This book chapter, published as part of the edited volume "Empirical Comics Research (Routledge, 2018), puts forward a quantitative approach to the study of comics by introducing a stylistic analysis of a corpus of around 240 graphic novels, graphic memoirs and other non-fiction.

"Le journalisme graphique, dit aussi « BD-journalisme », est passé en l’espace de quelques années du statut de curiosité générique explorée par quelques francs-tireurs à partir des années 1960 à celui de phénomène éditorial de masse. Décliné dans des formes et médias variés qui vont de la BD-reportage  éditée en album one shot au feuilleton commandé par des revues spécialisées en passant par des séries télévisées d’animation, des blogs de vulgarisation scientifiques, des collections spécialisées, le genre touche un spectre thématique infini et jouit d’une popularité croissante en parvenant à séduire un lectorat qui dépasse largement le cœur de cible traditionnel du monde de la bande dessinée.
Éditeurs, médiologues, bédélogues, journalistes, auteurs de bandes dessinées, lecteurs spécialisés ont tous pu voir la vitesse et l’ampleur prises par ce phénomène depuis les années 2000 sur le marché franco-belge. Si la massification de la BD-journalisme est bien une nouveauté, le journalisme graphique, lui, n’est pas sans histoire, loin de là, et sans doute conviendrait-il d’en rappeler quelques aspects. Les mooks  de type la revue XXI ou La Revue dessinée et les albums d’auteurs à succès comme Joe Sacco ou autres ne sont que la partie saillante d’un rhizome solidement enraciné et fait d’autres genres, de jalons et de maîtres qui au long de l’histoire ont indirectement œuvré à son avènement présent. Dessins de presse, croquis d’audience, reportages illustrés, romans-photos (certains), biographies, autobiographies dessinées, sketchbooks, carnets de voyage, bandes dessinées de savoir, récits historiques… sont autant de racines auxquelles la bande dessinée journalistique actuelle est rattachée à un degré ou à un autre. Ces genres, qui sont tous membres à divers degrés de la famille de la non-fiction, ont en commun d’avoir souscrit au même pacte de « référentialité  » et relèvent tous d’un même contrat de lecture, celui de la vérité.

La verte et tendre vitalité du journalisme en bande dessinée ne doit pas faire oublier que le dessin et la bande dessinée dans le journalisme remontent à loin. Comme le rappelle La Revue dessinée dans l’éditorial de son premier numéro de l’automne 2013 : « Depuis toujours, le dessin entretient des liens étroits avec la presse. Le Journal illustré, The Graphic ou Le Petit Journal, revues populaires du XIXe siècle, racontaient l’actualité en mêlant texte et illustration. » Mais la presse quotidienne non illustrée, dominante, n’est pas pour autant sans contact avec la bande dessinée ou le dessin. Dès la fin du XIXe siècle, outre-Atlantique, il n’est plus guère de quotidien sans ses funnies dominicaux, prémices des daily strips qui s’empareront au début du XXe siècle de la plupart des journaux occidentaux...
(extrait de l'introduction de Benoît Mitaine et Judite Rodrigues)".

The earliest medical descriptions of anorexia occurred in 1689 with Richard Morton’s Phthisiologia, Or, A Treatise of Consumptions, however, it took another century for medical science to accept anorexia nervosa as a medical condition. Later on, it was Hilde Bruch who initiated the first public discussion on anorexia in the latter half of the twentieth century. While the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resorted solely to the verbal medium to narrate their eating disorder experience, the post-millennial era turned to a variety of visual and verbo-visual media. Stylistically differing widely from verbal texts, graphic medicine, a subgenre of comics, provides singular ways of negotiating eating disorders. Accordingly, a concise overview of some of the canonical works on eating disorders from 1970-2018 will be presented. Lastly, graphic medicine and the aptness of the comics medium in representing the subtle layers of eating disorder experience will be examined.

