Field Of Comics Research Articles

“Loading memories…”: Deteriorating pasts and distant futures in Stuart Campbell’s These Memories Won’t Last

The field of comics has undergone palpable shifts in print and digital publishing cultures, from newspaper strips and zines to hardbound graphic novels and works still emerging in the era of Web 2.0. Comics that leave behind the aesthetic trappings of print to embrace digital platforms and media are known variously as digital comics, download comics, hypercomics and webcomics. This paper adopts the term “webcomics” to denote a precise, hybrid medium combining the visual-verbal grammar of comics with the capacious potentials of digitality. Through the case study of These Memories Won’t Last, a webcomic by Australian artist and graphic designer Stuart Campbell (known by his pseudonym, Sutu), I aim to explore the ways Campbell engages sound, animation and other interactive elements alongside drawings that render the lived experiences of his grandfather, who suffers from late-stage dementia. This paper considers how webcomics might transform the stasis of word-and-image to explore and communicate subjects that sit on the outer edges of representation, such as memory, identity and trauma. It responds to a new generation of artists who harness digital technologies to expand and revise the comics form and considers the potential effects of this practice on creating, reading and interpretating life stories.

Translation and the acquisition of symbolic capital: The Blueberry Western series in the field of American comic books

ABSTRACT One of the best Western comic book series in the field of Franco-Belgian comics, the Blueberry series is widely acclaimed and has generated considerable symbolic capital. Mirroring its success in France and Belgium, this series has also been extensively (re)translated and (re)printed in several countries, such as Spain and Italy. In Anglophone countries, however, this editorial success has not been replicated. The Blueberry series has never been published in its entirety in English, nor has it acquired the symbolic capital that it enjoys in the Franco-Belgian comics field. This article focuses on the American editions of the Blueberry series. By adopting a translational framework based on Jean-Marc Gouanvic’s works on the sociology of translation, this paper shifts the traditional focus of Translation Studies from the texts to the critical and often overlooked role of translators and other agents in the international circulation of (graphic) narratives. Based primarily on the analysis of interviews with the American translators and editors of the Blueberry series, coupled with close paratextual examination of selected comics samples, this article investigates the context behind the reception of this iconic Western series in the field of American comic books.

The Power of the Periphery: Circulation of Cross-Cultured Languaging Through the Importation of Francophone Comics in the Nation-State of Sweden, 1900–2020

Abstract The objective with this study is to shed light upon how international exchanges on the comic art market contribute to democratization processes and renegotiation of hegemonies in the literary field worldwide. The focus is on how the variation in imported comics from a central language, in this case French, to the peripheral space of Sweden, can be observed during the time-period 1900–2020, as well as on which diversity importation of comics has been allowed over time. Theoretically anchored in sociological perspectives in literary studies highly influenced by Casanova’s ([1999]2004) seminal work, this contribution challenges established approaches in the field that depart from central cultural spaces in the world. Instead, this analysis highlights how the periphery gains agency on the international market and challenges relations of domination through translation practices. One hypothesis put forward consists of the idea that Francophone author-illustrators from the global South would be identifiable in the data in 1990’s, as is the case in the literary field. However, in the comics field this change emerges later, and does not appear distinctively until 2005. The change is paired with a promotion of Francophone female author-illustrators in Swedish translations, equally from the global South and the global North. The results also highlight that Sweden positions the Francophone space as hyper-central within the comics field. The specific practices adopted in the importation point to how a periphery creates agency to define a medium and a genre locally and play a role in international cultural exchanges.

Pusat Komik dan Animasi di Kota Banda Aceh dengan Pendekatan Modern Berkelanjutan

Comics and Animation is currently one of the media that can raise various themes, ranging from entertainment, education, business, and politics. However, the facilities in Banda Aceh are considered inadequate for this comic and animation activity. In addition, the place to hold comic and animation exhibitions is also not available, this is feared considering that the field of comics and animation requires adequate facilities and proper management. Therefore, this writing aims to create or design a center of comic and animation activities that can be a place or container for the people of Aceh. This Comic and Animation Center will be located in Tentara Siswa Street, Kampung Baru, Baiturrahman District, Banda Aceh City. This design takes the theme of Modern Contemporary and Sustainable Architecture. The use of this theme of Modern Contemporary and Sustainable Architecture recalls the present that not onlyattaches importance to the architectural style of the present but also the sustainability of the building in the future by reducing the negative environmental impact.

