I have a new article out in a collection called Comics & Politik - Comics & Politics, edited by Stephan Packard. My article, entitled 'A Defining Problem', looks at the ways in which we define comics, and expands on a talk I gave at the 2012 ComFor conference (details of the conference can be found on the Comics Forum website here). Some of the content crosses over with my chapter on definitions in Comics and the Senses, but as the article was due slightly later than the book manuscript I did have the opportunity to address Bart Beaty's work on institutional definitions in his excellent book Comics Versus Art, so there is a bit of new content for those who've already read Comics and the Senses.
Here's the abstract:
Attempts to define comics have frequently involved the identification of specific visual elements, often a sequence of images, as essential characteristics of the medium. Other definitions have focused upon the social contexts in which comics have been produced and received. This article outlines three different categories of definition: elemental, knowingly incomplete, and social. It argues that while elemental and knowingly incomplete definitions (which tend to emphasise image sequences as critical components of comics) have formed the basis for our understanding of how comics work, it is perhaps the social mode that is the most useful because it enables us to go outside a limited set of specific characteristics and consider a wide range of elements from the cultural contexts in which comics sit, to the non-visual elements of the medium.
It's a fantastic and substantial (495 page!) collection with some great contributors, and articles in both English and German.
The publisher's webpage for the book is here, and you can order the book here.
ISBN 978-3-941030-29-9
€ 39,90
CONTENTS
Stephan PACKARD
Politisches im Comic und Comics in der Politik
Einleitung
Ann MILLER
Konsens und Dissens im Bande Dessinée
Ole FRAHM
Die Geste des Comics
Ian HAGUE
A Defining Problem
Johannes von MÜLLER
»Im Antlitz der menschlichen Kreatur«
Eine parallele Lektüre der Werke von
Honoré Daumier und Carl Barks
Rikke PLATZ CORTSEN, Ralf KAURANEN, Louise C. LARSEN, Anne MAGNUSSEN und Michael SCHOLZ
Between Propaganda and Entertainment:
Nordic Comics 1930s–1950s
Martin FRENZEL
Das »Empört Euch!«-Credo von Hergé bis Baru
Über das Widerständige des Politischen in
der frankobelgischen Bande Dessinée
Anne MAGNUSSEN
Spanish Comics and Politics
From Propaganda and Censorship through
Political Activism to Cultural Reflections
Giovanni REMONATO
Comics und Propaganda: Der »Kamerad« Corto Maltese
Martin WAMBSGANSS
Blutige Bilder und der Abstand vom Bild
Micha Johann GERSTENBERG
»The Justice Society of America Pursues Victory for America and Democracy«
Der amerikanische Superhelden-Comic als Propagandamedium im Spannungsfeld von Antisemitismus und amerikanischer Außenpolitik 1940–45
Florian HESSEL
Comic, Information, Propaganda: Milton Caniffs How to Spot a Jap in der Kulturindustrie
Jelena STOJANOVIC
The Situationist International, Cold War,
Comics, and the »Youth Question«
Manuela GRÜNANGERL
Comic-Visionen im Umbruch
Politische und gesellschaftliche Wandlungsprozesse in der portugiesischen Comicproduktion der 1970er Jahre
Kalina KUPCZYNSKA
Pathos rules – über propagandistische
Aspekte der Solidarnosc-Comics
Marc BLANCHER
On affame bien les rats!
oder: Ein ästhetischer Bericht über
die Unterdrückung in den 70er Jahren
Michael FREUND
Von distanzierter Sozialsatire zur realistischen Berichterstattung – der Vietnam- und der Irakkrieg in Trudeaus Doonesbury-Strip
Ralf PALANDT
Les rats noirs
Rechtsextreme Selbstdarstellung durch Comic-Figuren
Kristin ECKSTEIN und Felix GIESA
Strategien der visuell-narrativen Kritik
am repressiven Schulsystem Japans
Matthias HARBECK
Beyond the Nazi?
The »New« Germany in American Mainstream
Comic Books since 1989
Chantal Catherine MICHEL
Schikane, Schüsse, Sprengstoffgürtel:
Politische Gewalt in Nahostkonflikt-Comics
Hans-Joachim BACKE
Politrickery
Brian K. Vaughans Meta-Politik
Dietrich GRÜNEWALD
Macht der Bilder
Die politisch-poetische Parabel Im Land der verlorenen Erinnerung (Stéphane Poulin, 2011)