like the Comic Books

As Kent he can never save lives. Superman maintains a total separation between his two selves and this allows Superman to avoid any incongruity between his two identities. Kent remains the newspaper nerd, never hinting at what he is physically capable of. His ability to keep his double hidden from the world becomes evident when he is still in school and manages to resist capitalizing on his strength to become the school's starring quarterback or on his hyper-masculinity to get girlfriends. Kent keeps his double hidden from the world just as Superman keeps his mundane identity secret. Superman never sullies his image by wearing a monkey suit and does not appear weak even in the face of doom or disaster. The only time Superman compromises the integrity of his double identity is by getting close to Lois Lane. In fact, she begins to suspect that Clark Kent might indeed be…...

How Comic Books Helped Me Learn to Read

Literacy Narrative: Learning to Read with Donald Duck Comic BooksOne of my earliest memories is also one of my most important. One weekend when I was about 4 years old, I recall jerking open the closet door in my bedroom (I was in a hurry to get something inside) and the bottom of the door caught the big toenail on my right foot, pealing it back and ripping it off. As the pain washed over me and I saw the blood flow, I quickly realized this was not going to end well and I started yelling and crying at the top of my lungs. My parents rushed into my room and I managed to blurt out what happened through my sobs, but a trip to the emergency room, a spiffy new bandage and lavish attention from my parents helped reassure me that everything would soon be okay and I…...

Scott Mccloud's Understanding Comics to

This accounts for the durable popularity of the superhero -- Superman can fight Nazis during orld ar II and terrorists today. A comic hero can remain the same, yet always seem relevant to the reader's daily life, just like the daily work of a newspaper political cartoonist. The reason that this type of popularity is spurned is because of the fears of mass production of written material. McCloud agrees with Kunzle that mass production is critical to the genre. McCloud calls comics "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequences, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer" (McCloud 9). This response it elicits from all readers on a visceral level, however, should not be undervalued. Part of the reason for McCloud's trumpeting of the medium, however, may be his broader-reaching focus, while Kunzle tends to focus on more narrow historical or political works designed…...

mla Works Cited Kunzle, David. History of the Comic Strip. Volume 1: The Early Comic Strip. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Princeton, WI: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.

Graphic Novel Watchmen by Alan Moore It

graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore. It is basically about what inspired Watchmen's themes, story, and characters. As well as what Watchmen has influenced and how it has been influenced by other comics and heroes like Batman and uperman among others. Watchman and its influences Watchman, authored by Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colourist John Higgins was created in 1986 / 1987 in response to contemporary anxieties and as means of critiquing the superhero concept. Watchman recreates history where superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1950s who helped the U..A. win the war against Vietnam and later is involved in preventing nuclear war with the U...R. Most former superheroes have retired or are working for the government, so contumely freelance vigilantes are arbitrarily and voluntarily doing the job of protecting the country. The protagonists actively fight and strategically plot to help retired superheroes survive and they work to stave off…...

mla Sources Amaya, Erik. (September 30, 2008) Len Wein: Watching the Watchmen. Comic Book Resources.. Cooke, J.B. (August 2000) Alan Moore discusses the Charlton-Watchmen Connection. Comic Book Artist. Contino, Jennifer M. (December 28, 2008. ) Who Watches Rich Johnston's Watchmensch. Comicon.com. Kavanagh, B. (October 17, 2000.) The Alan Moore Interview: Watchmen characters. Blather.net.

Guts The Book Guts Companies

The SAS Institute provides "subsidized Montessori child care, free snacks, and unlimited sick time for staff." The result of that impressed Elsen; "An industry-high employee retention rate." And Elsen couldn't help but be moved by the innovative way in which Southwest Airlines treats employees. The employees at Southwest Airlines are "taught" how the profit-sharing aspect of business works because management stuffs "comic-book style financial statements into Cracker Jack boxes." By seeing the financial realities of day-to-day business dynamics, Southwest Airlines workers know how to "...unleash their creativity to shrink costs and beef up the bottom line," Elsen explains. She even promotes the book for libraries by suggesting "innovative management is always a winning theme" when it comes to "public and academic library business collections." Still another review of the book - by Leigh Rivenbark in HR Magazine - explains that what the Freibergs have offered readers is a strategy that puts employees…...

mla Works Cited Elsen, Carol J. (2003). Guts! Companies That Blow the Doors Off Business-as-Usual. Library Journal, 128(20), p. 134. Freiberg, Kevin, & Freiberg, Jackie. (2004). Guts! Companies That Blow the Doors Off Business-as-Usual. New York: Doubleday. Hendricks, Mark. (2004). Don't be a hero? Not if this book has anything to say about it. Entrepreneur, 32(3), p. 29.

