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While today's mainstream comic books confront us with the replacement of hand-created images with computer-driven techniques and styles, the aesthetic dimension of the use of digital tools in the creation of comic art has received limited critical attention. This article addresses this lack by reflecting on a tension between conspicuous uses of computer colouring and hand-colouring. Furthermore, I discuss a hybridity that relativises distinctions between 'digital' and 'traditional' comic book art. Drawing upon the writings on media scholars Lev Manovich and D.N. Rodowick and examples from works associated with comics auteur Frank Miller, I argue that digital tools have augmented comics creation with new properties. Furthermore, I propose that these properties test our confidence in knowing what these images 'are' from an ontological perspective. The analysis is set against the backdrop of how thinking in terms of 'digital' versus 'analogue' has become secondary in a present post-digital moment. I conclude by suggesting that we need to move the discussion beyond the 'newness' of the digital to build a better understanding of the ontological uncertainties and the genealogies surrounding digitally created comic book imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of media history and the role of media in sustaining community through a ritual framework, as opposed to a transmission model that assumes direct effects on people's minds. The author references Benjamin Franklin as an example of someone who understood the limited effects of news media and used it to prepare the minds of the public. The article also highlights the importance of media historians in challenging common sense and disrupting unjust social trajectories. The issue features essays and research articles that explore various aspects of media history and its impact on society. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the role of artist Keith Pollard in the Black arts movement and his contributions to Marvel Comics during the Silver Age of Comics. Pollard, a Black creator, worked at Marvel while also drawing gag cartoons for Black World magazine, which focused on the Black arts movement. His cartoons used humor to critique race, class, and social relationships, and he aimed to create universal messages that anyone could appreciate. Despite facing challenges and stereotypes, Pollard became a highly regarded artist at Marvel and worked on popular titles such as The Amazing Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. His work, along with other Black artists, helped pave the way for more diverse voices in the comic book industry. [Extracted from the article]

The study reported in this paper analyzes the specific genre of 'instruction comics' with regard to typical patterns of comic book pages. As a sequential-pictorial genre with a narrative as well as instructive character, 'instruction comics' have recently and increasingly been used in education as a novel way to communicate, for instance, health-related information. The corpus for this study includes 37 single-page first-aid comics that all show how to help a person who is choking, i.e. how to perform what is generally known as the Heimlich manoeuvre. To understand how this procedure is presented visually and how this presentation is similar to the layout of typical pages of comic books and graphic novels, the corpus is annotated with a multi-level annotation scheme that has been developed to annotate and analyse the page layout of visual narratives. The annotation scheme includes formal descriptions to synergistically analyse the complexity and variety of various comic genres, with specifications for typical comic page grids and the use of framing, inset panels, or captions. The paper presents and critically discusses the results of the corpus annotation with regard to the specific multimodal design choices in the corpus of choking comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tom Scioli is a contemporary comics artist and writer who gained prominence as co-creator of Godland (Image Comics, 2005–13), an epic, Kirby-esque space opera which was nominated for an Eisner Award. His credits also include Transformers vs. GI Joe, 'Super Powers' (a run of short comics for DC's experimental imprint Young Animal) and, most recently, Go-Bots. He is known for his unconventional drawing style, dense page layouts, and imaginative writing. He's one of a small number of mainstream comics creators today who writes, draws, colors and hand-letters his work. This interview, undertaken throughout July-August 2018, explores his career in comics to date. Topics discussed include storytelling and graphic design, comic book formats, ways color impact comics and why coloring is so important in terms of art and its relationship with narrative and story, cinematic adaptations of comics (Thor, Fantastic Four), Jack Kirby's contributions and influence, Super Powers, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Myth of 8-Opus, Transformers vs. GI Joe and Go-bots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How is it that within the graphic tradition particular images, often composed of only lines and washes on paper, can convey complex states of being and speak to questions of existence? For the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–55) to exist is to face uncertainties and commit oneself passionately to a way of life, which emerges only through the acting-out of that commitment. This paper considers the work of two very different artists and aims to illuminate the common philosophical ground and expose significant differences. José Luis Cuevas was a Mexican self-taught artist who made drawings of human suffering. He began drawing fallible images of humanity at a very young age after a prolonged illness. He worked in opposition to established works of art in his home country. Tommi Parrish is a contemporary Australian transgender comic book artist whose work often traverses gaps in human understanding, sexuality, identity and anxiety to convey tenderness and humour. The work of Tommi is noteworthy in terms of how sequenced imagery builds on often wordless tension between awkward individuals and