From: Peter M Coogan Subject: Comics Scholars Survey Results part 1 Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 22:35:55 -0400 (EDT) Comics Scholars Survey Results 6/94 Peter M. Coogan In Comic Art Studies #46 I offered a survey of comic scholars and presented the results at the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference (the PCA), held in Louisville, Kentucky, March 18-21, 1992. I presented my findings in one session, and then hosted a round-table discussion of the survey in another session. The round-table turned out much better than I had expected; we had a full room, and held a serious discussion for the full hour and a half. An earlier version of the following was also published in Comic Art Studies #47. We opened the round-table with remarks by Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of the Humanities at Randolf-Macon College, Julie Ratliff, professor of English at Ball State, and myself, graduate student in American Studies at Michigan State, about the general state of comics scholarship today. Dr. Inge commented on some of the things we don't need in comics scholarship. We shouldn't treat comics as if they're a source of empirical data about the culture; thus a study of the height of women in 20's comic strips won't tell us anything about the height of women in the 20's. He also said that methodologies adapted from other fields, although useful, won't help us get to the root of what makes comics distinctive. We shouldn't try to prove that of the comic strip exists. He added that many creators of the Golden Age are still living, and if we act quickly we can collect and preserve their valuable papers. Finally, Inge closed with a call for a serious journal for comics studies. Ms. Ratliff concurred with Dr. Inge's comments and added that the field suffers from a lack of resources and access to materials, as well as the fact that we really have no criticism which is our own (i.e. we have to borrow from other fields). She mentioned that she has come across many articles lacking theoretical bases and written by scholars woefully unfamiliar with the medium and the field. She cited Richard M. Turner's paper "Metacomics" (presented at the 1991 convention) as the kind of responsible work the field needs more of. While agreeing with everything Tom and Julie said, I decided to focus on some of the positive features of the state of comics scholarship. I see a great and rising interest in comics studies, especially at the graduate and undergraduate levels. There seems to be a coming generation of scholars interested in centering their careers in the field. With the increase of multi- and interdisciplinary programs and departments, interest in and acceptance of comics studies should grow, due to the inter-disciplinary nature of comics themselves. Holding annual Comic Arts Conferences at the major comic book conventions will hopefully provide a place for scholars to gather and share ideas with professionals. On to the survey. I plan to constantly revise and update the survey results as new responses come in. Contained here are the responses of 21 scholars and some of my own thoughts in addition. The survey questions have been revised and reordered based on the various comments of the respondents and some thought I put into the questionnaire's design. I would like to run the survey every year or two and keep it updated as barometer of comics scholarship. Hopefully my survey will serve as a collection of the issues of comics scholarship and a springboard for future discussions. You may want to refer to the survey to follow along. Pertinent questions are included below. The open-ended nature of my questions made collating the results difficult, so for that reason alone I'm actually glad that 200 responses didn't come in (although it would have been an interesting problem). I'd like to thank all the respondents, especially those I quote frequently. Here are the results: ______________________________________________________ A. Defining the medium. A.1. What is the definition of comics? and what is included in the term comics? (comic books, comic strips, single panel, editorial cartoons, etc.) Two kind of answers came in, attempts to define the medium and questions about problems with doing so. Martin Barker wrote, "it seems to me that the concern with definitions here is a trap, which is curriculum-led, not materials-led." The consensus at the PCA was that definitions are important for the field, as they have been for other academic fields. Amy Nyberg summed up the difficulty of such definitions with her statement, "I don't know. I just know one when I see one." This definition has served for many areas, art, literature, popular culture, and pornography, to name a few. Some definitions were straight forward attempts to define the medium, like Jeffrey Brown's, "A comic is any printed story told in pictures (usually accompanied by a narrative script)," and Maurice Horn's that I offered, "A narrative form containing text and pictures arranged in sequential order (usually chronological)" (The World Encyclopedia of Comics 728). Thomas Alan Holmes wrote, "Comics combine illustration and text in order to relate a narrative, and both elements serve intrinsic functions in relating the narrative." He goes on to distinguish between illustrated stories and comics with criteria that "the illustrations shouldn't offer material already related in the text." Holmes also states that one "panel can be considered comics, because one panel can tell a story." Others attempted to take in other considerations. Joseph Witek wrote that comics are a "part of a continuum of visual narrative. Therefore calling something 'comics' is a tactical issue rather than an essential one. For some critical purposes, for example, Hal Foster's surd." Matt McAllister stressed "the industrial nature of media," thus he sees "comic books and comics strips completely different (since they have completely different industrialized makeups)." Adapting Dr. Joseph Turow's definition of mass communication, McAllister gives, "The industrialized production, reproduction and mass distribution of bounded pages of sequential art intended for sale primarily in comic book shops, book stores or other retail outlets." In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud's formal definition of comics is: "com.ics (kom'iks) n. plural in form, used with a singular verb. 1. Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer." Importantly this definition excludes single panel cartoons because they lack sequence. Over the phone David Corcoran mentioned a mini-comic whose author is exploring many of the issues raised by McCloud; I saw him and some of the comics at the First Annual Comic Arts Conference in 1992, but forgot to get the name of the comics or cartoonist. ------- A.2. Are comics unique? and if so, why? Two kinds of answers came in: that comics are unique, and that comics aren't unique. Amy Nyberg wrote, "Comics are unique because they are a blend of words and pictures in a way not done by any other medium." Joseph Witek indicated one "source of the peculiarity, if not uniqueness, of comics is the interpretation of words and pictures into a narrative form. . .The combination of narrative movement and visual stasis makes comics a fascinating and dynamic semiotic process." I would argue that all mediums are unique and that the strengths of comics, discussed below, demonstrate their uniqueness. ------- A.3. What are the particular strengths and weaknesses of the medium? I feel that comics combine strengths from other media, especially the "camera" techniques of photography and film and literary techniques of both prose and poetry; comics allow the use of "picture-words" (like sound effects) and the use of foreign languages (through typeface and other techniques demonstrated in Asterix), in a way significantly different and less mediated (no subtitles) than other media. I also believe that the potential low-cost of production (a person, a pen, and a photocopy machine) and the direct-sales distribution market gives the artist a greater level of control at a lower level of the industrial process (although I admit that my view here hasn't really come about in the real world). Comics obviously lack sound and motion. Carl Potts pointed out that with the freeze frame capabilities of VCRs the "static/moving difference between comics and film is fast disappearing." Joseph Witek indicated that comics "are superb at breaking down action into separate parts. They can do very well at creating narrative atmosphere and at indicating character and relationships among characters." Other scholars stressed the communicative powers comics have, due to the immediacy of the blend of text and graphics. This strength comes out especially in the educational ability comics have for reaching audiences without high levels of literacy. Jeffrey Brown mentioned that comics allow the reader to proceed at his or her own pace, and "unlike straight literature, subtle narrative techniques can enhance the story less obtrusively (i.e. a visual clue in a detective story that the reader must spot on his own)." Along these lines I think comics is one of the only medium which allows "guest stars" the way Dave Sim has used them in Cerebuslar movie cannot credibly show Superman juggling stars" (Amazing Heroes 6/1/88 77). The weaknesses mentioned include the domination of superheroes/adventure formula , the perceived association of comics with children, and corporate and marketing limitations that gear comics toward children (although these are obviously not related directly to the medium itself). Understanding Comics addresses all these issues in detail. ------- A.4. Do we need a new term? The overall response was, "No, but. . ." In other word there was a recognition of the inadequacies of "comics," but a hesitancy to adopt any of the possible replacements due to their awkwardness or inaccuracy (sequential art, graphic narrative, pictorial fiction, Commix, illustories, etc.). Jirina Polivka demonstrated one problem with the term comics in her response, "You are addressing yourself, as it seems to me, to COMICS. I would like your work enlarged to a wider conception of humor." This confusion of comics and humor makes me want to call the MSU newsletter "Comics Art Studies" instead of "Comic Art Studies" to maintain the distinction between comics and humor, but "Comics Art Studies" grates on my ear. Scott McCloud's solution seems the most efficient and workable; keep the familiar term "comics," but define it specifically so that it can be used to denote the medium exactly. Luca Somigli made this analogy, "Novels may not be that 'novel' anymore, but the term is there for better or worse. And so is 'comics.'" Maurice Horn discussed this and other problems and commented that, "It would be a great advance in the study of the form if such a simple word [as fumetto] (preferably from a Greek root) could be coined in the English language." He also mentioned the problem of "grammatical derivatives (e.g., there is no comics equivalent to the word 'cinematic')." (Encyclopedia 728-729) I have seen the term "comicsmatics" used (probably in the Comics Journal), but I don't find it very user-friendly. ------- A.5. What is included in the term comics? (comic books, comics strips, single panel, editorial cartoons, etc.) Joseph Witek indicated a difference between single and multi-panel comics because "the sequencing of the latter seems crucial," Scott McCloud's point, and Matt McAllister thought "it's valuable to maintain a distinction between comic books and other types of