Account of Ariel Schrag Reading From Her New Novel

Ariel Schrag is a cartoonist, television writer, and novelist. Schrag is perhaps best known through her television work, on the groundbreaking lesbian-themed Showtime series "The L Word" (for which she wrote over two seasons in 2006-7) and the HBO series "How to Make It In America" in 2011. Schrag first came to prominence, however, in the cartooning scene, with her series of autobiographical graphic novels in the late 1990s about being a lesbian in high school in Berkeley, California -- where she indeed grew up, attended high school, and started publishing these cartoon chronicles of her teenage lesbian adventures. Shrag graduated from high school in Berkeley in 1998 and attended Columbia University: she has lived in New York City since that time, although she has now moved from Morningside Heights to a more Bohemian spot in Brooklyn. And it was in Brooklyn that Schrag read from her newly-published novel, Adam…...

Comics With Scott Mccloud Scott

Indeed, by immediately demonstrating the intent to create a comic strip-based explanation of the field of comic through corresponding exposition and illustration, the author both contends and shows that comics can have purpose, intelligence and even depth. This chapter is driven by the topic of providing definition for the term comic. The author succeeds well at breaching this subject, using the simplicity of language and the emotional appeal of his cartoon characters to introduce the uninitiated to the selected subject matter. McCloud describes comics according to the words of "Master comics artist ill Eisner," who "uses the term sequential art when describing comics. Taken individually, the pictures below [as shown in the comic] are merely that -- pictures." (McCloud, 5) the author goes on to contend that when sequenced, even with only two images instead of one, the 'art of comics emerges.' The core impetus for this definitional discussion is…...

mla Works Cited McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding Comics. Tundra Publishing.

Hitchhiker's Guide Douglas Adam's Comic Work of

Hitchhiker's Guide ouglas Adam's comic work of science fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, satirizes both society and science. As the story opens, protagonist Arthur ent is railing against the local government for its decision to raze his home, which is in the way of highway construction. ent argues that he was never made aware of the decision, though officials assure him the plans had been on display for a sufficient amount of time, albeit "on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'"(Adams 2010, p. 9). Similarly, planet Earth is in the way of hyperspace bypass construction project, for which plans were also available for review. Bureaucratic red tape ensured the plans were never seen and ent flees the planet with his alien friend Ford Prefect before it explodes. They hitchhike their way through…...

mla Dent and Prefect travel through space by hitchhiking, picked up by spacecraft within the improbable nanosecond during which contact could possibly occur. They travel from planet to planet in a "nothingth of a second," making their travel faster than the speed of light, given the distances over which they traverse. Although this mode of travel has been theoretical supported by the theory of special relativity, it has obviously never been done except within the pages of books such as Adams's. In reality, it seems as improbable as Adams' physics of improbability. Some of the science in Hitchhiker is accurate, or nearly so. Dent's alien friend is from a small planet "six hundred light-years away in the near vicinity of Betelgeuse" (Adams, p. 22); Betelgeuse is, in fact, 640 light-years from Earth. On page 26, the Vogons admonish Earthlings for failure to involve themselves in the "local" affairs of Alpha Centuri, "only" four light years away; Alpha Centuri is 4.4 light years away (Dickinson 1999, Tyson, Liu and Irion 2000). On page 60, Adams refers to "a nice hot cup of tea" as an example of a strong Brownian Motion producer. Brownian motion refers to the random movement of particles suspended in a fluid. Tea could, in fact, serve as an example. Some of the science is deliberately ridiculous, such as the computer called the "Bambleweeny 57 Sub-Meson Brain" (Adams, p. 60). Adams also blends science and satire. On page 33, he lets the alien Vogons debunk the theory of evolution by having them ignore nature and have elective surgery to "rectify the gross anatomical inconveniences" that made

Dime Novel Has a Specific

Vast lands were open, and adventure seemed rampant. In fact, so compelling was the idea of the American West that Theodore Roosevelt noted, "More and more as the years go by this Republic will find its guidance in the thought and action of the West, because the conditions of development in the West have steadily tended to accentuate the peculiarly American characteristics of its people" (Roosevelt). The frontier was still available through the Dime Novel; adventures with the American Indian, gold mining, vast herds of buffalo, and even the railroad were popular; must like space adventures today. This was the great unknown, and, through a series of essays, historian Frederick Jackson Turner noted that while most of the West was at least mapped, the future of the United States would be decided in the West -- thus, once the frontier became an historical relic, it was fair game to…...

