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Graphic Communities: Comics as Visual and Virtual Resources for Self and Collective Care The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Amy Mazowita
This commentary discusses the ways in which print and Instagram-based comics are used to represent the lived experiences of mental illness. Beginning with a brief overview of mental health-focused comic strips and graphic memoirs and turning to a discussion of the mental illness comics of Instagram, the article outlines how comics are being used as platforms for self and collective care. Instead of
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Let Me Out of Here: A Story of Using Comics to Heal During the Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Sydney Phillips Heifler
This graphic essay details the hardships I faced during the pandemic. It highlights the importance of comic-making to combat present-day isolation and hardship and aid recovery from trauma. During the first year of my Ph.D. I experienced a miscarriage, my step-grandfather passed away with Covid, and, at the start of my second semester, I was sexually assaulted, resulting in a physical injury that has
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Mourning the Mamalith: A Graphic Response to Grief The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Maureen Burdock
“I love you so much,” are the last words I said to my mother on the telephone on Valentine’s Day, just a few days before she died. Our love was as complicated as it was deep. My mother’s dogmatic fundamentalism left little room for me, her queer only child. I have spent a lifetime unravelling a brutal family history that caused her to cling to religion
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Graphic Communities: Comics as Visual and Virtual Resources for Self and Collective Care The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Amy Mazowita
This commentary discusses the ways in which print and Instagram-based comics are used to represent the lived experiences of mental illness. Beginning with a brief overview of mental health-focused comic strips and graphic memoirs and turning to a discussion of the mental illness comics of Instagram, the article outlines how comics are being used as platforms for self and collective care. Instead of
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A Map of the Current Cultural Climate in Medicine and Healthcare, and How We Can Change It The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Savita Rani
In Canada, healthcare and medicine are grounded in structures of coloniality, oppression, heteropatriarchy and a variety of “-isms” (racism, sexism, ableism, classism). Consequently, it is little wonder that deep-rooted, enduring health disparities exist for many different groups across Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to exacerbate these disparities. Clearly, something needs to change
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Cartooning with Compassion: A Conversation with Megan Herbert The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Ernesto Priego
This article presents the outcome of a semi-structured interview with Australian writer and illustrator Megan Herbert. Conducted online, the conversation revolved around Herbert's cartooning work published online during 2020 and 2021. The annotated transcription offers insights into process, personal and professional issues in freelance cartooning, and the challenges and opportunities of cartoon publishing
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Mourning the Mamalith: A Graphic Response to Grief The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Maureen Burdock
“I love you so much,” are the last words I said to my mother on the telephone on Valentine’s Day, just a few days before she died. Our love was as complicated as it was deep. My mother’s dogmatic fundamentalism left little room for me, her queer only child. I have spent a lifetime unravelling a brutal family history that caused her to cling to religion
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Pandemic Cartoons for the #Draw Challenge: Sisyphus as Key Worker and The Toad and the Scorpion The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Louisa Elizabeth Buck
The political cartoon, by its nature, provides comment as events unfold and part of its power can be understood by ‘the satisfaction the successful cartoon gives us simply by its neat summing up, “a momentary focus”’ (Gombrich 1994: 131). This submission contains two cartoon series produced in response to a call on Twitter as part of the #Draw Twitter challenge by political cartoonist Martin Rowson
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Snakes and Things: A Comic Exploration of Species through the COVID-19 Crisis The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Gina Matteo
In this comic, I aim to unpack human-animal relationships through themes of body and space and provide an example of why the comics form is especially useful when understanding these topics. In this comic, I aim to explore questions like: Why is the comics form pertinent to understanding human-animal relationships today? How are animal bodies and
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Comics as Pedagogy: On Studying Illness in a Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Lisa Diedrich
During the pandemic, graphic medicine has become even more central to what and how I teach. In this essay, I discuss how I used comics as pedagogy in classes on illness and illness politics that I taught during the first year of the pandemic. I begin this commentary by briefly addressing how I framed the problem of studying illness in a pandemic before discussing two assignments that show graphic medicine
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Let Me Out of Here: A Story of Using Comics to Heal During the Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Sydney Phillips Heifler