the situation they find themselves in. I seek to reveal an alternative narrative layer for each artist by considering gestures within their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerry Ordway is a comic book artist, painter, writer and inker widely known for his work on the "Death of Superman" storyline and the original Captain Marvel (Shazam) at DC Comics. This interview explores his career in comics to date, from his discovery of fanzines in the early 1970s to his career-defining work on All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc., Fantastic Four, Superman, The Power of Shazam!, and his creator-owned properties, Proton, The Messenger, and (with Alex de Campi) Semiautomagic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the career of lesbian cartoonist Jennifer Camper and how she has fostered queer community both in her comics and in real life. Archival research in LGBTQ archives and in Camper's own personal papers evidences how Camper begins developing her comics in the 1980s by participating in various grassroots LGBTQ publication spaces. From this foundation of support, she engages in comics activism with her representations of these communities during the midst of the AIDS crisis. Through these analyses, this article theorizes how Camper foregrounds intersectionality and counterpublics in her work on and off the page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Phantom, an American comic about a superhero of British heritage set in a fictional African country, is held in high esteem elsewhere, regarded as a national institution in Australia, New Zealand and much of Scandinavia. Since the early 1960s, officially licensed scripts have been produced by the Swedish-based scriptwriters of ‘Team Fantomen’ who today remain the major suppliers of adventures to the Phantom comics around the world. This essay suggests that this shift in the scripts’ geographical origin also altered the politics of the comic: in the hands of Team Fantomen, the masked hero is instilled with political doctrines reflected in Swedish foreign policy during the late 1960s and early 1970s. This ideological shift means that the masked hero moves away from the role of colonialist fantasy prevalent in the American scripts to become a supporter of decolonisation, social justice and equality. The Phantom becomes an avatar of democratic socialist ideology, the episodes offering a direct commentary on Sweden’s perception of its own role in the world as a leading proponent of international solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motion can be depicted using pictorial devices that are literal (representing features present in the real world) and metaphorical (representing features not present in the real world). How are literal and metaphorical pictorial devices used in comic book art? The Literal Additive Metaphorical One-And-Done (LA-MOAD) theory proposes that literal devices function additively while metaphorical devices function non-cumulatively. We test the generalisability of the LA-MOAD theory by analysing the pictorial devices used to depict jumping, falling, swinging and flying in 400 Silver- and Bronze-Age comic books. As predicted by the LA-MOAD theory, literal devices were used additively; artists preferred to use many literal devices. On the other hand, metaphorical devices were not used additively; artists preferred to use only one metaphorical device. The LA-MOAD theory has implications for comic book art as well as for how our cognitive system processes metaphorical information in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean Graton created a series of comic books called Michel Vaillant, and its motorsports hero bore the same name. Michel Vaillant made his first appearance in 1957 in the weekly Tintin. Young French boys who loved adventure, sports and car racing greeted this publication with great enthusiasm. We studied the first series of Michel Vaillant, composed of 16 comic books produced in the 1960s. We have departed from traditional approaches and have based our method on the analysis of the sources of Graton’s inspiration. We link these sources to the comics’ text bubbles, visual signs and iconic meanings of the drawings. Our analysis of the comics’ iconography based on the establishment of a mass culture dedicated to the automobile brings to light the existence of an urge to go beyond the limits of tradition. Our research highlights that the success of Michel Vaillant is due, in the main, to the series’ detailed knowledge of the automobile sports industry, and to the myths of speed, youth and progress that it promulgates - myths in which its young male readers could see themselves reflected and which would also prepare them for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benjamin Marra is the founder and publisher of Traditional Comics and the creator ofNight Business, Gangsta Rap Posse, The Incredibly Fantastic Adventures of Maureen Dowd (A Work of Satire and Fiction), Lincoln Washington: Free Man!andBlades & Lazers. He holds a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University and an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In this interview he discusses his influences as well as his artistic process and the aesthetic principles that inform his own approach to comics. Topics explored within the interview include image–text relationships in comics; art process; ways in which form and content are interconnected; use of colour to support drawings; decision making regarding panels and panel arrangements; working in genre; the distribution and dissemination of comics; the art and influence of Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko and Paul Gulacy; Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’sTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and the uniqueness of sequential art as a storytelling form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American comic book artist Gene Colan (1 September 1926 – 23 June 2011) was one of the premiere Silver Age artists for Marvel Comics during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to co-creating the Falcon (the first African-American superhero introduced in mainstream American comics) and Blade (the basis for the Blade film series), he