Joe Sutliff Sanders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496807267
- eISBN:
- 9781496807304
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496807267.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Hergé, the creator of Tintin, is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of comics. His style popularized what has become known as the “clear line” in cartooning, but these ...
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Hergé, the creator of Tintin, is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of comics. His style popularized what has become known as the “clear line” in cartooning, but these thirteen scholars show how his life and art were actually very complicated.
The book includes analyses of Hergé’s aesthetic techniques, including studies of his efforts to comprehend and represent absence and the rhythm of mundanity between panels of action. Broad views of his career explain how Hergé navigated changing ideas of air travel, and narrow readings of his life and work during Nazi occupation explain how the changing demands of the occupied press transformed his understanding of what comics could do. Other chapters explore the fraught lines between high and low art. By reading the late masterpieces of the Tintin series, these comics scholars from around the world attempt to answer a question Hergé himself never could: where his own legacy would fall between high art and low art. The book also reexamines Hergé’s place in the history of cartooning, considering how the clear line style has been reinterpreted around the world, from contemporary Francophone writers to a widely praised Chinese-American cartoonist and on to Turkey, where Tintin has been reinvented into something more specifically meaningful to an audience Hergé probably never anticipated.
With authors from five continents drawing on a variety of critical methods, the chapters of The Comics of Hergé show how rich comics can become when the lines blur.Less
Hergé, the creator of Tintin, is one of the most important and influential figures in the history of comics. His style popularized what has become known as the “clear line” in cartooning, but these thirteen scholars show how his life and art were actually very complicated.
The book includes analyses of Hergé’s aesthetic techniques, including studies of his efforts to comprehend and represent absence and the rhythm of mundanity between panels of action. Broad views of his career explain how Hergé navigated changing ideas of air travel, and narrow readings of his life and work during Nazi occupation explain how the changing demands of the occupied press transformed his understanding of what comics could do. Other chapters explore the fraught lines between high and low art. By reading the late masterpieces of the Tintin series, these comics scholars from around the world attempt to answer a question Hergé himself never could: where his own legacy would fall between high art and low art. The book also reexamines Hergé’s place in the history of cartooning, considering how the clear line style has been reinterpreted around the world, from contemporary Francophone writers to a widely praised Chinese-American cartoonist and on to Turkey, where Tintin has been reinvented into something more specifically meaningful to an audience Hergé probably never anticipated.
With authors from five continents drawing on a variety of critical methods, the chapters of The Comics of Hergé show how rich comics can become when the lines blur.
Kerry D. Soper
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817280
- eISBN:
- 9781496817327
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817280.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This book explores Gary Larson’s unlikely career as the creator of the groundbreaking, syndicated panel cartoon, The Far Side. To help contemporary readers understand the controversial qualities and ...
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This book explores Gary Larson’s unlikely career as the creator of the groundbreaking, syndicated panel cartoon, The Far Side. To help contemporary readers understand the controversial qualities and cultural significance of Larson’s work, the author recreates the historical context in which The Far Side first emerged: the early 1980s when “family-friendly” mainstream mediums like the newspaper comics page were largely intolerant of alternative worldviews or irreverent brands of comedy. As a self-taught cartooning auteur with a morbid sense of humor and subversively scientific perspective on life, Larson resisted or bypassed most of the established rules about “appropriate” art and comedy on the Funnies Page. That independence allowed him to introduce a set of innovative aesthetic devices, comedic tones, and philosophical frames that challenged and delighted many readers, while upsetting and confusing others. In sum, this book reminds old fans and new readers of the ways that Larson’s iconoclastic work and career effectively broadened the culture’s palate for alternative comedy, profoundly shaping the worldviews and comedic sensibilities of a generation of cartoonists, comedy writers and every day readers.Less
This book explores Gary Larson’s unlikely career as the creator of the groundbreaking, syndicated panel cartoon, The Far Side. To help contemporary readers understand the controversial qualities and cultural significance of Larson’s work, the author recreates the historical context in which The Far Side first emerged: the early 1980s when “family-friendly” mainstream mediums like the newspaper comics page were largely intolerant of alternative worldviews or irreverent brands of comedy. As a self-taught cartooning auteur with a morbid sense of humor and subversively scientific perspective on life, Larson resisted or bypassed most of the established rules about “appropriate” art and comedy on the Funnies Page. That independence allowed him to introduce a set of innovative aesthetic devices, comedic tones, and philosophical frames that challenged and delighted many readers, while upsetting and confusing others. In sum, this book reminds old fans and new readers of the ways that Larson’s iconoclastic work and career effectively broadened the culture’s palate for alternative comedy, profoundly shaping the worldviews and comedic sensibilities of a generation of cartoonists, comedy writers and every day readers.
Kerry D. Soper
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817280
- eISBN:
- 9781496817327
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817280.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
In this chapter the author looks at the business side of Larson’s career, considering how he navigated the challenges of working in this highly competitive and intensively mediated field. Using a ...
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In this chapter the author looks at the business side of Larson’s career, considering how he navigated the challenges of working in this highly competitive and intensively mediated field. Using a qualified version of the auteur theory as a starting point, he posits that Larson’s success as a highly original cartoonist was contingent on his ability to protect his rights as an artist and satirist. He then assesses how Larson almost accidentally stumbled into the role of the iconoclast, but then effectively exerted the clout and independence of a genuine sateur (a satirically-minded auteur) with relative degrees of effectiveness as he negotiated contracts; interacted with syndicate bosses, newspaper editors, and reporters; made decisions about merchandising; and negotiated the pressures of celebrity. The author illustrates that it was often Larson’s lack of “professionalism” that ironically helped him—often intentionally, but sometimes unknowingly—to make decisions or enact strategies that would both protect the integrity of his work and amplify the popularity of his cartoon.Less
In this chapter the author looks at the business side of Larson’s career, considering how he navigated the challenges of working in this highly competitive and intensively mediated field. Using a qualified version of the auteur theory as a starting point, he posits that Larson’s success as a highly original cartoonist was contingent on his ability to protect his rights as an artist and satirist. He then assesses how Larson almost accidentally stumbled into the role of the iconoclast, but then effectively exerted the clout and independence of a genuine sateur (a satirically-minded auteur) with relative degrees of effectiveness as he negotiated contracts; interacted with syndicate bosses, newspaper editors, and reporters; made decisions about merchandising; and negotiated the pressures of celebrity. The author illustrates that it was often Larson’s lack of “professionalism” that ironically helped him—often intentionally, but sometimes unknowingly—to make decisions or enact strategies that would both protect the integrity of his work and amplify the popularity of his cartoon.