PROGETTO PROMOSSO DA
Fabio Muzi, Dirigente Liceo Artistico Dosso Dossi di Ferrara

A CURA DI
Stefania D’Arcangelo, Federica Zabarri Liceo Artistico Dosso Dossi

GIURIA DEL CONCORSO
Matteo Anderolini spazio Zuni - Ferrara
Cinzia Calzolari Liceo Artistico Dosso Dossi
Gianluca Costantici disegnatore e blogger indipendente

Workshop sulle tecniche grafico-espressive dell’illustrazione e del fumetto dal 19 al 26 Marzo 2014

Comic_ONoir #04
Tutta dedicata al Noir, l’edizione 2014 del concorso di arti visive Comic-On: sulla scia del fumetto e altro promosso dal Liceo Artistico “Dosso Dossi” di Ferrara.
Il racconto oggetto delle opere grafiche, che in questo anno ha visto cimentarsi gli studenti del Liceo Artistico con il linguaggio espressivo del fumetto e dell’illustrazione, è infatti il capostipite del genere: “Il cuore rivela- tore” di Edgar Allan Poe.
Il concorso, nato quattro anni fa all’interno del Liceo “Dosso Dossi” con l’intento di stimolare la creatività indi- viduale degli studenti e di favorire la partecipazione dei giovani alla vita culturale della scuola, ha creato non solo momenti di sana competizione studentesca per il riconoscimento delle eccellenze, ma anche possibilità di incontro con il mondo professionale: le edizioni precedenti hanno infatti visto impegnati nella collabora- zione al progetto numerosi esperti del settore, da fumettisti e illustratori (come Germano Bonazzi e Rocco Lombardi), a editori, galleristi e sceneggiatori.
Come per le precedenti edizioni, il concorso ha premiato i primi classificati con l’accesso all’annuale workshop organizzato dal Liceo Artistico, dedicato alle tecniche del fumetto e dell’illustrazione, che ha visto per l’edizio- ne del 2014, il coinvolgimento di un docente d’eccellenza: il disegnatore e blogger Gianluca Costantini, autore di spicco nel panorama illustrativo italiano ed europeo.
Questa piccola pubblicazione vuole essere un omaggio nei confronti di quegli alunni che hanno saputo di- stinguersi per il loro impegno e la loro partecipazione, e per tutti i docenti e collaboratori, che in questi quattro anni, hanno permesso con il loro lavoro, la realizzazione del progetto.

A CURA DI
Gianluca Costantini

PRIMO PREMIO
Camilla Neri, III°A
Per aver dimostrato una notevole capacità compositiva
ed esecutiva e per aver padroneggiato l’elaborazione del racconto, cogliendone in pieno l’atmosfera noir.

SECONDO PREMIO
Anna Molchanova, V°A - DIS. PITT.
Per aver saputo rendere graficamente il testo con estrema originalità narrativa, utilizzando una tecnica espressiva efficace e personale,
cogliendo con estrema ironia anche i tratti più drammatici del racconto.

TERZO PREMIO
Diana Bianchi, V°A - DIS. PITT.
Per aver dimostrato capacità di sintesi unita ad una efficace
espressività figurativa e per aver saputo sviluppare il brano illustrato attraverso una suggestiva ambientazione spaziale.

Il Workshop ha visto impegnati gli alunni in due differenti fasi. Durante le prima è stato chiesto ai ragazzi di analizzare tre elementi particolari, quali una volpe, un cacciatore e il bosco: il frutto di queste prime esercitazioni si è tradotto nella realizzazione di un’azione narrativa unica, da parte di tutti, mediante l’esecuzione di una tavola a fumetti inchiostrata.
La seconda fase li ha visti impegnati nella produzione di un micro racconto, da risolversi in tre tavole con la possibile introduzione del colore, il cui cardine, comune per tutti, è stato un semplice elemento: una mela.

El conocido por algunos teóricos y editores como boom del cómic adulto, fue el último momento en que el cómic pensado para quiosco tuvo un carácter masivo en España, gracias a revistas como El Víbora, Cairo o 1984. Durante las décadas de los años setenta y ochenta estas publicaciones fueron la base del sistema editorial, además de «medio de vida y escuela», en palabras de Max, para muchos autores.