Comics in the Time of a Pan(dem)ic: COVID-19, Graphic Medicine, and Metaphors

Comics have always responded to pandemics/catastrophes, documenting the way we deal with such crises. Recently, graphic medicine, an interdisciplinary field of comics and medicine, has been curating comics, editorial cartoons, autobiographical cartoons, and social media posts under the heading "COVID-19 Comics" on their websites. These collected comics express what we propose to call covidity, a neologism that captures both individual and collective philosophical, material, and wide-ranging emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Treating such comics as the source material and drawing insights from theorists Ian Williams, Alan Bleakley, Susan Sontag, and others, this article examines graphic medicine's representation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The conceptual metaphors of war, anthropomorphism, and superheroism are used to represent and illustrate the lived experience of the pandemic, and the article investigates metaphor types, their utility, and motivational triggers for such representations. In doing so, the essay situates graphic medicine as a productive site that presents the pandemic's multifarious impact.

Nosotras contamos. Notas en torno a construir genealogía feminista en el campo de la historieta y el humor gráfico (Argentina, 1933 - 2019)

El artículo presenta la propuesta de "Nosotras contamos. Un recorrido por la obra de autoras de historietas y humor gráfico de ayer y hoy" una iniciativa de construcción de genealogía feminista en el campo de las viñetas humorísticas y artes secuenciales gráficas llevado adelante por la agrupación “Feminismo Gráfico” (Buenos Aires, 2019). El proyecto inicial se enmarca en abordajes de ginocrítica desde el que se propone redescubrir un arte hecho por mujeres (Showalter, 1981) y la genealogía feminista como metodología de investigación (Restrepo, A., 2016). Los resultados se plasmaron en un sitio web, una muestra itinerante y un catálogo que presentó un recorrido por la obra de más de ochenta autoras entre 1930 y la actualidad e implicó un proceso de investigación en hemerotecas, colecciones y archivos. La propuesta nos llevó a cuestionar la categoría "mujer" y a utilizar "autorías" como una categoría que fuera abarcativa no solo de feminidades sino también de identidades disidentes o transfronterizas que producen en el campo de las historietas y las viñetas de humor. Esto permitió reconstruir un mapa que vincula las luchas emancipatorias de mujeres, lesbianas, travestis/trans y personas no binarias con la plasmación de un registro gráfico en revistas de circulación popular. Parte de este proceso es recopilado en el sitio www.feminismografico.com. Palabras clave: Historieta. Genealogía Feminista. Autorías.

From Tabermann to Mr. Baudelaire. Allusions and popular culture references in the Finnish comic Northern Overexposure and their English translations

Comics, as other written works, contains allusions that serve many functions and might be difficult to translate due to cultural differences. The aim of this article is to analyse the selected allusions and popular culture references in the Finnish comic Northern Overexposure and compare the Finnish source text with the English target text. In addition, the function of these allusions as well as the relevant cultural background are covered. The examples were analysed with Ritva Leppihalme’s (1997) strategies for translating allusions. The article also provides insight into the Finnish field of comics and the translation process of the selected comic.

(Ultra)Minor Comics? Opening Up the History of (Post-)Yugoslav and Bulgarian Comics to Outsiders

Author(s): De Dobbeleer, Michel | Abstract: The last decade saw the publication of more and more monographs (partially) devoted to the history of comics (and/or graphic novels) in smaller or larger geographical/cultural areas around our globe. In this article I first focus on what – if anything – (the relevant chapters in) several of these books tell their readers about the history of comics in the former Republic of Yugoslavia and its successor states, and in Bulgaria, the other Slavic country on the Balkan Peninsula. In doing so, I discuss a (‘Cold War’) misperception about East European comics. In the second part, I probe the usefulness of extending the application range of the terms ‘minor [literatures]’ and ‘ultraminor [literatures]’ to the field of comics, whereupon I put forward some suggestions on how future contributions – scholarly and other – to the cultural transmission or opening up of the history of (post-)Yugoslav and Bulgarian comics, as well as those of countries/nations/language areas with comparable traditions, could look like.