How has Greek mythology been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern storytelling mediums?

Greek mythology has been reinterpreted and incorporated into modern storytelling mediums in a variety of ways, including: 1. Literature: Many authors have drawn inspiration from Greek mythology in their works of fiction, reimagining the stories of gods, heroes, and monsters in new and unique ways. For example, Madeline Miller’s novel "Circe" retells the story of the witch from The Odyssey, while Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series features modern-day demigods who must navigate the world of Greek mythology. 2. Film and television: Greek mythology has been a popular source of inspiration for filmmakers and television producers, with numerous movies and TV shows incorporating....

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Comic - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Comics are usually short stories that use sequential art, depicting characters and events with a combination of words and pictures. They can be comedic, action-packed, or cover serious topics, and are often found in magazines, newspapers or graphic novels. Comics are enjoyed by people of all ages and from all walks of life, and are an entertaining and popular form of artistic expression.

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Graphic Essays and Comics

Overview | Recommended Software | Student-Made Examples | Other Examples | Instructional Video

A graphic essay (sometimes called a visual essay) uses a combination of text and images to explore a specific topic. Graphic essays can look like comics, graphic novels, magazines, collages, artist books, textbooks, or even websites. Graphic essays often first take the form of written essays and then have graphic elements added to enrich the reader experience. Unlike infographics, which also combine text and images, graphic essays are often more text-based and usually have a narrative arc or specific reading order.

Comics are a genre used to express ideas through images combined with text or other visual information. Comics can take the form of a single panel or a series of juxtaposed panels of images, sometimes called a strip. Text is conveyed via captions below the panel(s), or speech bubbles and onomatopoeias within the panel(s), to indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. Graphic novels are often considered to be a longer form of comics, typically in book form.

A web-based graphic essay can take the form of a blog or a single page website, such as a Microsoft Sway page or an interactive Prezi. For Microsoft Sway and Prezi graphic essays, see the examples below. If you are creating a blog we recommend visiting the Web-Based Projects page .

Graphic Essay Design Tip: Graphic essays can take many forms, so we recommend being creative within the scope of your project! Get some help from DesignLab to brainstorm options and talk through the various tools available!

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Recommended Software

There are many different software programs that can be used to create graphic essays. Below is a list of the software that we recommend for making a graphic essay. We organized the software by category and put the software from top to bottom from best to worst. We recommend using a software you know well or learning the software well enough to establish an easy workflow, so you can spend less time troubleshooting and spend more time on your project. Check out our Software Support page for links to tutorials for all of these programs.

General Graphic Essay Software

Web-Based Graphic Essay Software

Comic-Specific Graphic Essay Software

Student-Made Examples

Print style graphic essay.

Becoming a Witness by Jessica Posnock

Creative Graphic Essay

Virtual Communication by Max Hautala *Award Winning*

Curb Magazine (2012) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Magazine) Graphic Essay

Curb Magazine (Current) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Sway) Graphic Essay

Language Influences Culture, Thoughts, and Identity by Kristen Luckow *Award Winning*

Language Influences Culture, Thoughts, and Identity Thumbnail Image

Dyslexia by Maria Swanke *Award Winning*

Other Examples

Web-based (blog) graphic essay.

Switch It Up: Graphic Essay by Amanda Zieba

Sceeenshot of Switch It Up Graphic Essay

Graphic Novel

Graphic Novels in the Classroom by Gene Yang

Instructional Video

OneComicAtaTime.com

Comic Essays

Healing made humorous

The Luck Of The Draw

It’s more of a factor than we acknowledge

Stop Choosing Imaginary Sides

Like it or not, there is only one tribe and we’re all in it

Longing For Belonging At Work Is A Fool’s Errand

That I’ve been running for decades

Healing By Feeling

The only way out is through

Learning How to be Nice To Myself

It’s not as easy as it sounds

We Can’t Will Our Way To Wellbeing

But our minds can still get us there

Let’s Get Back to Doing What We Are Evolutionarily Optimized to Do

Trusting each other is astonishingly win-win and has won-won us everything we have ever had.

If I Were A Filthy, Stinking Rich Man

What I’d do with a billion-dollar lottery win

The Secret of Getting Good Is Not Focusing on How Good I’m Getting

It’s paying attention to what I’m actually doing

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Subject and Course Guides

Graphic novels, comics, and manga.

