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The Aesthetics and Academics of Graphic Novels and Comics
... "… comics is an art that allows for the individual self-creation that subsequently supports democracy." (Gluibizzi 2007;Maggio 2007, p. 237). Furthermore, on the reader/viewer side, comics as opposed to many other narrative visual art forms leave a large cognitive space for the interpretation of meaning which elevates its democratic value (Maggio 2007). ...
This paper explores three concepts of double consciousness as presented in W.E.B. Du Bois' seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, and its interpretation in the 2023 graphic novel by Paul Peart‐Smith. The study underscores the continued relevance of Du Bois' ideas, particularly in their graphic form, which enhances understanding through visual representation. The concepts of double consciousness focused on in this study that is the veil, twoness, and second sight, are examined through textual‐visual analysis to highlight how the graphic medium democratizes and deepens the visibility of these concepts. By analyzing key illustrations and their interplay with the original text, the paper demonstrates how the graphic novel format elucidates the internal and external conflicts faced by Black individuals. It posits that the graphic interpretation not only makes the themes more accessible but also amplifies the emotional and psychological dimensions of Du Bois' work. This enhanced visibility is argued to foster a greater offensive against injustices and oppression, thus aligning with Du Bois' vision of striving for a more just society. The paper also addresses critiques of the graphic novel medium and advocates for its capacity to engage a multidisciplinary audience, ultimately contributing to the broader understanding of Black identity and resilience.
... This is also representative of the means by which sequential art engage the senses, provided the right framework of support exists. Gluibizzi (2007) goes further in asserting that "Graphic novels and comics push beyond the boundaries of illustrated books to the point where illustrations and text are equivalent, each driving the other, rather than the illustrations supporting or attempting to explain the text" (p. ...
Graphic novels and comics have a rich history and have long served as a medium for both education and entertainment. Although we live in an increasingly technology-rich era which offers abundant visual stimulation to compete with comics, graphic literature is arguably a more immediate and robust resource than ever before. The following paper highlights specific applications of graphic literature to pedagogical purposes, including implications for the use of comics in teaching history, world languages, English as a new language, science, and mathematics. Across these areas, a wide degree of application exists for teachers, in both K-12 and post-secondary settings. In addition, we draw upon the history of comics itself and the relationship between graphic literature and other popular media to demonstrate how the study of comics is itself a powerful lens through which to study history and sharpen skills for critical inquiry that hold utility across academic disciplines. The potential of graphic literature to be both a vehicle for teaching and learning academic content, as well as a topic that is itself worthy of deliberate study, is an essential theme explored by this paper with an emphasis on concrete examples which may be applied to educational practice.
... The format is also attracting a growing number of women. The broad appeal of graphic novels has been well noted 29,30 , as well as their attraction to 'reluctant readers' 31 . The demographics of this readership group is crucial in terms of smoking initiation. ...
Introduction
Smoking continues to extract an unacceptably high toll in Ireland
in terms of both mortality and morbidity. Therefore, attention needs to focus
on examining pro-smoking influences on teenagers and young adults, as most
smokers start smoking before the age of 21 years. Given that this critical period
is one of identity formation and assertion of adulthood, it is useful to look at
media representation of smoking. One form of increasingly pervasive media that
may require further examination is that of the portrayal of smoking in graphic
novels. The broad appeal of graphic novels has been well noted, particularly to
those aged under 35 years.
Methods
This research examined a random selection of ten graphic novels chosen
from the main library in a provincial Irish City. The novels were examined on
a panel-by-panel basis for images of smokers. Smokers were coded by gender.
Results
Analysis identified a total of 526 panels depicting smoking. Substantial
variation was noted in the number of smoking images between novels, varying
from 0 to 267. A dramatic difference in the number of male to female smokers
was observed, the ratio being approximately 17:1.
Conclusions
Graphic novels must be considered as a potentially significant source
of portrayals of smoking to adolescent and young adult readers of this form of
literature.
... There is quite an extensive body of literature going back to the early 2000s that discusses the merits of having graphic novels in an academic library's collection. Gluibizzi (2007) and O 'English, Matthews, and Lindsay (2006) remark on the popularity of graphic novels among students, and the importance of relating to students through what they read. These articles fall short, however, in giving practical advice on how to start a cohesive collection. ...
