WHAT ARE COMICS?
Why is this simple definition so important?
Mainly, because, as McCloud says:
The secret is not in what the definition says but what it doesn't say! For example, our definition says nothing about superheroes or funny animals. Nothing about fantasy/science fiction or reader age. No genres are listed in our definition, no types of subject matter, no styles of prose or poetry. Nothing is said about paper and ink. No printing process is mentioned. Printing itself isn't even specified! Nothing is said about technical pens or bristol board or Windsor & Newton Finest Sable Series 7 Number 2 Brushes! No materials are ruled out by our definition. No tools are prohibited. There is no mention of black lines and flat colored ink. No calls for exaggerated anatomy or for representational art of any kind. No schools of art are banished by our definition, no philosophies, no movements, no ways of seeing are out of bounds!
Under McCloud’s definition, many things we don’t normally
consider comics can be read as such.
For, example, there’s A
Harlot’s Progress (1731-1732), a series of paintings and engravings by
William Hogarth about a woman’s progression from innocent to prostitute.
I agree with Scott McCloud’s simple definition of what a comic is and also with the unspoken notion of what it is not. This is because if someone were to watch the evolution of comics and to trace it back to its origins one would find that the most basic of one cell drawings to be as much of a comic medium as those that have multiple cells. The style, dictation or color can be used for arguments sake of which genre or sub-genre a comic belongs to, just like its length, but it does not dictate if it is or is not a medium called a comic.
ReplyDeleteFor example in ancient Japan the notion of manga goes back as far as 12th century scrolls. Those images were one-scene drawings with no words that could tell a story. In Japanese the term manga means ‘whimsical drawing.’ Manga was in historical times, simple single scene drawings and woodblock prints found on scrolls and old parchment. Then in the 18th century kibyoshi (picture books) came into being. Kibyoshi is considered to be the world’s first comic book; they were a bound collection of manga telling a series of stories with pictures.
After the Occupation of Japan by US forces the outside world defined Manga as a Japanese comic and Comics were thought of as the western version of manga. Both are the same mediums just different styles, each a mixture of image and word focused elements that are stimulated by social influence. Wordless single image stories (comic/manga ect.) slowly evolved over time into longer more defined stories as society changed in terms of skill, academics, and economy.
The artistic rendition of The Family Circus (single panel comic strip) is different in terms of style from many multiple panel comics such as Blackest Night a Green Lantern comic book story, but length does not dictate if something is a comic or not. To argue that length dictates if a work is a comic or not is like going back to a previous argument of medium versus genre. You are not being progressive but going backwards. It is like arguing over the types of poems (haiku, sonnets, acrostic) and if they qualify as poetry.
On page 7 of “Understanding Comics” there was a short moment when a secondary character popped up and asked about animation due to it being visual art in sequence. Well animation is a moving art (literally) so it wouldn’t qualify as a comic, but the storyboards or cells used to make the animation could in my opinion would qualify as a comic because it is a stationary image.
Although the definition of a comic is very important to understanding comics as a medium, it is also equally important and possibly more important to understand what is implied by not saying what it isn’t. In order to evolve the art, story quality and styles there needs to be room for growth within the medium for additional genres and sub-genres.
I find this definition relieving. All too often in art and literature we seek to define a medium with strict definitions. Allowing a genre or singular work to exist within a medium's definition allows more art to be considered legitimate to more people. We don't have to shut people down and deny them access to an audience. Rather, we can open ourselves to many different ways of seeing and communicating when we orient ourselves with deliberately inclusive definitions..
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