Artistic medium

Artistic medium

Defining comics

Scholars disagree on the definition of comics; some claim its printed format is crucial, some emphasize the interdependence of image and text, and others its sequential nature. The term as a reference to the medium has also been disputed.

Will Eisner, who established the term sequential art and is considered to have popularised the graphic novel.

In 1996, Will Eisner published Graphic Storytelling, in which he defined comics as "the printed arrangement of art andballoons in sequence, particularly in comic books." Eisner's earlier, more influential definition from 1985's Comics and Sequential Art described the technique and structure of comics as sequential art, "...the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea."

In Understanding Comics (1993) Scott McCloud defined sequential art and comics as: "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer";this definition excludes single-panel illustrations such as The Far Side,"Zanzibear", The Family Circus, and most political cartoons from the category, classifying those as cartoons. By contrast, The Comics Journal's "100 Best Comics of the 20th Century", included the works of several single panel cartoonists and a caricaturist, and academic study of comics has included political cartoons.

R. C. Harvey, in his essay Comedy At The Juncture Of Word And Image, offered a competing definition in reference to McCloud's: "...comics consist of pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa." This, however, ignores the existence of wordless comics.

Most agree that animation, which creates the optical illusion of movement within a static physical frame, is a separate form, althoughImageTexT, a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on comics, accepts submissions relating to animation as well, and the third annual Conference on Comics at the University of Florida focused on comics and animation.