Comics and authorship : an introduction

If media authorship can be understood "as a site of cultural tension" (Johnson and Gray 2013, 10), then a deeper understanding of comics authorship will also provide clues regarding the sustaining—and constraining— of creative practices in other media ecologies and intermedial interactions (such as, for instance, adaptations). For comics, this implies combining insights from comics scholars, practitioners as well as agents involved in the publication and dissemination of comics. This issue, building on the findings of extant scholarship on authorship in comics and other media, hopes to provide incentive for further adventures into the (almost) unknown of comics authorship

Documentary Comics: graphic truth-telling in a skeptical age.

Examining comics as documentary, this book challenges the persistent assumption that ties documentary to recording technologies, and instead engages an understanding of the category in terms of narrative, performativity and witnessing. Through a cluster of early twenty-first century comics, Nina Mickwitz argues that these comics share a documentary ambition to visually narrate and represent aspects and events of the real world

Teaching Cartography with Comics: Some Examples from BeccoGiallo\u2019s Graphic Novel Series

This article suggests the use of comics, particularly of graphic novels, as valuable instructional tools for teaching cartography. Of particular interest is the idea that comics can be used to develop students\u2019 geographical competencies, their ability to think actively about cartographical issues, and their capacity to interact with \u201cmaps as mappings\u201d (Dodge, Kitchin and Perkins, 2009). The theoretical references used to conduct the deep interdisciplinary proposal and analysis include: the growing field of literary cartography, recent post-representational theories in cartography, and the emerging field of \u201ccomic book geography\u201d (Dittmer, 2014). The article reads comics as maps and analyzes their map-like features to demonstrate that both maps and comics ask the reader-user to be actively engaged to decipher, orient, and practice them. Proposing to read \u201cmaps as comics\u201d, \u201cmaps of comics\u201d, \u201cmaps and mappings in comics\u201d, and \u201ccomics as maps and mappings\u201d, the article suggests the possible practical employment of comics in cartography classes. Furthermore, this study uses examples from BeccoGiallo\u2019s comic series to demonstrate that graphic novels may help students become more aware map readers and users, by being involved in an active spatial practice. Finally, this article focuses on the unexplored educational potential of graphic novels by exploring the improvement of students\u2019 understanding of post-representational cartographical approaches through comic use

The Drawn-Out Battle Against Stigma: Mental Health in Modern American Comics and Graphic Novels

The discussion of mental health issues in the media significantly shapes public perceptions, most notably in negative portrayals that contribute to the stereotyping of mental health patients. Perhaps surprisingly, comics and graphic novels are forms of media that have potential to mitigate such stigma, despite earlier criticism of mental health stereotypes propagated in some comics. This is reflected in a recent trend of comics treating mental health issues in more sympathetic ways. This paper discusses three American comics from the last decade, examining depictions of post-traumatic stress disorder in Garry Trudeau\u27s comic strip, Doonesbury, around 2005-2006, schizophrenia in Nate Powell\u27s graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole (2008), and depression in a short Captain America comic (2011). An analysis of these examples reveals that comics in the United States have a unique and promising place in mental health education. Comics can reach an at-risk target audience, convey their messages in a visual and non-textual way, use narrative to present important issues in an accessible manner, use humor to enable the discussion of taboo topics, and, in some cases, use popular characters to raise the profile of a certain issue. They also have the potential to serve directly as therapy for mental health patients, a trend currently more visible in the United Kingdom and Canada. The comics and graphic novels discussed show, perhaps a larger trend of the media moving away from stereotyping and towards a greater visibility and understanding of mental health issues

Pengaruh Penggunaan Komik Berorientasi Kearifan Lokal Bali Terhadap Motivasi Belajar Dan Pemahaman Konsep Fisika

This study aimed to analyze the effect uses comics with Balinese local wisdom oriented to learning motivation and concepts understanding of physics. This study considered quasi-experimental design with posttest only control group design. The sample were eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Singaraja school year 2012/2013. Data collected students\u27 motivation with 34 item questionnaire and an understanding of the concept of data collected with a 20 item test understanding of concepts. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and MANOVA one tailed. Based on the results of data analysis has been performed, the results of the study found that there were differences in learning motivation and concepts understanding among the group of students who are learning uses comics with Balinese local wisdom oriented and the group of students who studied without uses comics with Balinese local wisdom oriented (F = 44.20, p <0.05). LSD test results further demonstrate that uses comics with Balinese local wisdom oriented is superior compared to the group of students who studied without uses comics with Balinese local wisdom oriented in learning motivation and understanding of concepts. Therefore, it can be concluded that the uses comic with Balinese local wisdom oriented influence on learning motivation and concepts understanding of physics. Hopefully, this research could be further refined by researchers who would be carrying out relevant research next

Transcending the panels: varieties of experience and selfhood in comics.