Entre la segunda mitad de los años ochenta y comienzos de los noventa, la revista como formato desaparece progresivamente. El entramado de edición en el que podían publicar los creadores españoles cambia y, tras una apuesta efímera por el comic-book, pasa a basarse principalmente en el formato libro y en la idea de novela gráfica. Muchos historietistas, sin los ingresos estables que proporcionan las revistas, dejan el cómic en beneficio de otras artes como la pintura, el audiovisual, la ilustración o el diseño gráfico.

Las voces reunidas en el libro narran este apasionante momento de cambio, vital para la historia del cómic y, por extensión, para la historia del arte en España, en un proceso compartido parcialmente a nivel internacional. Se crea una visión amplia, en la que se encuentran representadas desde las autoras y autores del periodo, hasta autoeditores, editores y otros agentes clave en el mercado, como las librerías especializadas. Los protagonistas de la época se sinceran con el lector en lo que constituye la mayor reunión de testimonios relativos al cómic español.

Reprenant partiellement mon mémoire de master II, ce dossier aborde l'histoire des éditions Lug, principal importateur des comics Marvel entre 1969 et 1989 en France, évoquant à la fois la biographie de ses membres fondateurs, la pression de la loi de contrôle de 1949 et les méthodes employés pour la traduction et l'adaptation.

Unnatural narratology has recently focused our attention on unnatural representations of time. It is usually assumed that the ‘typical sjuzhet’ must be linear, while the ‘variable sjuzhet’ is unnatural and belongs exclusively to experimental works. Instances of time travel are also considered unnatural story elements that have been conventionalised by popular culture. In this article, these supposedly unnatural ingredients of narratives will be examined in the context of the semiotic potential and cultural tradition of European comics. I shall argue that a variable sjuzhet should be considered a natural quality of the medium because of its tabularity and its nonlinear organisation, and that most time travel that we find in comics is a mere extension of the motif of the ‘extraordinary journey’ and does not engender time paradoxes. Thus, it appears that, in the comics tradition, the graphic potential of time travel has predominated over scriptwriting complexities, highlighting the specificity of the ‘graphic imagination’.

Reviewed August 2014, updated October 2015
To commemorate his 75th year in 2013, this is the fascinating true story about the "birthplace" and "parents" of Superman. Not Krypton. Not Jor-el and Lara. Not even Jonathan and Martha. But the Depression-era team of writer Jerry Siegel and illustrator Joe Shuster in the old Jewish village of Glenville in Cleveland, Ohio. Super-interesting, leading to my visit to their homes during my Summer 2014 vacation.

Hoccleve's metrical feet than on his physical ones. It reimagines -and redraws -Hoccleve as a comic book protagonist by condensing and adapting the fifteenth-century poem into a 14-page comic. The accompanying essay uses contemporary comics theory to think about the sensory aesthetics of Hoccleve's anxiety, reads his feet and heart as key figures in the poem, and suggests parallels between scribal labor and comics drafting. The project was initially conceived as a creative experiment, an homage to the poem, and a teaching aid.

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane Part of the American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Art Education Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Creative Writing Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Higher Education Commons, Illustration Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons

Jerusalem is the frontline and a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In recent years, comic artists have turned their attention to the Middle East, including the ‘Holy City’. Scholars, however, have yet to study how comics engage with life in Jerusalem, in particular the relationships between Arabs and Jews. In this article, I will take on this critical oversight and explore how Mira Friedman’s ‘Independence Day’ (2008), Sarah Glidden’s How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less (2010) and Miriam Libicki’s Jobnik!: An American Girl’s Adventures in the Israeli Army (2008) engage with the complicated social situation. The philosopher, Emmanuel Lévinas, has argued that face-to-face encounters are the basis for recognizing the Other as human and for feeling responsibility towards him or her.1 In this article I show that we rarely see the Other’s face in the corpus of the Jewish comic artists I discuss here. Instead, the Arab presence is brought into the texts by way of urban elements such as the Dome of the Rock, media remediations or indistinct, distant figures. This highlights that comics are closely tied into the current situation between Israelis and Palestinians, where fear and separation rule to a level where the Arab Other – whether Christian or Muslim – of the Jews of Jerusalem is almost invisible.