Cute monsters and early birds: foreignness in graphic novels on migration by Shaun Tan and Paula Bulling

ABSTRACTThis paper contrasts two opposite approaches within the presently booming field of comics on migration, namely Paula Bulling’s German documentary comic book Im Land der Frühaufsteher (In the Land of Early Birds or Early Risers) and Shaun Tan’s wordless fictional narrative The Arrival. Both engage with the topic of migration and aim to (re)create a sense of foreignness and alienation for their readers that mirrors the experiences of the characters portrayed in the comics. However, the paper suggests that The Arrival leaves readers with a sense of strangeness mastered and enjoyed while Im Land der Frühaufsteher elicits a sense of constant confusion. Drawing on research on the rhetorical effects of narrative beginnings, the paper demonstrates that the reader’s initial experiences with the text foreshadow the reading experience of the entire graphic novel. It then discusses two aspects of specific relevance to the theme of foreignness: first, the relationship between different points of view and the depiction of communication and second, the use of visual strategies ranging from a visual mode to specific symbols. It also reflects on the autobiographical background of both comics and the ethics behind the authors’ different uses of the theme of foreignness.

Editorial

Comics history has been an integral part of comics research from the outset, but from the late 1980s and well into the 2000s, a historical focus seemed to live a more anonymous existence. This was largely due to the burgeoning and exciting interest in close analyses of comics as ‘works’, emphasizing the medium’s potential as an art form. Over the past ten years, however, research interest into comics history has regained momentum, but this time combining classic comics history with a heightened awareness of the medium’s aesthetic dimension and with some of the newer trends within historical research at large. The historical interest has been furthered by theoretical and methodological trends that reach beyond comics research. Inspired by anthropology and the linguistic turn, much historical research now has a pronounced focus on cultural products (such as comics) as part of society, and not only in cultural history in a strict sense but also in interaction with broader societal and political processes and conflicts. Within the comics field, this focus most obviously lends itself to some of the comics genres that have boomed within the past fifteen years, such as memory, documentary and ‘activist’ comics, but it is not limited to these. In its updated form, comics history research also follows another general trend within historical research, namely that of transnational studies, which questions a default national framework for understanding comics history and instead follows interaction and inspiration across national borders of industries and publications, as well as individual artists. As a third feature, the field has moved beyond the most widely studied countries and time periods and thereby questions the comics canon that usually evolves around North America and a limited number of European (and Asian) countries. All in all, comics history research is back from the margin, in a new and updated format.

The Greatest Comic Book of All Time: Symbolic Capital and the Field of American Comic Books, Arresting Development: Comics at the Boundaries of Literature, We Told You So: Comics as Art and Spurgeon with Michael Dean

The Greatest Comic Book of All Time: Symbolic Capital and the Field of American Comic Books, Arresting Development: Comics at the Boundaries of Literature, We Told You So: Comics as Art and Spurgeon with Michael Dean

The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces by Thierry Groensteen

