Roger Sabian / Academic practice /
This lecture was a surprise for me. I’m not so into comics, but I really enjoyed this lecture. I’ve never thought of analysing comics and the way that Roger approached the lecture was quite engaging. It was good to have the American comic in our hands and analyse it ourselves.
There’s so much to “see” in comics and what is beyond them: format, content, target group, historical context, economic context. All these aspects are equally important in the creation of comics. For instance, the agenda and the owner of a character, as superman, have a great influence in the design and stories shifting it from comics to cinema, toys, TV and so on.
Following that, the format is also quite crucial economically. Not only because of the amount of paper and ink spent, but mainly the possibility of being suitable for collection. This influences the story, that should have continuity between issues. Therefore there is a intricate relation between all these aspects to consider in comics.
It’s interesting how the differences between cultures – Europe, America, Far East (Japan) – are so easily perceivable the and how it shape the stories, the designs, everything in comics.
Moreover, comics also comprise comix (underground comic from the 60s, with themes like drug experiences, sex…), graphic novels (book format) – that are thought to be the most promising future of comics –, small press comics (homemade, photocopy), e-comics (still a lot to explore in this area), manga (Japan).
Comics are an art form, and that makes them special. They can be flexible in space and time, and the structure in panels and gutters makes it possible.
Also, another interesting curiosity: cinema, in the very beginning, got some influences in comics and not the contrary.
We’ve got lots of new references and I’m looking forward to reading some of them.
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