A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form. Ralph Randolph Duncan II Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1990 Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form. Ralph Randolph Duncan II Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Duncan, Ralph Randolph II, "Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form." (1990). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4910. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4910 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Order Number 9104127 Panel analysis: A critical method for analyzing the rhetoric of comic book form Duncan, Ralph Randolph, II, Ph.D. The Looisiana State University and Agricnltnral and Mechanical CoL, 1990 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Panel Analysis: A Critical Method Far Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Speech Communication, Theatre, and Communication Disorders by Ralph Randolph Duncan II B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University, 1980 M.A., Louisiana State University, 19G5 May 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements The writer wishes to express gratitude to Dr. A. Mastermon King, for his patient direction of this project over the years and across the miles. The writer wants to give a special thanks to his parents, who encouraged him to persevere through fourteen years of higher education. In addition, the writer is grateful for the time and inspiration donated to the project by Will Eisner. Most of all, the writer wants to express his admiration and love for his wife, Lisa, for putting up with and making bearable three solid years of weekends lost to dissertation work. 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table d F Contents Page Acknowledgments........... 11 Abstract ..................................... v Chapter I. Introduction .............................. 1 Contributory Studies ...................... 8 Plan of the Study ............13 II. Historical Context ........................ 17 Personal History .......................... 20 Artistic Influences ...................... 24 Developments Within the Medium ............ 26 C o n l u s l o n ................................37 III. Psychoanalytical Analysis ................ 41 S y m b o l s ..................................42 The S t o n e ............................43 The A n i m a l ..........................48 The C i r c l e ..........................49 M y t h s ................................... 52 Conclusion............................... 61 IV. Psychological Analysis .................... 63 G e s t a l t ................................. S3 S h a p e ................................... 67 P a t t e r n ..................................70 C o l o r ................................... 75 Conclusion............................... 82 V. Semlologlcal Analysis .................. .84 S e m a n t i c s ............................... 85 S y n t a x................................... 96 Conclusion................................. 140 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VI . Macro Analysis............................ 143 Concepts of M o n t a g e ...................... 144 Creation of M e a n i n g ...................... 146 Manipulation of T i m e ...................... 151 Conclusion................................157 VII. Application of Panel Analysis ........... 159 Historical Context ....................... 150 Psychoanalytical Approach ............... 156 Semiological Approach ................... 173 C o n l u s i o n ................................ 151 VIII.Conclusion .............................. 183 N o t e s ......................................... 192 Bibliography ................................ 209 Appendix A Mrs Paraffin...................... 224 Appendix B Foul P l a y ........................ 232 Appendix C Black A l l e y ...................... 240 Appendix D A Life F o r c e ...................... 248 Appendix E Miscellaneous ................... 269 Appendix F : Roulette.......................... 275 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract This study devises a method of rhetorical criticism, panel analysis, for the comic book medium. Panel analysis focuses on how the unique form of the comic book medium communicates content. Panel analysis consists of three conponents: historical context, micro analysis, and macro analysis. The historical component makes use of a humanistic historical approach to place a camic book or a body of comic book work in the contexts of the creator’s personal history and the evolutian of the comic book medium. These contexts provide understanding of the origins of the various formal aspects of the workCsD being studied. The micro component uses psychoanalytical, psychological, and semiological approaches to examine how meaning is produced in the individual panels of a comic book. The psychoanalytical approach analyses how recurring symbols and myths incorporated in the images and text of comic book panels might communicate meaning to the subconscious of the reader. The psychological approach analyses the psychological forces Cintellectual meanings and emotional reactions] created V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. by shape, pattern, color, and the operation of gestalt principles. The semiological approach uses the linguistic concepts of semantics and syntactics to explain the "language" of oomic books. Semantics analyses the individual visual signs in a panel. Syntactics analyses the encapsulation, framing, and composition of panels. The macro component examines how montage, the combination of comic book panels, creates meaning ond manipulates time. Creation of meaning is analyzed in the montage methods of simultaneity, contrast, parallelism, symbolism, and liet-motif. The use of montage to expand and compress time, and control tempo is also examined. Panel Analysis utilizes scholarship in history, psychology, semiotics, and film criticism to construct a rhetorical approach to the most significant aspects of the comic book medium — the panel and the blend of words and pictures. Panel analysis is o broad and flexible critical approach that can be tailored to the characteristics of a particular work, or the goals af the critic. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter I Introduction Earlier in this century formalistic critical methods mere developed for the analysis of the novel, poetry, film, and telivision.1 To dote, no critical method exists for the art form of the comic book. Although comics predate graphic genres such as Film and television, studies of comics remain historical or informational Ccontent-centered3.