Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Comics'

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Administración (MBA)
Autor no envia autorización del texto completo de su documento (Parte II)
[Parte I] Concentración AFE: estratégico y de mercados -- [Parte II] Concentración AFE organizativo - financiero.
Para el mundo de los negocios resultan bastante lejanos los cómics. Sin mucho espacio a duda, para el ejecutivo promedio no deja de ser una atracción pasajera para sus hijos, o tal vez la película de moda para ir a ver el fin de semana y seguramente una actividad propia de “nerds”. Pero cuando nos vamos interiorizando, y podemos observar por ejemplo, que el título más vendido de la historia, The Amazing Spiderman N° 583 (Sí el número 583, se vende hace casi 50 años!) vendió sólo en Estados Unidos, durante enero y febrero de 2009, más de 530 mil unidades, reportando para Marvel, la editorial dueña de los derechos, más de 2 millones de dólares, la percepción cambia y ya no resulta tan insignificante. Ahora bien, cualquier observador inexperto diría fácilmente, “pero esos datos son de Estados Unidos y no tienen nada que ver con nuestra realidad”, no deja de tener razón. Es evidente que nuestro país para cualquier negocio es menor, especialmente si es de nicho. No obstante, resulta llamativo que según la biografía revisada1 al año 2011, el 1% de la población nacional lee comics diariamente. Siendo conservadores, ya que aquel estudio no tenía ese fin, y considerando solo la ciudad de Santiago, el tamaño del mercado es superior a 70 mil personas. Según la encuesta que realizamos para conocer más de ellos, gastan cerca de $ 1.000 millones de pesos al año. Pero, ¿Que podríamos hacer distinto para captar la atención en este mercado? La verdad es que en Santiago no sería tan difícil. Fanáticos y aficionados del cómic solo son atendidos por 8 tiendas “especialistas”, que a la luz de una visita presencial a cada una de ellas, y según la confirmación que nos dieron los resultados de nuestra investigación, tienen características que no se condicen con lo que ellos quieren: atención deficiente, poca variedad de títulos y mala ubicación. En consecuencia, la idea de Comics Bang! es ofrecer una propuesta distinta a lo que hay en la actualidad en el mercado, poniendo a disposición de los consumidores la posibilidad de arrendar comics y participar de una batería de actividades ad hoc, en un espacio acogedor y tecnológico, para mejorar y hacer más llamativa la experiencia en la tienda. Con personal experto, pero amable y cercano, con mayor variedad de títulos disponibles de los que tienen en sus estanterías la competencia relevante y una ubicación ideal en pleno corazón de Providencia (en Calle Suecia a pasos del metro Los Leones) de fácil acceso y en un barrio comercial. Comics Bang! tiene una clara estrategia de diferenciación, donde sus esfuerzos y capacidades están dirigidos a dos públicos: el experto en cómics, que ya tiene un camino en este mundo y que prefiere comprar los títulos y participar de actividades periódicamente, pero también al principiante, que ve en el arriendo una oportunidad para aumentar su capacidad de leer títulos y conocimiento. Se pretende construir una relación con el cliente vinculante a través de la página web y de las redes sociales y por esta vía se intenta conseguir posicionamiento de marca y dar a conocer los atributos de la tienda. A pesar de que el equipo de trabajo será reducido, contaremos de manera ineludible con un Community Manager para enfatizar el interés de la empresa en darse a conocer y marcar tendencia en este ámbito. Respecto a la composición de la industria, no existen amenazas importantes y si ellas se materializaran, creemos contar con las habilidades y recursos suficientes para afrontarlas y superarlas. El equipo gestor cuenta con expertos en cómics, con el bagaje de haber trabajado en los distintos estamentos del negocio. La evaluación económica financiera del negocio considera un horizonte de cinco años para todas las proyecciones, teniendo como resultados relevantes para un inversión de 178.846.706 millones de pesos, un VAN de $268.008.621, con una TIR de 41,45%. Estos datos nos permiten concluir que es absolutamente recomendable llevar a cabo el proyecto, tenemos la convicción que la rentabilidad proyectada es sostenible y suficientemente atractiva para quienes deseen invertir en un emprendimiento no convencional pero seguro.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2013
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Stan Lee co-created in 1963 the X-Men; comics characters who in consequence of developing super-powers at puberty due to natural genetic evolution suffer society?s prejudice. In their analysis of the X-Men Trilogy X-Men (Bryan Singer 2000); X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer 2003); and X-Men: the Last Stand (Brett Ratner 2006); through a Disability Studies perspective Michael M. Chemers (2004), Ramona Ilea (2009), Martin Mantle (2007), and Jennifer Rinaldi (2008) argue that mutants can be understood as social characterizations of disability. This investigation studies whether this affirmation also holds true for mutants depicted in X-Men comics. I will analyze the comics storylines God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel # 05) and Gifted (Astonishing X-Men # 01 - 06) ? on which X2: X-Men United and X-Men: the Last Stand were based respectively.

Stan Lee foi o co-criador, em 1964, dos X-Men, personagens de histórias em quadrinhos os quais, em conseqüência de desenvolverem super-poderes na puberdade, são alvos do preconceito da sociedade. Ao analisar a Trilogia dos filmes dos X-Men - X-Men (Bryan Singer 2000); X2: X-Men United (Bryan Singer 2003); e X-Men: The Last Stand (Brett Ratner 2006); a partir de uma perspective de Estudos sobre Deficiência. Michael M. Chemers (2004), Ramona Ilea (2009), Martin Mantle (2007), e Jennifer Rinaldi (2008) argumentam que os mutantes podem ser compreendidos como caracterizações sociais de deficiência. Este estudo investiga se esta afirmação também é válida para os mutantes presentes nas histórias em quadrinhos dos X-Men. As linhas narrativas a serem analisadas são: God Loves, Man Kills (Marvel Graphic Novel 05) e Gifted (Astonishing X-Men # 01 - 06); nas quais foram baseados X2: X-Men United e X-Men: the Last Stand respectivamente.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Literature, Communication, and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010.
Committee Chair: Mazalek, Alexandra; Committee Member: Bolter, Jay; Committee Member: Knospel, Kenneth; Committee Member: Murray, Janet; Committee Member: Winegarden, Claudia Rebola. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

This thesis accounts for the influence on the mainstream American comic book industry of a group of comics creators from the cult British science fiction magazine 2000AD in the early 1980s. It details the way in which these creators developed new methods for approaching politics in comic books and delivering that to a more diverse group of readers as a response to censorship in Britain of the boys magazine Action. The thesis looks at the way the medium's publishing history has interacted with the development of its modes of communication; in particular it explores how the reader in comics is positioned in relation to character and narrative development. To support this argument two chapters are devoted to the methodology and discussion of how the medium works. Comics consist of sequences of images that require reader input to produce a narrative. The chapters on form explore the implications this has for close analysis. These chapters use Hergé's iconic character Tintin and Grant Morrison and Chas Truog's surreal Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina as examples and draw upon and critique the theoretical work of Scott McCloud and Thierry Groensteen, among others. The core of the thesis revolves around close analysis of eight texts, three from the UK and five from the USA. These are grouped into categories that broadly represent the different phases of the phenomenon. The first includes John Wagner, Alan Grant and Ian Gibson's RoboHunter: Play It Again Sam; Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's The Ballad of Halo Jones and Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta. These readings are then tested against roughly contemporary American published comics in the form of Chris Claremont and John Byrne's X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga and Frank Miller's Daredevil before looking at Alan Moore, Steve Bissette and John Totleben's Saga of The Swamp Thing as a direct transferral of values developed on 2000AD to the American market. The thesis then moves on to consider how British creators influenced American comics moving forward by looking at an example that was clearly influenced by the movement in Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns again using his earlier comic Ronin for comparison. Throughout the thesis these readings are used to show how these comics imagined new political configurations in response to the right-wing politics of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and attempted to do so while engaging a more diverse readership than was previously the case in either the British or American adventure comics mainstream. The thesis as a whole advances comics studies in terms of contributing to theoretical work on how the medium communicates and by providing a detailed look at this period in the history of comics. It also contributes to a framework for future research in cultural studies to approach different aspects of the medium.

