Beyond the Two Solitudes: Differences in Fluidity in Franco-Canadian BD and Anglo-Canadian Comics Through the Influence of Manga

Chris Reyns-Chikuma

doi:10.16995/cg.4041

Abstract

In this article, I study the influence of manga on the two main Canadian comics worlds. I show how, for several reasons that I will explain, the Anglo-Canadian comics world has been quite receptive to manga influence, while the French-Canadian one has been much less welcoming. This different degree of influence can be seen in one aspect of the formal structure of comics: the various panel layouts on the page, sometimes called the grid. Mainstream French-Québec BD (BDQ) tends to use a more regular grid than mainstream Anglo-Canadian comics. The latter adopts a more fluid form of the grid, which is also typical of manga style. Using Brenna Clarke Gray’s parallel between territorial border and comics gutter (Gray 2016), I argue how these differences can be seen in some concrete examples from both Canadian linguistic communities. I conclude with the Tamaki cousins’ graphic novels to emphasize how fluidity is a reflection of, and on the Anglo-Canadian comics world, and maybe beyond, which could be seen as a critique of the notion of rigidity in various fields (identity, sexuality, border), as well as a calling for textual, sexual and national fluidities.

Highlights

Since the beginning of WWII to the early 1990s, each mainstream comics world lived in a bubble without many connections to other comics bubbles, aside from some influence from the American tradition with its enormous soft-power
We have seen that the reception of manga culture by the traditional producers in the two Canadian comics worlds is quite different
If we take into account how AngloCanadian artists, from O’Malley to the Tamaki cousins, use the fluid layout partly influenced by manga culture to support their critique of rigid patriarchal binaries on nationality and gender fluidity, we can establish a parallel between the way in which most Franco-Québécois artists draw their work and how some Franco-Québécois express their culture defensively and cautiously welcome foreign influences

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of WWII to the early 1990s, each mainstream comics world lived in a bubble without many connections to other comics bubbles, aside from some influence from the American tradition with its enormous soft-power. In the last 30 years, other solitudes emerged in the Canadian comics world This is the case of the Indigenous community, which has seen a mini-boom in comics production (Rheault 2020), and other ethnic, cultural and linguistic communities including the Japanese-Canadian one. Mainstream French-Québec BD (bande dessinée québécoise or BDQ) tends to use a more regular grid than mainstream Anglo-Canadian comics. The former one is strongly influenced by the Franco-Belgian tradition where the regular grid prevails (Peeters 1999:49–82, and Groensteen 1999:31– 120, where the theoretician wrote a “defense and illustration of regular layout,” that he nuanced later but still defended in 2011—see translation 2013:133–157).

Figure 2

Findings

Conclusion