"La ficción tiene mucho poder y no se puede hacer de ella un panfleto" Paco Roca habla de su último trabajo 'La Casa' y reflexiona sobre su experiencia como creador Una de las contribuciones más extraordinarias al impulso de la novela gráfica en España en los últimos años es, sin ninguna duda, la de Paco Roca (Valencia, 1969), un autor que desde la publicación de su obra Arrugas (2007) ha alcanzado un éxito notable dentro y fuera de nuestras fronteras. Coincidiendo con su paso por Valladolid para presentar su último trabajo La Casa (Astiberri, 2015), en la librería La Parada de los Cómics, últimoCero ha podido mantener una conversación con él. En ella, reflexiona sobre su libro y sobre algunos otros aspectos relacionados con su experiencia como creador. Las tareas de guionista o de dibujante de cómic son por sí solas muy meritorias. Guionistas como Antonio Altarriba o dibujantes como David Aja constituyen en el tiempo actual verdaderas cumbres creativas de la novela gráfica. Ahora bien, reunir-como en su caso-ambos perfiles en una sola persona, da la sensación de ser casi una conjunción astral. Todas sus obras en general y, en particular, alguna como Las Calles de Arena, delatan a un escritor de raza, que juega con suma soltura con referencias literarias, artísticas, filosóficas o científicas… pero, al mismo tiempo, demuestran una maestría técnica alucinante a la hora de dibujar. ¿Qué hay que saber de Paco Roca, que aún no sepamos, para explicar esta equilibrada proporción de genio tanto en la escritura como en el dibujo? En mi caso, creo que esta circunstancia tiene que ver con mis orígenes profesionales. A la novela gráfica, llegué a partir de mis trabajos previos como dibujante en el mundo del cómic y tras muchos años dedicado a la creación en publicidad. La experiencia que ambas cosas me han proporcionado me ha hecho sin duda ser muy versátil. Cuando hacía publicidad, me dedicaba ante todo a hacer ilustraciones. En esa época, mi socio-una persona con la que conviví prácticamente desde los 17 años-era escritor y se dedicaba a la ciencia ficción y a la novela histórica. De él aprendí muchísimas cosas sobre la escritura, la narración, la novela… Desde luego, me di cuenta de que para saber cómo planificar una historia había que leer a Nombre de usuario Contraseña

Pollution, this article suggests, challenges the fundamental structural premises of contemporary state institutions such as the law. These institutions are based on the premise of human exceptionalism via the construction of a human-nature divide. This divide only allows one point of connection between human and nature: the human ability to absorb nature as property. Such metaphorical understandings of absorption become a problem as soon as the physical human body is faced with a situation in which we constantly absorb pollution (e.g. nitrogen oxides, microplastic, ionizing radiation, but also other life forms such as airborne viruses). As a result, contemporary institutions are ill-equipped to deal with pollution as a central element of the contemporary human condition.

This article suggests that comics are a model for rethinking these categorical issues productively and sustainably. By using visual elements, comics have already been able to reframe and recontextualize categorical premises such as the human-nature divide that otherwise tend to be reproduced in critical theory and the law. To make this point for the potential of a new categorical language that centrally draws on visual elements in text, the article uses two central examples from Japan and Germany: Osamu Tezuka's story "Space Snow Leopard" from the Astro Boy series, and Chlodwig Poth's short comic "Jörg the Limelight Hog."

Article published in the collective book "Alan Moore, tisser l'invisible" (edited by Julien Bétan), published in 2010 by Les Moutons électriques (collection "La Bibliothèque des miroirs"). I present the main elements developed by Alan Moore in his book "Alan Moore's Writing for Comics". 
Article publié dans l'ouvrage collectif "Alan Moore, tisser l'invisible" (sous la direction de Julien Bétan), publié en 2010 par Les Moutons électriques (collection "La Bibliothèque des miroirs"). J'y présente les principaux éléments développés par Alan Moore dans son ouvrage "Alan Moore's Writing for Comics".

