Reflexivity in Comic Art

Reflexivity in Comic Art:
Strategies for Contextualizing Mediated Messages in a Postmodern Age
By: Matthew T. Jones
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The Role of Reflexivity

Understanding the role of reflexivity in comic art can be an effective strategy for providing the missing context in a detached and fragmented cultural environment. mccloudicons1
Packages, logos, magazines, DVD covers, posters, billboards and websites employ caricature as well as the word/image interplay that is so basic to the language of comics.
mccloudicons2

Culture as Comic Art

We are immersed in a visual world that can easily be compared on many levels to the world of comic art. mccloudicons3

Defining Reflexivity

A process by which the author of the text and/or the audience of the text functions to call attention to the text as an artificial construct.

Authorial Awareness

giovanna1 Giovanna Casotto

Bitch in Heat (v. 1-14)

Use of photographs

“would you buy a comic this woman drew?”

Visions of Giovanna

Contextual Self-Projection (Stoichita, 1997)

textualized author
-Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics)
masked author -Milo Manara (Giuseppe Bergman)
visitor author -Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri
self-portrait -Frank Thorne mccloud4

Demystification

thorne1

manara1

Giovanna Casotto
Visions of Giovanna
“Preparing the Visions”
-photographic reference material
-pencil roughs giovanna2

Reader Awareness

manara2 -“breaking the fourth wall”
-automontage

Intertextuality

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Intermedia Reflexivity

Szczepanik (2002):
As one media form takes over and transforms the structural components of another, the hidden or automatised structural components of both media become defamiliarised. szczepanik1

Questions

-Who created the text?
-What materials were used?
-Is the text reflexive or illusionist?
-Automontage? (intentional? unintentional?)
-Intertextual references?
-Does the text present one medium through
the mechanism of another?

The Role of Reflexivity
Understanding the role of reflexivity in comic art can be an effective strategy for providing the missing context in a detached and fragmented cultural environment.
Packages, logos, magazines, DVD covers, posters, billboards and websites employ caricature as well as the word/image interplay that is so basic to the language of comics.

Culture as Comic Art
We are immersed in a visual world that can easily be compared on many levels to the world of comic art.
Defining Reflexivity A process by which the author of the text and/or the audience of the text functions to call attention to the text as an artificial construct.
Authorial Awareness
	Giovanna Casotto Bitch in Heat (v. 1-14) Use of photographs “would you buy a comic this woman drew?” Visions of Giovanna
Contextual Self-Projection (Stoichita, 1997)
textualized author -Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics) masked author -Milo Manara (Giuseppe Bergman) visitor author -Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri self-portrait -Frank Thorne
Demystification


Giovanna Casotto Visions of Giovanna “Preparing the Visions” -photographic reference material -pencil roughs
Reader Awareness
	-“breaking the fourth wall” -automontage
Intertextuality

Intermedia Reflexivity
Szczepanik (2002): As one media form takes over and transforms the structural components of another, the hidden or automatised structural components of both media become defamiliarised.
Questions
-Who created the text? -What materials were used? -Is the text reflexive or illusionist? -Automontage? (intentional? unintentional?) -Intertextual references? -Does the text present one medium through the mechanism of another?