Graphic Novels

1. Graphic Novels

2. 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

3. 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)

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

5. 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

6. 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

9. 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

10. Milan 1440

11. Germany 1505

12. Boston 1775

13. 1807

14. 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

15. Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, Judy, 1867

16. Illustrated London News • Christmas number 1884

17. 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

18. 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 bandesdessineés

19. Early Comic strips • Little Nemo • Krazy Kat

20. 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

23. 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

24. 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)

25. Bandesdesinées • France, early 20th C • Ligneclaire (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 ligneclaire style today

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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)

31. Materiality • Watchmen • Maus & Persepolis • Enhanced awareness of playing with packaging and book-as-thing (QuimbyMouse, Jimmy Corrigan, Death Ray) • Different aesthetic styles, reading orientations

32. 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

34. Opening of Watchmen

36. captain

37. 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

38. Hélène’s transitional moment • from pulp to ipad • webcomics • http://youtu.be/Sjauf0UgOmc • Open access app

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