Deconstructing Comics

Academic Practice: Roger Sabien

Roger Sabiens lecture was an investigation into how academics research comic books.

Each student was given a copy of “Superman Shazam” to critique. The class investigated the comic and raised certain issues regarding the comic, such as advertising, the style of drawing, and the international and cultural context of the publication. Sabien then lead us on an in-depth discussion of the historical and economic context of the publication and the implications that they might have on the comic.

On inspection into the economic context of the comic it was revealed that the “Superman Shazam” is published by DC Comics, which in turn is owned by a multi national company Time Warner. As soon as this fact was revealed the many implications of this could then be mapped onto the comic and a lot more questions arose, such as how the content is controlled and monitored? The comic book took on a whole new plethora of meanings, it wasn’t just a comic book but a platform to support and advertise for other companies within the Time Warner francahise. By deconstructing the comic with specific questions in mind the comic was viewed from many different perspectives.

By way of conclusion Sabien gave us an overview of some publications that were less mainstream than “Superman Shazam” A more philosophical approach to comic books was introduced. We looked at work by Scott Mc Cloud and Chris Wear and investigated time and space within the comic book structure how past and present co-exist. The space between the gutter is where the action happens where the reader fills in the gaps between frames.

Roger Sabiens talk was practical and theoretical and I was engaged and challenged throughout the talk.