This graphic essay details the hardships I faced during the pandemic. It highlights the importance of comic-making to combat present-day isolation and hardship and aid recovery from trauma. During the first year of my Ph.D. I experienced a miscarriage, my step-grandfather passed away with Covid, and, at the start of my second semester, I was sexually assaulted, resulting in a physical injury that has
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Snakes and Things: A Comic Exploration of Species through the COVID-19 Crisis The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Gina Matteo
In this comic, I aim to unpack human-animal relationships through themes of body and space and provide an example of why the comics form is especially useful when understanding these topics. In this comic, I aim to explore questions like: Why is the comics form pertinent to understanding human-animal relationships today? How are animal bodies and
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Pandemic Cartoons for the #Draw Challenge: Sisyphus as Key Worker and The Toad and the Scorpion The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Louisa Elizabeth Buck
The political cartoon, by its nature, provides comment as events unfold and part of its power can be understood by ‘the satisfaction the successful cartoon gives us simply by its neat summing up, “a momentary focus”’ (Gombrich 1994: 131). This submission contains two cartoon series produced in response to a call on Twitter as part of the #Draw Twitter challenge by political cartoonist Martin Rowson
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Comics as Pedagogy: On Studying Illness in a Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Lisa Diedrich
During the pandemic, graphic medicine has become even more central to what and how I teach. In this essay, I discuss how I used comics as pedagogy in classes on illness and illness politics that I taught during the first year of the pandemic. I begin this commentary by briefly addressing how I framed the problem of studying illness in a pandemic before discussing two assignments that show graphic medicine
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On Graphic Scholarship: A Conversation with Nick Sousanis The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2022-04-11 Kay Sohini
Nick Sousanis is the author of Unflattening, one of the first doctoral dissertations to be drawn as a comic and subsequently published by Harvard University Press in 2015. Unflattening has arguably inspired a generation of dissertations that use comics as a medium, including my own “Drawing Unbelonging” (Sohini, forthcoming). In this interview, I talked to Nick about comics as scholarship, using visual
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Of Time, Renewal, and Scholarship: Volume 11 (2021) Wrapped The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-22 Ernesto Priego,Ernesto Priego,Jeanette D'Arcy,Kay Sohini,Peter Wilkins
This editorial discusses the articles published and the activities undertaken by The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship during 2021, and calls for research system-wide cultural changes and wider contextual awareness in order to make scholarly communication fairer and up to the challenges of our time.
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Short Science Comics for a Broad Audience - An Interview with Jessica Burton and Serge Haan from LUX:plorations The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-09 Nicole Paschek,Jessica Burton,Serge Haan
The University of Luxembourg launched a series of science comics called “LUX:plorations”. This collection of eight stories about science and research in Luxembourg is available in four different languages. Produced in collaboration between local scientists and artists, this science communication project serves as a proof of concept for multi-lingual and collaborative comic productions. The comic is
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Graphic Math: A Collection of Interviews With Creators of Mathematically Themed Graphic Novels The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-12-07 Audrey Nasar
This article presents interviews with five noteworthy creators of mathematically themed graphic novels in an effort to provide insight into how they developed their storylines and visuals to incorporate mathematical concepts. The creators interviewed include Larry Gonick of the educational graphic series The Cartoon Guide to (Gonick and Smith, 1993; Gonick and Huffman, 2008; Gonick, 2012; Gonick, 2015)
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Mapping the Black Comic Imaginary: Beyond the Black Panther at the MSU Museum The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-29 Julian C Chambliss
The historical link between Afrofuturism and comics offers a vital avenue to explore black speculative practice. Identifying comics that reflect the structure of Afrofuturism provides a critical way to understand the intersection between liberation and speculation at the heart of Afrofuturism. This commentary explores the curator’s framing of the utility of organizing Beyond the Black Panther: Visions
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The intersection of dwarfism and gender in Alisa’s tale: Raising awareness through graphic narratives. The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-20 Erin pritchard
This note explores how experiences of people with dwarfism are explored in the graphic narrative Alisa’s Tale (A short story) by Al Davison. The purpose of Alisa’s tale is for young people to emphasise the lived experiences of people with dwarfism. This demonstrates how the graphic narrative uses imagery to convey the everyday social and spatial encounters experienced by people with dwarfism and subsequently
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The intersection of dwarfism and gender in Alisa’s tale: Raising awareness through graphic narratives. The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-20 Erin pritchard