Attempts to define what comics are and explain how they work have not always been successful because they are premised upon the idea that comics are inherently and almost exclusively visual. Drawing on social definitions for its object, this study challenges that premise and asserts that comics is not just a visual medium. The study outlines the multisensory aspects of comics: the visual, audible, tactile, olfactory and gustatory elements of the medium. It rejects a synaesthetic approach (by which all the senses are engaged through visual stimuli) and instead argues for a truly multisensory model by which the direct stimulation of the reader's physical senses can be understood. A wide range of examples demonstrate how multisensory communication systems work in both commercial and more experimental contexts. The thesis concludes with a case study that looks at the works of Alan Moore and indicates areas of interest that multisensory analysis can draw out, but which are overlooked by ocularcentric approaches.

Desarrollar un cómic que sirva de base para un sistema de comunicación visual, con soporte y sustento en el código gráfico y narrativo de la historieta, que sirva de complemento a un aprendizaje significativo de las asignaturas de Educación Tecnológica y Comprensión del Medio y Sociedad, para alumnos de enseñanza media.

Följande kunskapsöversikt ämnar att undersöka effekten serietidningsliknande läsmaterial har på läsförståelsen hos andraspråksinlärare av Engelska. För att undersöka detta formulerades följande forskningsfråga: I vilken mån kan serietidningsliknande material påverka läsförståelsen hon andraspråksinlärare av Engelska? En prototypisk definition av serietidningar (Mayer, 2007) användes för att tillåta denna kunskapsöversikt att använda både studier som använde serietidningar och studier som använde seriestrippar som läsmaterial. I denna kunskapsöversikt kommer därför termen serietidningsliknande läsmaterial (Comic reading materials) användas som en paraplyterm för de två mediumen. För att granska om serietidningsliknande material kan påverka läsförståelsen för andraspråksinlärare i engelska har nio vetenskapliga artiklar som behandlar ämnet valts ut. Studierna I denna kunskapsöversikt har delats upp beroende på om de använder seriestrippar eller serietidningar/grafiska noveller då dessa två material bör åkalla effekten av de kognitiva teorier som presenteras i studien. Studierna gav inte ett tyligt svar på huruvida läsmaterialen påverkade läsförståelsen bland deras deltagare. Studierna hade även olika definitioner av nyckelord så som läsförståelse, skilda metoder för att mäta läsförståelse samt variation i hur de utförde texter tester. De olika resultaten från studierna har lett till följande slutsatser. Serieliknande läsmaterial har en potential som läromedel då de kan främja läsförståelse trots att det i fallet av de valda studierna inte alltid gör det. Det behövs vidare forskning i ämnet, då definitioner av nyckelbegrepp samt tester varierar i hög grad och detta gör det svårt att dra en tydlig slutsats.

Watchmen has been hailed as revolutionary not only for the literary quality of Alan Moore's script and the precise execution of Dave Gibbon's art, but also for the novel's successful exploration of sophisticated subject matter and realistic moral conflict. Perhaps the most interesting question Watchmen forces us to consider is why an individual would put on the costume and don the mask, and how such a constructed persona affects the individual psychologically and morally. For those heroes that came before, the compulsion to fight crime was often an in-born ideology of justice. But for Moore's Watchmen, we find that even superheroes are corruptible, flawed, imperfect, and even (more than) a little crazy. In the wake of what is arguably one of the most influential superhero novels published to date, the comics industry saw a rise in the popularity of anti-heroes like Moore's, but it wasn't until the 1991 creation of Marvel's Deadpool that fans saw exactly what it means to be a hero in the post-atomic, post-Vietnam age. Through self-reflexivity, genre deconstruction, and dark hysteria, Deadpool shows us that it isn't so easy to walk the straight line of the righteous, and that sometimes it's much easier to submit to the madness of a chaotic, morally ambiguous world.
Master of Arts

This thesis is focused on American gay male comics and queer alternative comics. I argue that the field of gay male comics production is dominated by two key genres: gay porno comics and gay ghetto comics. The conventions and characteristics of these genres help to construct and reinforce a dominant gay male habitus that is both sexual and social. Drawing on interviews as well as close readings of a number of case studies, I discuss the ways in which alternative queer cartoonists respond to the conventions of these genres, and create alternative representations of gay identity, community, and sex. I argue ultimately that the field of gay male comics production is not entirely homogenous, and that the queer male alternative comics that appear from roughly 1990 onwards are distinctive. The gay male comics of the First Wave (from the 1970s to 1990) are concerned with constructing and consolidating a sense of gay identity and community as relatively unified and stable. While sometimes critical of gay culture, as a whole they ultimately affirm the ideal of a unified gay community. In contrast, the queer male alternative comics that emerged as part of the Second Wave (starting around 1990) are far more concerned with questioning the normative, dominant values of mainstream gay culture, and challenging the identities, tastes and practices associated with the dominant gay habitus. Nevertheless because the gay ghetto and gay porno genres have been so dominant, queer alternative cartoonists position themselves in various different relationships to one or other genre. While some do abandon the genre conventions of gay porno and gay ghetto comics, more often queer alternative cartoonists take up some of these genre conventions and adapt, challenge, or subvert them in subtle ways.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
A pesquisa parte do princípio de que as histórias em quadrinhos constituem um importante meio de entretenimento e comunicação. Em decorrência da característica de mesclar imagem e texto como nenhuma outra forma de arte, se desenvolveram em um nicho próprio. Considera-se que a linguagem das HQs evolui a partir da estrutura de códice com seu sistema de páginas. Detentora de uma linguagem visual própria percebe-se na contemporaneidade, transformações com o advento das tecnologias. Atualmente, podem ser lidas em dispositivos móveis agregando incrementos ao se aproximar de outras mídias. Diante deste novo paradigma digital atinge nível de mobilidade que o computador pessoal não permitia, propondo um novo nicho de expressão e produção artística. Com foco na fruição e leitura em plataformas digitais, a pesquisa traça um panorama dos principais aplicativos de distribuição e leitura enquanto analisa títulos e narrativas específicas. Também aborda a evolução da linguagem visual das histórias em quadrinhos, contemplando a transposição para o mundo digital na internet e aspectos relacionados com a adaptação para os dispositivos móveis.
This research is based on the principle that comics represent an important form of entertainment and communication. Due to its capability to combine image and text like no other art form, it establishes itself as a unique means of expression. We could determine that its configuraton originates from pages of a códex structure. Since it holds its own specific visual language. Nowadays comics can be read on mobile devices more elements in connection with other media. On account of these new digital paradigms comics reach a mobility level that the personal computer alone coudn t offer, opening up new áreas of expression and artistic creativity. Considering its utilization in digital platforms, this study presents a outline of the main applications in its circulation and reading, trying at the same time to analyze titles and specific characteristics. It also covers the evolution of the visual language in comics, including its transposition to the digital world of the interner as well as other aspects related to the adaptation to the mobile devices.

This paper explores the relation between the popular “Tintin” comics by the Belgian artist Hergé and Steven Spielberg’s successful film adaptation “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011) from a linguistic perspective. It explores how language use in the scriptovisual medium of the comic (which combines still images and printed text) is rendered in the audiovisual medium of film (which combines moving images and spoken language). After discussing general linguistic similarities between comics and films and the use of language in each of the two media, the paper compares the representation of voice, accent, thoughts, talking animals, sounds and written language in Spielberg’s screen adaptation to the original printed comic books. It analyses to what extent the language from comic books can be directly transferred to the filmic medium and investigates possible causes underlying any modifications in the above-mentioned domains.

A building for experiencing and creating comics in many different ways - reading, exhibtiong, drawing, printing - while also being a dynamic, inviting cultural institution in the district of Slakthusområdet. Containing professional, educational and public functions, the bullding aims to create a ”synergy effect” from the interaction between artists, students, editors and other people working with comics.

