KT's Week 2

What does Baetens(2001) mean by ‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and ‘graphiateur’ ?

It was difficult to understand the exact meaning of threee words-‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and ‘graphiateur’. They were not familiar at all and not clear. So this week I just summaried their meaning from Baeton’s theory based on the fact that the distincion of graphiation, graphiateur, and monstration depends on acknowledging and identifying the graphic trace or index of the artist.

Graphiation is the graphic and narrative enunciation of the comics, and it is the persistence and visibility of features of the enunciative act in the graphic result of that act. Moreover, graphiation is at its strongest in a drawing that is in the stage of a rough copy or sketch.

Graphiateur is the agent or authority responsible for the comics’s drawing of both the letters and the images, but it is not the person in the flesh who signs the work, but an authority constructed by the reader. Marion’s graphiateur, however, remains rather monolithic, and it should be possible to go beyond this overly simple conception.

Monstraion is the one that is split from narrative enunciation in film by Gaudreault, and the concept of monstration cannot be transposed mechanically to the field of comics, since monstration in comics is far from having the same figurative transparency as in film. The very process of monstration tends to go unnoticed behind the figurative result, for instance, behind the strong analogical simulacrum it installs. But in the comics the graphic material(drawings and lettering) resists such a figurative transparency; it creates on the contrary a kin of persisting opacity and prevents the act of monstration form being fully transparent and transitive.

In addition, I would like to mention about Spiegelman’s work, ‘In the Shadow of no Towers’ , briefly.

Images and formats are irregular. There are more than one storyline and character on comics of ‘In the shadow of no Towers’. The main story is from the sensitive issue of 9/11 and some drawings are quite violent and brutal for chilren readers. (In fact, it is relatively a different style compared with ‘The adventure of Tintin’.) As a result, I felt like I read several comics at the same time. (Probably this may be the author’s intention.)

Reference

Baetons, J. (2001). Revealing Traces: a new theory of graphic enunciation. In Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.), The Language of Comics: word and image (pp.145-155). Jackson: U Press of Mississippi.

Spiegelman, A. (2004). The Sky is Falling. In In the Shadow of No Towers (pp. ii-iii). New York: Pantheon.

Week 2: Comics as Graphic Novels II

Compare the relationship between images and words differ in Hergé (1933) and Spiegelman’s (2004) works.

Although both being comic authors, there are both similarities and differences between Herge and Tintin’s works. The immediate aspect of both the authors works is that they both bring in a certain racial and political theme into their pieces. For example how Spiegelman was began writing again around the time of 9/11 and began writing comics again only when, “I heard paranoid Arab Americans blaming it all on the Jews did I reel myself back in (to comic writing)”. The two writer’s were obviously very conscious of the fact that not all cultures see eye to eye. Herge shows this with they relationship between Tintin and Chang when they first meet and Chang is not entirely sure of Tintin’s intentions because he is white, “I thought all white devils were wicked.” Spiegelman shows this with a picture of an American saying, “WHY DO THEY HATE US? WHY???” after the 9/11 attack. The language used by Spiegelman is also alot more modern than that of Herge’s work as shown by these quotes.

Another similarity between the two writers is how they are both claimed to have skills in being able to see things ahead of time. Spiegelman said, “It’s hard to be an artist who’s consistently seconds ahead of time.” This is a skill Herge was also said to have, “Like some finely tuned commentator, he was able to see where events were leading.”

The immediate difference between Herge and Spiegelman’s work however, is the physical differences between their comic works. Herge’s Tintin 1993 work tends to be alot more traditional and straight forward. Spiegelman’s 2004 work seems to be more contemporary and moves around alot. Rather than going from left to right, he puts comic strips going down as well as left to right.

Spiegelman, A. (2004). The Sky is Falling.

Spiegelman, A. (2004) The Shadow of no Towers.

Herge. (1936). Tintin - The Blue Lotus.

WEEK TWO

According to Horricks (2004), how have perceptions of comics as a media changed?

According to Horricks (2004), In the 1950’s there was a widespread concern about the influence of comics on young readers. For example The Tintin comic “TinTin in the Congo” by Hergé (1931) was claimed to be racist because it contained images of a black woman bowing to Tintin saying “White man very great...”. He also made fun of black people by saying they “look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles”. This caused many book stores to remove it from sale or restrict sales to an older audience. Since then perceptions of comics as a media has changed immensely.  In today’s society Comics are often studied in English and Art History departments at university. They can also be found in book length format which have been given the name of “Graphic Novels” and are often reviewed in the pages of the NY Review of Books. Horricks also says the concerns with comics have not disappeared but just moved on to other media. I believe this is true because comics are not a very large media in today’s society compared to Film and Television and the public does not seem to worry about comics anymore.

