"Comics and Empirical Research: An Introduction"

Qualitative Research, 2020

Comics have long been a focus of scholarly inquiry. In recent years, this interest has taken a methodological turn, with scholars integrating comics creation into the research process itself. In this article, the authors begin to define and document this emerging, interdisciplinary field of methodological practice. They lay out key affordances that comics offers researchers across the disciplines, arguing that certain characteristics—multimodality, blending of sequential and simultaneous communication, emphasis on creator voice—afford powerful tools for inquiry. The authors finish by offering some questions and challenges for the field as it matures.

Research Article, 2023

Comics, characterised as a literary and aesthetic media, have a specific storytelling capability that combines visual and verbal components, resulting in a distinctive form of expression. This study undertakes a thorough examination of the various impacts of comics on narrative, communication, and culture. From the historical comic strips to the contemporary graphic novels, the study analyses the development of this artistic medium and its capacity to effectively depict and communicate complex narratives and concepts. When examining the interplay between visuals and text, it also analyses the ability of comics to surpass linguistic and cultural boundaries, providing a broadly comprehended form of communication that appeals to a wide range of individuals. Comics have established themselves as a powerful medium for communication and social criticism, extending their influence beyond popular culture to the domains of education and campaigning. This study explores the use of comics as a means to tackle pertinent social issues and delves into the ways in which comics have been employed to give voice to marginalised people to catalyse transformative societal shifts. Comics, being a medium that combines visual and verbal elements, serve to bridge gaps, facilitate comprehension, and prompt us to adopt a fresh perspective on the world. They have not only become a mirror of our culture but also a driving force for social progress.

Research on the understanding of “how comics work” has grown tremendously over the past 20 years, with more articles and books emerging each year. Much of this research has discussed comparisons between comics and language, and/or has speculated on comics’ cognition. However, much of this research faces limitations, which hamper the seriousness of the endeavor and reflect the youth of this emerging field. This article points out these deficiencies that pervade theories about comics. These include inadequate background research, overly general and unsupportable claims, a lack of adequate evidence, and limitations for research methodologies. To address these concerns, I draw from over 50 years of research from linguistics and cognitive science to inform how the field of “comic theory” can move forward. In particular, I outline two primary ways of progressing with this line of research: 1) explicit manipulation of the component parts of comics’ structure, and 2) cataloging actual comics for various theoretically relevant phenomena. This data-driven approach is offered as a guiding vision for future works on the understanding of “how comics work.”

Kultura, 2019

As we end the second decade of the twenty-first century, it should not be necessary to make a case for the cultural value of comics and cartoons. Granted that defending comic art against charges of being morally reprehensible, intellectually degrading, and aesthetically inferior does not have to be made as frequently or emphatically as a generation ago. Comics and cartoons have climbed quite a few rungs of the ladder of respectability with the blurring of the once-firm dividing line between "fine art" and "popular" art, the encouraging (not just tolerating) of the use of comic books and graphic novels in the classroom, and the developing of a wide spread comic art scholarship presence.

2019

This book explores how comics function to make meanings in the manner of a language. It outlines a framework for describing the resources and practices of comics creation and readership, using an approach that is compatible with similar descriptions of linguistic and multimodal communication. The approach is based largely on the work of Michael Halliday, drawing also on the pragmatics of Paul Grice, the Text World Theory of Paul Werth and Joanna Gavins, and ideas from art theory, psychology and narratology. This brings a broad Hallidayan framework of multimodal analysis to comics scholarship, and plays a part in extending that tradition of multimodal linguistics to graphic narrative.

LEARNing Landscapes, 2019

In this interview with author and educator Nick Sousanis, he discusses his PhD dissertation, which was written and drawn entirely in comic book form and later published by Harvard University Press under the title “Unflattening.” He describes how he proceeded with the idea of producing a dissertation in comic form and the support he received from his professors. He strongly believes that it is possible to convey complex ideas in comic form and that the form itself draws people in. He also shares what he learns from his students—often non-drawers—and gives examples of innovative work produced by them.

2014

This volume provides a complex view of the phenomenon of the comic book / graphic novel in the contemporary world, the functions the medium serves and its variations in individual parts of the globe. Although academic studies of sequential art are a relatively new phenomenon as is the comic book in relation to its older brother, the novel, they can already be seen to fill in a significant gap. The contributors to Negotiating Culture through Comics show that much like comic books serve as a medium for portraying and better understanding the world and especially its inhabitants, so do analyses of graphic novels help identify how such texts function and what role they play for the writer, the readers and the society in which they function.

Perhaps the most befuddling and widely debated point in comics scholarship lies at its very core, namely, the definition of “comics” itself. Most arguments on this issue focus on the roles of a few distinct features: images, text, sequentiality, and the ways in which they interact. However, there are many other aspects of this discussion that receive only passing notice, such as the industry that produces comics, the community that embraces them, the content which they represent, and the avenues in which they appear. The complex web of categorization that these issues create makes it no wonder that defining the very term “comics” becomes difficult and is persistently wrought with debate. This piece offers a dissection of the defining features that “comics” encompass, with aims to understand both what those features and the term “comics” really mean across both cultural and structural bounds.

Sodh Prabha, 2023

Comics have always been an integral part of popular culture. They function as popular culture's artifacts. Through its multimodal medium and sequential art, it communicates, engages people, and tells interesting stories. They have become part of our daily life as they are widely published and available in various forms such as newspapers, magazines, graphic novels, and online platforms, etc. Many comics have also been adapted into movies, web series, video games, etc., which confirms their relevance, significance, and popularity. Comics have played a significant role in challenging societal norms, promoting social justice, providing representation for marginalized communities, and offering a unique perspective on the world. shapes popular culture, contributing to our understanding of society and its complexities. This paper inquires how this artifact as a resource of popular fiction reflects, comments on, and interacts with society and its social, political, and cultural issues. How comics transform themselves and adapt to the demands of society, how they mirror the experiences of people, their beliefs, and their lives, and how they influence the minds of their readers and take part in shaping a culture. The paper is divided into four parts: First, the introduction, which explains comics as an artifact of popular culture. Secondly, the evolution of comics in popular culture Thirdly, the impact of comics on popular culture Fourthly, comics as a reflection of society, with the help of selected examples to validate the point Batman's Gotham City comics are used to show how comics change to meet the needs of time. Watchmen comics are used to show that comics represent the reality of our time and put our backyards into panels. And Guy Fawkes' mask from V for Vendetta is used to show comics as a form of cultural transmission that plays a role in moulding society and, lastly, the future of comics in popular culture.

Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards …, 2010

Historically and geographically, the comics medium seems to exhibit an enormous variety in production, distribution, consumption, and formal and thematic characteristics. Unlike cinema, with its international co-productions and its outsourcing practices, production of comics is still dominantly a local enterprise. This article proposes a model that can serve in comparative comics research. It is crucial to understand that a medium such as comics involves not only aesthetic or thematic aspects but also economical and social ones; hence comics should be studied from three complementary angles. Firstly, on an institutional level, one can look at how comics are produced and consumed. Secondly, comics themselves can be compared on a formal level, by focusing on their formal properties. And finally, the contents can be analyzed by looking for similarities among genres, themes and characters, etc.