Advances in 3D computer technology have led to aesthetic experimentation within the comics medium. Comic creators have produced comic books done entirely with 3D models that are then assembled digitally for the printed page. However, in using these 3D objects in a comic format, the creators have developed art styles that do not adhere to the paradigms established by this traditionally 2D medium. More successful results can be achieved by integrating 3D computer generated imagery with traditional 2D imagery, rather than replacing it. This thesis develops a method of combining rendered 3D models with 2D vector graphics to create a comic book art style that is consistent with the traditional medium, while still taking advantage of the new technology.

My dissertation argues that comics’ unique formal properties are particularly suited toward exploring and representing the complex nature of identity. Just as the comics form is broadly defined by a peculiar tension between word and image, so identity can be conceived as a constant negotiation between abstract (“unrepresentable”) concepts that define identity and an individual’s attempts to represent that identity. Due to its formal negotiation of word and image, the comics form is thus uniquely suited to address the problems of identity and its representation. I begin this project by examining the relationship between word and image in comics. Some comics scholars have argued verbal and visual signification are hybridized, while others go so far as to claim the distinction between word and image is unsustainable. Still others reject these claims, arguing comics’ hybridity necessitates a strict separation of word from image. I argue that words and images in comics function on a spectrum in which the line between word and image must be able to be hybridized and distinct at the same time. This definition of the word/image relationship can describe the most straightforward, illustrative comics as well as the most experimental comics texts; it also provides the methodological framework for my project. In this dissertation, I examine the representation of gendered identity in Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets stories and Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, arguing both authors’ injunction that the reader look at the mothers in their works is evidence of their demand that we understand the women as whole, ambivalent subjects. I explore the way the Gene Yang and Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Shadow Hero addresses the repressive and racist history of superhero comics. In doing so, Yang and Liew’s text reveals the ways superhero texts constantly negotiate the genre’s conservative instinct to protect the status quo and its revolutionary vision for a better world. Finally, I contend Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III's Batwoman: Elegy reveals at least one intrinsically progressive theme in superhero genre: its performative and inherently queer conception of identity.

This case study investigates how readers read comics. The work, based upon Roland Barthes' concept of relay discussed in Image, Music, Text (1977), considers that a reader tmderstands the comic at the higher level of the diegesis by switching between signifying systems. The research fmdings suggest that the reading of comics requires visual and verbal intermediate literacy skills and that textual coherence occurs for readers when they reach the critical point in their own reading. The coherence of the text and critical point for the reader are achieved as a result of the cOlmections between the signifying systems of description and depiction, at the level of the individual sign and the textual structure. The analysis of such data as the features of the comic and readers' responses to texts, proposes a model based upon the concept of a core and periphery spiral. It suggests that knowledge frameworks, visual and verbal literacy and the metalinguistic skill of 'relay' are required to read the comic text; but in order to reach a critical point for understanding these need to be synthesised with affective responses. The comic form is also placed into a cultural and literacy context and implications of the fmdings for using this form in education are discussed.

The field of writing studies has long inquired about how writers engage in individualized writing processes. As an extension of this inquiry, contemporary scholarship in writing studies began to study collaborative writing through the understanding of writing as a social act. Our understanding of writing processes and collaborative writing has expanded through studies of writing as it occurs in the academy, the workplace, and extracurricular settings. Still, to a large extent, inquiries about writing processes and collaborative writing activity centered on alphabetic texts and focused on writers. Rarely do studies engage"in addition to writers"artists and designers as authors in the collaborative writing process. Composing, as understood by scholars and teachers of writing, is changing due to technological shifts in media and yet, as a field, we have failed to question multimodal composing as an individual or collaborative process.
    To extend previous writing studies scholarship, this dissertation engages qualitative case study methodology to explore three unique multimodal collaborations of comics authors. As a visual rhetoric scholar with a personal focus on teaching students about composing in all media, I am drawn to asking questions about how arguments are composed using multimodal means. My personal and scholarly interest in comics led to inquiries about how comics are composed and initial research found that comics are often composed in collaboration, with writers and artists who with them carry multiple and varying literacies (alphabetic text, visual, spatial, etc.). Comics provide a rich subject of study to address this inquiry because of their inherently multimodal nature as a medium that incorporates both word and picture in diverse combinations and for a variety of rhetorical purposes. For this study, I have chosen to focus on comics texts that differ in terms of subject matter, genre, and collaborative makeup in order to examine multimodal collaborations and create distinct cases. Through three cases of multimodal collaboration"Understanding Rhetoric, the Cheo comics, and Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline"this study argues for a further complication of our field\'s understanding of writing processes and collaborative composing.
Ph. D.

This thesis will explore Watchmen as an event in postmodern art and literature. When a postmodern event occurs, no language game exists at that moment to make the event comprehensible. Limitations therefore of incommensurable language games are exposed and scholars are left without language, scrabbling to decipher what happened. This is the case with Watchmen. Comics and literature collided and there is no language to discuss what has come out of that collision. Through chapter analysis, character study, and inquiry into the postmodern mood this project will demonstrate Watchmen as a turning point in the discussion of comics and literature.

In this creative project, I propose that comics can be used fruitfully to introduce undergraduates to the image-word dynamic, helping them become betters critics, more thoughtful consumers, and more effective creators of images. In addition, I argue that such a course of study be housed in an undergraduate rhetoric and composition major. Therefore, this project accomplishes three goals: it explores the rhetorical function of comics; second, it justifies the inclusion of comics in an undergraduate rhetoric-composition program; and, third, it provides a master syllabus for four classes that would provide the experience necessary to students wishing to study visual, verbal, and visual-verbal rhetorics.
Department of English

