Maaheen Ahmed
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496805935
- eISBN:
- 9781496805973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496805935.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This first part of the monograph introduces Umberto Eco's concept of the opera apertaand links it to the workings of comics as explained through the comics theories of Scott McCloud, Thierry ...
More
This first part of the monograph introduces Umberto Eco's concept of the opera apertaand links it to the workings of comics as explained through the comics theories of Scott McCloud, Thierry Groensteen, and Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle. The potential for openness in comics is seen as being literalized by the disjointedness and gaps, which are essential to the very form of comics.
Specific aspects harbouring the potential for openness are located in various formal and content-related features. The former include the manipulation of word-image relationships, page layouts, and visual styles whereas the latter focus on themes, characters, and references to other media and figuration.
This part concludes with an overview of the comics analysed in Part Two.Less
This first part of the monograph introduces Umberto Eco's concept of the opera apertaand links it to the workings of comics as explained through the comics theories of Scott McCloud, Thierry Groensteen, and Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle. The potential for openness in comics is seen as being literalized by the disjointedness and gaps, which are essential to the very form of comics.
Specific aspects harbouring the potential for openness are located in various formal and content-related features. The former include the manipulation of word-image relationships, page layouts, and visual styles whereas the latter focus on themes, characters, and references to other media and figuration.
This part concludes with an overview of the comics analysed in Part Two.
Maaheen Ahmed
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496805935
- eISBN:
- 9781496805973
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496805935.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter summarizes the findings of the analyses conducted in Part Two and explains how openness unfolds in aspects regarding both form and content. The means of generating openness in comics are ...
More
This chapter summarizes the findings of the analyses conducted in Part Two and explains how openness unfolds in aspects regarding both form and content. The means of generating openness in comics are grouped under four broad categories based on ambiguity, suggestiveness, and subversion which are elaborated by beginning with the technical aspects of the medium, in particular its disjointed essence, and moving on to the media references, which often function self-reflexively. The relevance of characters subverting comics conventions is also highlighted. The section then discusses the role of subversive and self-reflexive themes such as autofiction and metafiction.
The final section in this part connects comics' increasing indulgence in more allusiveconnections between panels and references to other media to the current prevalence of multimedia and the digital age in general.Less
This chapter summarizes the findings of the analyses conducted in Part Two and explains how openness unfolds in aspects regarding both form and content. The means of generating openness in comics are grouped under four broad categories based on ambiguity, suggestiveness, and subversion which are elaborated by beginning with the technical aspects of the medium, in particular its disjointed essence, and moving on to the media references, which often function self-reflexively. The relevance of characters subverting comics conventions is also highlighted. The section then discusses the role of subversive and self-reflexive themes such as autofiction and metafiction.
The final section in this part connects comics' increasing indulgence in more allusiveconnections between panels and references to other media to the current prevalence of multimedia and the digital age in general.
Maaheen Ahmed
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496805935
- eISBN:
- 9781496805973
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496805935.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques, and gaining recognition as a rich form of art. ...
More
Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques, and gaining recognition as a rich form of art. Openness of Comics examines this trend by taking up the philosopher Umberto Eco’s notion of the open work of art, according to which the reader–or listener or viewer, as the case may be–is offered several possibilities of interpretation in a cohesive narrative and aesthetic structure. The monograph delineates the visual, literary, and other medium-specific features used by comics to form open rather than closed works, focusing on the methods through which comics generate (or limit) meaning, as well as increase the scope of reading into a text.
The analysis of a diverse group of Anglo-American and European (Franco-Belgian, German, Finnish) comics from key genre categories–fictionalized memories and biographies, adventure and superhero, noir, black comedy and crime, science fiction and fantasy–demonstrate the many ways in which comics generate openness by teasing genres codes and conventions while maintaining a cohesive structure.
Analyzed comics include: Will Eisner’s The Contract with God Trilogy, Jacques Tardi’s It Was the War of the Trenches, Hugo Pratt’s The Ballade of the Salty Sea, Edmond Baudoin’s The Voyage,Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, Moebius’ Arzach, Yslaire’s Cloud 99 series, and JarmoMäkilä’s Taxi Ride to Van Gogh’s Ear.Less
Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques, and gaining recognition as a rich form of art. Openness of Comics examines this trend by taking up the philosopher Umberto Eco’s notion of the open work of art, according to which the reader–or listener or viewer, as the case may be–is offered several possibilities of interpretation in a cohesive narrative and aesthetic structure. The monograph delineates the visual, literary, and other medium-specific features used by comics to form open rather than closed works, focusing on the methods through which comics generate (or limit) meaning, as well as increase the scope of reading into a text.
The analysis of a diverse group of Anglo-American and European (Franco-Belgian, German, Finnish) comics from key genre categories–fictionalized memories and biographies, adventure and superhero, noir, black comedy and crime, science fiction and fantasy–demonstrate the many ways in which comics generate openness by teasing genres codes and conventions while maintaining a cohesive structure.
Analyzed comics include: Will Eisner’s The Contract with God Trilogy, Jacques Tardi’s It Was the War of the Trenches, Hugo Pratt’s The Ballade of the Salty Sea, Edmond Baudoin’s The Voyage,Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell, Moebius’ Arzach, Yslaire’s Cloud 99 series, and JarmoMäkilä’s Taxi Ride to Van Gogh’s Ear.
