Definitions of 'Comics'
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Uncomics – reconsidering the comics form through the prism of its experimental periphery A Master’s Thesis for the Degree of Master of Art (120 credits) in Visual Culture Allan Haverholm Division of Art History and Visual Studies Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences Lund University KOVM12, Master Thesis, 30 credits Supervisor: Max Liljefors Spring semester 2018 Allan Haverholm Uncomics KOVM12 ABSTRACT The interdisciplinary field of Comics Studies has developed since the late 20th Century, in response to the increasing, popular reach of comics as a mass phenomenon capable of addressing a wide range of subject matter and approaches, including journalism, (auto)biography, and academical papers. Still, these apparent innovations and, in turn, their scholarly dissemination are predicated upon genre conventions and commercial dictates dating back to the period between World Wars I and II. In a word, as popular comics has thrived, its form has congealed around it. In the periphery of the comics field, however, experimenting practitioners have extended the boundaries of comics away from traditional, linear narrative, towards abstract visuals and poetic textual modes, essentially pushing comics into modernism a century later than other arts. Challenging sequential narrative, text-image integration, and even representational art, these peripheral expressions are so deliberately contrary to the general perception of comics that they are herein considered ‘uncomics’, requiring a reassessment of the way comics are conceptualized as a phenomenon. In examining formal definitions of the art form formerly known as comics; selected works of this outlier comics avant garde; and the related visual phenomena they converge upon, this thesis proposes an expansion of those definitions, and of the analytical tools available to the scholarly study of the form. Keywords: comics studies, comics theory, abstract comics, reading schema, poetry comics ii Allan Haverholm Uncomics KOVM12 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of illustrations..................................................................................................................v Introduction............................................................................................................................1 Research question.......................................................................................................1 Background................................................................................................................1 Empirical material......................................................................................................2 Theory........................................................................................................................2 Method........................................................................................................................4 Disposition..................................................................................................................4 Full disclosure............................................................................................................6 Chapter 1: Comics as she is spoke.........................................................................................7 Popular, sociocultural perception...............................................................................7 Factors of industrial mass media..............................................................................10 Formal distinctions...................................................................................................12 Summary..................................................................................................................16 Chapter 2: Definitions of ‘comics’, an evaluation...............................................................17 Description...............................................................................................................17 Fredrik Strömberg, Vad är tecknade serier? (2003).....................................17 An outlier..........................................................................................21 Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (1993)...........................................22 Neil Cohn, The Visual Language of Comics (2013).....................................23 Thierry Groensteen, The System of Comics (2007)......................................25 Analysis....................................................................................................................27 The integration of text and images in comics...............................................28 Sequential narrative......................................................................................30 Representational art......................................................................................35 Interpretation............................................................................................................37 But is it Art?.................................................................................................39 Summary..................................................................................................................40 Chapter 3: Fertile dissolution on the periphery....................................................................42 Poetry comics...........................................................................................................42 Abstract comics........................................................................................................44 Abstract Comics: The Anthology (2009)......................................................45 The collapse of linear narrative....................................................................48 Interlude: This space intentionally left blank...........................................................50 Remodelling theory..................................................................................................52 Summary..................................................................................................................54 Chapter 4: Alternate reading modes.....................................................................................56 Maps.........................................................................................................................56 Labyrinths.................................................................................................................58 The route from A(rchive) to D(iagram)........................................................62 Networks and visual inventory.................................................................................63 Visual analogy, combination and play......................................................................65 Summary..................................................................................................................69 iii Allan Haverholm Uncomics KOVM12 Chapter 5: Things that look like comics...............................................................................71 LeWitt, Autobiography (1980).................................................................................71 Description...................................................................................................71 Analysis........................................................................................................74 Williams and Kinman, Domain (2006)....................................................................77 Description...................................................................................................77 Analysis........................................................................................................78 Cornell, Soap Bubble Set, (1947-8)..........................................................................81 Description...................................................................................................81 Analysis........................................................................................................82 Interpretation............................................................................................................85 The spatio-topia, the multiframe, and the in-between..................................86 Ergodic features............................................................................................86 Implications on comics.................................................................................87 Summary..................................................................................................................89 Conclusion............................................................................................................................91 Summary..................................................................................................................91 Recommendations for a formalized, expanded analytical framework.....................92 Closing words...........................................................................................................93 References............................................................................................................................95 iv Allan Haverholm Uncomics KOVM12 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter 1 Ill. 1.1: Left: Colour chart used for comics books, reproduced in Marvel Age #13 (1984). Right: Scanned detail from an issue of DC Romance shows the visible raster pattern of the reproduction ...................................................................................................