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
As histórias em quadrinhos (HQs) são utilizadas como recurso paradidático há muito tempo. Com uma narrativa de fácil aceitação entre crianças e jovens, por conjugar harmonicamente linguagens verbais e não verbais, as HQs abarcam diversos princípios, dentre os quais o letramento. Contudo, persiste a evidência de que, na educação básica, há obstáculos para a aplicação desse instrumento, por mais que o MEC preconize sua utilização. Uma das premissas levantadas é que faltam instrução, treinamento e orientação suficientes para o trabalho com HQs como prática pedagógica nas escolas. Outra é a que considera a práxis e as teorias oferecidas pelo Design como estando conjugadas a métodos já consagrados pela indústria e pelo mercado de quadrinhos. Sob o aspecto educativo, tem-se como premissa que as histórias em quadrinhos são reconhecidas não só pelos estudantes, mas também por professores e pelas diversas instâncias governamentais que cuidam da Educação. Assim, esta pesquisa foi direcionada à investigação de métodos de construção de quadrinhos em consonância com os aspectos narratológicos presentes na construção das histórias do tipo problema-solução, como são realizadas no Design, com o objetivo de propor parâmetros para a instrumentalização de docentes e futuros professores no uso dos quadrinhos para o ensino. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, de natureza básica e com objetivo exploratório. Na tentativa de encorajar os professores envolvidos no projeto a construir HQs com seus alunos, foram realizadas experiências de desenvolvimento em vários setores da educação por meio de palestras, treinamentos e acompanhamentos. Os procedimentos seguiram para a criação de um estudo de caso, que buscou, na troca com professores e alunos, novos meios para o ensino com a utilização dos quadrinhos. Foram realizadas entrevistas, registros de práticas, acesso a documentos e imersão no campo. Desenvolveu-se um método em que fosse possível realizar atividades de construção de quadrinhos em um curto período de tempo, calcado em quatro etapas projetuais à feição de um projeto de design. Tal iniciativa cumpriu o objetivo inicial da tese, que se direciona à elaboração de parâmetros para o trabalho com quadrinhos no ensino. A partir daí, seguiu-se para o desenvolvimento de um método de instrumentalização para ser aplicado por qualquer professor, sobretudo por aquele que já trabalha com adolescentes.
Comic books (HQs) have been used as an educational resource for a long time. With a narrative easily accepted among children and young people, due to a harmonious conjugation between verbal and non-verbal languages, comics embrace several principles, including literacy. The evidence states, however, that there are obstacles in the application of this instrument in basic education, even with its recommendation from MEC. One of the assumptions is that education, training and guidance are insufficient for working with comics as a pedagogical practice in schools. Another assumption considers that the praxis and theories of Design are too close to methods already consecrated by the industry and the market of comics. From an educational point of view, the premise is that comics are recognized not only by students, but also by teachers and the various governmental bodies that take care of Education. Thus, this research investigated methods of comic construction in consonance with the narratological aspects in the construction of problem-solve stories, as they are carried out in Design, with the objective of proposing parameters for the instrumentalization of teachers and futures teachers in the use of comics for teaching. It is a qualitative and basic research, with an exploratory objective. In an attempt to encourage teachers involved in the project of building HQs with their students, we developed experiments in various sectors of education through lectures, training and follow-ups. The procedures followed the creation of a case study, which sought, in the exchange with teachers and students, new means for teaching using comics. We carried out interviews, records of practices, access to documents and immersion in the field, and we developed a method in which it was possible to carry out comic-building activities in a short period of time, based on four design steps of the design project. This initiative fulfilled the initial objective of the dissertation, which consisted of the elaboration of parameters for comic work in teaching. From then on, we followed the development of an instrumentalization method to be applied by any teacher, especially by one who already works with teenagers.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Comparative Media Studies, 2009.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-85).
The Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) series of comic books have, since 1967, dominated the market for domestic comic books in India. In this thesis, I examine how these comics function as public culture, creating a platform around which groups and individuals negotiate and re-negotiate their identities (religious, class, gender, regional, national) through their experience of the mass-media phenomenon of ACK. I also argue that the comics, for the most part, toe a conservative line - drawing heavily from Hindu nationalist schools of thought. In order to demonstrate these arguments, I examine selected groups of ACK titles closely in the first two chapters. I perform a detailed content analysis of these comics, considering the ways in which they draw upon history and primary texts, the artistic and editorial choices as well the implications of these decisions. In the third chapter, I draw a picture of the consumption of these comics, studying the varying interpretations and reactions that fans across generations have had to the works, connecting their conversations to my argument about ACK as public culture. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate the extent of ACK's role in the popular imagination of its large readership as well as the part it plays in the negotiation of their identities as Indians.
by Abhimnanyu Das.
S.M.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2015
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No limiar da Era do Conhecimento um outro universo sedescortina, o mundo virtual. No mundo virtual convergem as novas tecnologias e de suas relações advém novas formas de pensar e ver esses mundos paralelos que coabitam e se alimentam reciprocamente. No ciberespaço toda a estruturacomunicacional que se está delineando não prescinde dalinguagem imagética, como expressão da essência, do verbo,do ser possível, da significância rizomática. Esta pesquisarealiza uma leitura da evolução dos diferentes modos decomunicação e, de modo singular, a comunicação imagética.Esta é uma pesquisa de caráter teórico. Evolui em uma leitura einterpretação desvelando o objeto e ao mesmo tempo expondoa importância de, nos tempos atuais, compreender e seapropriar em um modo de comunicação que prioriza oimagético. Tem por objetivo compreender formas e potenciaisna cultura atual que superam o letramento na escrita para oletramento visual, tomando como objeto o mundo dos Comics.Teoricamente se apoia nas concepções de comunicação eletramento visual. Aprimora o olhar pela trilha de Santaella(2008) e Merleau-Ponty (1999), Eisner (2005), Manguel(2001), Dondis (2003), Lévy (1999), Jenkins (2009). Discute asimplicações entre o modo de comunicação digital, o letramentovisual, a escolarização e o mundo dos Comics. Apresentacomo resultado o destaque de algumas implicações para com omundo da escola e seus processos de letramento. Este estudo não trata de uma narrativa conclusiva, se propõe a uma análise indagativa, provocativa, na busca por compreender-se um pouco mais deste meio de comunicação.

Abstract : The Knowledge Age threshold reveals another universe, thevirtual world. In the virtual world converge new technologiesand from its relations arises new ways of thinking and seeingthese parallel worlds that coexist and feed each other. In thecyberspace, all the communication structure that is shapingdoes not ignore imagetic language as an expression of essence,verb, what is possible and rhizomatic significance. Thisresearch develops an evolution reading of communicationdifferent modes and, in a unique way, the imageticcommunication. It is a theoretical type of study. It evolves intoa reading and interpretation unveiling the object and, at thesame time, exposing the importance, in modern times, tounderstand and appropriate a communication form thatprioritizes the imagery. It aims to understand forms andpotentials in today's culture that overcome literacy in writingfor visual literacy, taking as an object the Comics world. Intheory, it relies on the concepts of communication and visualliteracy. It improves the look through the trail of Santaella(2008) and Merleau-Ponty (1999), Eisner (2005), Manguel(2001), Dondis (2003), Levy (1999) and Jenkins (2009). Itdiscusses the implications of digital communication mode,visual literacy, schooling and Comics world. It presents, as aresult, the highlighting of some implications for the schoolworld and its literacy processes. The study is not about aconclusive narrative, but proposes an inquisitive andprovocative analysis in order to understand a little more of thatcommunication medium.

Beholding a comic is ideally, a pleasure. The work informs, entertains and stimulates the mind in some way. There is no gainsaying which works will affect which beholders howsoever it does, yet the expecta­tion of pleasure from a work of comics makes behold­ers seek it. Making the comic is also a pleasure, even if the process can be long-winded, winding and dif­ficult. The maker wants to give others the same plea­sure they drew from beholding comics, but in their way, making their vision of Batman, Lieutenant Blue­berry or, their own story worlds. What this research seeks to explain are many of the considerations and constraints that makers have when producing a work of comics, which can often shape the finished arte­fact in ways that are not obvious by looking at it. In specific, it seeks to answer a narrower question: can exploring the way tacit knowledge accumulates and is applied, offer a ‘thick’ understanding of comics? Michael Polanyi argues that tacit knowledge is knowing more than you can say, which in comics is the knowledge makers possess about tools, sur­faces, materials, storytelling, pacing, mise en panel and logistics among others. This knowledge is rare­ly codified. In the comic as commodity, it is hidden from view so that beholders may immerse themselves in the work. Unknown is the iterative process that went into making a work: the moment of inspiration; grappling with the ideas via voluminous preparatory works; handling of materials and tools; working out the logistic dimension and constraints that will deter­mine the type of encounter with the work beholders will have. I propose a Cycle of Erotics as a means to codify this knowledge and give critical commentators another lens for their use in analysing comics; a way of looking through and not just at comics.

This dissertation examines constructions of femininity in three male-authored Latin/o American comics: Gabriel Vargas' La Familia Burrón (Mexico, 1948-2009), Quino's Mafalda (Argentina, 1964-1973), and Love and Rockets (Los Bros. Hernandez, 1981-1996; 2000-present). After first establishing an analytical context from which to explore these works, discussing contemporary trends in national comics production as well as the ways in which femininity has been prescriptively constructed in each particular time and place, I then analyze the ways in which each author questions, challenges, and/or completely reconstructs their own version of "graphic femininity." As the following chapters will show, each articulation of femininity as constructed within the three serial comics under examination here takes different forms in each comic under analysis; while female characters in one title might embody a socially idealized model of femininity such as the "angel in the house," or the cult of "true womanhood", characters in other comics (or even within the same title) might play inverse roles, defying the mandates of the role assigned to them by contemporary society and ideological institutions such as compulsory heterosexuality or patriarchal power. A variety of models of feminine behavior and subjectivity are present in the panels of these comics, but in contrast with other contemporary constructions of femininity in cultural texts, products and sociopolitical discourse, they are presented critically rather than prescriptively, depicted in ways that disrupt the limits of femininity as it has traditionally been construed and, in some cases, offer visions of alternative, liberating paths.