Reviewed by: The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces by Thierry Groensteen Colin Beineke (bio) Thierry Groensteen. The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces. Translated by Ann Miller. University Press of Mississippi, 2017. xii + 240 pp, $65, $30. Click for larger view View full resolution Thierry Groensteen and his colleagues in France and Belgium were polishing theories and practices of comics formalism in the 1980s which North American criticism has only recently begun to hew of its own accord. During my early years as a graduate student, I more than once referred to Groensteen's The System of Comics1 as "my Bible" when recommending it to others—positioning it as the key to unlocking nuanced formal close reading—and although I have since reined in my dogmatic enthusiasm, the experience of reading comics alongside Groensteen remains invigorating and enlightening. Few comics scholars have such a keen eye for spotting the underlying patterns of the form while also possessing the clarity of voice to expound upon them. Groensteen's standard critical approach draws descriptive theory from a wide body of comics rather than imposing a pre-ordained framework upon a specific few, a process that remains refreshing in a humanities dominated by ideological methodologies. However, Groensteen's third book to be translated and published by the University of Mississippi Press, The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces, represents a departure from his rigorously theoretical works: The System of Comics and Comics and Narration.2 A series of discrete examinations tackling ten so-called comics "masterpieces," The Expanding Art offers English readers, for the first time, extended Groensteenian readings [End Page 213] of major works. Originally published in Belgium by Les Impressions Nouvelles—a house founded by Marc Avelot, Benoît Peeters, and Jan Baetens, and whose catalog is aimed at a popular readership—The Expanding Art might be considered a companion to Groensteen's previous Impressions Nouvelles book, Comics: A User's Guide (La bande dessinée, mode d'emploi),3 which is framed explicitly as a beginners-styled introduction to the art form. The Expanding Art, then, serves as a practical application of the theoretical basics outlined in A User's Guide. Pulled from this Franco-Belgian framework of general readership, The Expanding Art is placed staunchly within an American academic milieu, a transition resulting in moments of dissonance. Groensteen's prose is admittedly more accessible here than in his strictly theoretical work, while his overall approach leans towards explication and review rather than deep critique and analysis; yet his intermittent use of jargon, as well as his frequent off-hand references to specialized critics and practitioners, suggests an informed readership. Given this tension, the best course of action may not be to evaluate The Expanding Art using either set of standards—the popular or the academic—but via the criteria Groensteen himself outlines for the project. In deliberate contrast to the popular ideation of beeline evolutionary progress, Groensteen—in a mere four pages of introductory matter—argues for a more nuanced conceptualization of flowering expansion within the comics field: a shrewd pivot from a linear trajectory of "progress," often associated with the overblown narrative of comics' "growing up," to an outward branching outgrowth. Rather than highlight texts which represent some imagined, recently acquired apex of the form, Groensteen instead posits an examination of works that have pushed comics in radically novel directions: "Each of these books has created an opening, achieved a breakthrough, offered a new narrative model, or taken up an emerging tendency and perfected it" (3). For instance, Groensteen argues that Dominique Goblet's Pretending Is Lying represents an expansion into the visual arts, while Chris Ware's Building Stories signals a move towards comics as a "book-art object" (4). Considering this alternative framework, it is surprising to note that the comics Groensteen ultimately selects—including Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, David B.'s Epileptic, and Craig Thompson's Habibi—could have been easily assembled using the model of progressive evolution he attempts to subvert, especially given that, for many, the "graphic novel" represents the most recent acme of the comics form. And indeed, for all his claims of expansion, Groensteen ultimately...

Rahan: A hero at the service of physical and moral education

In the field of comics, Rahan represents a sort of ordinary hero whose relationship with his body is an important part of the humanistic message that he conveys. His physical abilities bring him close to his readers and ultimately to everybody. By means of his physical education and teaching attitude, the hero serves as both an educational and a moral model: through the learning of swimming, life-saving techniques, and navigation, he escapes from dangerous situations, and opposes conflicts between different tribes and the traditions imposed by the tribe’s wizard. His altruism and innovative approach make him an exceptional hero for the primitive era. In fact, the movement with which the artist – André Chéret – endows his hero echoes the sport techniques of 1970 – 1980, thus favoring the reader’s identification process.

Historicising the Emergence of Comics Art Scholarship in Spain, 1965–1975

This article traces the formation of comics art scholarship in Spain from 1965 to 1975. This decade witnessed the beginning of the study of comics as a serious object of cultural analysis. Reading formations surrounding the medium – in particular, historical and critical reading protocols – and a set of key critical debates were concurrent with the establishment and the development of mass communication studies as an incipient field of research in Spain in the mid-1960s. The aim of this article is to provide a close examination of the first generation of critics participating in and writing about the scene in relation to hitherto overlooked local and transnational contexts that shaped the constitution of the Spanish field of comics.