This note explores how experiences of people with dwarfism are explored in the graphic narrative Alisa’s Tale (A short story) by Al Davison. The purpose of Alisa’s tale is for young people to emphasise the lived experiences of people with dwarfism. This demonstrates how the graphic narrative uses imagery to convey the everyday social and spatial encounters experienced by people with dwarfism and subsequently
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“Earth Girl Won’t Stand For It!”: Representations of Environmental (In)Justice in Mayah’s Lot The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-10 Brianna Anderson
As the global climate crisis escalates, environmental disaster and extreme weather will play a defining role in the lives of many of today’s children, particularly those from impoverished communities and communities of color. However, environmental children’s literature has overwhelmingly failed to educate readers about environmental injustice or equip them with the tools to combat these pressing issues
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“Earth Girl Won’t Stand For It!”: Representations of Environmental (In)Justice in Mayah’s Lot The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-10 Brianna Anderson
As the global climate crisis escalates, environmental disaster and extreme weather will play a defining role in the lives of many of today’s children, particularly those from impoverished communities and communities of color. However, environmental children’s literature has overwhelmingly failed to educate readers about environmental injustice or equip them with the tools to combat these pressing issues
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Drawing the Invisible: Comics as a Way of Depicting Psychological Responses to the Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-04 C. Edward Whatley
In Understanding Comics (1993: 121) Scott McCloud posited that "The invisible world of senses and emotions can . . . be portrayed either between or within panels." My intent with this graphic article is to explore the accuracy of this statement within the context of pandemic related mental health issues.While comic artists work in styles that are abstract and impressionistic to varying degrees, the
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Drawing the Invisible: Comics as a Way of Depicting Psychological Responses to the Pandemic The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-11-04 C. Edward Whatley
In Understanding Comics (1993: 121) Scott McCloud posited that "The invisible world of senses and emotions can . . . be portrayed either between or within panels." My intent with this graphic article is to explore the accuracy of this statement within the context of pandemic related mental health issues.While comic artists work in styles that are abstract and impressionistic to varying degrees, the
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The Visualized Employment Contract. An Exploratory Study on Contract Visualization in Danish Employment Contracts The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-10-27 Niels Høegh Madsen,Mathias Stengaard,Maria Jose Schmidt-Kessen
The essence of any employment contract should be aclear and understandable communication of the employment relationship. Usingcomics as a medium for employment contracts can help in achieving this goal.This article provides an exploratory case study in the context of Danish labourcontracts. In the first part, it is assessed whether an employment contractthat contains comic strips would meet the formal
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A/effective Bodies: A Review of Eszter Szép’s Comics and The Body: Drawing, Reading, and Vulnerability (2020) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-11 Andrew Godfrey-Meers
This review offers a critical overview of Eszter Szép’s Comics and The Body: Drawing, Reading, and Vulnerability (2020), a text that formulates a model of embodied interpretation and creation that establishes a dialogue between reader and artist based on their shared vulnerability. In this review the author explores Szép’s utilisation of the line and the materiality of the comic as an expression of
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How to Tell a Story without Words: Time and Focalization in Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (2006) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-05 Alessandro Scanu
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Beyond the Two Solitudes: Differences in Fluidity in Franco-Canadian BD and Anglo-Canadian Comics Through the Influence of Manga The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-08-05 Chris Reyns-Chikuma
In this article, I study the influence of manga on the two main Canadian comics worlds. I show how, for several reasons that I will explain, the Anglo-Canadian comics world has been quite receptive to manga influence, while the French-Canadian one has been much less welcoming. This different degree of influence can be seen in one aspect of the formal structure of comics: the various panel layouts on
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Swedish Norm-Critical Comics and the Comics Pedagogy of Lynda Barry The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Mike Classon Frangos
This article considers the parallel developments of feminist comics and norm-critical pedagogy and in Sweden in order to explore comics as a medium for questioning norms of representation, in part by way of the influence of Lynda Barry’s comics pedagogy on Swedish comics publications and comics curricula. Barry’s pedagogical works are inspired by the spontaneous drawing exercises of Ivan Brunetti and
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Searching for a Common Ancestry: Linguistic and Biological Analogies in Comic Art The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-06-02 Ricardo Gonzalez-Trujillo,Ernesto Priego
