The essay traces the growth of comics anthologies in India after Independence to the present time. The post-millennial works are particularly interesting as they break away from conventional subjects ...and experiment both in terms of content and form. The ideological trigger that most often draws the collaborators together results in subversive shorter pieces that allow the creators to express themselves in an unfettered way. This trajectory of evolution also provides a context to the personal experience of the author, a key member of the Longform Collective. The journey from Drighangchoo, a comics magazine that originated in Jadavpur University, Kolkata to Longform: An Anthology of Graphic Narratives Vol 1 is a long one, full of trials and tribulations. The processes and the work-flows that are involved in the making of Longform while it sought to cater to readers across the country and abroad are discussed here which in turn provide a robust template of how such potential collaborations can happen in future.
Comics and graphic novels have not typically been foregrounded in accounts of Anthropocene fictions. This article argues that speculative comics are particularly suited to visualizing the ...Anthropocene through their verbal-visual strategies for representing multiple scales of space and time. Defined as the era in which human-driven processes have become detectable in the Earth's geological record, the concept of the Anthropocene has also been challenged by postcolonial and Indigenous theorists for presuming an undifferentiated humanity responsible for ecological crises. Speculative comics offer strategies for representing multiple scales of space and time that call into question the 'human' as a geological force. While autobiographical and documentary comics represent the scale of individual human experience, speculative comics feature nonhuman spaces and times on multiple, asynchronous scales. This article first contextualizes the representation of space and time in speculative Anglophone comics from early superhero comics to the contemporary period, then focusing on three case studies drawn from contemporary Anglophone comics: Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's Nameless (
2015
), Warren Ellis and Jason Howard's Trees (2014-2016, 2020), and Ram V and Filipe Andrade's The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (2021).
Mike Richardson Interview Klaehn, Jeffery
Journal of graphic novels & comics,
09/03/2021, Volume:
12, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Mike Richardson is the President and founder of Dark Horse Comics, the award-winning international publishing house he launched in 1986. This interview, undertaken in 2007, features conversation ...about comics history; the historical resonance and cultural importance of comics; the origins of Dark Horse Comics; ways in which comics and the various industries surrounding them have changed over time; the work and impact of Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, and Masamune Shirow; Conan and Frank Frazetta; the cultural impact of comics; Dark Horse Press and Dark Horse Entertainment.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, writer-artist Frank Miller turnedDaredevilfrom a tepid-selling comic into an industry-wide success story, doubling its sales within three years. Lawyer by day and ...costumed vigilante by night, the character of Daredevil was the perfect vehicle for the explorations of heroic ideals and violence that would come to define Miller's work.
Frank Miller's Daredevil and the Ends of Heroismis both a rigorous study of Miller's artistic influences and innovations and a reflection on how his visionary work onDaredevilimpacted generations of comics publishers, creators, and fans. Paul Young explores the accomplishments of Miller the writer, who fused hardboiled crime stories with superhero comics, while reimagining Kingpin (a classic Spider-Man nemesis), recuperating the half-baked villain Bullseye, and inventing a completely new kind ofDaredevilvillain in Elektra. Yet, he also offers a vivid appreciation of the indelible panels drawn by Miller the artist, taking a fresh look at his distinctive page layouts and lines.
A childhood fan of Miller'sDaredevil, Young takes readers on a personal journey as he seeks to reconcile his love for the comic with his distaste for the fascistic overtones of Miller's controversial later work. What he finds will resonate not only with Daredevil fans, but with anyone who has contemplated what it means to be a hero in a heartless world.
Other titles in the Comics Culture series includeTwelve-Cent Archie,Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics,1941-1948, andConsidering Watchmen:
Poetics, Property, Politics.
For over seventy-five years, Archie and the gang at Riverdale High have been America's most iconic teenagers, delighting generations of readers with their never-ending exploits. But despite their ...ubiquity,Archiecomics have been relatively ignored by scholars-until now.
Twelve-Cent Archieis not only the first scholarly study of theArchiecomic, it is an innovative creative work in its own right. Inspired byArchie'sown concise storytelling format, renowned comics scholar Bart Beaty divides the book into a hundred short chapters, each devoted to a different aspect of theArchiecomics. Fans of the comics will be thrilled to read in-depth examinations of their favorite characters and motifs, including individual chapters devoted to Jughead's hat and Archie's sweater-vest. But the book also has plenty to interest newcomers to Riverdale, as it recounts the behind-the-scenes history of the comics and analyzes howArchiehelped shape our images of the American teenager.
As he employs a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches, Beaty reveals that theArchiecomics themselves were far more eclectic, creative, and self-aware than most critics recognize. Equally comfortable considering everything from the representation of racial diversity to the semiotics of Veronica's haircut,Twelve-Cent Archiegives a fresh appreciation for America's most endearing group of teenagers.
Oubapo (“Ouvroir de Bande dessinée Potentielle”) is a French acronym for a group of authors producing constrained comics, similar to the Oulipo. The group’s works develop more reflexive uses of the ...medium and generate a playful and critical metalanguage. In this article, I will show how the use of constraints allows the development of a certain theory and pedagogy of comics, taking as examples the work of Brazilian authors who testify to the effect of oubapian constraints.
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that dominated headlines around the world. Millions of Ukrainians would flee the country, and a third of the population would be ...displaced. In the days following the invasion, Swedish migration expert Gregg Bucken-Knapp sent text messages to his Ukrainian colleagues, offering support and assistance. These were their responses. In a series of graphic vignettes, Messages from Ukraine takes the words of Ukrainian migration professionals and transforms them into snapshots of how war affects the lives of everyday people: those who are forced to flee home and seek safety elsewhere, those who choose to stay and volunteer or fight, those who witness events unfolding from afar, and those who find themselves trapped in cities under siege. Messages from Ukraine captures a moment in time to tell a timeless story about war, displacement, determination, and resilience. Proceeds from the sale of Messages from Ukraine will go to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, a national charitable foundation that provides humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
Comics journalism bears testimony to different kinds of stories in the context of humanitarian witnessing, including personal relationships to the people who flee conflicts and the connections we ...make through languages. Over the latest years, the number of refugees and other migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in search of protection or a better life in Europe increased considerably. By focusing on two Italian examples of comics journalism, this article aims to answer the question: how does Italian comics journalism contribute to shaping our understanding of the crossing of borders in the Mediterranean region? By 'our,' I mean people living in Europe and the Global North more broadly. Grounding the analysis in the context of theoretical comics approaches, the first section explores the storylines as it situates the work of the authors within a precise socio-political framework. The second section discusses the documentary significance of both comics within the European discourse that tend to silence people on the move. After highlighting the potential of the decolonising multilingualism approach (Phipps
2019
) for Comics Studies, the conclusion calls for greater exchange between journalism, migration studies, and comics scholarship.