Historicising the Emergence of Comics Art Scholarship in Spain, 1965–1975

This article traces the formation of comics art scholarship in Spain from 1965 to 1975. This decade witnessed the beginning of the study of comics as a serious object of cultural analysis. Reading formations surrounding the medium – in particular, historical and critical reading protocols – and a set of key critical debates were concurrent with the establishment and the development of mass communication studies as an incipient field of research in Spain in the mid-1960s. The aim of this article is to provide a close examination of the first generation of critics participating in and writing about the scene in relation to hitherto overlooked local and transnational contexts that shaped the constitution of the Spanish field of comics.

Historicising the Emergence of Comics Art Scholarship in Spain, 1965–1975

This article traces the formation of comics art scholarship in Spain from 1965 to 1975. This decade witnessed the beginning of the study of comics as a serious object of cultural analysis. Reading formations surrounding the medium – in particular, historical and critical reading protocols – and a set of key critical debates were concurrent with the establishment and the development of mass communication studies as an incipient field of research in Spain in the mid-1960s. The aim of this article is to provide a close examination of the first generation of critics participating in and writing about the scene in relation to hitherto overlooked local and transnational contexts that shaped the constitution of the Spanish field of comics.

The Use of Translation Notes in Manga Scanlation

This article investigates the use of translation notes to deal with translation problems. In Translation Studies, the presence of translation notes in a translation is considered particularly significant because they clearly indicate what features of the source text the translator considered important for the comprehension of the text and therefore necessary to retain or explain. In the field of comics in translation, the use of T/N is rather uncommon, and can be considered the main translation strategy that distinguishes scanlation from other types of translations.
 In the first part of this article, the structure of the English-language manga scanlation communities is examined; following this, the way culture-specific items are dealt with by manga scanlators is analysed; and finally, an explanatory hypothesis linking the broader structure of participation to individual translation strategies is presented. The argument put forward in this article is that translation notes are used in scanlation both to solve translation problems and as a way for scanlators to communicate directly with their readers, thereby foregrounding their mediating presence directly on the pages of scanlated manga.

The Medium Is the Message: Olivier Schrauwen’s Arsène Schrauwen beyond Expectations of Autobiography, Colonial History and the Graphic Novel

his article proposes a close reading of Olivier Schrauwen's Arsene Schrauwen, focusing on the various cultural discourses that it engages with, and particularly its ironical self-positioning within the field of comics. First of all, Schrauwen playfully questions the entrenchment of autobiography in the contemporary graphic novel by presenting a wholly fantasized adventure as biographical family history. This play with generic expectations is continued through Schrauwen’s reliance on the tropes of the adventure story and its figuration of the voyage. Arsene Schrauwen also draws on stereotypical images of both Belgium and the Belgian Congo and integrates them into a grotesque narrative so as to question the supposed unicity of the individual and colonial bodies. Last but not least, the book displays a highly self-reflexive approach to comics storytelling, building on a legacy from Flemish comics in order to play with reading conventions, graphic enunciation and abstraction, thereby thematising the perception of the main character.

