Scott S. Elliott
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819215
- eISBN:
- 9781496819253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819215.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This essay compares and contrasts The Action Bible by Sergio Cariello and Doug Mauss, and Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, focusing foremost on the ways that each work handles gender and sexuality, ...
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This essay compares and contrasts The Action Bible by Sergio Cariello and Doug Mauss, and Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, focusing foremost on the ways that each work handles gender and sexuality, particularly vis-a-vis Roland Barthes’s concepts of readerly and writerly texts. The essay argues that the best of comic and graphic art productions of biblical literature does not attempt to replicate the work. Instead, by virtue of the inherently “guttural” language of the comics medium (i.e., speaking between the panels and enlisting readers in the process of writing the story), these works highlight the Bible’s own fragmentary nature, and thus leave open the possibility of a more “writerly” engagement with the Biblical text and sacred.Less
This essay compares and contrasts The Action Bible by Sergio Cariello and Doug Mauss, and Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb, focusing foremost on the ways that each work handles gender and sexuality, particularly vis-a-vis Roland Barthes’s concepts of readerly and writerly texts. The essay argues that the best of comic and graphic art productions of biblical literature does not attempt to replicate the work. Instead, by virtue of the inherently “guttural” language of the comics medium (i.e., speaking between the panels and enlisting readers in the process of writing the story), these works highlight the Bible’s own fragmentary nature, and thus leave open the possibility of a more “writerly” engagement with the Biblical text and sacred.
Thierry Groensteen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037702
- eISBN:
- 9781621039396
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037702.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This book is the follow-up to The System of Comics, in which the author, a French-language comics theorist, set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic ...
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This book is the follow-up to The System of Comics, in which the author, a French-language comics theorist, set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. This analysis is now developed further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. The book tests out the theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics, and shōjo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, it includes chapters on three new areas. First, the book explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, it tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third, the book resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain.Less
This book is the follow-up to The System of Comics, in which the author, a French-language comics theorist, set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. This analysis is now developed further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. The book tests out the theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics, and shōjo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, it includes chapters on three new areas. First, the book explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, it tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third, the book resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain.
Thierry Groensteen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617037702
- eISBN:
- 9781621039396
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617037702.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Rhythm is a structuring element of the narrative discourse of comics. Abstract comics can bring out the rhythmic and musical dimension intrinsic to the medium’s formal resources, and its rhythmic ...
More
Rhythm is a structuring element of the narrative discourse of comics. Abstract comics can bring out the rhythmic and musical dimension intrinsic to the medium’s formal resources, and its rhythmic aspect may appear to be more immediately obvious than that of “classic” (figurative and narrative) comics. This chapter focuses on the rhythm of comics, first by considering the multiframe and the beat it emits. It shows that the beat is strongly dependent on page layout, that is, the arrangement of the panel frames. It illustrates the rhythm of comics with an example: Robert Crumb’s 1970 three-page story entitled Mr Natural’s 719th meditation. It also looks at the regular layout of Chester Brown’s graphic novel Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography. Furthermore, the chapter examines three main ways of activating (and reinforcing) rhythm: repetition, periodic alternation, and progressivity. Finally, it presents specific examples of the accentuation of rhythm and the importance of rhythm in wordless comics.Less
Rhythm is a structuring element of the narrative discourse of comics. Abstract comics can bring out the rhythmic and musical dimension intrinsic to the medium’s formal resources, and its rhythmic aspect may appear to be more immediately obvious than that of “classic” (figurative and narrative) comics. This chapter focuses on the rhythm of comics, first by considering the multiframe and the beat it emits. It shows that the beat is strongly dependent on page layout, that is, the arrangement of the panel frames. It illustrates the rhythm of comics with an example: Robert Crumb’s 1970 three-page story entitled Mr Natural’s 719th meditation. It also looks at the regular layout of Chester Brown’s graphic novel Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography. Furthermore, the chapter examines three main ways of activating (and reinforcing) rhythm: repetition, periodic alternation, and progressivity. Finally, it presents specific examples of the accentuation of rhythm and the importance of rhythm in wordless comics.
