What's a comic?

Using the analytical system developed by James Elkins (1999) comics should be defined as serial schemata. Regrettably, that category isn't yet in his taxonomy. Serial schemata would comprise a distracting and attention-grabbing art, circulated widely.

And building on Gowans (1991), comics merit recognition (and care) as a repository of art, skill and pleasure not merely for the next generation of communicators, but for this generation.

With sufficient curiosity and time, it is always possible to find a good comic illustration to echo or support a case in point. Which is not to say that the illustrations here are nice graphic accents like those little vignettes in the New Yorker. In truth, most of these images are actually the content missing from this text. For instance, in this image (Ayroles 2000: 30), coincidentally also the last page of his moodily satiric "Notes Mésopotamiennes", the comic-book artist accomplishes, in plain view, the remarkable trick of placing the background in the front of the picture.

		Ephemeral landscapes: popular worlds? Conclusions, 3: what a comic really is

`Settings and images` `MassPopCultArt` `Material values` `back to the beginning of the INTRODUCTION` `check out the REFERENCES` `LITTLE PICTURES`		Using the analytical system developed by James Elkins (1999) comics should be defined as serial schemata. Regrettably, that category isn't yet in his taxonomy. Serial schemata would comprise a distracting and attention-grabbing art, circulated widely. And building on Gowans (1991), comics merit recognition (and care) as a repository of art, skill and pleasure not merely for the next generation of communicators, but for this generation. With sufficient curiosity and time, it is always possible to find a good comic illustration to echo or support a case in point. Which is not to say that the illustrations here are nice graphic accents like those little vignettes in the New Yorker. In truth, most of these images are actually the content missing from this text. For instance, in this image (Ayroles 2000: 30), coincidentally also the last page of his moodily satiric "Notes Mésopotamiennes", the comic-book artist accomplishes, in plain view, the remarkable trick of placing the background in the front of the picture.
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Conclusions, 3: what a comic really is

Conclusions, 3:
what a comic really is