Frémok: Comics Out-of-Bounds

56 WLT MARCH / APRIL 2016 E ven in the diverse world of Franco -Belgian independent comics , there is no publisher quite like Frémok. The name itself is a neologism—a combination of Fréon and Amok, the two publishers that merged to form the new entity. A hybrid itself, Frémok constantly reapproaches, readdresses, and reinvents the comics medium by repeatedly hybridizing fine arts and narration at the extreme limits, wilfully disregarding the conventions of the comics form. Despite the diverse artistic media used to produce Frémok comics—woodcuts, oil paint, graphite, carbon paper, lithography, and more—Frémok insists that the book is itself an artistic production, and they give extraordinary care and attention to bookmaking. Beyond publishing, Frémok functions as a “platform ” for new projects that expand the organization ’s fundamental thesis across a spectrum of activity that includes exhibitions, site-specific installations, and, increasingly, collaborations with other institutions. The beginnings of what would later become Frémok took place in a distressing period for francophone comics. The profound renewal that came with the countercultural explosion of the 1960s and ’70s seemed to be definitively over two decades later. By the second half of the 1980s, francophone comics, or bande dessinée, had become as standardized in their own way as the DC/Marvel-style superhero comic books in the US. Overwhelmingly, publishers adhered to the oversized, forty-eightpage hardcover “album” format (perhaps best known to American readers as the standard format for Tintin and Asterix volumes ). Publishers produced countless series with endlessly recurring characters in established fictional genres, privileging the eternal return of conventional artistic styles. Yet the change was already there in essence, notably at Saint-Luc Bruxelles, famous for being the first European art school to have a curriculum especially devoted to comics. The students at this school would form the core of the future publisher: Éric Lambé, Dominique Goblet, Jean-Christophe Long, the twin brothers Denis and Olivier Deprez, and Thierry Van Hasselt. All of them still emphasize today the major influence of Michel Céder, lecturer in semiotics and art history. He claimed that comics were still largely underexploited and would gain much if they could develop beyond their entertainment status and enter into a dialogue with other art forms. Publishing comics along with photographs, poetry, or illustration , the Spanish magazine Madriz was regarded as a template. In 1990 most of the cartoonists from Madriz took part in an exhibition devoted to contemporary comics at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía. Among the foreign participants, the students and young graduates from Saint-Luc chose to christen themselves “Frigo.” Significantly, the very first public act of the collective was not a publication but an exhibition; many more would follow. On this occasion, cover feature international comics Frémok Comics Out-of-Bounds by Erwin Dejasse From Le fils du roi, by Eric Lambé (Frémok, 2012) WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 57 Céder wrote a text that now sounds a bit like a manifesto: “History has taught us that art has to be the deconstruction of a norm. . . . It is necessary to say and say again that formal work is not to be confused with formalism . . . the meaning is built by the form. . . . In each work, we have to replay the idea of comics: because to break up the norms is to place oneself at the boundaries of one’s art form.” The birth of Frigo in 1990—renamed Fréon four years later—was part of a larger international phenomenon. The total inaccessibility of mainstream publishing houses to new, unique voices meant that it was no longer necessary to compromise; the comics field had become again a virgin land where everything would be possible. To allow their aspirations to become reality , young authors did not have any other option than to join forces and begin publishing themselves. Besides the Fréon group and others in Belgium (Pelure Amère, Bill, La Cinquième Couche), similar alternative structures emerged during the same period in Spain (Medios Revueltos), France (Amok, L’Association, Cornélius, Ego Comme X), Italy (Mano), Switzerland (Strapazin, Drozophile, Atrabile), and Germany (Boxer, Reprodukt). Notably influenced by Art Spiegelman and Fran...

New Nordic comics—a question of promotion?

Throughout history, the cultures of the Nordic countries have at certain points been seen through a lense that stresses regional commonality, most recently with terms like “New Nordic Cooking” or “Nordic Noir.” In this article, we examine the possibility of a common concept of “New Nordic Comics” by analyzing a number of Nordic comics anthologies. We discuss in what way Nordic comics might be said to be new and how they can be considered to be Nordic. We state that the comics in the collections are not identifiable as particularly Nordic based on their themes or the stylistic or visual repertoires. In these respects, Nordic comics are part of a broader transnational comics culture. The comics, however, occasionally bear witness to a Nordic background or heritage, for instance, in the form of words in Finnish or the Scandinavian languages, names of characters or the milieux in the comics. On the whole, Nordicness in comics is variable and diverse, and rather than a phenomenon based on inherent quality or aesthetic commonality, new Nordic comics are a result of promotional strategies, cultural policies, and transnational connections between Nordic actors in the comics field.