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This article deals with the publication and reading of digitized comic books through the interface of the Izneo platform. Olivier Stucky questions the functioning and ambitions of such online platforms that offer the public an experience of reading an album, originally printed, on a plurality of screen formats (computer, smartphone, touch tablet, etc.). By proceeding to a historical contextualization of the emergence of this platform and then by proposing the description and the analysis of the various forms of display allowing to visualize the contents of a digitized album on various screens, the author intends to replace the material implications of the supports at the center of the reflection on the digital forms of comics.

This paper intends to study the adaptation of printed albums for the CD-ROM support in France during the 1990s. As an evidence of the first incursions of printed comics into digital publishing and composed of less than ten titles, the corpus studied nevertheless reveals a new situation in the editorial context in which it appeared. By situating these objects at the crossroads of upheavals in the editorial landscape of comics and books in general, at a time when entertainment computing is being democratized, this study aims to show how these marginal publications testify to and announce a disruption of the media identity of comic, at the crossroads of the symbolic influence of the album and the formal issues involved in publishing on an innovative support.

L’enseignement de la bande dessinée a pris de l’ampleur ces dernières décennies. Pour autant, il est possible de repérer des cours spécialisés dès les années 1970, comme en témoigne l’histoire de l’atelier d’illustration de l’école des arts décoratifs de Strasbourg. L’étude de cette formation spécialisée et des trajectoires artistiques de ses anciens élèves nous informe à la fois sur le processus de professionnalisation du métier d’auteur de bandes dessinées et sur la montée en légitimité du médium. En outre, à la lumière des parcours étudiés, elle nous invite à questionner les frontières entre bande dessinée et illustration.

À l’heure où la bande dessinée numérique fait émerger de nouvelles matérialités, il paraît crucial de repenser les supports de la bande dessinée dans toute leur diversité. Cette introduction à la thématique « Bande dessinée et culture matérielle » propose trois chantiers à ouvrir pour penser la matérialité de la bande dessinée : poétique historique du support, inscription dans des usages commerciaux multimédiatiques, conservation et collection d’objets physiques.

The advent of graphic novels, following the emergence of adult comics, is part of a quest for legitimacy, by getting closer to literature by the label "novel" or to plastic arts by a particular attention to the edition (paper weight, binding, etc.). This labeling allows the neutralization of genres even so they are still present among the collections of graphic novels. The multiplication of formats, lengths and styles leads to less standardized books that no longer conform to the classical model of the collection.

The genres have often been discredited in the literary world. What is their real influence in comics? The analysis of journals and collections of albums shows that the genre, both in the post-war periodicals and in the current collections, is only used by publishers who are in a unfavorable position on the market (often the latest arrivals) and is mostly rejected by those who want to promote comics as a legitimate art. Genre is used either to build audience loyalty or allow the development of new publishers, but mostly avoided in order to allow a greater qualification of some artworks.

Dealing with the legitimacy of comic books, researchers mainly focus on external consecration bodies (institutions, medias). Studying the deeds and claims of the producers reveals their direct involvement in this process. While communicating with its members and readers, the publishing house L'Association keeps on vindicating its own conception of what comic books should be and establises its own legitimacy through the vindication of an historical genealogy and of some values. This position, and more specifically the publication of the newsletter Les Nouvelles de l‘hydre, lead to polemics both with other actors in the sphere of comics and with its own authors and subscribers. Combining symbolic production and book promotion, this communication process invites us to reconsider Bourdieu's théories : is a distinction between aesthetics and economy the cornerstone of the concept of légitimacy?

Within the humoristic press that appeared in Spain at the beginning of the seventies, the El Papus journal (1973-1986) stands out for its taste for provocation and transgression of all social, political and cultural taboos of that time. It is precisely about this feature that the first part of this study will talk about – we shall see how the creation project, as well as the editorial board, the aesthetics and the topics of El Papus are defined by their destructive dimension. The analysis of the two main subjects of the review, politics and sex, will let us consider the review as a product of counter-culture. Finally, we will examine the impact of the review within the Spanish society of the democratic Transition.

The success of manga in France during the past decade has also seen the development of a critical and historical discourse on the Japanese production. This text proposes to consider the treatment of the history of manga in reference books available in French, with a focus on its preconceived ideas. We will consider in particular the question of the origin, and of the central figure of Tezuka Osamu. We will then analyze the distorsions linked to the availability of certain works in French, be it the importance of an author such as Taniguchi Jirou, or the limited attention given to the alternative production that still remains rarely translated. We will also consider the vision of the manga industry in Japan, and how this vision is mostly built on the emblematic case of the Shônen Jump weekly magazine. Finally, we will observe how French publishers translate this vision in their editorial strategy.

Quelles sont les grandes œuvres de la bande dessinée, celles qui font son histoire, ses « classiques » ? Sont-ils bien ceux que l’on croit ? On s’efforce ici de répondre à cette question en confrontant les discours et les pratiques des auteurs, de la critique et des éditeurs. La notion de classique, particulièrement polysémique, apparaît d’autant plus brouillée que les producteurs font rarement référence au travail de leurs pairs en raison notamment de l’incapacité supposée ou réelle du public à les comprendre. Elle-même s’explique par l’état du champ, en cours d’autonomisation : en l’absence d’un arbitre faisant autorité et qui serait l’école, la notion de « classsique » se retrouve au cœur d’une lutte entre deux pôles antagonistes. Alors qu’une partie de la critique et des éditeurs célèbre des « classiques » qui sont autant de bandes dessinées conventionelles, établissant ainsi une « confusion du langage », d’autres, qui affirment des positions artistiques exigeantes, rejettent le mot de classique mais identifient des maîtres, reconnaissent des précurseurs, prospectent du côté de l’avant-garde.

Si le livre de poche a joué un rôle central dans la diffusion du patrimoine littéraire, la bande dessinée ne dispose pas de cet outil permettant la constitution d’un corpus de classiques aisément accessibles au plus grand nombre. En ceci, la bande dessinée constitue bien une véritable exception dans le champ éditorial français, par la quasi-absence de collections permettant de republier des classiques en format de poche. L’importance de l’image et l’impératif de lisibilité compliquent en effet le problème de l’adaptation du « grand format » vers le poche, mais demeurent insuffisants pour comprendre la réticence de la bande dessinée au poche. Le présent article propose un retour en arrière sur les expériences des années 1980-1990, afin de mieux cerner cette singularité éditoriale.