comics forms, because they are distinct economically and industrially." Otherwise, scholars indicated that all the things listed in the question and more can be designated as comics. ------- A.6. What are the extremes, in terms of balancing words and pictures, that are acceptable as comics? Martin Barker response, "Why are you wanting to be so prescriptive," led me to a consideration of the openness of our field of study, and the advantage we have over some other fields that have gotten bound up in restrictive terminology. I wasn't trying to be prescriptive in this question, but rather to discover what comics scholars think, and to, perhaps, obtain a descriptive answer. Jeffrey Brown's answer speaks to the difficulty of defining the medium, "A comic without any words is still a comic, but without any pictures it isn't." I've recently changed my mind on this issue, after discovering comics with no pictures in Understanding Comics : blank panels with word balloons and sound effects are comics (John Byrne's "Snowblind" in Alpha Flight #6 is an example of comics with almost no pictures). Dave Sim has explored these boundaries in are defined." He pointed out the interrelationship between plotting and scriptwriting, noting that many people fail to consider plotting as writing, and indicated that even a story without dialogue or captions needs a plot for the art to follow. ______________________________________________________ B. History B.1. What histories have been written? B.2. What do you like or dislike about these histories? Joseph Witek expressed the consensus about comics history thus, "Real comics criticism will need to use the fan inspired research as a base, but if we don't get beyond the character-worship and nostalgia approach, we might as well quit." Other scholars echoed this concern, and indicated that enough broad, popular, purely descriptive histories have been done. Everyone indicated a need for rigorous academic and critical histories which focus on "comics' treatment of specific themes or subjects" (Douglas Highsmith), and "linking developments in comic art to broader" cultural patterns (Kenneth Nordin). Luca Somigli saw the work of David Kunzle as a possible model, but was "extremely irritated at his 'haute couture' attitude" given that he's barely past the Yellow Kid in his second volume. Luca added the usefulness of genre histories that go beyond "celebratory coffee-table" books like Les Daniel's recent celebratory history of Marvel. Leonard Rifas added, "The misinterpretation of the anti-comics crusade as a variety of McCarthyist hysteria is a central fallacy in comic book historiography." Amy Nyberg, at the 1994 PCA in Chicago argued that the perception that the comics code crippled the industry, as opposed to the medium, is a similar fallacy. Kathe Todd pointed to the role underground comix played in changing the public's perception of what a comic book can be about, and the failure of historians to give them the credit they deserve. ------- B.3. What kind of histories need to be written? B.4. What specific topics need histories written about them? Histories of the industry, the audience, creator biographies, fandom, the distribution networks, and other non-textual histories. Jim Lowe would like to see biographical research of the masters, including extensive interviews documenting facts relating to their strips as well as "the lifestyle and work environment of the old syndicate 'bullpens.'" He fears the disappearance of "another whole generation of living resources," as exemplified by the death of Bob Dunn, who took many anecdotes regarding Knerr with him to the grave. At the 1994 PCA Joe Witek discussed the central role of the undergrounds in the history of comics, Steve Bissette made this same point in a phone conversation I had with him about science fiction comics. ------- B.5. What age are we in, and is ages a good way to continue to define historical periods? (Golden, Silver, Marvel, Bronze, new, independent, Baroque, etc.) Englishman Martin Barker's answer, "Not sure what you mean," showed up my American bias. Other scholars gave varying answers as to what age we are in, including "the Capitalist Age," "the Big-Money-Big-Promo-Little Content age," the "age of monopolization," the "paleozoic age," and "the post-modern age for DC., the Silver (modern)-age for Marvel. . .and the post-post-modern age for Eastman and Laird's TMNT and Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot." Basically the answers seemed to indicate that ages were not a good way to continue defining historical periods, because outside the Golden and Silver Ages, no one seems able to agree on what age we are in or, for that matter, when the Silver Age ended. I do believe that media have general impetuses that we can characterize, and sometimes label, but that doing so isn't necessarily necessary (there wasn't any discussion of ages in the responses). One of the problems with the use of ages is that they really apply only to superhero comics. The Silver Age did not mark a change in humor or romance comics, and the Golden Age of horror and science fiction comics, if the forties and fifties can be described in this manner, were not followed by a Silver Age. I've recently put some thought into this topic, and conveniently came across a new term for the pre-Superman period in Mike Benton's The Comic Book in America. Here are the ages of American Superhero Comics: Antediluvian: everything up to Action Comics #1 in 1938 (i.e. before the superhero really existed); Golden Age: From Action #1 to Showcase #3 (although the impetus driving the Golden Age ended in 1949 with the cancellation of many superhero comics, I'd like to be completely inclusive and cover every year); Silver Age: Showcase #4 to 1970 when Jack Kirby left Marvel, the DC veterans were almost all gone, and Marvel and DC were the only remaining publishers of superhero comics (see Mike Benton Superhero Comics of the Silver Age and Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones The Comic Book Heroes 151-157); Bronze Age: 1970 to DC Comics Presents #26 with the first appearance of the New Teen Titans (see Jacobs 259-289). The 70s featured a tarnishing of the advances and developments of the Silver Age, nothing new was really created and the Bronze Age just played out the power of the Silver Age, but was different in that it lacked the previous period's creativity. I first came across a reference to the Bronze Age in a 1992 San Diego Comicon information packet); Baroque Age: DC Comics Presents #26 to present. Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones detail the way a new synthesis resulted from the reinvention of the Teen Titans in DCCP #26. Although they trace the impetus of this synthesis back to X-Men #94, they note how a real change in superhero comics only came about with DC's effort. They use the term "synthesis" to describe the new superhero comics, so perhaps the Synthetic Age would be a good term, but I prefer the term Baroque Age because the self-reflexivity, self-referentiality, and Byzantine nature of superhero comics today makes this an appropriate title. I took it from Thomas Schatz's Hollywood Genres; he explains the characteristics of baroque works of genre art, as "when the form and its embellishments are accentuated to the point where they themselves become the "substance" or "content" of the work" (38). The focus on marketing, story arc, universes, continuity, etc. indicate a baroque approach to the superhero genre. I like the term Baroque Age because it moves us away from the metal metaphor (after all we'd soon be in the terracotta age) and into the terminology of music and art history. ______________________________________________________ C. Industry C.1. What about the industry has been and needs to be studied? (independent publishers, censorship, creator's rights, etc.) Everyone agreed that much more needed to be done on the industry, including the rise of the "hot young artist" and the pontificating of more established figures on that rise, and "liscencing of comics characters; ties to other media (movie deals, difference in comics organizations (are the routines of production the same for Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse); different exhibition arenas (do book store chains influence comic production?); and the appeal to different markets" according to Matt McAllister. I would love to see a book along the lines of Todd Gitlin's Inside Prime Time dealing with comics. Luca Somigli posits the relations between creators and industry as crucial, "even in terms of articulating a different paradigm of 'creation' which makes it more problematic to simply recuperate comics as 'art'." Martin Barker caught me with my politics down in my use of "creators' rights." He wrote, "You ask should we be exploring creators' rights. That is precisely to accept the definition of the situation from the writers' and artists' side. I prefer, for very important reasons, the phrase 'intellectual property' because it problematises both sides, and links the issues of royalties, ownership of characters, merchandising, etc. to the issues, more widely, of the production of culture, to control, etc." I think he makes a very good suggestion here. ------- C.2. How is the comics industry similar to and different from other media industries (t.v., film, recording, etc.) and how do we know this? Amy Nyberg brought up the issue of DC's role in the Time-Warner conglomerate, and the domination of the comic book market by Marvel. I believe comics may be different from other media industry in the extent to which fans have moved into creative positions, but this conclusion may be a result of ignorance of other media industries on my part, rather than anything unique to comics. Ian Gordon pointed out that "Science fiction fans were the first to move into creative positions," including work as writers and editors of science fiction, and as "rocket scientists" at NASA. Luca Somigli linked this question to the earlier ones about the medium's uniqueness, "How do comics 'communicate' differently from other visual media? How is the reader positioned in relation to the text, etc." ______________________________________________________ D. Audience D.1-2. What studies have been done and what methodologies work? Very little has been done. Martin Barker surveyed the existing bits in a chapter in Comics: Ideology Power and the Critics . He also indicated the work being done in media and cultural studies could offer good methodologies. Ian Gordon suggested that someone "appeal to fans for their correspondence with each other over the years" and "go through the letters pages in early comic books and write to the writers asking if they got any correspondence after their letters." He also reported that scholars of science fiction have had success with these methods. Luca Somigli would like to see a study of these texts that proliferate around comics. Both Amy Nyberg and Keith Murphy have conducted surveys of comics scholars based in part on Janice Radway's Reading the Romance, but neither of these papers has been published. Mark C. Rogers is planning a dissertation titled "Reading Comics: Audience, Text, and Context." Leonard Rifas pointed out that a survey of potential commercial importance should analyze the reasons people give for not reading or no longer reading comic books. ______________________________________________________ E. Gender E.1. What work needs to be done on gender issues? The respondents' answers broke down into three categories, economically summed up by Joseph Witek: 1) Why "comics are so strongly