One of the most fundamental ways of understanding the struggles and delights of an ethnic group is to study the art the group produces. Art –visual, literary, auditory– functions as an expression of the history of the group. Often, what is considered great art in one culture is disparaged in many others. In my thesis, I will be examining how comics function as an expression of simultaneous pride and shame among Ashkenazi Jews, particularly comics created in the 20th century. Perhaps comics do not seem like an obvious expression of Eastern European Judaism. After all, there are far more renowned, and even sophisticated works to look at, such as the whimsical art of Marc Chagall and stately rabbinical paintings of Isidor Kauffman, or even the heady philosophical work of Theodor W. Adorno. “Ashkenazi expression” and “comics” do not seem intuitively connected. This disconnect is precisely why I want to explore the relationship between comics and Ashkenazi Jewry. In addition to many of the most prominent comic creators being Jewish, I posit that there is something inherently yiddish, Jewish, about American comics. The purpose of this essay is not to name individual comic artists in an attempt to prove the Jewishness of the the comic-book industry. Rather, I will explore why Jews of Eastern European descent gravitated toward the comic-book industry in the early to mid 20th century. I posit that American comics acted as an expression of a pride-shame tension found in American Jews of Eastern European descent. To explore this connection, I will first examine the origins of simultaneous Jewish pride and shame by tracing the roots of Eastern European Jewish self-hatred. Next, I will delve into why comics encapsulate this balance of self-deprecation and self-glorification. I will analyze both the nature of the medium itself, and the circumstances grounding the formation of American comics. Ashkenazi Jews, or Jews of Eastern European, specifically German descent, have been at the center of much scholarly literature. Although an extremely small percentage of the world's population, the bulk of Jews are Ashkenazi, as opposed to Sefardic. Much literature has been devoted to Ashkenazi Judaism, as the ethnic division has produced an impressive body of scientific and literary accomplishment. Although the countries from which Ashkenazi Jews originate are diverse, the key words surrounding Ashkenazi discourse are reoccurring. Concepts such as “exile,” “self-hatred,” and “Jewish humor” all arise. Another central concept is Yiddishkeit. Yiddishkeit literally translates to “Jewishness” in none other but the language of Yiddish. Yiddish has been the subject of both outward Ashkenazi expression –there is a great deal of Yiddish literature and art– and scholarly examination. Perhaps most recently, Michael Wex published a book called Born to Kvetch, an in-detail study of the history of Yiddish, and how it embodies Ashkenazi culture. Within this book, a particular theme appears: the theme of simultaneously occuring pride and shame. Jews created Yiddish as a result of the primary culture's rejection. However, after this initial dismissal, great pride emerged out of Yiddish, manifesting itself in rich Yiddish culture. Other scholars have explored the concept of Jewish self-hatred, and the fine line this self-hatred straddles between bona fide self-hatred and isolationist pride. Sander Gilman, who writes extensively about the topic, discusses how language and literature embody this dichotomous tension of pride and shame. While conducting research for the connection between comics and class in 20th century American, I came to the understanding that many of the founders of and participants in the American comic industry were Jewish. I dug up analyses of specific comics/graphic novels (usually Maus) exploring certain Jewish themes in comics, yet I had a hard time finding extensive research asking the question as to why comics and Jews have such a strong connection. In my thesis, I hope to further this question by not only investigating the circumstances surrounding comics that made Jews turn to the industry, but why comics themselves embody Jewish pride and shame. On a much humbler scale, I hope to accomplish what Wex has in Born to Kvetch, a linguistic analysis that provides insight into the greater ethnic group engaging with it. In chapter one, I will establish the pride-shame dichotomy found in Ashkenazi Judaism. I will first explore several biblical passages, including Lamentations, Micah, and Isaiah. By exploring these instances in the tanach, I will try to establish the uniqueness the Jews feel due to their personal and punitive relationship with God. Throughout these passages, we will see the Jews taking pride in the punishment God doles out for them, because such pain is indicative of the Jews' superiority among other nations. Next, I will provide a brief explanation of why I am choosing to focus on the act of conversion in the Medieval time period as an indicator of Jewish pride and shame. In specific, I will focus on infamous Johannes Pfefferkorn, who converted from Judaism to Christianity. Pfefferkorn is the perfect example of a Jew who both detested his Judaism, yet used it to his advantage to speak authoritatively about Judaism to Christians, as his professed textual knowledge gave him clout. Next, I will give an introduction on the connection between Otherness and language, explaining how Hebrew and the Talmud spurred both fascination and disgust toward Jews from their surrounding neighbors. After segueing into the origins of Yiddish as a language created out of exile, I will explain how though Yiddish originated out of spurning, the language became a source of pride of its rejected roots. I will consider the statements of various Yiddish authors, in particular American immigrant Isaac Bashevis Singer. Through both an analysis of Singer's self-reflection of his own life and an analysis of his short story, Gimpel the Fool, I will establish the pride Ashkenazi Judaism takes in its outsider status. Singer himself remarks of the positivity of being lonely and different. His character, Gimpel, is a foolish outcast. Much like the Jews in the biblical passages explored earlier in the chapter, he suffers constant misfortune and mockery, yet his very pain is what lends him favor in God's eyes. In chapter two, I will explore how 20th century American comics reflect the Ashkenazi dichotomy of pride and shame. Much like Yiddish is not a mainstream language, the idea of comics as mainstream art or literature has been greatly contested. I will try to determine which circumstances surrounding 20th century comics, and the comics themselves, connect with this pride-shame tension. I will use Paul Buhle's Jews and American Comics as a frame of reference, since the book often links comics and Yiddish. I will first give a brief history of the American comic-book, starting with the Hogan's Alley comics strip, and exploring up until the mid 20th century. By understanding the working-class origins of comics, we can better understand the low-brow perception of them from the standpoint of both their readers and their critics. I will then explain how American comics in the 20th century contained Jewish themes of pride and shame, despite their characters not being explicitly Jewish. I will more closely explore this idea through an analysis of the character Superman, drawing on both the commentary from the character's creators and the content clues of the character himself. A true foreigner, Superman masks his real identity, his superhuman powers. While his alias is what makes him exceptional, it is also the thing he abhors the most. Will Eisner, a giant in the world of comics, denies inserting Jewish identity in his own characters. However, his assistant, Jules Feiffer, half-jokingly claimed that his character, Denny Colt, featured in Eisner's The Spirit series, is in actuality a secret Jew. Instead of focusing on Colt and The Spirit, I will do a close reading of one of Eisner's other works, A Contract with God, which is an exemplary work of Jewish pride and shame. Contract contains a motif that is similar to that of the biblical passages analyzed in chapter one. The protagonist, Russian-American immigrant Frimme Hershe, has a personal relationship with God that leaves him demoralized and punished. I will then explore the use of visual stereotype in Contract, comparing it to that of Art Spiegelman's Maus, and contrasting it with that of the film Inglorious Basterds. I will argue that through engaging with Jewish visual stereotypes, the first two reveal them as falsehoods. Thus, through an admittance of these shamed images, the comics mock them. The latter film chooses to ignore stereotypes, thus leaving them extant. I will conclude the chapter by positing that Jews have coped with their constant exile through through the self-deprecation of comics. Buhle mentions that comics about Jewish-American gangsters turned into a source of pride, presumably for Ashkenazi American Jews. The trope, hated by others, was lauded by those it was forced upon. Much like Yiddish, comics may have been born out of exclusion, but they came to be a source of pride among Ashkenazi Jews.

Comics have been around for centuries and have had different culturalmeanings depending on era, genre and country. Toward the end of the 20thcentury and the start of the 21st century, we experienced the rise of theinternet as well as the normalization of home computers and with that,comics also started inhabiting the digital space. The digital space opens upfor opportunities of multimedia and new ways of interacting with comics, butmost comics maintain the formats of their printed counterparts.The goal of this thesis is to contribute knowledge to both interaction designpractice as well as digital comics. This is done by conducting research throughdesign and interaction-driven design and through them, launch anexploration into how different interactions affect the experience of reading.User tests as well as a workshop was conducted in order to help articulate theexperience. The conclusions reached were that a more active way ofinteracting (i.e. scrolling for instance) appeared to be preferable to othermore static ways of interacting. The usage of the digital space appeared to insome cases enhance the experience of reading but it was closely connected tothe nature of the interactions.