Academic libraries’ graphic novel and comic book collections hold a wide appeal for both scholarly study and personal reading. Programming around these materials can attract diverse audiences to promote library services and resources in a distinctive way. Wichita State University Libraries hosted their first Halloween ComicFest in 2017 and it has grown into an annual event from the success of this initial endeavor. In this article, the authors discuss the challenges of planning and hosting a comic convention in an academic library as well as the potential benefits such events hold for both libraries and their patrons.
To the Teacher That 9/11 has defined our times—indeed, has determined the course of our young century—remains an obvious commonplace. But The 9/11 Report, the defining document of this defining event—first published in July of 2004, and quickly a bestseller—has actually been read by far too few of us. Espe-cially in light of the paramount importance of this tragedy—at home and ISBN: 0-8090-5739-5 | 144 pages abroad, today and tomorrow—an alarmingly small number of Americans genuinely understand the various findings and recommendations that were put forth in written form by The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. We cannot let this vast under-appreciation of The 9/11 Report carry over to our students, however. Given the complexity of the report, as well as the difficulties inherent in understanding and confronting the 9/11 tragedy itself—and, further, the challenges of grasping the ongoing, worldwide aftermath of this event—teaching aids on this score would seem most welcome. And now, at last, instructors looking to help their students take on such equally crucial and demanding material without resorting to compromise, without settling on a weak abridgement or a mere glossing of the facts, have the perfect volume. The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation affords all of the student-friendly readability and visual gusto of a first-rate graphic novel, while also presenting the conclusions and suggestions—streamlined yet entirely word-for-word—of the actual 9/11 Commission (including the follow-up "report card" issued by the Commission in December of 2005). This is therefore the most accessible version of the report available anywhere. Like the original, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation is a work of methodical logic, arresting clarity, and enormous import. It's also brimming with stunning artwork that powerfully conveys the heft, history, insight, and instruction of the initial document. And when we recall that said document runs to more than 500 pages, it becomes clearer still that The 9/11 Report is ideally suited for today's popular graphic-novel form.
You can't pinpoint it exactly, but there was a moment when people more or less stopped reading poetry and turned instead to novels, which just a few generations earlier had been considered entertainment suitable only for idle ladies of uncertain morals. The change had surely taken hold by the heyday of Dickens and Tennyson, which was the last time a poet and a novelist went head to head on the best-seller list. Someday the novel, too, will go into decline --if it hasn't already --and will become, like poetry, a genre treasured and created by just a relative few. This won't happen in our lifetime, but it's not too soon to wonder what the next new thing, the new literary form, might be. It might be comic books. Seriously. Comic books are what novels used to be --an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal --and if the highbrows are right, they're a form perfectly suited to our dumbed-down culture and collective attention deficit. Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability right now. In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels. It is the overcrowded space way in the back --next to sci-fi probably, or between New Age and hobbies --and unless your store is staffed by someone unusually devoted, this section is likely to be a mess. ''Peanuts'' anthologies, and fat, catalog-size collections of ''Garfield'' and ''Broom Hilda.'' Shelf loads of manga --those Japanese comic books that feature slender, wide-eyed teenage girls who seem to have a special fondness for sailor suits. Superheroes, of course, still churned out in installments by the busy factories at Marvel and D.C. Also, newer sci-fi and fantasy series like ''Y: The Last Man,'' about literally the last man on earth (the rest died in a plague), who is now pursued by a band of killer lesbians. You can ignore all this stuff --though it's worth noting that manga sells like crazy, especially among women. What you're looking for is shelved upside down and sideways sometimes --comic books of another sort, substantial single volumes (as opposed to the slender series installments), often in hard cover, with titles that sound just like the titles of ''real'' books: ''Palestine,'' ''Persepolis,'' ''Blankets'' (this one tips in at 582 pages, which must make it the longest single-volume comic book ever), ''David Chelsea in Love,'' ''Summer Blonde,'' ''The Beauty Supply District,'' ''The Boulevard of Broken Dreams.'' Some of these books have titles that have become familiar from recent movies: ''Ghost World,'' ''American Splendor,'' ''Road to Perdition.'' Others, like Chris Ware's ''Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth'' (unpaged, but a good inch and a quarter thick) and Daniel Clowes's ''David Boring,'' have achieved cult status on many campuses.