Sometimes comic book readers randomly encounter images in a comic that closely resemble images in other comics. This artwork could appear to the reader to have been copied, even directly 'lifted' from older or better-known comics. Sometimes, however, it does seem like any similarities have been generated independently, by chance or serendipity. In this note we draw on the work of Umberto Eco, William
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Composing the Handmaid: From Graphic Novel to Protest Icon The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-02-24 Johanna Commins
This article takes as its starting point Renee Nault’s recent adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale into comics form and asks, how is the handmaid composed? The red cloak and white headdress of the fertility slaves in Atwood’s dystopian novel make manifest Simone de Beauvoir’s famous observation that one is not born but becomes woman. Reading Nault’s text within the framework
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Discursive (Re)Contruction of Mexican American Identity in J. Gonzo's La Mano del Destino The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-02-24 Anna Marta Marini
Written and illustrated entirely by artist Jason Gonzalez, J. Gonzo’s La Mano del Destino (2011-2019; collected edition 2021) is a 6-issue comic book series revolving around the resurgence of its eponymous protagonist, a luchador previously stripped of his mask. La Mano struggles to make his comeback abiding by his own ethos and focusing on reclaiming the place usurped by his antagonists, facing choices
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Composing the Handmaid: From Graphic Novel to Protest Icon The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-02-18 Johanna Commins
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Discursive (Re)Contruction of Mexican American Identity in J. Gonzo's La Mano del Destino The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2021-02-18 Anna Marta Marini
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Truth, Politics and Disability: Graphic Narratives as Illustrated Hope The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Angelo Joseph Letizia
Citizenship in the 21st century may necessitate new and novel means of practice and expression. The graphic novel form can allow for these new means of expression, especially in regards to an important issue in any society: the issue of disability. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how a comic, created by the author, was used to spark conversations and new understandings around the topic
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Context is Everything: A Review of Comics Studies: A Guidebook The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Linda Berube
Comics Studies: A Guidebook, edited by Charles Hatfield and Bart Beaty, Rutgers University Press, 326 pages, 2020, ISBN 9780813591414.This article is a review of Comics Studies: A Guidebook, edited by Charles Hatfield and Bart Beaty (Rutgers University Press, 2020). This volume, ranging over the broad themes of Histories, Cultures, Forms, and Genres, provides an introduction to some of the major debates
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Graphic Backgrounds: Collective Dissociative Trauma in Rutu Modan’s Exit Wounds (2007) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Jamie Michaels
This article explores how Rutu Modan’s graphic novel Exit Wounds (2007) uses background art to provide richer insights into both the existential fear of complete annihilation experienced by many Israelis during The Second Intifada, and the inability of numerous Israelis to confront this fear directly. Drawing on comics studies, trauma studies, and Israel-Palestine studies the article examines markers
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Brotherman, Family, and Legacies: Recognizing the Contributions of African American Independent Comic Book Writers and Artists The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Darnel Degand
African Americans produced many comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels during the twentieth century but their works were rarely recognized in reviews of mainstream and independently published comics until recently. These efforts to acknowledge Black comics creatives and their contributions to the industry must continue. This article participates in the ongoing effort to capture and share the
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Picture-Perfect or Potentially Perilous? Assessing the Validity of ‘Comic Contracts’ The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Mark Anthony Giancaspro
This article considers whether ‘comic contracts’, which incorporate aspects of visualisation, are legally valid under Anglo-Australian contract law. Comic contracting has been put forward as one method which can address issues associated with traditional text-based contracting, including contractor apathy and illiteracy. Use cases across a variety of commercial and other contexts are arising in Australia
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The Politics of Lace in Kate Evans’ Threads: From the Refugee Crisis (2017) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Harriet Earle
Kate Evans’ 2017 comic Threads: From the Refugee Crisis chronicles her visits to the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais, where she volunteered with a group of other British nationals to help build shelters and offer general assistance to those in the camp. The comic is bookended with double-page spreads that depict traditional lace making processes. Calais is particularly famous for lace production and
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Bleeding Panels, Leaking Forms: Reading the Abject in Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods (2014) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Miranda Corcoran