Der Zugang zum Webcomic lässt sich in zwei Strömungen unterteilen: Auf der einen Seite untersuchen Forscher die wandelnden kommunikativen und sozialen Funktionen des Comics: weg
von einseitiger (one to many), hin zu wechselseitiger und vernetzter Kommunikation (many to many) – häufig in Einklang mit optimistischen Einschätzungen der demokratisierenden Natur des Web 2.0. Auf der anderen Seite untersucht und sucht man eine „spezifische, von anderen Comics unterscheidbare Ästhetik“,  wie Lars Banhold und David Freis es formulieren – oder mit Hammels Begriffen: „Was kann ein Webcomic, was ein Printcomic nicht kann?“

Dieser Artikel möchte zeigen, warum eine abschließende Definition des (Web-)Comics medienhistorisch weder wünschenswert noch möglich ist; wie diese Frage in den letzten Jahren gerade durch den Webcomic auf neue Weisen durcheinander geraten ist; und welche Chancen sich darin für unser Verständnis des Comics generell – gleichgültig ob als Kunstform, Genre, Medium oder Gestaltungsprinzip – ausmachen lassen.

Visible Cities, Global Comics: Urban Images and Spatial Form explores representations of the city in a selection of comics from across the globe. This research monograph accomplishes two interrelated goals. First, it brings insights from urban theory to bear on specific comics texts, and second, it uses comics texts to elucidate themes of urbanism, architecture, planning, and the cultures of cities. In the process, each chapter introduces readers to specific comics artists and texts and investigates a range of matters pertaining to the medium's spatial form, stylistic variation, and cultural prominence. Following an urban cultural studies approach to the medium of comics, the chapters in this book give equal weight to what cultural studies pioneer Raymond Williams once called "the project" (or, art) and "the formation" (or, society).1 Adapting this premise to study the culture(s) of cities, comics are approached here as an artistic form to be understood in the context of an urbanizing society. At the same time, however, each chapter emphasizes the artistry of the comics medium, paying close attention to structural and spatial elements of the form, such as panel composition and transitions, word and thought balloons, page layouts, and other formal aspects or elements of graphic style. The point is not to suggest that global comics generally deal with the urban in the same way. In fact, comics may deal with the city as an idea, a historical fact, a social construction, a concrete built environment, a shared space forged from the collective imagination, or a social arena navigated according to one's personal desire. The organization of the book into thematic units allows for implicit and explicit points of comparison to emerge within and across its five chapters. Visible Cities is best seen as an urban contribution to an interdisciplinary phase in comics studies. Much work has already been directed toward establishing the basis for the study of comics and graphic novels as an autonomous field,

O artigo discute os conceitos de narratividade e suspense (Baroni, 2007) próprios da experiência de leitura dos quadrinhos (Fresnault-Deruelle, 1976) a partir de um ponto de vista negativo: pretende-se contemplar a suspensão do suspense em histórias com fracos níveis de tensão, em trabalhos centrados no cotidiano de seus protagonistas - marcadamente presentes nos quadrinhos alternativos (Hatfield, 2005).

***

Drawing from concepts from post classical narrative theory (Baroni, 2007), the following paper seeks to explore the dynamics of suspense proper to the experience of reading comics (Fresnault-Deruelle, 1976), especially in contemporary everyday sto- ries that involve a low narrative tension, like many alternative comics (Hatfield, 2005).

This article is the result of archival research at the Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami Libraries about the Cuban detainees at the Guantanamo Naval Base during the migratory crisis of 1994 between Cuba and the United States. The article discusses the value of comics as testimonial and historical documents.