Comics @ WMU
Graphic Novels @ WMU
Manga @ WMU
Online Resources and Collections
Researching Comics, BN, & Manga

Citing Graphic Novels in MLA

Citing comics in mla, comics, graphic novels, and manga in apa.

There are many debates about how to cite comics, graphic novels, etc. Traditional citation formats do not always include what typical comic, graphic novel, and manga fans value such as the artists and scriptwriter. These are some suggested ways to cite your sources. When selecting a citation format, keep in mind your audience and any restrictions (from your instructor or publisher).

Citing Graphic Novels and Manga in MLA

Most follow the basic form as a book but special cases are explained below. See Section 5.5.12 of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for more information.

Basic Format

Author’s last name, first name. Title of work . Publication city: Publisher, year. Medium of publication.

Author as Artist/Illustrator

In a graphic novel, text and illustrations are intermingled. The entry in the works-cited list for a graphic novel entirely created by one person follows the same format as any other non-periodical print publication

Barry, Lynda. What It Is . Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2008. Print.

Collaborative Works (different author, artist/illustrator)

For graphic novels created through collaboration, start with the person whose contribution is most relevant to your research , following it with a label identifying the person’s role. List other collaborators after the title in the order in which they appear on the title page, also with labels identifying their roles.

Pekar, Harvey, writer. The Quitter . Art by Dean Haspiel. Gray tones by Lee Loughridge. Letters by Pat Brosseau. New York: Vertigo-DC Comics, 2005. Print.

Robertson, David. 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga . Illus. Scott B. Henderson. Winnipeg: HighWater Press, 2012. Print.

(Illus is the abbreviation for illustrator)

Multi-Volume Work

If the graphic novel is part of a multi-volume work, you may add information about the series following the medium of publication.

Miller, Frank. Just Another Saturday Night . Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2005. Print. Vol. 6 of Frank Miller’s Sin City: Booze, Broads, & Bullets .

Content adapted from http://www.comicsresearch.org/CAC/cite.html

Citing Comics and Cartoons in MLA

See Section 5.7.9 of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for more information.

Basic Format

Lastname, Firstname. “Name of comic.” Comic Strip. Source of Comic . Date comic published. Print.

Example Cartoon

Gross, Sam. Cartoon. New Yorker . 23 May 2011: 28. Print.

Example Comic Strips

McDonnell, Patrick. "Mutts." Comic strip. San Francisco Chronicle. 25 June 2011: E7. Print.

Krahulik, Mike and Jerry Holkins. “Penny Arcade.” Web Comic. Penny-arcade.com. 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2011.

How APA Addresses Illustrated Works

This post by the APA describes how they recommend citing children's books and other illustrated works

Author, A. (Year). Series: Story Name, vol (no) (A. Author, Illus.). Publisher.

Straczynski, J. M. (2007). Thor: Special Delivery, 3 (5) (O. Coipel, & M. Morales, Illus.). Marvel Comics.

What a Comic Book Professional Recommends

This blog post by Dr. Travis Langley describes his recommendations for citing comic books and graphic novels.

Series or graphic novel title issue number if any (year, month/season if identified). "Story title if any." Script: Writer(s). Art: Penciller(s), inker(s). Publisher.

Thor vol 3 #5 (2007, December 28). "Special Delivery." Script: J. M. Straczynski. Art: O. Coipel, & M. Morales. Marvel Comics.

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Last Updated: Aug 29, 2024 12:09 PM
URL: https://libguides.wmich.edu/graphics

"Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art" by Scott McCloud

by Scott McCloud

AUTHOR: McCloud, Scott

ARTIST: Scott McCloud (illustrator); Bob Lappan (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Tundra Publishing; HarperCollins

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1993

Publication History

Often considered to be comics theorist Scott McCloud’s seminal work, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art was first published by Tundra Publishing in 1993. HarperCollins later reprinted the work. The book has been translated into a number of languages, including Spanish, German, and Korean.

Prior to the publication of Understanding Comics , McCloud was best known as the creator of the superhero series Zot! (1984-1990), published by Eclipse Comics. After gaining recognition for his work as a comics theorist, he went on to write additional works about comics and the comics industry. Reinventing Comics (2000) focuses on the comic book industry and digital comics, while Making Comics (2006) explores the storytelling techniques used in comics, graphic novels, and manga.

