Defining ComicsPinning Down the Invisible Art

What are comics?

How comics are "done"How comics are "read"What comics should be

Why define comics?

Comics is notliterature (or is it?)a genretext with pictures added (or vice versa)a prose version of film

A mediumComics is

1. Architecture2. Music3. Dance4. Sculpture5. Painting6. Poetry7. Film8. Photography9. Comics

Comics may be

The 9th art

According to Scott McCloud

Horrocks on McCloudPolitically-motivatedrevisionist

The 9th Art

Is this a comic?

Is this a comic?

Is this a comic?

"Pup" Ponders the Heat-Death of the Universe

Is this a comic?

What about this?“Do the Evolution”

Does a comic have to be a sequence?

Delaney on McCloud

• empty gesture• applying

science to art

Gardner on McCloudComics, in the end, is defined less by its formal properties . . . than by its invitation to the reader to project herself into the narrative and to project the narrative beyond the page.

Motion/Stasis

Sound/Silence

Passage of time/Time is fluid

Continous narrative/Discreet moments

Impressions/Blank spaces

Comics resist definition

Comics(In order of appearance)Scott McCloud, Understanding Comicsxkcd, "Hypotheticals"Dave Sim, CerebusDrew Weing, "Pup" Ponders the Heat Death of the UniversePearl Jam, ”Do the Evolution” (dir. Kevin Altieri & Todd MacFarlane)Chris Ware, Quimby MouseRebecca Dart, RabbitheadIDrawGirls, motionTezuka Osamu, Ode to KirihitoYoshihiro Tatsumi, A Drifting LifeAlison Bechdel, Fun HomeJim Woodring, The Frank BookAlan Moore, From Hell