Graphic Novels

overview

• Why graphic novels• Things to look for on continuum of visual/text works• History of sequential art• New normal• Cinematic qualities• Political potential• Materiality• Hélène’s transitional moment

Why graphic novels?• Academy is focusing on them increasingly for study and research (for

history, politics, narrative, character development, visual studies, etc.)• Interest in academy has really grown in recent decade and more• Comics as medium, rather than lowbrow genre• Part of our understanding of information transmission/communication• Word and image inquiry• Useful to study and question cultural attitudes• Comics, through their use of image-based stories, enable us to see

information and narratives in a way that words alone can’t provide• On the long continuum of image-based storytelling• Evolved greatly in recent years (decades)

Definition• Comics• Comix• Graphic novel• Comic book• Comic art• Funnies• Albums• Bandes dessinées • Webcomics• Illuminated manuscripts• Cave paintings• Sequential art – term Will Eisner promoted

What is a comic?

• Drawn images accompanied by words• Sequential narrative• Variable use of perspective• Frozen images in panels separated by white

space• Reader fills in the blanks• Words in text balloons and/or captions

Visual Aspects• Presence and absence • A comics page as an “arrangement of encapsulated

moments” (Chute)• Words and images propelling narrative• Panels and frames – static or otherwise (size variability,

linear or not), can impact the pace of reading• Use of white space within frames or around them• Colour use or black and white contrast• Close ups, establishing shots, movement• Panels being space and time divided, like an editor in film

How to marry words and images?

• Images have always been involved in information/knowledge transfer

• Images have accompanied words for centuries• Sequential narrative• Speech bubbles• Comics/graphic novels/etc. could be defined

as images accompanied by words• Natl. Library of France

Milan 1440

Germany 1505

Boston 1775

1807

Victorian Influence

• Visuals from Victorian newspapers• Some identify comics as coming from

Victorian news, others US newspapers• Some pre-Victorian comics, but typically single

image

Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Judy, 1867

Illustrated London News

• Christmas number 1884

From Victorian to American

• The comic strip emerged in US newspapers in late 1800s

• In this way, comics can be placed in a sort of continuum from Victorian newspapers with increasing visuals, to US newspaper comic strips and onward

Comic Strips Arrive

• Hearst and Pulitzer Newspaper wars (1890s) • Comic strips proved to be popular, factor in sales• Recurring characters• Black and white horizontal strips• Longer, colour sections in Sunday editions• Lawsuits over titles, strips written by multiple

people• Comics, funnies (ie, not to be taken seriously),

unlike bandes dessineés

Early Comic strips

• Little Nemo• Krazy Kat

Comic Books Arrive

• The comic book as we know it in the 1930s • Wordless novels in 30s – woodcuts in

traditional style (political overtones)• Comics Code in late 1950s (Seduction of the

Innocent, Fredric Wertham, MD) • Resulting in Classics Illustrated (e.g., Ivanhoe)

and watered-down superhero titles

Underground comix

• Also in the 60s, the underground comics movement got going: radical and artistically innovative

• Social commentary, questions Vietnam, autobiographical tales, questioned social mores.

• Consciously not for children, adult themes and topics: protest, rock music, sex, drugs, very countercultural

• Very much a product of its time: the 60s hippy era

Underground Comix• Starting to see “comics” becoming labeled “comix” to

distinguish them from more mainstream comics, as well as to emphasize the “x” for X-rated

• A sort of reaction against the comic code restrictions – out of MAD magazine, which had this sense of critique of the establishment

• An overt attempt to focus on what the comic code explicitly censored: sex, violence, drugs, social relevance

• We still see this two pronged evolution today out of reaction to comic code: of superheroes and social commentary, sometimes joined (Watchmen and Dark Night Returns)

Bandes desinées• France, early 20th C• Ligne claire (Tintin, 1929)• Contrast in downplayed, no hatching, backgrounds drawn

as clearly as foregrounds• Albums• Immensely popular in Franco Europe (and the world)• Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke • Collected works as more legitimate played into idea of

graphic novels• Evidence of ligne claire style today

Extended Story Arcs

• Until the 60s, one mainstream comic typically was a contained story

• Comic books start emphasizing their numbered nature

• Marvel comics in the 60s consciously start extending a story arc beyond the 24 standard pages

• Sales pick up again

1980s• A New Mainstream, Roger Sabin, 1996• Specialty comic shops were growing in popularity, selling

only comics, as opposed to newspaper stands• Collectors wanted every issue of a title, long complex story

arcs• By 1990s, 90% of comics were sold in these specialty stores• Publishers recognized the market potentials & seriousness

of collectors resulted in new market niches• Adult content, better production values• Hybrid: superheroes but with adult overtones

Graphic Novels Arrive

• Early to mid 1980s• Watchmen, Dark Night Returns, Maus• Breaking out of the form• Use of whitespace and panelling breaking up• Adult content, themes, perspectives, realism• Intertextuality and postmodern (paperclips,

stories within stories, tv talking heads)• Subverting genre

Graphic Novels Today

• Increasingly conscious of artificiality of panel borders• Collected containers of individual comic books • So now legitimized, showing up in bookstores, too• Knowing, satirical attitude (packaging and themes)• The Death Ray, Daniel Clowes• Adventures of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on

Earth, Chris Ware• Cinematic qualities: dark, brooding, Hollywood

action motifs (superheroes)

Materiality

• Watchmen• Maus & Persepolis• Enhanced awareness of playing with

packaging and book-as-thing (Quimby Mouse, Jimmy Corrigan, Death Ray)

• Different aesthetic styles, reading orientations

Cinematic• Comics grew as popular medium alongside film, eg American

newspapers• Comics started replicating cinematic qualities: establishing shots,

wide angle, close-ups, collection/sequence of scenes• Both film and comic are a succession of still images, edited together

– but we examine the transition from one to another in comics• Tarantino: fight scene as ultimate filmmaking challenge – kinetic

movement (velocity, impact, exertion, straining muscles) • Comics have become more graphic as Hollywood has moved

towards more action/fantasy based product (fight scenes, sci-fi themes, conspiracy theories

• A loop of film reflecting graphic novels

Opening of Watchmen

captain

Graphic Novels as medium for political/social discourse

• Coming out of social commentary of underground comix tradition and novels like those of Lind Ward

• Graphic novels could start to claim some “high brow” status by taking advantage of the growing popularity of the medium

• Maus• Footnotes in Gaza• Persepolis

Hélène’s transitional moment

• from pulp to ipad• webcomics• http://youtu.be/Sjauf0UgOmc • Open access app

What is a graphic novel, then?• Early to mid-80s• Stand alone works• Typically have some enhanced sense of social or cultural

commentary• Spiegelman has argued that graphic novels have a “seriousness of

purpose” that distinguishes them from superhero comics or manga• Even if superhero-based, would have to be more nuanced or

complex in plotting, character, etc.• Graphic novel came to mean a sustained story (though the

expression graphic novel has confusingly been used lately to mean a compilation of individual comics in a series)