Thesis: S.M. in Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-131).
Comics studies tends to privilege the visual, and some scholars, like Scott McCloud believe that comics are solely visual. However, as Ian Hague has noted, the idea that comics are a solely visual medium is not only incomplete but does not align with what the sciences of perception and embodied cognition tell us. This paper seeks to build upon Hague's work by calling attention to and analyzing comics which exist without or with little visual imagery. These comics can be sorted into two primary categories, audiocomics and tactile comics. As these comics were created for people who have partial or no sight, existing guidelines and standards for creating aural and tactile imagery for people with partial or no sight are used to analyze the comics' success in achieving an experience that is easy to understand and also utilizes the medium's strengths. The comics are then analyzed as a whole in order to determine areas for improvement and additional experimentation.
by Lacey Lord.
S.M. in Comparative Media Studies

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.
PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
2031-01-02

The sudden and popular rise of comic book during the last decade has seen many new readers, filmgoers, and television watchers attempt to navigate the world of comics amid a staggering influx of content produced by both Marvel and DC Comics. This process of navigation is, of course, not without precedence: a similar phenomenon occurred during the 1980s in which new readers turned to the genre as superhero comics began to saturate the cultural consciousness after a long period of absence. And, just as was the case during that time, such a navigation can prove difficult as a veritable network of information—much of which is contradictory—vies for attention. How does one navigate a medium to which comic books, graphic novels, movies, television shows, and other supplementary forms all contribute? Such a task has, in the past, proven to be near insurmountable. DC Comics is no stranger to this predicament: during the second boom of superhero comics, it sought to untangle the canonical mess made by decades of overlapping history to the groundbreaking limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths, released to streamline its then collection of stories by essentially nullifying its previous canon and starting from scratch. But in its attempt to further impose order on their sprawling body of work, the monolithic comic books company also further solidified a perception of comics as a conservative and retrogressive medium. This thesis will explore Crisis on Infinite Earths as a means of revealing its status as a lens through which the traditionalist nature of comics can be understood. By examining Crisis through three crucial lenses—narrative, historical, and economic—I will argue that the text ostensibly designed to push past the canonical maze erected by its predecessors had the unintended consequence of actually rooting it further in its own history.
Master of Arts
This thesis examines DC Comics’ landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths series to better understand the comics as a both a discrete text and a piece of a larger narrative, historical, and bureaucratic canon. By examining Crisis as a narrative, historical, and economic product, I hope to shed light on how the text, while progressive in its desire to reshape DC’s canon, ultimately proved to be counterproductive.

Comics erfreuen sich bei allen Altersgruppen großer Beliebtheit und bereits in der Kindheit beginnen viele mit dem Lesen von Micky Maus-Magazinen oder Asterix-Bänden. Sie werden im Schulunterricht verwendet, es werden Tagungen, Messen und Festivals (Wichtige Veranstaltungen sind in dieser Hinsicht der Comic-Salon in Erlangen, das Comicfestival München, das Sym-posium zur Förderung und Vernetzung der Comicforschung Comics - Intermedial und Interdisziplinär und vor allem das Festival) zum Thema Comic veranstaltet und nicht zuletzt belegt eine Vielzahl von Sammlern, Vereinigungen und Fachzeitschriften (u. a. Comixene, Reedition, Speedline usw.), dass Comics vor allem im vergangenen Jahrhundert zunehmend an Popularität gewannen und heute sowohl Kinder als auch Erwachsene zu begeistern vermögen. Um den Ansprüchen der verschiedenen Zielgruppen gerecht zu werden, haben sich im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts verschiedene Genres herausgebildet, die mittlerweile jegliche Vorlieben der Comicleser abdecken. Auch bilden sie nicht selten die Vorlage für Kinoadaptionen, wie aktuell der Film Die Abenteuer von Tim und Struppi. Das Geheimnis der „Einhorn“(Der Originaltitel des Films lautet The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn) beweist. Da Comics mit einem Übersetzungsaufkommen von rund 40.000 Seiten pro Jahr im deutschen Sprachraum (Kaindl 2004: 164) eine übersetzungsrelevante Textsorte sind und auch das Zusammenwirken von Bild und Text im alltäglichen Umfeld zunimmt, entstand die Idee, im Rahmen dieser Arbeit visuell-verbale Beziehungszusammenhänge und ihre Relevanz für die Übersetzung am Beispiel franko-belgischer Comics zu untersuchen. Belgien und Frankreich sind Länder mit einer langen Comictradition und tragen als Ausgangskulturen eine bedeutende Rolle. Allein 2011 sind im frankofonen Raum 5327 bandes dessinées erschienen, was einer Steigerung von 3,04 % gegenüber dem Vorjahr entspricht (web_acbd.fr). Von den 3841 Neuerscheinungen fallen insgesamt 42,49 % (1632 Alben) auf franko-belgische Alben (web_acbd.fr). Aus übersetzungswissenschaftlicher Sicht bilden Comics einen interessanten Untersuchungsgegenstand, weil sie viel über die Kultur und Gesellschaft, aus der sie stammen, preisgeben und die Sprache von Teilen der Gesellschaft prägen. Wendungen wie Dem Ingenieur ist nichts zu schwör oder Inflektive wie seufz, lach oder grübel sind in den allgemeinen Sprachschatz übergegangen. Das Zusammenspiel visueller und sprachlicher Elemente ermöglicht verschiedene Aspekte der Analyse und es gibt viele Bereiche, zu denen Comics Wissen beisteuern können. Obwohl neben alljährlich erscheinenden Publikationen wie dem Comic-Preiskatalog, Comic Jahrbuch oder Comic Almanach (Sanladerer 2006: 6) wiederholt die Bestandteile von Comics oder auch die Übersetzung von Sprachspielen im Comic in der Vergangenheit thematisiert worden sind (Spillner 1980, Grassegger 1985, Picout 2008 etc.), wurden nur wenige Arbeiten einer ausführlichen Betrachtung visuell-verbaler Beziehungszusammenhänge gewidmet. Zu erwähnen ist in diesem Zusammenhang vor allem die Monografie von Kaindl (2004), in der der Comic mit seinen Elementen sowie das Zusammenwirken von sprachlichen und bildlichen Komponenten aus translationswissenschaftlicher Sicht analysiert werden. Dolle-Weinkauff erklärte 1990, dass das Feld der Comics längst nicht „vollständig bibliographisch erschlossen“ sei (ebd.: 14). Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit soll vor allem eine Lücke hinsichtlich der genauen Beschreibung der Beziehungsmöglichkeiten von Text und Bild sowie deren Auswirkungen auf die Übersetzung geschlossen werden. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, zunächst einen umfassenden Überblick über Comics zu geben und anschließend eine Analyse der visuell-verbalen Beziehungszusammenhänge an ausgewählten Beispielen franko-belgischer Comics und deren deutschen Übersetzungen vorzunehmen. Es sollen Zusammenhänge verdeutlicht und Übersetzungsschwierigkeiten aufgezeigt werden, die sich aus der Verflechtung sprachlicher und bildlicher Elemente ergeben. Die sehr detaillierte Aufschlüsselung in spezifische Beziehungszusammenhänge soll vor allen Übersetzer für derartige Details und daraus resultierende Probleme sensibilisieren. In dieser Arbeit sind bildliche Elemente synonym zu visuellen Elementen zu verstehen. Die Bezeichnungen verbal und sprachlich werden in dieser Arbeit ebenfalls synonym verwendet. Zunächst sollen in Kapitel 2 Definitionsansätze für Comics vorgestellt, die historische Entwicklung beschrieben sowie Erscheinungsformen und Genres dargestellt werden. In Kapitel 3 soll auf Comics als Gegenstand der Übersetzungswissenschaft eingegangen werden. Dies geschieht sowohl unter Berücksichtigung ihrer Einbettung in die Texttypenklassifizierung nach Reiß (1971), ihrer besonderen Elemente auf bildlicher und sprachlicher Ebene als auch für die Praxis relevanter Aspekte wie die Entwicklung und den Stand der Comicübersetzung. In Kapitel 4 stehen die Text-Bild-Beziehungen im Mittelpunkt, die unter anderem zur Konstruktion der Narration beitragen und somit für den Comic und seine Übersetzung eine wichtige Funktion einnehmen. Es werden unterschiedliche Klassifizierungsansätze vorgestellt, die sich mit dem zwischen sprachlichen und visuellen Elementen bestehenden Verhältnis auseinandersetzen. Des Weiteren werden Übersetzungsprobleme in der Theorie dargelegt, die sich aus dem Zusammenspiel von Text und Bild ergeben. In Kapitel 5 werden diese visuell-verbalen Beziehungszusammenhänge anhand von Beispielen aus franko-belgischen Comicserien und deren deutschen Übersetzungen genauer untersucht sowie spezifische Übersetzungsprobleme hervorgehoben und Lösungsmöglichkeiten aufgezeigt. Es soll eine qualitative, keine quantitative Analyse entstehen, sodass mit der vorliegenden Analyse auch kein Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit erhoben werden soll. Insbesondere bei der Betrachtung übersetzungsrelevanter Einzelphänomene wäre dies unmöglich, sodass lediglich repräsentative Beispiele der jeweiligen Kategorien angeführt werden können. Im anschließenden Kapitel 6 sollen die Ergebnisse resümiert werden. Sämtliche Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerungen, die auf der Grundlage der Analyse gezogen werden, können sich natürlich lediglich auf das untersuchte Korpus beziehen und sollten nicht verallgemeinernd übertragen werden. In Kapitel 7 wird schließlich ein Fazit der Arbeit gezogen und ein Ausblick auf mögliche Forschungsperspektiven gegeben.

