Semiotic analysis of comics in contemporary Czech social magazines in the years 2000-2015

This thesis deals with comics in the Czech news and cultural magazines after the year 2000. A new generation of comic creators emerged after the year 2000, so called Generation zero. These new creators are different from the older authors - especially from authors of Generation 89 - in many aspects. Using a semiotic analysis this thesis focuses on comics in contemporary periodicals: it attempts to uncover how various comics exist in news magazines (which are intended for a broad scale audience) and to what extent these comics match with the profile of the magazine. Additionally, in order to see a potential difference in results, cultural periodicals were also thoroughly analyzed. Included in the analyzed material are news magazines such as Reflex and Respekt and cultural periodicals like Art+Antiques and A2. In addition, it focuses on theoretical discussions regarding a proper definition of the word comic and on the relationship between linguistic and visual levels of comics because this relationship is essential in this form. Finally, the means of visual language in comics and the history of the Czech comics are discussed in the theoretical section as well.