Multimodal Comics: The Evolution of Comics Studies

Multimodality is of increasing relevance to daily life. Comics are a unique and informative site to study this concept, as they rely on complex interactions between word and image. This collection brings together leading international research, developing comics theory and speaking to additional media and disciplines. 53 b&w and 6 col. illus. Comics exist in complex relationships with other media and so have always embraced a diversity of formats and been dynamic in their response to new technologies and means of distribution. This collection explores interactions between comics and other media and technologies, employing a wide range of theoretical and critical perspectives. By focusing on key critical concepts within multimodality – transmediality, adaptation, intertextuality – and addressing multiple platforms and media – digital, analog, music, prose, linguistics, graphics – this collection expands and develops existing comics theory and addresses multiple other media and disciplines. Multimodal Comics demonstrates the evolution of Comics Studies over the last decade and how the field continues to engage with new media and technologies in a continuously evolving artistic and production environment. Comics have always embraced a diversity of formats, existing in complex relationships to other media, and have been dynamic in their response to new technologies and means of distribution. This collection explores interactions between comics, other media and technologies, employing a wide range of theoretical and critical perspectives. By focusing on key critical concepts within multimodality (transmediality, adaptation, intertextuality) and addressing multiple platforms and media (digital, analogue, music, prose, linguistics, graphics), it expands and develops existing comics theory and also addresses multiple other media and disciplines. Over the last decade Studies in Comics has been at the forefront of international research in comics. This volume showcases some of the best research to appear in the journal. In so doing it demonstrates the evolution of Comics Studies over the last decade and shows how this research field has engaged with various media and technologies in a continuously evolving artistic and production environment. The theme of multimodality is particularly apt since media and technologies have changed significantly during this period. The collection will thus give a view of the ways in which comics scholars have engaged with multimodality during a time when 'modes' were continually changing.