Even before its current fledgling state, the field of Comics Studies in the Anglophone parts of the world has been interested in the influences received from other international incarnations of the comics medium. Manga, bande dessinnée, tebeo, campesinos, quadrinhos, fumetti, cartoons, strips, have all ben responsible, in part, for the development of both the medium and its related academic fields. Many studies, pieces of criticism and comparison have been offered showing the importance of those texts, both in their original language and in English translation, their impact on other parts of the industry, and on their readerships. What has been lacking, so far, is a study into the process of translation that allowed for those texts to be read, studied and incorporated into the multifaceted archives of the comis scholarship, academic or fan-based. The aim of my thesis is to provide a critical manual appealing to three audiences: the translation scholar, comics scholar, and practising translator. I analyse - from a translation and comics studies perspective - the interaction between image and text (signplay), the use of humour, and the use of multicultural and multilingual elements in the Italian fumetto. I do so by offering comparisons with current Anglophone publications, informed by a history of the development on the medium in the West, and by focusing on three exemplary Italian series: Dampy (2000-), Rat-Man (1989-), and PKNA (1996-2000, 2014, 2015). I use descriptive theoretical discussions to form a practical set of strategies for the process of translating Italian comics into English, by focusing on the functions with which the texts operate in the three macro-areas I define, and I provide extensive samples for each strategy devised.

This thesis delves into the surprisingly uniform treatment of the female character in comic storytelling, across all media, and will examine how this has evolved over time. It further explores what these changes represent for the stories, the characters, the creators, and the readers. The focus of the production aspects of this project is on the curation and development of a feminist perspective on comic books, their narrative and the industry that forms them. Looking at specific examples from historical and modern comics, as well as creative

Captain America and Iron Man are both iconic American heroes, representing different American values. Captain America was created during the Golden Age of comics and represents a longing for the past, while Iron Man was created at the height of the Cold War and looks forward to a new America. This paper will first establish the historical and cultural relationship between comic books and propaganda, beginning with the first appearance of Superman. It will pay special attention to the similarities and differences of Captain America and Iron Man, focusing on their representation of American values over time, and discuss how that aspect of the characters affects their ongoing titles today.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Jun. 26, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Art and Art History." Discipline: Art; Department/School: Art.

Nous présentons une solution pour la création d'un corpus numérisé en utilisant une approche crowdsourcing pour annoter des bandes dessinées (BD). Les encodages XML qui en résultent aident également les chercheurs, les éditeurs, les bibliothécaires et les conservateurs de collections BDs. Pour atteindre notre objectif de recueil de données, nous développons un moteur de crowdsourcing en ligne pour annoter les BDs. Les tâches sont conçues pour reproduire l'expérience de lecture des pages des BDs, en demandant aux participants d'identifier et d'annoter les éléments structurels (cases, splash-pages) et de contenu (personnages, lieux, événements, onomatopées, objets, lignes de mouvement) des BDs. Notre approche fournit aux chercheurs en humanités numériques (digital humanities) la possibilité de bâtir un corpus structuré et annoté, aujourd’hui manquant. Cela permet d’accélérer la recherche liée à la BD et à la théorie de l'art séquentiel. Les bibliothécaires et les conservateurs de collections des BDs disposeront d'un contenu structuré qui pourrait permettre la création d'artefacts spécifiques, tels que des dictionnaires de BDs, des indices de recherche ou des dictionnaires d'onomatopée. Du point de vue de l'édition, les standards actuels pour les BDs numériques se chargent exclusivement de la couche de présentation (c'est-à-dire, rendre tout simplement une publication sur l'écran d'un dispositif numérique). Mais la nature artistique de la BD et le grand potentiel des BDs numériques nous permettent d'aller au-delà de la simple présentation du contenu. À cet égard, nous contribuons avec des améliorations aux standards sémantiques (CBML) et de présentation (EPUB)
We address the difficulty of creating a digitised corpus by using a crowdsourced approach for annotating comic books. The resulting XML-based encodings assist researchers, publishers and collection curators equally. To achieve our data collection goal, we develop an online crowdsourcing engine for annotating comics. The tasks are designed to mirror the page reading experience, with participants asked to identify and annotate structural (panel layout, splash pages, meta-panels) and content (characters, places, events, onomatopoeia) elements of comic books. Our approach provides Digital Humanities (DH) scholars with a (currently missing) structured, annotated corpus; this enables and accelerates research related to comics and sequential art theory. Curators and collectors of physical or online comics collections are provided with a structured content which could enable the creation of artefacts such as comic books dictionaries, search indices and dictionaries of onomatopoeia. From a publishing perspective, current standards for digital comics are taking care exclusively of the presentation layer (i.e. rendering a publication on the screen of a device). But the artistic nature of comics and the great potential digital comics have already showcased allow us to go beyond simple content presentation. To this respect we present our contributions with enhancements to current semantic (CBML) and presentation (EPUB) open standards that will allow publishers and digital comics authors to create an improved reading experience

Nous présentons une solution pour la création d'un corpus numérisé en utilisant une approche crowdsourcing pour annoter des bandes dessinées (BD). Les encodages XML qui en résultent aident également les chercheurs, les éditeurs, les bibliothécaires et les conservateurs de collections BDs. Pour atteindre notre objectif de recueil de données, nous développons un moteur de crowdsourcing en ligne pour annoter les BDs. Les tâches sont conçues pour reproduire l'expérience de lecture des pages des BDs, en demandant aux participants d'identifier et d'annoter les éléments structurels (cases, splash-pages) et de contenu (personnages, lieux, événements, onomatopées, objets, lignes de mouvement) des BDs. Notre approche fournit aux chercheurs en humanités numériques (digital humanities) la possibilité de bâtir un corpus structuré et annoté, aujourd’hui manquant. Cela permet d’accélérer la recherche liée à la BD et à la théorie de l'art séquentiel. Les bibliothécaires et les conservateurs de collections des BDs disposeront d'un contenu structuré qui pourrait permettre la création d'artefacts spécifiques, tels que des dictionnaires de BDs, des indices de recherche ou des dictionnaires d'onomatopée. Du point de vue de l'édition, les standards actuels pour les BDs numériques se chargent exclusivement de la couche de présentation (c'est-à-dire, rendre tout simplement une publication sur l'écran d'un dispositif numérique). Mais la nature artistique de la BD et le grand potentiel des BDs numériques nous permettent d'aller au-delà de la simple présentation du contenu. À cet égard, nous contribuons avec des améliorations aux standards sémantiques (CBML) et de présentation (EPUB)
We address the difficulty of creating a digitised corpus by using a crowdsourced approach for annotating comic books. The resulting XML-based encodings assist researchers, publishers and collection curators equally. To achieve our data collection goal, we develop an online crowdsourcing engine for annotating comics. The tasks are designed to mirror the page reading experience, with participants asked to identify and annotate structural (panel layout, splash pages, meta-panels) and content (characters, places, events, onomatopoeia) elements of comic books. Our approach provides Digital Humanities (DH) scholars with a (currently missing) structured, annotated corpus; this enables and accelerates research related to comics and sequential art theory. Curators and collectors of physical or online comics collections are provided with a structured content which could enable the creation of artefacts such as comic books dictionaries, search indices and dictionaries of onomatopoeia. From a publishing perspective, current standards for digital comics are taking care exclusively of the presentation layer (i.e. rendering a publication on the screen of a device). But the artistic nature of comics and the great potential digital comics have already showcased allow us to go beyond simple content presentation. To this respect we present our contributions with enhancements to current semantic (CBML) and presentation (EPUB) open standards that will allow publishers and digital comics authors to create an improved reading experience

