20 a 23.08.2013 Wilson/Lint: Biografía, Comic Independiente

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20 a 23.08.2013 Wilson/Lint: Biografía, Comic Independiente Escola de Comunicações e Artes – Universidade de São Paulo – 20 a 23.08.2013 Wilson/Lint: biografía, comic independiente y la cualidad literaria Amadeo Gandolfo UBA (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales) – Conicet. Buenos Aires, Argentina. RESUMO En este trabajo analizaremos dos comics de Chris Ware y Daniel Clowes, “Lint” y “Wilson”, publicados durante 2010. Comparten una serie de características: son intentos de realizar la biografía de personajes sumamente desagradables, que en otro contexto serían vistos como villanos y no protagonistas de su propia historia; ambos siguen a sus personajes presentándonos todo lo que les sucede desde su punto de vista, obligándonos a ver las cosas como ellos las ven; ambos lidian con la propia historia del medio y las influencias de sus autores de una forma que incorpora estas en el texto; finalmente, la manera en que ambos fueron publicados habla de una situación cambiante dentro del campo del comic independiente norteamericano, su industria, sus formatos y las discusiones alrededor de su cualidad literaria. Observaremos ambas obras centrándonos fundamentalmente en la manera en que sus autores eligen abordar el género de la biografía y las decisiones estéticas que toman a la hora de representar la vida de sus protagonistas. Pero, también, colocaremos ambos trabajos en la obra más extensa de Ware y Clowes y en el lugar ocupan dentro de esa constelación conocida como comics independientes. También diseccionaremos sus elecciones formales en términos narrativos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: comics independientes, biografía, cualidad literaria. 1. INTRODUCCIÓN El objetivo de este trabajo será el análisis de Lint y de Wilson, dos historietas autoconclusivas producidas por Chris Ware y Daniel Clowes, respectivamente, publicadas por la editorial Drawn & Quarterly durante el 2010. Como observamos en el resumen, ambas comparten una serie de elementos en común. Asimismo, comparten un formalismo que también las emparenta. Este análisis buscará unificar el trabajo realizado por Charles Hatfield en su libro Alternative Comics, An Emerging Literature (2005), con el empleo de ciertos elementos teóricos propuestos por Thierry Groensteen en su libro The System of Comics (2007). Al yuxtaponer estas dos líneas teóricas, creemos que podemos construir un análisis que toma en cuenta, por un lado, su condición de objeto situado en un mercado, un sistema editorial, un formato particular y una estética elegida por sus autores; y, por otro, su organización formal, las estrategias plásticas utilizadas para construir la biografía de sus protagonistas y el ritmo interno que ésta organización impone a sus temas y a la representación del pasaje del tiempo. Hatfield describe el surgimiento de los comics alternativos norteamericanos como una conjunción de las posibilidades plásticas y estéticas del comix underground de los años 60, por un lado, y la aparición del “Direct Market” como espacio de venta y circulación de los comics entre 1970 y 1980. Su esquema Escola de Comunicações e Artes – Universidade de São Paulo – 20 a 23.08.2013 acentúa tanto la historia del comic book como un producto industrial de la cultura norteamericana como la consagración artística de sus creadores y el nacimiento de un grupo de fanáticos y conocedores capaces de exigir y leer más en los comics alternativos. Estos se distinguen por: el rechazo de las formulas mainstream; la exploración de géneros nuevos para los comics, asimismo como el revival, a veces en forma irónica, de géneros largamente descuidados; una diversificación del estilo gráfico; un naciente internacionalismo, a medida que los cartoonists aprendían de otras culturas y otras tradiciones; y, especialmente, la exploración de temas profundamente personales y a veces audazmente políticos” (Hatfield, 2005, p. X). Reconstruye un circuito donde tanto los fans como las tiendas y los propios artistas contribuyen a una legitimación cultural. Para Hatfield los comics son “una forma irresuelta, inestable y desafiante” (Hatfield, 2005, p. XIII) y el dibujo en el comic está “compuesto de diferentes tipos de tensión, en el cual varias maneras de leer deben ser confrontadas” (Hatfield, 2005, 36). A la vez, esta perspectiva va unida a una preocupación por el comic como un arte eminentemente narrativo, que equipara con la literatura, con un interés en la manera en que despliega historias cada vez más sofisticadas. Su libro funciona como un alegato a favor de un cierto status para el comic como forma de narrativa larga. Esta elección de la forma narrativa larga es algo que tomaremos, en conjunto con su apreciación de los formatos como un elemento que configura la manera en que leemos un comic. En este sentido Hatfield recoge las palabras de Pascal Lefévre: “el formato influenciará eventualmente el concepto total del comic, no solamente en el estilo, pero también en el contenido” y que “un formato no se define solamente por su materialidad (…) sino también por su aspecto temporal (…) y sus elecciones