The Philosophy of Comics

2017

What is a comic? The simple answer states that a comic is a drawn story that is picture- rather than text-oriented and told serially. In other words, a comic is a type of illustration. Realism is not its goal; rather a narrative is developed through reduction according to specific stylistic means. I start this article with a definition of the term “comic”, and move on to highlight the complexity of the comic and to argue that insight into this complexity is necessary for its correct interpretation. Only then can we recognise that the comic is not only entertaining but also, in its own way, a vehicle for content that might be system confirming and propagandistic but can also be system critical. Doing so allows us to see the potential of the comic that is embedded in its particular affinity with nonlinear interactive audiovisual media.

2018

The main intention of this paper is to present my research into the idea that the comic book form is philosophy. An examination of comic books as something more than a supplement to philosophical ideas. It’s my intention in this research to make the assertion that western society has been radically transformed through our fabrication of, and encounters with, the form of the comic book. This paper develops on from this idea and also draws upon the writing of Antonio Gramsci on grammar from the Prison Notebooks, and on Hegel’s writing on Immanence, from his Phenomenology of Spirit. I will also examine two comic books from the Superhero genre, Omega Men #9 and Silver Surfer #11, both fabricated in 2015.

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.

ZAA Special Issue Literary Approaches to Contemporary Comics, 2010

Literature Compass, 2015

Comics and graphic novels are now widely accepted to be legitimate aesthetic and literary texts, suitable for study in all manner of university classrooms and scholarly projects. Comics studies scholarship was often preoccupied with arguing for the aesthetic legitimacy and literary complexity of comics and graphic novels, and now that this debate is more or less over, comics studies scholarship has begun to consider not just why and how we should read comics but what comics might mean. The question of meaning is an inherently political question, as it asks us to think of comics in relation to our social world. This essay traces two ways that comics can be read politically: as part of popular modernism, and as a medium for experimentation with genre, narrative, and visual conventions.

The interdisciplinary field of Comics Studies has developed since the late 20 th Century, in response to the increasing, popular reach of comics as a mass phenomenon capable of addressing a wide range of subject matter and approaches, including journalism, (auto)biography, and academical papers. Still, these apparent innovations and, in turn, their scholarly dissemination are predicated upon genre conventions and commercial dictates dating back to the period between World Wars I and II. In a word, as popular comics has thrived, its form has congealed around it. In the periphery of the comics field, however, experimenting practitioners have extended the boundaries of comics away from traditional, linear narrative, towards abstract visuals and poetic textual modes, essentially pushing comics into modernism a century later than other arts. Challenging sequential narrative, text-image integration, and even representational art, these peripheral expressions are so deliberately contrary to the general perception of comics that they are herein considered ‘uncomics’, requiring a reassessment of the way comics are conceptualized as a phenomenon. In examining formal definitions of the art form formerly known as comics; selected works of this outlier comics avant garde; and the related visual phenomena they converge upon, this thesis proposes an expansion of those definitions, and of the analytical tools available to the scholarly study of the form.

2006

This dissertation discusses how changes within the authorship, reading practices and criticism of contemporary American comics can alert us to more general questions raised by the inclusion of popular culture in literature. It employs a cultural materialist methodology, researching the first decade of the DC Vertigo imprint (launched in 1993) and considering these texts both as the culmination of trends that can be traced throughout the industry's history, and as modern literature that sustains elements of certain literary genres. I would also like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Bristol University Alumni Foundation. And finally, my love to all the friends and fanboys who offered so much help, advice and encouragement ... especially Mark, who got me started on comics and Matt, who fed the habit. iii Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the Regulations of the University of Bristol. The work is original, except where indicated by special reference in the text, and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for any other academic award. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author.

2015