The comic market in the Western world today is heterogeneous and complex. However, I suggest it can be divided into three main segments, or groups of readers (see also the American market commentaries Alexander 2014, Alverson 2013): the first segment are manga fans, many of which also like anime and other kinds of Japanese pop culture. The second segment are comic fans in a narrower sense, who, at least in America, read mostly superhero comic books, and other comics from the genres of science fiction and fantasy. These are the ‘fanboys and true believers’ that Matthew J. Pustz writes about in his book Comic Book Culture (Pustz 1999). Finally, the third segment is the general public. These readers are not fans, but only casual readers of comics – mostly so-called “graphic novels”, newspaper strips and collections thereof, and the occasional bestseller such as the latest Asterix album.
Category Archives: Guest Writers
Alternative Paradoxes in Heartless: Reading (Un-)Love in Nina Bunjevac’s ‘Bitter Tears of Zorka Petrovic’ by Laura A. Pearson
Right in the heart of Nina Bunjevac’s comics collection Heartless (2012) we find Zorka, the eponymous protagonist of the five-comic sequence ‘Bitter Tears of Zorka Petrovic.’[1] This is the same intriguing catwoman character who adorns the front and back covers, first displayed behind the wheel of a car and then defiantly riding the back of an unplugged vacuum cleaner. Contrasting these cover images, on the splash page beginning the ‘Bitter Tears’ sequence, we rediscover Zorka, framed—etherized even—in thick black, undergoing an abortion. In this precisely paradoxical ‘pregnant moment’—inducing a temporal narrative cycle that ‘radiates in both directions’ (Wolk 2007, 131) and arousing a heighted sense of ‘Peeping Tomism’ that comes along with reading through the windows of graphic fiction—this image conjures all sorts of human-non-human, funny animal, and ‘not-so-funny animal’ associations [2] (Fig.1). And thus begins a text teeming with ‘alternative tensions,’[3] a tragicomic yet serious satire, where at least one crucial crux—the fantasy of love, lust, and belonging—resides between a comedy of errors on one hand and a tragedy of ideologically grounded ideals on the other.
Manga Studies #1: Introduction by Jaqueline Berndt
Manga [1] does not easily attract scholarly interest as comics. In the name of manga, the critical focus is usually less on sequential art but rather a certain illustration style or character design, and closely related, fannish engagement in transformative or derivative creations (dōjinshi), up to and including cosplay. In many cases, scholars turn to manga as an entry point for research on girls’ (shōjo) culture and female consumers, gender and sexuality, the subcultures of fujoshi (self-designated “rotten girls” engaged in Boys’ Love, or yaoi)[2] and otaku (geeks). Attempts at elucidating the peculiar role of the comics medium in that regard—for example, by focusing not only on “shōjo” but also “manga” when discussing shōjo manga [3] —remain a distinct minority whenever sociological and anthropological concerns prevail. Be it “fan culture,” “subculture” or “scene,” user communities are given preference over media specificity, texts and individual readings, at least outside of Japan. This applies especially to Japanese Studies, which is still the field yielding most manga research abroad. Here, manga is taken to represent, if not national culture in general, then Japanese popular culture, in the main understood as a youth culture with significant global impact and economic effects. Consequently, the utilization of manga as mere object appears to matter more than methodological diligence.[4] Whether subjected to symptomatic readings of social issues or to sophisticated critical theory, media-specific contexts and manga-related expertise tend to be neglected. This is as much due to specific institutional requirements as it is indicative of a lack within the institution, that is, the absence of a respective field of research and criticism.
The Future Art of the Past? An e-panel on comics and archaeology – Part 2, edited by John Swogger
Featuring: Chloe Brown, Peter Connelly, Troy Lovata, Hannah Sackett, John Swogger and Al B. Wesolowsky
Click here to read part 1 of this panel.
Ancient artefacts, lost archaeological expeditions and ruins long hidden in jungles and deserts have long been part of comics heritage. From the EC Comics clichés of lost pyramids and ancient curses through to the Phantom and Adele Blanc-Sec, archaeology has long served as an inspiration for comics writers and illustrators.
It is only relatively recently that archaeologists themselves, however, have begun to use comics in a professional context. The list of published examples is not long, but includes works like Archaeology: The Comic (Johannes Loubser, 2003) and the archaeological comic ‘zine Shovel Bum (Trent DeBoer, ed., 1997 – present; collected edition, 2004).
This e-panel brings together six archaeologists, all of whom are making comics about archaeology, aimed at a wide range of audiences. Their work explores new ways of using comics as a medium for science communication.
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Comics Forum 