is widely known for his critically acclaimed work on a range of Marvel comic titles, includingTales to Astonish, Daredevil, Tomb of Dracula, Howard the Duck, Captain AmericaandDr. Strange. Throughout the 1980s, he drew a range of titles published by DC Comics, includingBatmanandDetective Comics, Wonder Woman, Jemm, Son of Saturn, Nathaniel Dusk, Night ForceandSilverblade. Colan’s storied career in comics dates back to 1944, when he first began doing illustration work for Fiction House. He is affectionately remembered by fans around the world as ‘Gentleman’ Gene Colan, and over the course of his legendary career he worked in virtually every genre ever touched by the comic book medium, including romance, adventure, mystery, science-fiction, humour, war, westerns and crime, in addition to his acclaimed work within the superhero genre. His moody, cinematic art style made his work instantly recognisable. In this interview (undertaken via email in 2007) he discussed the evolution of his career in comics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper follows the case study of Mike Diana – a 24-year-old Floridian artist, writer and zine creator – who in the early 1990s self-published eight issues of his comix zineBoiled Angelto a circulation of 300 people around the world. Local authorities confiscated his work and, through an elaborate legal trial, Diana became the first comic-book artist to be arrested, tried and jailed for creating offensive material. This paper uses the scapegoating process, borrowing from the work of literary critic Kenneth Burke. The discourse produced by the prosecutor’s rhetoric shifted from the creative expression of art to vilifying Diana as the ‘essence of evil’, whereby the only way the community could merge together to expunge their guilt was to purify themselves by punishing Diana to the fullest extent by making sure he received his ‘just desserts’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ralf König is the best-selling author of comic book novels, and his stories of gay men coming to terms with contemporary society have resonated with hundreds of thousands of German readers and film-goers. König's characters, like the author himself, have great difficulty adhering to the demand that condoms be used. The article describes how König develops this theme through a variety of works from 1985 through 1999, and analyzes the intertwined relationships among the author, his characters, and the society that is both portrayed in his works and that reads his works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joe Sacco (born in Malta in 1960) is one of the most respected comic book artists in the world. Sacco is critically acclaimed for his graphic reportage from various conflicts. His best known work is probably still Palestine, which was serialized in the mid-nineties and for which the author received the American Book Award in 1996. Palestine was published in book form in 2001. Other books include Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 (2000), and most recently Footnotes in Gaza (2009). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the American and Japanese comic book/manga artists and their significant roles in counterfeiting the atomic outlook of each generation. They have produced a wide range of atomic-related tales, that depicts super heroes battling a classification of outrageous villains. The picture-and-text-combination became an ideal way to express both information and entertainment during the Depression-era education. It concluded that the two nations, according to the representations of comics, both contained contrasts and similarities. The differences of these artists can also be seen in the manner by how they responded to the themes of victory and defeat.

The article discusses the second Oubapo publication "Les Vacanes de l'Oubapo," published in 2000 and the third volume "Oubapo 2," which appeared in 2003 in Europe. The second volume consists of works by six artists including Menu, Trondheim, Francois Ayroles and Jochen Gerner. It provides an exploration of six of the generative constraints proposed by Thierry Groensteen. The third volume presents examples of strips produced on the basis of transformative and generative constraints. The first section tackles on the impact of the generative contraints, while the second section analyzes the success of the transformative constraints in clearing the potential of the medium.

Después de una breve revisión de la literatura reciente sobre la historieta en México, el artículo propone que a pesar de la tendencia de los críticos a considerar el medio como una forma de extensión del consumismo y la dominación ideológica, las historietas junto con el cine y la pintura mural, establecieron en México la 'alta modernidad visual'. Esta fase reciente de la cultura visual intensifica y amplía las cualidades modernas de la imagen inauguradas en el Renacimiento y facilitadas por la reproducción mecánica desde finales del siglo diecinueve. Sin embargo, los cómics (o historietas) se convierten en un ejemplo paradigmático de la portabilidad y consumo individual (y también masivo) de narrativas visuales que no había sido posible a través de la pintura, la prensa o la fotografía. Un elemento central para este nuevo paradigma es la 'intermedialidad', la posibilidad de que los medios visuales se apropien y reconfiguren imágenes de orígenes diversos. Para ilustrar el despliegue de las prácticas y modos de producción de la Alta Modernidad Visual, se estudian ejemplos de la Época de Oro del cine y de la historieta en México (1935–1955) incluyendo trabajos de artistas gráficos como Zea Salas y Cervantes Bassoco, las figuras de Cantinflas, Tarzán, los murales de Diego Rivera y las películas de Emilio Fernández e Ismael Rodríguez, entre otros. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the ways that various comic book creators and publishers have helped mobilize the Canadian nationalism in the form of the superhero in comic books. It is reported that the Canadian superhero began in the 1940s with indigenous comic books known as "Canadian Whites." It is informed that the book "Superheroes: A Modern Mythology," by Richard Reynolds, identifies a number of key elements in the superhero mythology.