The genre of comics has had a tumultuous career throughout the twentieth century: it has careened from wildly popular to being perceived as the source of society’s ills. Despite having been relegated to the lowest rung of the artistic ladder for the better part of the twentieth century, comics has been gaining in quality and respectability over the last couple of decades. My introductory chapter provides a broad, basic introduction to the genre of comics––its historical development, its different forms, and a survey of comics criticism over the last thirty years. In chapter two I clarify the nature of comics by comparing it to literature, film, and pictorial art, thereby highlighting its hybrid nature. It has elements in common with all of these, and yet it is a distinct genre. My primary focus is on Chris Ware, whom I introduce in chapter three, a brilliant creator who has garnered widespread recognition and respect. His magnum opus is Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, the story of four generations of Corrigan men, most of whom have been negligent in raising their children. Jimmy Corrigan, as a result, is an introverted, insecure thirty–something–year–old man. Among comics creators Ware is unusual in that his story does not address socio–political issues, like most of his peers, which I discuss in chapter four. Jimmy Corrigan is an isolated tale with a very specific focus. Ware’s narrative is somewhat like those of William Faulkner, whose stories have a narrow focus, revolving around the lives of the inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha county, rather than encompassing the vast landscape of national socio–political concerns. Also, in chapter five I explore the intriguing combination of realist and Gothic elements––normally at opposite ends of the generic continuum––that Ware merges in Jimmy Corrigan. This feature is especially interesting because it is another way that his work explores aspects of hybridity. Finally, in my conclusion I examine the current state of comics in American culture and its future prospects for development and success, as well as the potential for future comics criticism.

Comics is a writing style that is often written off as just something done for entertainment or design. However, there are many facets of comics that make it a suitable candidate for technical documentation. By nature, comics is a visual and universal language and, as such, is the basis for an investigation of comics within the scope of technical communication. This research investigates whether comics can be automatically generated, based on a set of predefined panel templates, for such purposes while also providing for flexibility in both content and ultimate consumption format. A within-subjects study run with over 200 participants compared comics to two of its traditional documentation style contenders, prose and step-oriented, in terms of understanding and evaluation metrics, including those related to user experience. Results indicate that comics as a documentation style can offer enhanced, more positive user experiences, albeit not being overall better than the other styles.
Master of Science

Interest in comics as Swedish school material has risen in the last few years and the publication of comics for children and adolescents has also increased. Meanwhile, although research around new literacies has taken an interest in combinations of image and text, there is still little research on comics as a literacy material, especially as part of school practices. With comics’ rise in popularity, and their quality as examples of new literacies, this points to the relevance of exploring how meaning making with comics is done in schools. The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge on how locally situated literacy practices are done, practices in which pupils and teachers make meaning with comics. The study combines literacy, comics and discursive psychology to investigate aspects of literacy not as individual, inner workings, but as part of participants’ social constructions, in line with New Literacy Studies. With this perspective, it is possible to investigate literary concepts such as narrative, and participants’ construction of story elements, through the way in which these aspects are utilized by participants to construct social action – what participants do with their utterances. To study this, video recordings have been made in one primary and one secondary school, in two different Swedish cities. The results of the study show constructions of a comics literacy, where participants engage with both visual and textual aspects of the material and negotiate focalization of narrative perspective and construction of narrative structure as well as narrative devices such as speech and thought bubbles. Furthermore, meaning making of comics literacy also includes the construction of discourses around comics as a specific type of story telling, either for material or literary reasons. The thesis discusses how participants construct classroom literature, and provides insight into how interaction around comics enables participants to construct and negotiate discourses around what comics literacy is and what it enables, as well as how to talk about, create, and read comics.
Intresset för serier som svenskt skolmaterial har stigit de senaste åren och publiceringen av serier för barn och ungdomar har också ökat. Även om forskning om new literacies har intresserat sig för kombinationer av bild och text så finns det fortfarande lite forskning på serier som literacymaterial, speciellt som en del av skolpraktik. Med det stigande intresset för serier och deras kvaliteter som exempel på new literacies, så pekar detta mot att det finns en relevans i att utforska hur meningsskapande med serier görs i skolan. Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med kunskap om hur lokalt situerad literacypraktik görs där elever och lärare skapar mening med serier. Studien kombinerar forskning om literacy, serier och diskursiv psykologi för att, i linje med New Literacy Studies, undersöka aspekter av literacy som en del av deltagarnas sociala konstruktioner – inte som ett individuellt, mentalt fenomen. Med detta perspektiv är det möjligt att undersöka litterära koncept som narrativ och deltagares konstruktion av berättelseinslag, genom det sätt på vilka dessa aspekter används av deltagare för att interagera – vad deltagare gör när de säger något. För att studera detta har videoobservationer använts i en lågstadieskola och en högstadieskola i två olika svenska städer. Resultaten från studien demonstrerar konstruktioner av serie-literacy där deltagarna engagerar sig i både text och bild i materialet, diskuterar berättandeperspektiv och konstruktioner av narrativ struktur, såväl som berättarverktyg, t.ex. prat- och tankebubblor. Därutöver inkluderar serie-literacy också deltagarnas skapande av seriediskurser där serier görs till en specifik typ av berättande, antingen på materiell eller litterär basis. Avhandlingen diskuterar hur deltagare konstruerar klassrumslitteratur, och studien erbjuder en insikt i hur interaktion runt serier möjliggör för deltagare att konstruera och förhandla diskurser om vad serieliteracy är och vad det erbjuder för möjligheter, såväl som hur deltagare kan prata om, skapa och läsa serier.

The purpose of this study was to test the application of two linguistic models of narration and one linguistic model of speech and thought presentation on comic texts: Fowler's (1986) internal and external narration types, Simpson's (1993) narrative categories from his 'modal grammar of point of view' and Leech and Short's (1981) speech and thought presentation scales. These three linguistic models of narration and speech and thought presentation, originally designed and used for the analysis of prose texts, were applied to comics, a multimodal medium that tells stories through a combination of both words and images. Through examples from comics, I demonstrate in this thesis that Fowler's (1986) basic distinction between internal and external narration types and Simpson's (1993) narrative categories (categories A, B(N) and B(R) narration) can be identified in both visual and textual forms in the pictures and the words of comics. I also demonstrate the potential application of Leech and Short's (1981) speech and thought presentation scales on comics by identifying instances of the scales' categories (NPV/NPT, NPSA/NPTA, DS/DT and FDS/FDT) from comics, but not all of the speech and thought presentation categories existed in my comic data (there was no evidence of IS/IT and the ategorisation of FIS/FIT was debatable). In addition, I identified other types of discourse that occurred in comics which were not accounted for by Leech and Short's (1981) speech and thought presentation categories: internally and externally-located DS and DT (DS and DT that are presented within (internally) or outside of (externally) the scenes that they originate from), narratorinfluenced forms of DS and DT (where narrator interference seems to occur in DS and DT), visual presentations of speech and thought (where speech and thought are represented by pictorial or symbolic content in balloons) and non-verbal balloons (where no speech or thought is being presented, but states of mind and emphasized pauses or silence are represented by punctuation marks and other symbols in speech balloons).