Chapter 1 of Understanding Comics , “Setting the Record Straight,” begins with a brief introduction by the narrator and then immediately delves into the problems of categorizing and defining comics. McCloud stresses that comics do not have to fit into the mold of immature reading material for children. Building on comics creator Will Eisner’s definition of comics as “sequential art,” McCloud considers how best to define the medium. The definition he ultimately settles on and repeats throughout the book is one that many scholars accept, or at least acknowledge, as one of the official definitions of comics. McCloud then begins to contextualize different forms of art and writing that, according to his definition, could fall under the heading of comics. Examples include a pre-Columbian picture manuscript and the Bayeux Tapestry. Hieroglyphics are quickly disregarded as comics, but Egyptian paintings certainly fit the bill. Modern comics originate with Rodolphe Töpffer, a French artist who essentially invented the panel, and other artists whose works can be considered as comics, even though they are rarely regarded as such. In fact, just about any work with a series of illustrations can technically be considered a comic, depending on one’s standards, and McCloud encourages the reader to continue working out exactly what those standards should be.

Chapter 2, “The Vocabulary of Comics,” begins with an example of how a representation of something does not equal the actual item or idea. Icons bring about meaning without the actual form; the icon itself can be an abstract depiction of its meaning or an almost realistic depiction of it. McCloud then goes on to address cartooning, describing it as “amplification through simplification,” in that the lack of details makes the image more accessible and recognizable. The simplest icon to identify is that of the face, which the mind tends to project onto just about any visible surface or pattern. It is this simplicity and lack of detail that allow the average person to identify easily with the cartoon and the icon. The distinction between the most basic depiction of a concept and an almost photo-realistic representation of it is that they relay different forms of information, and this distinction becomes even more complex once language is defined as the abstract model of ideas. McCloud describes the concept using the image of a pyramid, which serves as both a chart and a map for comics. The three corners of the pyramid represent reality, the pictorial plane, and meaning. McCloud then arranges more than a hundred comics within the pyramid, ordering them based on how close they are to each corner and in relation to the others.

Chapter 3, “Blood in the Gutter,” deals directly with how the mind completes that which goes beyond normal perception, which McCloud calls closure. Closure...

(This entire section contains 2223 words.)

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occurs almost automatically with just about everything the reader sees, and it is necessary for comics to function. It occurs between panels in a place called the gutter, where the different images come together to show changes in time and space. McCloud even argues that closure is an active choice, a leap taken voluntarily by the reader with his or her imagination to reach an intended meaning. He describes what he considers to be the six most basic (and self-defined) types of transition between panels—moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and non sequitur—and places them in a graph to see how American, European, and Japanese comics compare in terms of panel transitions. McCloud then discusses the number of panels necessary to tell a story and the importance of obtaining the right balance between too much and too little information with closure.

Chapter 4, “Time Frames,” focuses on the element of time, especially within a single panel. Time is not uniform within a defined space, since even one panel depicts actions and not just a single moment. There is no way of knowing how much time actually elapses in comics; the direction of the panels gives a good sense of time, but how a reader observes those panels is not strictly defined. The linear progression of time and the impression of movement are represented differently in comics than in other forms of media, and cartoonists tend to play on readers’ preconceptions to create meaning. Lines within a single panel of a still image can represent motion, while a stationary figure against a blurry background may have the same effect. The duration of time within a panel and the reader’s perception of it are affected by a number of different factors.

Chapter 5, “Living in Line,” deals with how the use of lines can evoke different meanings. This chapter includes a quick overview of different classical artists who used lines in their own ways to show something more. Cartoonists also follow a particular style to portray something unique. In comics, lines can be used to depict things that normally cannot be represented in a visual-only medium; for example, wavy lines often represent heat or a bad smell. Fonts and word balloons provide yet another way to depict meaning within comics.

Chapter 6, “Show and Tell,” begins by asserting that over time, language becomes more abstract and pictures become more symbolic, with the two continuing to grow farther apart. Comics tend to join them together in varied ways, as McCloud shows with the previously mentioned pyramid chart. The standards of art and writing have also changed, and these extend to comics as well. McCloud argues that comics should not be judged by the standards of previous forms, in part because comics are still growing in the way they can tell stories. He then provides different categories of ways in which words and pictures work together: word-specific, picture-specific, duo-specific, additive, parallel, montage, and interdependent. Separately, words and pictures can each tell a different story, but together they can achieve much more.

