Intro 2: "definition" (?)

Comic strips and comic books comprise a form of graphic art for reproduction that tells stories through the use of both pictures and words. (There are, of course, comics without words just as there is theatre without words, but in both cases the tradition of each form admits its most visual extremes.) The art form is known in French as bande dessinée (drawn strip), in German as Bilderstreifen or Bildergeschichte (picture strip or picture story), and in Italian as fumetto (literally "puff of smoke", in reference to speech balloons). The Japanese have manga. Only in English is there the ambiguous reference to humour; though sometimes known as "funnies", comic strips and books are not necessarily "comic". In a gesture toward artistic respectability, recent producers of some of the more carefully rendered comic books have tended to call their work graphic novels or graphic narratives. The old 1970s underground comix still circulate, too.

David Kunzle (1973: 2) proposes four essentials for the form:

1. There must be a sequence of separate images.

2. There must be a preponderance of image over text.

3. The medium in which the strip appears and for which it is originally intended must be reproductive, that is, in printed form, a mass medium.

4. The sequence must tell a story which is both moral and topical.

Measured by these criteria, the comic strip and comic book are extremely popular forms of popular culture, in many cultures. Though both derive from quite old traditional forms of printed expression in Europe and Asia, it is conventionally considered that their modern popular forms developed late in the nineteenth century, as a consequence of the explosion of newspaper circulation and the rise of literacy as a social goal for all rather than as an exclusive privilege. The contemporary comic strip derives more from the propagandistic 17th- and 18th- century popular broadsheets (documented in Kunzle 1973) than it does to the mediaeval illuminations that may appear as the "first comics" in histories of 20th-century comic strips.

Within the limitations prescribed by the definition, there is an astounding variety of expression. Usually, periodical comics maintain the strip form when compiled into books, but the flexibility of format offered by a page or double spread in a book has enticed artists to push the convention of the left-to-right/top-to-bottom reading sequence to its limits. Comic strips and books have developed through the twentieth century in close conjunction with other visual mass media (particularly films), and many technical conventions of pacing, framing, perspective, lighting and dialogue are shared among them.

Comics present, in ways both overt and subtle, visions of morality and topicality that have important social and personal uses. Their characterizations of personalities, institutions, themes and environments share a certain moral calculation, and are often very carefully directed to certain age groups and social classes. Both the graphic styles and the story contents of comic-strip art are used to present and promote the artist's visions. And both forms and contents are subject to the reader's or viewer's interpretation, either at the level presented by the individual artist, or on a multitude of other inadvertent but no less significant levels. The artist may choose to reinforce social convention, or to criticize it.

Visual narratives seldom exceed short-story ambitions. In practice, many popular visual narratives tend toward satire, usually with a "surprise" ending that may be humorous or tragic. Only in the longest comic-book tales (which are invariably a collection of previously published episodes) is there to be found the type of story development characteristic of a novel.

What's so real about the ephemeral?

		Ephemeral landscapes: introduction The range of comic art

`back to the beginning of the INTRODUCTION`		Comic strips and comic books comprise a form of graphic art for reproduction that tells stories through the use of both pictures and words. (There are, of course, comics without words just as there is theatre without words, but in both cases the tradition of each form admits its most visual extremes.) The art form is known in French as bande dessinée (drawn strip), in German as Bilderstreifen or Bildergeschichte (picture strip or picture story), and in Italian as fumetto (literally "puff of smoke", in reference to speech balloons). The Japanese have manga. Only in English is there the ambiguous reference to humour; though sometimes known as "funnies", comic strips and books are not necessarily "comic". In a gesture toward artistic respectability, recent producers of some of the more carefully rendered comic books have tended to call their work graphic novels or graphic narratives. The old 1970s underground comix still circulate, too. David Kunzle (1973: 2) proposes four essentials for the form: 1. There must be a sequence of separate images. 2. There must be a preponderance of image over text. 3. The medium in which the strip appears and for which it is originally intended must be reproductive, that is, in printed form, a mass medium. 4. The sequence must tell a story which is both moral and topical. Measured by these criteria, the comic strip and comic book are extremely popular forms of popular culture, in many cultures. Though both derive from quite old traditional forms of printed expression in Europe and Asia, it is conventionally considered that their modern popular forms developed late in the nineteenth century, as a consequence of the explosion of newspaper circulation and the rise of literacy as a social goal for all rather than as an exclusive privilege. The contemporary comic strip derives more from the propagandistic 17th- and 18th- century popular broadsheets (documented in Kunzle 1973) than it does to the mediaeval illuminations that may appear as the "first comics" in histories of 20th-century comic strips. Within the limitations prescribed by the definition, there is an astounding variety of expression. Usually, periodical comics maintain the strip form when compiled into books, but the flexibility of format offered by a page or double spread in a book has enticed artists to push the convention of the left-to-right/top-to-bottom reading sequence to its limits. Comic strips and books have developed through the twentieth century in close conjunction with other visual mass media (particularly films), and many technical conventions of pacing, framing, perspective, lighting and dialogue are shared among them. Comics present, in ways both overt and subtle, visions of morality and topicality that have important social and personal uses. Their characterizations of personalities, institutions, themes and environments share a certain moral calculation, and are often very carefully directed to certain age groups and social classes. Both the graphic styles and the story contents of comic-strip art are used to present and promote the artist's visions. And both forms and contents are subject to the reader's or viewer's interpretation, either at the level presented by the individual artist, or on a multitude of other inadvertent but no less significant levels. The artist may choose to reinforce social convention, or to criticize it. Visual narratives seldom exceed short-story ambitions. In practice, many popular visual narratives tend toward satire, usually with a "surprise" ending that may be humorous or tragic. Only in the longest comic-book tales (which are invariably a collection of previously published episodes) is there to be found the type of story development characteristic of a novel. What's so real about the ephemeral?
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The range of comic art