male-oriented and the consequences of this ideology and cultural attitudes this suggests 2) the thematic treatment of women in the comics generally 3) women in the comics industry, including the feminist response of the underground comix." Luca Somigli noted the lack of places in which to address comics as a cultural formation as part of the problem. ------- E.2. Gay and Lesbian issues. Anne Tracy, the staff member at MSU's Special Collections responsible for gay/lesbian materials noticed the omission of gay/lesbian issue in my original questionnaire, and her suggestions have been incorporated into the survey. E.2.a. What gay/lesbian comics are there? Kathe Todd gave: the Gay Comix series, the Meatmen collections (and noted the pornographic like nature of this collection, instead of overall views of gay and lesbian issues), the solo work of Roberta Gregory, Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, Von Frick, and Andrea Natalie's "Stonewall Riots" newspaper strips. E.2.b. What abut gay/lesbian professionals has been and needs to be done? Kathe Todd mentioned that Andy Mangels has reported discrimination as a writer by mainstream comics editors due to his sexual orientation, and she would like the mainstream companies, "where all the money is," to establish policies to prevent this type of discrimination. E.2.c. How have gays and lesbians been portrayed in comics? Kathe Todd remarked that the portrayal of gays and lesbians in comics has been as varied as gays and lesbians themselves are, "and just about as true to life, in some cases, as the portrayals of straight characters--that is to say, not very." She continued by stressing the importance of alternative and underground comix for gay characters with any resemblance to real life given the pressures mainstream companies, with major sales to minors, face from the homophobic Religious Right, and the difficulties portraying gay characters as a good person (perceived as "selling homosexuality to the kids") or as a villain or a tortured person with emotional/mental problems (politically incorrect). ______________________________________________________ F. Genre/Formula F.1. How can genre/formula theory be applied to comics? F.2. What impact have comics had on genre/formula in other media? and what impact has genre/formula in other media had on comics? F.3. How does genre/formula work in comics? and which ones work better or worse? Many scholars noted that comics is a medium that contains many genres and/or formulas. David Lippert brought up the important consideration that "there is a tendency to overlook the super-hero as a genre." Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet wrote on the elements of the superhero formula in "Superhero: The Six Step Progression" (The Hero in Transition, Bowling Green: Popular Press, 1983), which may have appeared in the Journal of Popular Culture and was published in the Comics JournalJ(#73 July 1982, 82-88). Luca Somigli asked about the definitions of comics genres, "For instance, is the distinction between comic book and comic strip a genre question or are they different media" and where do cartoons fit in? He also pointed out the virtual non-existence of the superhero genre in other countries. ______________________________________________________ G. Comics As An Art Form G.1. What questions are there about comics as an art form? Kenneth Nordin mentioned Judith O'Sullivan's writings on this subject. Kathe Todd raises the problem of considering comics as an art form because of the composite authorship of most comics, "But whose art is it when the character was created by some guy 20 years ago, the story was written by one person, somebody else did the script, somebody else did the pencils, another person inked it, an outside letter was use and artistic control was maintained by an editor. Is it really art at all, in the usual sense, or just 'product?'" Luca Somigli remarked that this collaborative effort helps to make comics a unique medium, but that it and similar aspects often get pushed aside in efforts to recuperate comics as art. He gave Understanding Comics as an example of such recuperation and wanted to turn the question around to the what is at stake in claiming the status of art for comics. ______________________________________________________ H. Superheroes H.1.What about superheroes needs to be studied? H.2. What approaches or methodologies work? David Lippert asked about the correct form, "superheroes, super-heroes, superheros, or super-heros." My Random House dictionary lists "heroes" as the plural of hero, the human type, and "heros" as the plural of hero, the sandwich type. I like to make "superhero" one word to indicate that it is a noun on its own, and to indicate that "super" is not an adjective which modifies hero. When they are separate, "super hero," characters like Beowulf and Luke Skywalker creep into the discussion. I also feel that DC and Marvel's attempt to copyright the words "Super-hero" and "Super-villain" should be ignored as invalid by scholars. Joseph Witek submitted this response, "These may turn out to be the black hole of comics scholarship. Their obsessions with violence, with repressed, often homoerotic sexuality, with sadomasochism, etc. need study." Leonard Rifas suggested that the question asked by Time magazine in October 22, 1945, "Are [superhero] comics fascist?" is due for reinterrogation. At the 1989 Midwest PCA I presented a paper dealing with this topic, "F For Fascism: The Fascist Underpinnings of Superheroes." Richard Reynolds recently published the useful and insightful Superheroes: A Modern Mythology (London: Batsford, 1992). My proposed dissertation topic deals with the development of the superhero type from Daniel Boone up through Batman. ______________________________________________________