Librarian
Attribution
This Guide was initially created by Christopher Lopez.
Comics Communities
- ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table The Graphic Novels and Comics Round Table of the American Library Association is dedicated to supporting library staff in all aspects of engaging with graphic novels and comics, including collection development, programming, and advocacy.
- Comics Studies Society The Comics Studies Society (CSS) is an interdisciplinary society open to all who share the goals of promoting the critical study of comics, improving comics teaching, and engaging in open and ongoing conversations about the comics world.
- Oxford Comics Network Making use of TORCH’s interdisciplinary platform, this network, ‘Comics and Graphic Novels: The Politics of Form’, brings students, critics and practitioners from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds to explore the power, politics and potential of the comics form. Featuring bi-weekly seminars with talks from visiting comics critics and practitioners throughout the Oxford term time, the network aims to facilitate a new interdisciplinary dialogue about a form that demands more comprehensive and ongoing critical analysis.
- Graphic Medicine FB Group The FB group is a community extension of the Graphic Medicine website, started in 2007 by Ian Williams, who was, at the time, writing an MA dissertation on medical narrative in comics and graphic novels (he got a distinction). As soon as it went online, people from around the world started to get in touch, saying that they, too, were interested in the interface between comics and medicine.
What are Comics?
There are two ways to refer to comics. As an art, comics are sequential images and other symbols deliberately juxtaposed to portray meaning and evoke an aesthetic response, to paraphrase Scott McCloud. Then there are the many forms comics take. These forms or formats differ from each other on levels of material, distribution methods, and content.
Comic Books
Comic books refer to the serialized, print periodicals, episodically portraying the narrative of a character or group. Initially their content only consisted of popular comic strip reprints, nothing original. However, following the commercial success of Superman narratives in Action Comics #1 in the late 1930s, comic books began to contain original material.
Graphic Novels
Graphic novels offer self-contained narratives, usually, released and distributed all at once in single volumes. While no one disagrees that graphic novels are lengthier in content when compared to comic books, some scholars and fans suggest graphic novels typically portray more mature themes than comic books. Thus "graphic novel " has taken on a cultural or artistic status-signifier.
Manga
In Japanese, Manga (漫画) refers to all cartoons and comics. However, in English speaking markets, Manga primarily refers to comics from and initially made for Japanese culture. They are as much a format as they are a genre of comics. They are typically lengthier than American comic books, but enjoy a serialized publication. Manga is read in East-Asian style: right to left, beginning at "the back" of the book.
Comic Strips
Garfield, Peanuts, and Calvin & Hobbes: These are your classic single or double-strips of comic panels commonly associated with American Newspapers. They are typically very brief, and, to some, very funny!
Garfield, Peanuts, and Calvin & Hobbes: These are your classic single or double-strips of comic panels commonly associated with American Newspapers. They are typically very brief, and, to some, very funny!Webcomics
Not to be confused with digitized comics, these are comics created, distributed, and archived on websites or social media platforms. They are typically shorter in length compared print comics. Some creators take advantage of the digital platform to make their comics more interactive.
What is Comics Studies?
To start, comics studies does not refer to the study of comedians (people have actually asked me that). Comics studies basically refers to the scholarly, multidisciplinary analysis of comics in all of their formats. Most in the comics studies community trace the origin of the field to the fan correspondence through zines in the years following the Anti-Comics crusade and the adoption of the Comics Code Authority (CCA). These disgruntled readers use the communication outlet of zines to host thoughtful discussions on their favorite comics or bemoan the effects censorship had on the "serious" issues and themes once explored in their favorite pre-CCA.
It can be argued that comics studies became an identifiable scholarly field between the 1990s and 2000s with university presses creating book series on comics, the gaining popularity of pop culture studies, and academic journal devoting entire issues to art form and its fan community, not to mention academic journals devoted entirely to comics. The rise in success and popularity of comic book adaptations over the past two decades certainly didn't hurt!
As typical of all new academic fields, there is currently a flurry of conversations about the nature, scope, and audiences of comics studies. Here are a few resources that represent a unique angle on the question, "what is comics studies?"
- Breaking the Frames: Populism and Prestige in Comics Studies by Marc Singer
- Comics Studies Here and Now edited by Fredrick Luis Aldama
- Empirical Comics Research: Digital, Multimodal, and Cognitive Methods edited by Alexander Dunst, Jochen Laubrock, & Janina Wildfeuer.
- Queer about Comics edited by Ramzi Fawaz and Scott Darieck
A graphic Introduction to Comics Studies (Free PDF)
- A Graphic Introduction to Comics Studies
This guide in comics form, written and drawn by members of the Oxford Comics Network and published by TORCH, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, covers the main aspects related to the study of comics and graphic novels. Covers the following: main aspects to take into account when reading comics, how comics are produced, various methodological approaches to comics studies, and comics traditions and genres around the world along with their distribution methods.