[en] Behind the Scenes of a Dissertation in Comics FormNick Sousanis, University of Calgary
Abstract
[en]
A behind the scenes look at the process and practice of the author's dissertation
written and drawn entirely in comics form. Specifically, the commentary explores
the thinking and sketches behind the opening part of the third chapter titled
“The Shape of Our Thoughts,” which focuses on the
interaction between image and text.
[en] Is this Article a Comic?Jason Muir Helms, Texas Christian University
Abstract
[en]
The article begins by asking why comics scholars should create comics as
scholarship and traces possible answers through a variety of related fields:
English, Rhetoric and Composition, Art, and Games. It then investigates the
question of whether this article is itself a comic, by reviewing the history of
the conversation about defining comics as an imitation of the Bayeux Tapestry.
This tapestry section outlines the major camps, positions, and moves that comics
scholars have made. The two major threads are the essentialist camp (with
Kunzle, Eisner, McCloud, Harvey, Carrier, and Hayman and Pratt) and the
constructivist camp (Meskin and Beaty). The section ends with Bart Beaty’s
recent (2012) conceptualization of a comics world that does not need to define
individual artifacts as being or not being comics. The article ends with a
discussion of the importance of distinguishing definition from
conceptualization. Building on Beaty’s conceptualization and Gilles Deleuze’s
theory of the concept and critique of representation, it offers applications to
the comics world. Finally, it returns to the question of whether or not this
article is a comic. The answer (yes, and becoming something else), calls for
further interventions throughout the comics world that don’t ask what comics are
but what comics might become.
[en] Materiality ComicsAaron Jacob Kashtan, Miami University
Abstract
[en]
Materiality Comics is a digital comic produced with a combination of Bitstrips and
Comic Life. It argues and visually demonstrates that materiality is an important
topic for comics scholars to consider, and that through creating essays in comics
form, comics scholars can develop insights about materiality that are unavailable
when analyzing comics by others.
[en] Multimodal Authoring and Authority in Educational Comics:
Introducing Derrida and Foucault for BeginnersAaron Scott Humphrey, University of Adelaide
Abstract
[en]
Academic writing has generally been understood as operating primarily within the
linguistic modality, with writing remediating the “voice” of an educator or
lecturer. Comics, by contrast, are more explicitly multimodal and derive much of
their meaning from visual, spatial and linguistic modalities. Because of their
multimodality, educational comics challenge the conception of an authoritative
author’s “voice,” as is typically found in traditional educational and academic
writing.
To examine how authorship and authority function in multimodal educational texts,
this paper examines several books in the popular “For Beginners” and
“Introducing” series of “graphic guides,” which use images, text, and
comics to summarise the work of major philosophers – in this case Derrida and
Foucault. The books chosen for this study are all collaborative efforts between
writers, illustrators, and designers. In each book, the collaborations function
differently, engendering different divisions of authorial labor and forging different
constructions of multimodal relationships between image, text, and design.
In order to more fully interrogate the ways that these educational comics combine
multimodal modes of meaning, this paper itself takes the form of a comic, mimicking
at times the books that it is examining. In this way, it serves as a self-reflexive
critique of the idea that authorial voice is central to academic writing, and as an
example of the challenges and opportunities presented by composing multimodal
scholarship which eschews this conception of linguistic authorship.
[en] Sequential Rhetoric: Using Freire and Quintilian to Teach
Students to Read and Create Comics Robert Dennis Watkins, Idaho State University; Tom Lindsley, Interaction Designer, Workiva
Abstract
[en]
Our comic combines visual literacy, progymnasmata, and critical pedagogy to
showcase a classroom study that used comics production to teach visual literacy.
The comic first looks at comics criticism, visual rhetoric, and comics
scholarship to set a base to build a methodology build in critical pedagogy and
ancient rhetoric. Critical pedagogy’s tradition of inviting students to find
meaning in the origin of ideas fits in with having students design and study a
medium that’s often overlooked during their college experience. Such an approach
echoes Freire’s ideas of using critical strategies as an effective model for
change. Progymnasmata, and Quintilian’s work in general, allows students to
approach the new medium of comics through reading and production through an
ancient rhetorical practice that relies on a step-by-step process. Looking at
Quintilian's pedagogy, we demonstrate a modern classroom study that uses
progymnasmata to make the strange familiar while introducing visuality. The
actual study is briefly discussed as well. This amalgamation of ancient
rhetoric, comics studies, and critical pedagogy is the basis of the research
behind this pieces’ goal of exploring comics as a multimodal means of
composition.
[en] Graphic Images of YHWH: Exploring and Exploding the Bounds of
Sexual Objectification in Ezekiel 16B.J. Parker, Baylor University
Abstract
[en]
For nearly its entire textual life Ezekiel 16 has barely survived. Early Jewish
communities were wary of including it in their canon of sacred texts because of the
chapter’s explicit and disturbing imagery. Christian communities have likewise
wrestled with the text by essentially barring it from communal worship (the text does
not appear in any lectionary) as well as nearly bracketing it in scholarship (most,
if not all, scholars see the text as a violent and gross misrepresentation of gender
roles as well as one of the most exacerbating cases of divine violence. Kathryn
Phisterer Darr’s work stands out as one of the few that allows the tension of the
text to stand.). Despite all of these objections, however, the text remains in the
canon. In this one chapter of the Book of Ezekiel, one finds themes of hope, love,
despair, suffering, betrayal, grace, and abandonment — all foundational to the human
experience. In addition to a colorful theological tapestry, one also finds a
definitively historical text that is troubling to most contemporary readers.
Theology, history, and contemporary reader combine to make the text and its message
shocking at best and inaccessible at worst; this project proposes a solution by way
of sequential art. Because the theological message of Ezekiel 16 is both wrapped up
in the larger narratival context and presents itself through forceful and explicit
imagery, exegeting the text via sequential art offers the reader a new medium for
understanding the text. I propose a retelling of the story found in Ezekiel 16 that
consciously creates space for the theological themes, historical realities, and
contemporary cultural concerns all to be heard and to stand in tension with one
another. Along with a sequential retelling of the story of Israel and YHWH, I will
also annotate my work to provide historical, artistic and scholarly perspectives for
the reader. I will first create the comic by traditional pencil and ink and then scan
the images. The images can then appear in any form needed.
