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History

Page history last edited by Tommi Ivey 12 years, 2 months ago

This entry describes History as a critical approach to comics. Approaching comics studies from a historical point of view gives context and depth to the society in which the comics were written.  This approach to comics is new in the grand scope of historical research, being in the 1970s with Jim Steranko’s: The Steranko History of Comics. 

  

Background

 

History is the studies of the past, but not simple dates or facts.  History puts things into various perspectives depending on what your sources or documents might present.  Two scholars can take the same stack of primary documents and create two different arguments.  Like all other art or literature comics provide important sources for language usage, clothing styles, popular culture, sociological, and political aspects of the time in which they were written.  Comics also reference the creators own regional and economic prospective or influences at time.  Like other art and literature comics should also be studies as such that they were made for public consumption and therefore are often reflections of embellishments or fantasy.

 

Underlying Assumptions

 

Smith and Duncan state that there are three assumptions made in the historical work on comics: that comics do not exist in a vacuum, that all aspects of comics have a hidden historical meaning, and that all comic history that has previously been produced as scholarly work should be scrutinized because it is not peer-reviewed.

 

Types of Questions

 

What type of questions does this kind of analysis ask? What sorts of problems is it trying to solve?  What is it trying to understand or reveal?

 

  • ·         Make is considered a comic?
  • ·         Are comics literature or art?
  • ·         What does this comic tell us about the time period in which it was written?  The people?  The audience? The economics?

 

Objects of Study

 

Since the definition of comics varies from scholar to scholar the scope of research can include many different times of items, even items that people might not think of as comics, such as the Bayeux Tapestry, the art of Rodolphe Töpffer, to include the modern day comic book.  This openness allows for a broader interpretation and inclusion of various comic precursors not often considered by main-stream audiences. This is a new field of history and it is evolving.

 

Methods of Analysis

 

Comic history scholars are challenged with a unique set of parameters in which to research.  Since comics can cross fields in their part of in historiography so must the scholar researching them.  Scholars must use many modern and online methods since a lot of the historiography already prepared and the primary sources themselves are in electronic format. Then they must find a common link in order to back their argument, but they must also be careful to remember that these works are not always honest representations of the societies in which they were created and at times have editorial implications, various creators, and limited by censorship in a unique was that other art or literature might not be or have been within the same creative time-frame.

 

Bibliography

 

Here are a few samples of the various work completed on comics since the 1970s:

 

Couperie, Pierre, and Marice C. Horn. A History of the Comic Strip .[Bande Dessinée et Figuration Narrative (France: 1967).] New York: Crown Publishers, 1968.

 

Geipel, John. The Cartoon: A Short History of Graphic Comedy and Satire.South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1972. ISBN 0498011496 (cloth). 

 

75 Years of the Comics. 1971. Intro. Maurice Horn. Boston and New York: Boston Book & Art / New York Cultural Center. SBN 843510102 (hc).

 

Goulart, Ron. The Great Comic Book Artists. New York: St. Martin's P, 1986. 128pp. ISBN 0312345577 (paper)

 

Goulart, Ron.  The Great Comic Book Artists, Volume 2.  New York: St. Martin's P, 1989.  113pp.  ISBN 0-312-01768-5 (paper).

 

Dierick, Charles and Pascal Lefèvre, eds.  Forging a New Medium: The Comic Strip in the Nineteenth Century .  Brussels: VUB University Press, 1998.  214 pp.  ISBN 90-5487-206-3.

 

Bongco, Mila. Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books .  Garland Studies in American Popular History and Culture.  New York and London: Garland, 2000.   238 pp.  ISBN 0-8153-3344-7 (hc).

 

 

References 

 

  1. www.comicsresearch.org 
  2. Duncan and Smith, Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods

 

Further Reading

 

  • www.comicsresearch.org

 

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