editoriales” (Lefevre, 2000, 98). Hatfield utiliza esta preocupación por el formato para poner en tensión el comic book y la novela gráfica. A la vez que resalta el origen de la segunda en el primero, también que la mayoría de los trabajos que trata fueron publicados primero de forma serializada y luego recopilados en libros. Las obras que analizaremos en este trabajo, mientras, han sido producidas y dibujadas como trabajos completos, sin serialización. Tanto Lint como Wilson son obras que cuentan una historia entera, y su lanzamiento se realizó en un marco similar al del lanzamiento de una novela por un autor famoso. En el caso de Clowes, el cambio es más radical: en el 2004 publica el último número de su antología Eightball, que había alojado desde 1989 todas sus historias. Wilson, entonces, es su primera novela gráfica original e independiente. Por el lado de Ware, la distinción es más sutil porque si bien Lint aparece dentro de su serie de antología propia, Acme Novelty Library, y es un capítulo dentro de una narrativa más larga que está siendo serializada allí, la elección de contar una vida entera en un solo comic y la selección de un personaje secundario de la narrativa principal la demarcan como un objeto independiente. Es un momento Escola de Comunicações e Artes – Universidade de São Paulo – 20 a 23.08.2013 superior al descripto por Hatfield, en el cual las obras de los artistas alternativos comienzan a independendizarse del comic book y a alejarse de la serialización. Esto configura un panorama diferente que se refleja en las obras tratadas y en su manera de lidiar con la historia y las características del comic. Ahora introducimos a Thierry Groensteen. Su aproximación es fundamentalmente semiótica y busca considerar a los comics como un sistema que está principalmente basado en las imágenes. Para Groensteen la imagen es lo esencial del comic, desechando de manera radical cientos de aproximaciones basadas en la tensión entre códigos diferentes (palabra vs. imagen) y esto es porque “su predominancia dentro del sistema está unida a aquello que es esencial para la producción del sentido que se realiza a través de él” (Groensteen, 2007, 8). Para Groensteen así como para Hatfield, el comic es esencialmente narrativo: “la aparente irreductibilidad de la imagen y la historia es resuelta dialécticamente a través del juego de imágenes sucesivas y a través de su coexistencia, a través de sus conexiones diegéticas y a través de su exposición panóptica” (Groensteen, 2007, 9). A estos dos parámetros los llama “el sistema espacio- tópico”, para referirse a la manera en que está organizada la página y la “artrología” para referirse a las conexiones que se producen entre las imágenes. Es por ello que para nuestro teórico el principio básico que ordena los comics es su solidaridad icónica. Esto es definido como “las imágenes interdependientes que, mientras participan en una serie, presentan las dobles características de estar separadas (…) y a la vez estar plásticamente y semánticamente sobre-determinadas por su coexistencia in praesentia” (Groensteen, 2007, 18). Esto quiere decir que la unidad básica del comic es su totalidad, la historia que narran todas las imágenes que forman parte de él, que se encuentran conectadas por vínculos formales y estructurales con mayor o menor fuerza pero que necesariamente componen un total mayor. Groensteen procede a analizar las distintas piezas que componen este sistema, partiendo del sistema espacio-tópico, y, dentro de este, del marco que delimita el cuadrito; para luego pasar a la organización de la tira (como espacio intermedio); las funciones del globo; y la manera en que se relacionan el diseño de la página (“layout”) con la compartimentación en cuadritos (el “breakout”). Luego describe la artrología de la secuencia, la manera en que los cuadros se organizan en una narrativa de forma limitada, y la artrología general, la organización de la red de íconos, referencias, elecciones plásticas e icónicas que da sentido al comic como una totalidad. De la teorización muy precisa de Groensteen tomaremos dos elementos. En primer lugar, de su conceptualización del sistema espacio-tópico tomaremos su apreciación de las funciones de los bordes del marco (“frame”, en nuestra traducción) que encierra a un cuadro. Encuentra seis. Primera, cierre: “cerrar el panel es envolver un fragmento de espacio-tiempo que pertenece a la diégesis, para indicar la Escola de Comunicações e Artes – Universidade de São Paulo – 20 a 23.08.2013 coherencia” (Groensteen, 2007, 40). Segunda, separativa: en este caso el marco es “esos signos que dividen, en un continuum, las unidades pertinentes, de ese modo facilitando la comprensión del texto” (Groensteen, 2007, 43). Tercera, rítmica: “El ‘texto’ de los comics obedece un ritmo que está impuesto sobre él por la sucesión de marcos- un latido básico” (Groensteen, 2007, 45). Cuarta, estructurante: “Un marco (…) es un elemento determinante de la composición de la imagen: informa (…) el dibujo que es elaborado en su interior” (Groensteen, 2007, 46). Quinta, expresiva: un marco “puede instruir al lector en aquello que debe ser leído” (Groensteen, 2007, 49-50).
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