U no de los resultados del auge del cómic en nuestro país en la última década ha sido la aparición de numerosas obras teóricas sobre el medio. A las obras producidas por la primera generación de estudiosos de la historieta como Luis Gasca y Román Gubern se le han unido últimamente publicaciones como, entre otras, La novela gráfica (2010; traducida, además, recientemente al inglés), de Santiago García, también coordinador del libro Supercómic. Mutaciones de la novela gráfica (2013); la antología de estudios internacionales La novela gráfica. Poética y modelos narrativos (2013), coordinada por José Manuel Trabado, también autor de Antes de la novela gráfica (2012); La arquitectura de las viñetas (2009), de Rubén Varillas o Narraciones gráficas. Del códice medieval al cómic (2014), de Roberto Bartual. A esta serie de obras se añade la labor realizada por plataformas como Tebeosfera o, más recientemente, de revistas como la propia CuCo. Cuadernos de Cómic. El estudio académico del cómic en España, sin embargo, todavía se encuentra en proceso de consolidación. No ha habido traducción al español hasta el momento, por ejemplo, de algunos estudios clave sobre el medio de autores como Benoît Peeters, Thierry Groensteen o Neil Cohn.

The latest Bond flick No Time To Die was certainly a rollercoaster ride of exciting action scenes and great special effects, yet contained more than a quantum of longueurs. With a running time of 163 minutes it certainly tries the patience and the bladders of its audiences (who I saw popping out of the cinema throughout the film). Personally, I think 90 minutes is enough for any film, especially since the disappearance of the intermission and ice-cream selling of yore. In this case, the increased length seems to have been to incorporate backstories of some of the individuals involved. The effect of this is to attenuate Bond's appearances in the film, while adding very little to the story (hence the longueurs). By Official James Bond 007 Website One effect of this narrative style is to put more emphasis on the story of Bond and less on the usual geopolitics and action we associate with Bond films. Now this is very interesting considering that if one was to ask oneself: which country would be the most likely target and villain of the latest Bond film as a cultural representative of the world's imperialist and neocolonial powers? It would have to be: China.

¿Por qué hacen reír los programas cómicos? ¿Cómo operan sus imágenes y sonidos para promover la risa o el disgusto? ¿Qué cambios tuvieron desde la década del 60? ¿Cuáles son las razones por las que actualmente están desapareciendo? Estas son algunas de las preguntas que guían las exploraciones de este libro. Un recorrido que comienza cuando los programas cómicos alcanzaban 60 puntos de rating y termina cuando solo dos sobreviven en la pantalla. En ese lapso apareció el control remoto, la televisión por cable, la videocasetera, internet, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Muchas cosas cambiaron, entre ellas, una expansión, como nunca antes, de lo risible mediatizado. Hoy difícilmente pasemos un día sin toparnos con un meme o un video cómico. En este contexto, el género que fundó lo reidero televisivo está muriendo. ¿Eso implica que mueren también sus modos de hacer reír? Para responder esto, primero hay que conocer sus operaciones

Why do comic TV shows laugh? How do their images and sounds operate to promote laughter or disgust? What changes have they had since the 1960s? What are the reasons why they are currently disappearing? These are some of the questions that guide the explorations of this book. A tour that begins when the comic programs reached 60 rating points and ends when only two survive on the screen. During this period, the remote control, cable television, VCR, internet, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. appeared. Many things changed, among them, an expansion, as never before, of the laughable mediatized. Today we hardly spend a day without running into a meme or a funny video. In this context, the genre that founded the television reidero is dying. Does that mean they also die their ways of making people laugh? To answer this, we must first know their operations

