Comics and Graphic Novels

(A lo-fi pastel web-log by Emma Lesur)

Typically, the understanding of the term ‘comic’ is quite narrow, often the
associations that spring to mind are those of satirical illustrations in a newspaper, or colourful magazines with simple/childish cartoons and stories about superheroes.

Though this attachment is gradually fading thanks to the diverse, mature and interesting work being produced today, it's still a prevalent association as shown by the first definitions that appear on a google search result for:


"a periodical containing comic strips, intended chiefly for children."


"a magazine that presents a serialised story in the form of a comic strip, typically featuring the adventures of a superhero."

WHAT IS A COMIC?

COMIC



COMIC BOOK

WHAT IS A COMIC?

Comics and Graphic Novels

The reason for this is due to their modern development in the US and UK being composed largely of cartoonish and comedic content, namely in children’s magazines and newspapers - resulting in the coining of the term 'comic', which has natural associations with humour, and subsequently brings to mind cartoons and childish stories.

There is the possibility, however, for a much more expansive definition of comic, as written about in the book Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. In the first chapter of the book, Scott McCloud references Will Eisner’s use of the term ‘Sequential Art’ to describe comics, however he goes on to describe how this is quite limited, and how a more expansive definition might be reached.

The definition he proposed for comics is ‘Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.’

McCloud’s definition is influential and generally accepted as a good one, but it has its flaws, for example, it does not include comics that do not have the juxtaposition of images, such as single-box comics found in newspapers.

Shown are some other alternative definitions, each with varying boundaries of what can and can’t be included under the term comics. The reality is, anyone’s attempt to define comics springs from their own idea of what comics are and what they want them to be. With a medium as diverse as this, it’s difficult to pin down a succinct way to describe the category, especially when not everyone can even agree.

FalseKnees Webcomic

From Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud

From Nausicaa - Hayao Miyazaki

please please please let me scrape a passing grade i'm literally having a meltdown i'm trying my best PLEASE

I couldn't delete this heading without spending 30 hours redoing each page because hotglue is the spawn of satan I am sorryyyyy

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