Blankets: an illustrated novel
Written in 2003, Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Blankets manages to arouse readers’ attention through its complex emotional background that entwines the protagonist’s constant attempts to live a normal, happy life with his psychological instability, as well as his personal coming-of-age and first love with strict religious education and a detachment from his childhood memories. This paper, however, attempts to analyse the concepts of space and time from the point of view of visual representation, the author succeeding in creating the idea of temporal development through constant flashbacks, inner space representations, the novel being retrospectively narrated; at the same time, a series of artfully coined images that symbolise winter’s purity and cleanliness come to oppose the ugliness of the social context (unspoiled versus ravaged outer space) that traps the hero in an impossible universe that annihilates any outbursts of creativity, ingenuity and love.
This contribution provides an overview of the intersection between sexuality and mental illness in comics, and outlines the central aims of this special issue of Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics devoted to the topic. This sets the foundation for how an examination of sexuality and mental illness in comics is long overdue. After situating each contribution within current literature or comics that address sexuality and mental illness, attention will then be given to the particular features of comics to argue that the comics medium is particularly suited to the exploration and representation of sexuality and its relationship to mental illness.
Objective – The objective of this study was to survey American public libraries about their collection and use of graphic novels and compare their use to similar data collected about video games.
Methods – Public libraries were identified and contacted electronically for participation through an open US government database of public library systems. The libraries contacted were asked to participate voluntarily.
Results – The results indicated that both graphic novels and video games have become a common part of library collections, and both media can have high levels of impact on circulation. Results indicated that while almost all libraries surveyed had some graphic novels in their collections, those serving larger populations were much more likely to use graphic novels in patron outreach. Similarly, video game collection was also more commonly found in libraries serving larger populations. Results also showed that young readers were the primary users of graphic novels.
Conclusion – Responses provided a clear indicator that graphic novels are a near-ubiquitous part of public libraries today. The results on readership bolster the concept of graphic novels as a gateway to adult literacy. The results also highlight differences between larger and smaller libraries in terms of resource allocations towards new media. The patron demographics associated with comics show that library cooperation could be a potential marketing tool for comic book companies.
Alternative comics are typically defined by the supposed absence of superheroes and other mainstream genres, yet these genres have appeared repeatedly in key examples of alternative comics, including works by Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, and Jaime Hernandez. These cartoonists’ use of mainstream genres takes the form of what I call ‘genre-splicing,’ the combination of two or more genres in a way that fragments the fictional reality of the work or violates the norms of the genres employed. Genre-splicing provides a vehicle for many effects and aims, including thematic development, narrative pleasure, self-reflexivity, and disjunctive disruption. Alternative cartoonists’ use of genre-splicing not only punctures the myth that alternative comics are defined by mainstream genres’ absence, it also challenges the description of alternative comics as adult, literary, and artistic, in contrast to the juvenile and commercial nature of most mainstream comics. Despite their contradictions, however, alternative and mainstream are nevertheless useful terms whose ambiguities and contradictions mirror those of the cultural practices they describe.
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