One of Art Spiegelman’s motivations for using animal forms for the characters in the two volumes of Maus was to depict the dehumanization of the Jews during the Holocaust and as well the inhuman behavior of the Nazis and people of other nations. There is another side to this dehumanization in Maus that we will explore, namely what Deleuze and Guattari (D&G) call “becoming animal,” which is a mode of social and personal transformation undergone for the sake of survival and vitality and obtained through adaptation and mutation. D&G use Spinoza’s account of bodily composition and affective alteration to explain how threatening influences can push people and their groups into a temporary state of anonymity. While under this mode of indeterminacy, new arrangements and compositions may freely form and dissipate, which allows them to effectively survive, evade, and subvert the intruding powers. D&G further elaborate these notions of “becoming-animal” and the formation of anonymous “packs” by utilizing their concept of the “machinic assemblage,” whose parts reconfigure in order to disrupt or “minorize” the machinery of the larger system. This minorization operates as well on the level of language, where the minor group works within the major language system to undermine their oppressor’s regime of signs and values. Maus for example adopts the visually metaphoric language that presented the Jewish people in rodent form, as seen for instance in the Nazi propaganda documentary The Eternal Jew (Fritz Hippler, Der Ewige Jude, 1940), which depicts the Jews as rats infesting the entire world. But by shifting to mice and by drawing the Nazis as cats, Spiegelman evades the fixed meanings of the major visual language and introduces very different connotations and interpretations. Yet, one criticism of Spiegelman’s use of animal forms is that it sanitizes the horrors of the Holocaust and falsifies them by rendering them cute and harmless. I reply by including Maus under what D&G call a “minor genre,” in this case a particular kind of minor documentary. Filmed documentaries are rarely objective and unbiased, as we have seen already with the propaganda film The Eternal Jew’s distortions and misrepresentations. And Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah (1985), instead of presenting any archival footage of the Holocaust, merely interviews survivors, witnesses and former Nazi SS officers to “document” the subjective realities internal to the events. Maus as well is based on the recorded interviews of a Holocaust survivor, but instead of providing objective depictions of the visual horrors in his experiences, it instead documents the existential experience of losing cultural and personal identity. And the horrors of this particular element of the events are more effectively and faithfully documented using animal forms.

We elaborate on the semiotics of Lat’s drawings and argue that what makes Budak Kampung so remarkable is the soothing appeal for a long-gone-era of living in Malay rural. The character Lat is always depicted as a minor figure in the vastness of his surroundings, emphasizing further the loneliness of being a child in the immensity of rackets (family, friends and nature) which seek to – always – engulf him. For Lat, it is not only about how it is to feel being a child and growing up but – the beauty of being a child and growing up! Lat’s design strategy (juxtaposition of small and immense) will be the key in our semiotic reading of Lat’s imaginative yearning for his lost environment.

This class will examine the medium of bande dessinée as a particular product of French culture, distinct from American comics or Japanese manga. We will explore the position of BD within French culture, both throughout publication history and within contemporary culture. The course will predominantly focus on the medium's ability to provide a locus for various types of identity construction. Our readings will progress thematically, exploring constructions of national identity and mythology (Asterix, Superdupont, L'Enfant Cachée), gender and sexual identity (Les Culottées, Le Bleu est une couleur chaude), and colonial and post-colonial identities (Tintin au Congo, Le Chat du Rabin, Persépolis).

Historically, comics have been viewed as a "debased or simplified word-based literacy," explains Dale Jacobs, who considers comics to be complex, multimodal texts. Examining Ted Naifeh's Polly and the Pirates, Jacobs shows how comics can engage students in multiple literacies, furthering meaning-making practices in the classroom and beyond. We are better able to "hear" the narrator's voice because we can see what words are emphasized by the bold lettering, and we associate particular kinds of voices with the narrative voice of a pirate's tale, especially emphasized here by the shape of the text boxes.

Since his breakthrough in 2005, architect and cartoonist Klaus has been reveling in the light side of architecture with his drawings, comic strips, and cartoons. Published worldwide, his work usually tackles on the less uplifting aspects of the profession, criticizing its shortcomings and the excesses of its star system, usually coated with an array of educated winks to the many corners of architecture theory and history, science fiction, comics or cinema. In this conversation, he and architecture and popular culture scholar Luis Miguel Lus Arana discuss his work in the context of today's digital culture, where the interactions between architecture and its periphery -media, popular culture, graphic arts- seem to multiply. Comics, architectural criticism, image production, the creative power of sarcasm, the reemergence of craftsmanship and traditional techniques, as well as the new directions of the profession are some of the topics that sprang through it.

In adapting Paul Auster’s postmodern detective story City of Glass as a graphic novel, Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli succeeded in producing a visual translation of an often non-visual text. Focussing on Auster’s text rather than Auster’s story, it is argued, the artists make inventive use of visual metaphors, visual styles, and comic conventions to translate Auster’s words into pictures. The text’s investigation into, and interrogation of, language is brought to bear on the comic version’s own visual language, and City of Glass: The Graphic Novel emerges as valuable source material for a future poetics of comics.