VISUAL MORPHOLOGY in DUTCH and FLEMISH COMICS 1 It Ain't
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VISUAL MORPHOLOGY IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH COMICS 1 It ain’t much, if it ain’t Dutch: Visual morphology across eight decades of Dutch and Flemish comics Visual morphology in Dutch and Flemish comics Lincy van Middelaar ANR: 305196 Bachelor thesis Communication and Information Science Specialization: Text & Communication Tilburg University, Tilburg Supervisor: dr. N.T. Cohn Second reader: prof. dr. A. A. Maes August 2017 VISUAL MORPHOLOGY IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH COMICS 2 Abstract Comics are well-known for using speech balloons, motion lines and hearts above people’s heads. Amongst others, these visual forms (visual morphemes) belong to the vocabulary of visual languages, which is part of the underlying structure of a visual language. There are different visual languages, such as Japanese Visual Language used in manga and American Visual Language used in superhero comics. Despite the large comic tradition in Europe, the underlying structure of European comics has not been studied much, so the presence of a possible ‘European Visual Language’ or several different visual languages across Europe is unclear. Case studies have studied parts of the vocabulary of visual languages in European comics, but these only described a few morphemes. By examining the vocabulary in a corpus of 80 Dutch and Flemish comic books from the 1940s to the 2010s, this study established a catalogue of 155 different visual morphemes. Furthermore, the results showed a large degree of similarity between Dutch and Flemish comics with minimal variance across both cultures and across time, which implied that they belong to the similar visual language. This catalogue of morphemes could function as a starting point for additional studies on vocabulary of different visual languages. Keywords: visual language, comics, vocabulary, visual morphology, Dutch, Flemish VISUAL MORPHOLOGY IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH COMICS 3 Introduction Though stating that novels are a language would be ridiculous, comics are compared to language. However, just as written language is used in novels, a visual language is used in comics. The key in a language is a structured sequence, which is a structured sequence of words in a written language and a structured sequence of images in a visual language. Also, like a written language, a visual language has a visual vocabulary. Included in this vocabulary are speech balloons, lines that depict motion (motion lines) and hearts above people’s head to show that they are in love, among others There are even different visual languages. There is a ‘Japanese Visual Language’ (JVL) which is usually used in manga comics (Cohn, 2013a) and an ‘American Visual Language’ (AVL) used in superhero comics from the United States (Cohn, 2013a). There has not been much research about the underlying structure of European comics, while there are comics from many places around Europe, like Asterix in France, Capitán Trueno in Spain and Roy of the Rovers in Great Britain. Still, it is not clear whether there is a single ‘European Visual Language’ or several different visual languages across Europe. Europe does have a rich comic tradition. Belgian comics even have one of the world’s oldest comic traditions that goes back to the 19th century (De Weyer, 2015). Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, shares her official language with the Netherlands. Therefore, it offers a unique comic tradition that can be studied across time, but also across two specific cultures (Dutch and Flemish) with the same spoken language. It is an open question whether these comics have changed in their underlying structure over time, like American comics (Pederson & Cohn, 2016, Cohn, 2013a). It is not unlikely that these comics have been influenced by Japanese and American comics because of globalization. Vocabulary is part of the underlying structure of visual language. Just like written language uses small units of meaning or combinations of units as building blocks to express meaning, visual language uses visual morphemes as building blocks. These visual morphemes are being stored in the mind as part of the lexicon and can also be combined. Studies of the Japanese Visual Language identified over 70 morphemes with varying distributions in actual books (Cohn & Ehly, 2016). Theories of visual languages indicate that there could be a large set of morphemes both within and across cultures (Forceville, 2011; Cohn, 2013a). Yet, only parts of the vocabulary of visual languages in European comics have been studied with case studies of Asterix and Tintin (Forceville, 2005, 2011), but in these studies, only a small set of morphemes is described. A larger set of morphemes could be established when looking at a larger range of books. Therefore, by analysing the visual vocabulary in a large corpus of Dutch and Flemish comics that goes back to the 1940s, this study tries to establish a large set of morphology. Furthermore, it tries to find out whether there are different patterns in the usage of morphemes between Dutch and Flemish comics. Finally, it tries to map out the development of morphology in Dutch and Flemish comics across time, which could be influenced by other visual languages as a product of globalization. Thus, the question stated in this study is: ‘Do the usage patterns of morphology in Dutch and Flemish comics differ, and have they changed over time?’ VISUAL MORPHOLOGY IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH COMICS 4 Background Comic tradition in the Netherlands and Flanders The real comic tradition of the Netherlands and Flanders started after World War II (Lefèvre, 2000; Van Eijck & Matena, 2006; De Weyer, 2015). Before those times, a Dutch or Flemish comic tradition could not be named, as most of the comics were imported from America. Importing comics, and especially importing American comics, was not allowed during World War II, which gave Dutch and Flemish comic artists the chance to make their own productions. Therefore, the Dutch and Flemish comic industry started to flourish after World War II. In the post-war years in the Netherlands and Flanders, short strips of 3 or 4 panels were published in newspapers and magazines (Couch, 2000; Lefèvre & Van Gompel, 2003; Van Eijck & Matena, 2006; De Weyer, 2015). The first strips in the Netherlands were mostly drawn stories: black-and-white comics with a text underneath (Van Eijck & Matena, 2006). Some famous comics in the Netherlands were Tom Poes, Eric de Noorman and Panda by the Toonder Studio’s. Marten Toonder, the founder of the Toonder Studio’s, can be seen as the father of the Dutch comic tradition (Van Eijck & Matena, 2006). Around the 1960s, the black-and-white drawn stories disappeared and were replaced for the coloured balloon comics, due to Belgian influence. Coloured balloon strips were the standard in Belgium after World War II. One of the most influential Flemish artists was Willy Vandersteen. He was the founding father of the world- famous comic duo Suske & Wiske (Spike and Suzy in Britain and Willy and Wanda in America). Other famous Flemish comic strips are Nero (Marc Sleen), Jommeke (Jef Nys), Kiekeboe (Merho) and Urbanus (Linthout and Urbanus). These comics all have in common that they are humorous adventures and are built around a family group (Lefèvre & Van Gompel, 2003), which is typical in Flemish comics. Nowadays, most Flemish comics are published in album format instead of in newspapers, which is similar to the publishing of most comics in Europe (Couch, 2000; Lefèvre, 2000) The largest publishing company of Flanders, Standaard Uitgeverij, publishes most of the Flemish comics. Visual morphology Visual morphemes are units of meaning in visual language (Cohn, 2013a), which form the lexicon of a visual language. It is quite complicated to indicate what the smallest unit is compared to other languages, but the meaning of units is of more importance, whether or not they have minimal status. Morphology can be divided into two general classes: open-class items and closed-class items. Open-class items are often iconic drawings, which are similar to actual (or imaginary) things in the world. It is easy to create more of these. Closed-class items are often more symbolic and highly conventionalized drawings, and the creation of novel forms is quite hard. This study will focus on the closed-class items of visual morphology, such as thought bubbles, lines that depict sound (radial lines) and gears above people’s heads to show thinking (upfix). Recent work has also made distinctions in visual morphemes. ‘Indica’ is the name Walker (2000) gave to a subset of morphemes. Forceville, El Refaie and Meesters (2014) made a distinction between pictograms and ‘pictorial runes’ (first specified by Kennedy (1982)). Pictograms are standard depictions of phenomena that originated from outside visual language, such as lightbulbs and stars. ‘Pictorial runes’ are graphic elements that would come from other information sources, if the comic would be transferred in real life, like lines that depict motion or VISUAL MORPHOLOGY IN DUTCH AND FLEMISH COMICS 5 smell. Lastly, Forceville et al. (2014) define ‘balloons’ for visual elements that carry textual information. Cohn (2013a) refers to all of these as visual morphemes and makes subclasses either by strategy or by specific morphemes. Strategies of morphemes One strategy of visual morphemes is affixation, when signs are added to another sign (Cohn, 2013a). Affixes must be bound to another sign, as they cannot stand on their own without a root. This even means they can imply an invisible root, such as when a character outside the panel is shouting to a character in the panel. Affixation is also possible in verbal language in which morphemes can create new meanings by attaching to a larger unit, such as being placed before a word (prefix), after a word (suffix), in between a word (infix) or around a word (circumfix) (McGregor, 2009). A well-known visual affix is a thought bubble (carrier), which is a balloon attached to a character with the form of a fluffy cloud and bubbles leading to the character (root) (Forceville, Veale, & Feyaerts, 2010).