References:
Horricks, D. (2004). The Perfect Planet: Comics, games and world building in Williams, M (Ed), Writing at the Edge of the Universe. Christchurch: U of Canterbury Press.

KT's Week 1

Do you think comics are a children’s or adult genre/media? How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin’s appeal to adults?

I remember when I was young, my uncle used to read the Japanese comics. I couldn’t understand why grown man was reading the children’s book. At that time, I thought that comics were for the children, not grown-ups.

However, according to Farr(1991.p9), Tintin could keep the populatiry by devising a character who would appeal to children as much as grown-ups, though for often quite different reasons. Also, the appeal is self-generating, for in due course the children become adults and then parents themselves, allowing the Tintin tradition to be carried on. I totally agree with the fact after the children become adults, comics are not forgetable. To be honest, I am still crazy about comics, Candy Candy, that I used to read during my childhood. Moreover, some comics, such as Crayon Shin-chan, Dragon ball and Detective Conan, are popular among children and adults in Korea. 

Frankly speaking, I haven’t read any series of ‘the Adventures of Tintin’ before and I’ve tried to read ‘The Blue Lotus’ as this is the primary readings. However, I couldn’t download it from the website. Fortunately I watched the movie of ‘The Adventures of Tintin : The Blue Lotus’ in class and it seemed to help for imagination of the pictures in my head. I think Tintin’s characters, such as Tin Tin, snowy, and twins detectives, might be appealed to children and Tintin’s story(plot) might be appealed to adult. Because of this combination, the series comics of TinTin could be popular to every aged group.

In my opinion, if there are many levels of understanding in comics, both of children and adult can enjoy reading it. It may depend on what part of comics would be focused on by readers. Therefore, I think comics are genre/media for the children as well as adult.

Reference

Bernasconi, S. (1991). The Blue Lotus from the adventures of Tintin. Canada: Nelvana.

Farr, M. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp. 8-9). London: John Murray.

Week 1: Comics as Graphic Novels I

“How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin’s appeal to adults?

After reading Farr’s “The Blue Lotus“, the story of Tintin: The Blue Lotus does not come across as just a children’s tale. Farr makes the point that when writing The Blue Lotus, Herge became aware of the importance of creating an authentic Chinese setting after being introduced to sculpturer Chang Chong-Chen in 1934.
Chang helped Herge to see the importance of representing a country for what it really is rather than for its reputation. In The Blue Lotus, Herge made the effort to incorporate real street names into his depictions creating an authentic China which is clearly something he did not bother to do to please innocent children, but “out of a sense of honesty to my readers”.
Herge even incorporated Chang into the story and showed the misunderstood relationship between American and Chinese by a very unique converstation between Tintin and Chang, “I thought all white devils were wicked, like those who killed my Grandfather and Grandmother long ago during the war of the righteous and harmonious fists my father said.” “But Chang, all white men aren’t wicked. You see, different peoples don’t know each other. Lots of Europeans still believe that all Chinese are cunning and cruel and wear pig tails, are always inventing tortures and eating rotten eggs and swallows’ eggs.”
The Blue Lotus was also the first of Herge’s Tintin adventures to bring emotion and tragedy to the story for example when Tintin feels for Mrs. Wang whose son goes mad from poison, “Poor, poor Mrs. Wang.”
Another mature aspect of Herge’s The Blue Lotus is how he incorporates the Moukden Railway Incident into the storyline when the Japanese blamed China for blowing up a railway for an excuse to invade. Herge made it clear that he did not feel for the Japanese.
Herge was obviously a very skilled writer, “Like some finely tuned commentator, he was able to see where events were leading.” This proves Tintin’s appeal to an adult audience.


Farr, M. (1991). The Blue Lotus. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.50-59) London: John Murray.

Herge. (1936). Tintin – The Blue Lotus.

Nazia Week 1

How might Hergé's The Blue Lotus address or relate to what Said (1977) terms 'orientalism'?


The idea of “Orientalism” in the view of Said (1977) is an idea constructed by the West. It romanticises the reality, depicting it as a place of “...exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes...” (p.87), created as a polarization to Western culture and viewed as the “Other”. Said has stated “European culture gained in strength and identity by settling itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self”, he goes on to say that the idea of “other” is a relationship of power and domination on part of the West. Herge’s Blue Lotus addresses these issues. This particular work is a progression from his previous works which were viewed as racist (for example Tintin in the Congo).