Chapter 7, “The Six Steps,” starts by directly stating that comics are art, especially given a broad enough definition. McCloud defines art as anything that is not directly related to survival and reproduction. He ties art to a certain path that has six steps: idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, and surface. Many artists only vary the final parts of the path, and some do not even use any of the previous steps. With enough practice and study, artists can dedicate themselves to altering each of the steps until they change art itself. The goal of an artist need not be to transform art, but those artists who do allow for others to continue changing the path of art itself.

Chapter 8, “A Word About Color,” consists of just eight pages and is the only chapter in the book to use color. McCloud gives a quick history lesson on how color first made its way into the print medium. Effectively, the early high costs of color and relatively low level of technology meant that only the standard primary colors were available. Comic book heroes were depicted in bright primary colors that came to represent them; Superman’s blue, red, and yellow costume immediately comes to mind. While American comics were limited in their use of colors, McCloud notes that European comics had more colors available and strove to balance them all on the page. Other comics used completely different styles of palettes. Still, McCloud argues that black-and-white comics can evoke feelings just as well as full-color comics and should not be considered obsolete just because better technologies are available.

Chapter 9, “Putting It All Together,” goes into the basics of communication, asserting that because the transmission of ideas is limited by medium, people must master their medium in order to communicate effectively. It is for this reason, McCloud claims, that it is important to understand comics, in order to use them better. Ignorance and preconceived notions about comics severely limit the message that can be conveyed via this medium. The medium of comics is still growing, and comics have the potential to communicate so much, if only given the chance to do so.

Scott McCloud is the author’s avatar and the narrator throughout the entirety of the book. He wears large, round glasses and a Zot! T-shirt. McCloud is technically the only character within the book, although other familiar faces from the comic book world appear sporadically. He communicates directly with readers in order to help them achieve the titular goal of the book. However, for all of McCloud’s knowledge, he rarely if ever appears to be arrogant or overly intellectual. Instead, he recognizes the limits of his own understanding and invites readers to join and engage in the debate about the nature of comics.

Artistic Style

The art in the book is fairly consistent, with McCloud’s avatar being drawn in a simple manner against a blank background or different settings. However, examples of different panel layouts, the styles of other artists, and other aspects of drawing are presented in order to illustrate the differences between each, and sometimes the narrator’s rendering shifts in order to match his surroundings. At first glance, the minimalist drawings might suggest to the average, casual reader that the book is a children’s comic book featuring a man who talks too much; it is only upon careful reading that one comes to understand McCloud’s exposition. The apparently simple artistic style helps both demystify the different aspects of comics and present them with an air of seriousness.

The book’s typical layout, featuring McCloud’s avatar addressing the audience via speech balloons for about twelve panels per page, makes Understanding Comics feel like a lively conversation rather than a boring lecture, manifesto, or treatise on the complexity of comics. From the iconic smiley face to a nearly photo-realistic portrait, McCloud draws and replicates many distinct styles, depicting ancient cave paintings, famous works of art, and several familiar faces from the world of American, European, and Japanese comics to illustrate how varied comics, and even traditional art, can truly be. While the panel layouts and overall information can be dense throughout the majority of the book, there are no large sections of text that might thwart reader engagement or understanding.

McCloud expands on what Eisner first considered to be sequential art. Much of the book analyzes this art form and defends it as such, using various examples that range from ancient Egyptian art to the Bayeux Tapestry to contemporary diagrams. Distinctions are made as to what kinds of works do and do not qualify as comics, at least according to McCloud. The book serves as a pedagogical guide to the promised understanding of comics. If one were to classify the book, it would likely fall under the category of art criticism or even art history, though it is most likely to be found in the graphic novels section of the bookstore. While it can certainly serve as a textbook, the book’s discourse is not preachy or overly authoritative; instead, McCloud presents his views on comics based on his personal experiences within the comic book industry and his own extensive research, expressing his ideas not as solutions but rather as considerations in the great debate on art and comics. If anything, Understanding Comics is highly democratic and inviting for all to participate. The last lines of the book sum up the purpose of the work: “This book is meant to stimulate debate, not settle it. I’ve had my say. Now it’s your turn.”

Understanding Comics became one of the most recognized and influential books about comics, winning several awards and prompting McCloud to write a number of other works on the subject. McCloud’s definition of comics is rarely absent from any academic text on the subject, even those that disagree with his statements. The book has become one of the building blocks of the academic field of comics studies and has been used as a textbook in many academic programs. Ultimately, Understanding Comics goes beyond comic books and graphic novels, defining how images and text can be placed together to do something more than they can individually and redefining art along the way.