Seeking to move beyond Scott McCloud’s spatio-temporal reading of the bleed (1993: 103), this article explores how Canadian writer/artist Emily Carroll’s graphic narrative Through the Woods (2014) employs the bleed as a means to give form to a mode of horror known as the ‘abject’. Employing theories of embodiment that excavate historical conflations of femininity and nature, in addition to socio-cultural
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Silver Lining: The Emblematic Exemplum of Silver Surfer #40–43 (1990) The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Christian Mehrstam
This article examines how the Silver Surfer issues #40–43 relate to the American recession in 1990 and discusses the result with regard to the superhero genre and the medieval emblematic exemplum. Similar to Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), the Surfer issues are a critical commentary on capitalism and American society. However, where Miller’s work delivers a clear message about
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Nuns in Action: A Graphic Investigation into a Graphic Issue The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Elizabeth Allyn Woock
This article in comics form looks at an under-investigated phenomenon of nun characters appearing in contemporary comics as a unified trope. Appearing with a strong degree of uniformity, these stock characters share a unique costume, weaponry, repeated storylines, and most importantly, are couched in medievalism. To explain the development of these characteristics, which can seem wholly contemporary
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Generic Super Heroes: Can They Exist? The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Aislinn O’Connell
The term ‘superhero’ would seem, at first glance, to be generic. That is to say, ‘superhero’ may be a word or term used to refer to any caped, masked or costumed crusader who fights crime, whether super powered, inhuman, demigod, or genius playboy billionaire philanthropist. However, the legalities of super heroes are far more nuanced than that. This article discusses the use of ‘super heroes’ in light
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Our Pandemic Year: On the Comics Scholarship to Come The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Kathleen Dunley,Ernesto Priego,Peter Wilkins
This editorial article reflects on the past, present and future of The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship. It discusses the challenges overcome so far, and discusses the tenth volume of the journal, corresponding to 2020, “our pandemic year”. The article presents the authors’ vision for the type of comics scholarship they would like to see in future volumes of the journal, calling for greater
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Where Comics and Cultural Heritage Meet: A Conversation with Damien Sueur and Yannis Koikas on BDnF: The Comics Factory The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Ernesto Priego,Stuart Scott
The Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF; French National Library) recently launched a free comics creation desktop and mobile application, “BDnF”. Designed and produced by the BnF, BDnF is a digital creation tool for making comics and other multimedia stories, mixing illustration and text. BDnF allows users to engage creatively in specific aspects of comics (narrative construction, temporality, space
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Teaching Comics/Teaching with Comics: A Review of With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comic Books The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Lee Skallerup Bessette
With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comic Books, edited by Susan E. Kirtley, Antero Garcia, and Peter E. Carlson, University Press of Mississippi, 243 pages, 2020, ISBN 9781496826046 This article reviews With Great Power Comes Great Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, and Comic Books, edited by Susan E. Kirtley, Antero Garcia, and Peter E. Carlson (University Press of Mississippi
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The Elements of a Life: Lauren Redniss’s Graphic Biography of Marie Curie The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Candida Rifkind
This article explores how Lauren Redniss’s Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout ( 2010 ) uses expressive drawings, lettering, layouts, tableaus, colour, photographs and archival documents to challenge traditional biographical conventions. Drawing on art history, comics studies, feminist science history, and biography theory, it proposes that Radioactive initially invites readers
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“It’s Showtime, Synergy!”: Musical Sequences in Jem and the Holograms The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Susan Bond
This article discusses how the musical sequences (including concerts, rehearsals, and music videos) in Jem and the Holograms (Thompson and Campbell, 2015) depart from the conventions of the rest of the comic. Artist Sophie Campbell uses paneling techniques including bleeds and aspect-to-aspect closure to give these sequences a disorienting quality of occurring out of the regular time scheme of the
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The Comic at the Crossroads: The Semiotics of ‘Voodoo Storytelling’ in The Hole: Consumer Culture Vol. 1 The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Lisa Kottas,Martin Schwarzenbacher
This article focuses on the use of religious semiology in the 2008 Black graphic novel The Hole: Consumer Culture Vol. 1 by Damian Duffy and John Jennings. Both creators use hidden signs taken from Haitian Vodou and other Afro-American literature tropes in order to give their story multiple meanings. To accomplish this, they utilize the Afro-American rhetorical figure Signifyin’ (or Signifyin(g)).