In this dissertation, I argue that the typical formal features of American comics over the past century have influenced the types of narrative content that tend to be communicated by said medium. I argue that the types of reader experiences that are afforded by the comics form, in part, shape the types of stories told through comics. The experiences that result from the ways we engage perceptually, cognitively, emotionally, and conceptually with comics imply a certain view of selfhood that is potentially subversive in the context of American cultural religiosity and spirituality. The formal features of comics, and the resulting reader experiences, imply an understanding of selfhood as being conventional, narrativized, and made possible by active interpretation. The view that selves are constituted by narratives also can be found in the work of various philosophers of self. Narrative understandings of selfhood stand in stark contrast to the traditional entrenched Western view that selves consist of the unified and continuous essences of individuals. Because comics’ formal features highlight the actively interpreted and constructed nature of the selves of characters in comics, they are fitting for the communication of narratives that engage with traditions of thought in which selves are considered to be malleable, interpretable, and narrative in nature. This includes many traditions of occultism and esotericism. Chapter one examines readers’ typical perceptual and cognitive engagements with the comics form and expounds the process of “closure” as a means by which readers understand a comic as representing a coherent storyworld. Chapter two offers a theoretical model of emotions as processes, which can best account for the range of emotional affordances offered by comics’ character depictions, artistic and design elements, and the processes that constitute closure. Chapter three illuminates the conceptual implications of the perceptual, cognitive, and emotional affordances of comics, arguing that comics imply a conventional and narrativized understanding of selfhood. Finally, chapter four examines the American cultural history of comics and highlights examples of esoteric and occultist themes and traditions appearing in ways that highlight a narrative understanding of selfhood

The effectiveness of comics as an educational tool in learning and teaching of liberal studies

Among various learning and teaching resources used in Liberal Studies (LS), comics is often utilized as an major form of non-textual educational tool in LS classroom to promote students’ generic skills and deepen their understanding towards different issues. This dissertation investigates the effectiveness of using comics of learning and teaching of Liberal Studies. The result of this study has revealed that comics can enhance students’ learning to a certain extent. However, the findings also demonstrate that there are some limitations of the use of comics in LS classroom. Some recommendations on the way of integrating comics in Liberal Studies were discussed in this dissertation.published_or_final_versionEducationBachelorBachelor of Education in Liberal Studie

Decoding comics: essential elements for transcription

Comics (plural in form but used with a singular verb as defined by Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, HarperPerennial) provides a fresh perspective on the interaction of culture and language and spans from simple one-frame comics to graphic novels. Speech in comics is fully interpretable only in relation to the other elements; therefore a transcription system that includes them all is necessary. I have developed a unique transcription method which incorporates all the salient aspects of comic art revealing the linguistic codes embedded within. I show that transcription techniques, while primarily focused on speech, can also be applied to other forms of communication. Gestures and their corresponding ingesticulary acts are communicative and therefore crucial to our understanding of language and culture interaction within comic art. Charles Schultz’s Peanuts is a relatively simple form of comics which makes it easier to focus on the linguistic information within the comic strip. Establishing the communicative information necessary to decode this relatively stripped-down comic strip will provide the framework necessary for all other forms of comics. In order to transcribe any form of comic art, one must include six keys elements: 1) the Prose, 2) the Gesture, 3) the Ingesticulary Act, 4) the Action, 5) the Perspective, 6) and the Environment. The interaction of these six elements creates the scaffold which supports the communicative mechanisms used in comic arts. My work yields a new understanding of the importance of language and culture interaction expanding the definition of communication to include written and visual elements of comics. Using my innovative transcription technique allows for further systematic decoding of linguistic elements within all kinds of comics and visual art

Older than language : comics as philosophical praxis and heuristic for philosophical canon

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-197).The central task of this dissertation is the exploration of the medium of comics, and its connections to both popular culture and philosophy as a practice conceived in the Western tradition. Comics (at times referred to as both 'graphic literature' and 'sequential art' during this dissertation) constitutes a wholly new object. One that is qualitatively distinct from prose, theater, poetry and cinema. Mimicking the structure of comics wherein two images are juxtaposed to suggest (rather than explicitly state) a coherent sequence in the mind of the reader, this dissertation offers two "images" of its central thesis: one a theoretical element, the other a work of creative fiction. Following on from each other, these "images" interrogate both in their parts and in their sequence, the politics of representation around comics and its connections to philosophy and the popular. In the first "image" a theoretical work is forwarded to examine the various connections that arise between comics, popular culture and philosophy. The central thesis of this element argues for a nuanced understanding in which the medium of comics provides for a clearer interlocutor of Western philosophy's perennial concerns. The works of Galileo, Vico, Descartes, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Einstein, Foucault and Deleuze are reinterpreted using the aesthetic mechanics of comics as philosophical concept. This dissertation thus asserts that comics functions as "heuristic" for Western philosophy, a method which encodes understanding through practice

ReDrawing of Narrative Boundaries: An Introduction

ReDrawing of Narrative Boundaries: An Introduction provides an overview of the comics studies field as it relates to discussions and debates regarding its relationship to the study of literature and the arts. It provides a snapshot of today\u27s comics studies field, including how the scholarly essays collected for this special issue, “A Planetary Republic of Comic Book Letters: Drawing Expansive Narrative Boundaries, work to deepen and widen our understanding of comics, and comics from all over the planet. Individually and collectively they eschew the lean toward the fill-in-the-blank (lit, film, etc.) comparisons, and instead excavate and theorize comics on their own terms