What is it about?
The medium of comics, including graphic novels and manga, typically combines sequences of static images with written language to tell stories, but it is increasingly used for various types of non-fiction as well. Whereas comics’ deployment of language differs only marginally from that in other media, its visuals have a number of medium-specific stylistic dimensions to convey meaning, some of which can be said to be coded -- that is: their meaning has had to be LEARNED. This entry outlines the coded dimensions of comics.
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Why is it important?
The way a medium can create meaning depends on the information channels, or "modes" it can draw on. Researching comics in a scholarly acceptable way requires that the analyst is aware of the "toolkit" comics artists have at their disposal to create meaning. While of course comics artists have ample freedom to do so, they are also helped by medium-specific visual codes. Understanding these visual codes is indispensable for systematic research and corpus research, and moreover can contribute to teaching visual literacy. The sections in this handbook entry are labelled: "language-related dimensions of comics"; "balloons and caption boxes"; "visual enhancement of motion, emotion, and physical impact"; "pictograms"; "comic panels-as-film-frames"; "navigating from panel to panel"; and "Stereotypes, typical emotions."
Perspectives
I have a problem with the moniker "visual languages," since visuals have no grammar and no vocabulary -- although they have structure. So the phrase "visual language" can only make sense metaphorically. But many, specifically linguistically trained scholars and students, are insufficiently aware of this, and over-extend the analogy between creating meaning verbally and visually. There is a serious risk here that researchers misunderstand the ways in which visuals communicate fundamentally differently than words do. That said, inasmuch as visuals such as comics draw on coded information, they behave in a language-like manner, and enable systematic corpus research. In my view stylistics scholars, who traditionally have focused on purely verbal texts, should venture into multimodal discourse. Comics (and graphic novels, and manga) provide an excellent medium for research.
Dr Charles Forceville
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comics and Graphic Novels: Stylistic Aspects, January 2025, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-323-95504-1.00925-x.
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