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“That Old Black Magic”: Noir and Music in Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Hailey J. Austin
Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad is a comic series that evokes the noir tradition through thematic and visual callbacks to noir films and comics. As they use noir tropes, the comics illuminate the tensions in both noir and comics. Yet, Blacksad stands out as a liminal text that simultaneously references and reverses traditional noir themes. One often-overlooked noir trope is the inclusion
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The Board and the Body: Material Constraints and Style in Graphic Narrative The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Pat Grant
This article traces the development of grief memoir told in the language of comics. The autobiographical comic called Toormina Video is an occasion to investigate the role of the moving body in the process of creating graphic narratives. Cartooning can be seen as a performative mode of handwriting in which material rules and practical decisions constrain the drawing body and have a significant influence
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Peanuts minus Schulz: Distributed Labor as a Compositional Practice The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Ilan Manouach
This article reflects on the future of comics in an interconnected globalized world where, it is argued, digital technologies both accelerate change in partly-uncharted territories, and redefine the contemporary disenchantment with information flows. As a case study, the author uses their project Peanuts minus Schulz and discusses the ethos of post-digital conceptual comics and how distributed digital
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Beyond Linearity: Holistic, Multidirectional, Multilinear and Translinear Reading in Comics The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Enrique del Rey Cabero
This article presents a discussion about some of the main theoretical approaches of the assemblage of panels on the page and the double page, arguing that the correspondences between the images on the page are not fundamentally linear. On the contrary, comics foster readings that can be holistic, multidirectional and multilinear. Moreover, the correspondences between images through the pages of the
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Information Labour and Shame in Farmer and Chevli’s Abortion Eve The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Melanie McGovern,Martin Paul Eve
This article conducts the first in-depth political-aesthetic analysis of Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevli’s Abortion Eve. In this article we argue that Abortion Eve uses its visual form in a way that cuts between the contexts of later forms of graphic medicine and feminist comix, and in so doing contributed to a political culture of feminist information sharing, through a self-published visual medium.
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The Practice of Authentication: Adapting Pilgrimage from Nenthead into a Graphic Memoir The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Nick Dodds
Autobiographical comics have a more conflicted relationship with the truth than explicitly fictional work, due in part to the constraint to fidelity but complicated further by producer-orientated methods of authentication. Every graphic work has a unique expressive style, a transformation through eye and hand which foregrounds the artist’s vision, underscoring the process of mediation and subjectivity
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…Comic Books, Möbius Strips, Philosophy and… The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Ian Hornsby
This article examines three comic books, Silver Surfer #11 (Marvel Comics), Omega Men #9 (DC Comics) and Promethea #12 (Americas Best Comics), as philosophy in themselves, and not merely as supplements to philosophical texts or as a convenient form through which the complex ideas of philosophy can be elucidated. Each of these three issues utilises the form of the Mobius Strip in their fabrication in
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Touch Me/Don’t Touch Me: Representations of Female Archetypes in Ann Nocenti’s Daredevil The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Robert J. Hagan
In the late 1980s, Ann Nocenti became the principle writer on the Marvel comic book, Daredevil, the second woman to be lead creator on the book and the first to write a significant run on an ongoing basis. Nocenti integrated themes relating to social justice, violence and the treatment of children into the narrative. She also shone the spotlight on the supporting female cast members in a way that was
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Diabetes Year One. Drawing my Pathography: Comics, Poetry and the Medical Self The Comics Grid (IF 0.5) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Tony Pickering
In this article I reflect on the creation of my graphic pathography Diabetes: Year One (2018). I discuss and evaluate the ways in which, trying to articulate a patient perspective that is both personal and universal, my work moved into comics, and how the process involved the discovery of an aesthetic, that required the negotiation of the elements of comics, including: the visual interpretation and