The paper describes a project for Liverpool John Moores University PGCE Art and Design students in which they carried out practical research into comics and graphic novels as part of their preparation for teaching. The students were encouraged to investigate the history of the genre, its formal properties as well as its potential as a vehicle for social realism. The practical task was to prepare a single comic book page design, in the course of which they explored a range of possibilities from imaginative children's stories to serious issues such as illness and abuse. They took the opportunity to investigate the potential of this sequential medium to construct narratives using devices such as sequence, repetition and multiple perspectives as well as the juxtapositions of image and text. The paper contains examples of students' work where the investigations yielded interesting and innovative results.
This paper continues the argument for comics, especially graphic novels and manga (Japanese comics), to be taken seriously as a valid art form and as a source for work at all levels of art education. [1] Specific case studies demonstrate how these ambitions might be realised in practice in the form of classroom comic / graphic novel based projects in primary and secondary schools. Three have been singled out for consideration and each deals with issues affecting comics in education, such as the question of ‘derivative’ work, assessment and interpreting pre-existing texts. The capability of comic-based projects to successfully accommodate wider social issues like gender construction also come under scrutiny. The resulting works are analysed in the context of the prevailing education culture and highlight the difficulties of applying established assessment criteria to projects of this type.
A justification for the inclusion of graphic comic art in post-14 art education following the development of graphic novels in Europe, Japan and the USA. in recent years. The case is based on the visual dynamics of the medium and the potential for a critical realism which can be exploited in students’ studio practice and research. Particular attention is given to the Holocaust novel Maus and selected Japanese ‘Manga’ comics which have made an impact in the west, such as Barefoot Gen and Adolf. The article analyses the various innovative visual forms that these graphic novels utilise and considers their effectiveness as a vehicle for practice and research in the institutional art curriculum.
- Chris Ware
- Jimmy Corrigan
Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000).
- Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman et al., Marvel 1602 (New York: Marvel Comics, 2004).
King: A Comic Book Biography (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2MB)
- Anderson Ho Che
Ho Che Anderson, King: A Comic Book Biography (Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2MB).
Even the title of Huyghe's and Parreno's project reveals its roots in manga and Japanese animation and its questions of identity, as it is a play on Ghost In the Shell, one of the first examples of manga to gain popularity outside of Japan. See the artists' monograph on the project
Even the title of Huyghe's and Parreno's project reveals its roots in manga and Japanese animation and its
questions of identity, as it is a play on Ghost In the Shell, one of the first examples of manga to gain popularity outside
of Japan. See the artists' monograph on the project, Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno, No Ghost just a Shell
(Cologne: Buchhandlung Walther König, 2003).
Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration
- Roanne Bell
Bell, Roanne. Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration. New Haven: Yale University Press,
2005.
Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
- Valerie Cassel
- Splat
Cassel, Valerie. Splat, Boom, Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art. Houston: Contemporary Arts
Museum Houston, 2003.
Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation
- Vicky A Clark
- Barbara Bloemink
Clark, Vicky A., and Barbara Bloemink. Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation. New York:
Distributed Art Publishers, 2002.
Dame Darcy's Meat Cake Compilation
- Dame Darcy
Darcy, Dame. Dame Darcy's Meat Cake Compilation. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2003.
Genoways, Ted. "Portrait of the Artist as a Young..." Virginia Quarterly Review 81 (Fall 2005): 12-25.
Comic Book Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to Characters, Graphic Novels, Writers and Artists in the Comic Book Universe
- Ron Goulart
Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to Characters, Graphic Novels, Writers and Artists in
the Comic Book Universe, New York: HarperEntertainment, 2004.
More than Wham! Bang! Boom! :The Art and Design of Comics Lettering
- Steven Heller
Heller, Steven. "More than Wham! Bang! Boom! :The Art and Design of Comics Lettering." In The Graphic Design
Reader. New York: Allworth Press, 2002.
Lightning Sketches to Silver Screen
- S D Katz
Katz, S.D. "Lightning Sketches to Silver Screen." Print 57 (September/October 2003): 96-101.
- La Breque
La Breque, Eric. "In Search of the Graphic Novel" Print 47 (January/February 1993): 21-35.