In the Blue Lotus there is a particular scene in which Herge directly addresses this idea of “Orientalism”. This scene is where Tintin saves Chang from the river and a conversation follows about the various stereotypes that both cultures have of one another. As Said has stated in his text, the “Orient” is more than a political notion, it was created to make easier to understand a culture that was foreign to the West. I think this is relevant to The Blue Lotus because it is evident that Herge has tried to remedy this idea by making sure that he has correctly portrayed aspects of the Chinese culture, for example in case of the street signs, clothing, the landscape, the people, etc through the aid of his friend Chang Chong-chen. However, there are still small mistakes, such as the costumes worn my Thompson and Thompson which is something usually worn by an emporer. This is a contrast to what Herge had done with Tintin in the Congo, where the African features were exaggerated.


References

Said, E. (1977) Orientalism. In Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. & Tiffin, H. (Ed.), The Postcolonial Studies Reader (pp.87-91). London: Routledge.

LoveKim-Week 2

According to Horrocks (2004), how have perceptions of comics as a media changed?

Comics were once, especially in the early 1950s, judged to be problematic as it was thought that young people were affected by such media. For example, comics were overly blamed for violence, perversion and other social problems.  So they were treated as the enemy of society in many countries including the USA, Britain and New Zealand. However, since then comics have become a part of main genre of art history. There have been books for reviewing comics and graphic novels have been awarded. New courses related to comics have been introduced in tertiary education in developed countries. As some other media were newly introduced such as the internet and video games, the concerns that people had towards comics seem to move to the latter media.  

Reference

Horrocks, D. (2004). The perfect planet: Comics, games and world building in Williams, M. (Ed.), Writing at the Edge of the Universe. Christchurch: U of Canterbury Press.

LoveKim- Week 1

Title: Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?

My simple and direct answer will be 'can be both' because comics can be appeal to anyone at any age. Defining whether or not comics are a children's genre will probably be depending on their content, image, graphic and discourse and so on. What are the comics aimed at will possibly influence on dividing the age group of readers. However, all generations could feel connected to it with the way they understand and appreciate the comics. (Farr, 1991). There will almost always be something that the readers can feel connected to the comics such as characters or stories every time they read it. Since children readers become adults, so once they read comics and then they would remember when they grown up. And they pass on the comics to their next generation. For examle, the comic of Tintin has been long loved by a wide range of age group and throughout the generations (Farr, 1991).



Reference

Farr, M. (1991). Introductio. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.

WEEK 2 (Winny)

What does Khordoc think the Asterix series does better than Hergé’s Tintin?

"In the case of Asterix, the story, despite certain variations, is fairly similar in most of the episodes.  The representation of sound is therefore one of the numerous strategies in this comic which contributes to creating humor, which is the series' main purpose. " (Khordoc, 2001)  In the text written by Khordoc, he stated that Herge relied too much on text, which means he used too much words, instead of making his illustrations to express the ideas he would like to tell the readers.  Khordoc dislikes Herge's Tintin because he think a graphic novel should have evenly planned format.  By this, it means that neither the texts in the speech bubbles nor the illustrations should take too much space.  He indicated that he likes the Asterix series more because other than relying more on texts to explain what happened or the idea wished to spread through, his images will give readers an impact, and very straightforward they will understand what the image, for example from an action of a character, represents to us.
Personally, I do agree with Khordoc saying that comic artists should rely more on the illustrations other than putting too much words in a speech bubble, or a box.  Certainly, this does not mean words are useless.  Words should be supporting the pictures, so readers can get the idea of what the author wants to inspire us.  If people want to understand a story in deep, I would recommend those people to read the novel version, if applicable.  There are a lot comics with different genres, but I think they all have one same intention.  That is, comics are for people who don't want to read a whole page of texts.  For this reason, I cannot agree a comic with a lot texts as a good comic.

 


References
Khordok, C. (2001). The Comics Book's Soundtrack: Visual Sound-effects in Asterix. In Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Ed.). The Language of Comics: word and image, (pp. 156-173). Jackson: U P of Mississippi.

WEEK 1 (Winny)

Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media? 

According to Farr, Herges stated that Tintin was for people in all of their age(Farr, 1991), "In fact the appeal has proved much wider: from children first learning to read to aged Tintinophiles.  Each finds their own level of understanding and appreciation."(Farr, 1991)  I cannot agree more than that.  Personally, I think it really depends on what kind of genres the comics are, to decide whether they are suitable for what age group.  Nowadays, there is a wide variation of types of comics.  Take an example of Japan, as most of you would know, has a lot famed comic artists.  Mainly there are comics about adventures, romance, scientific, horror etc.  A majority of people might think comics are for children, but indeed, like the examples I've just listed targeted on young adults.  The world has changed, so as human.  Looking back to the old days, most comics are for fun, for humour, many aimed on children as targets, but recently more and more of different genres of comics poped up.  It seems like contemporary people have found drawing comics is a good way of expressing different opinions and ideas. 

References
Herge. (2005). The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. London: Methuen.
Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin: the complete companion. London: John Murray.