- NerdSync is founded on the idea that being a fan
of comics or a nerd in general
should not come with prerequisites,
but I've recently realized that for
nearly 50 episodes of this show now,
I have unintentionally put in place a prerequisite.
I've made the assumption that up until this point
everyone watching the show and even myself
knows what comics are, or is, I guess.
So in the interest of upholding our roots,
I would like to answer the burning question
on everyone's minds: What IS comics?
As it turns out, it's not a very easy
question to answer.
[MUSIC]
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions,
the show that takes you into detail about the things
you think about comics.
I'm your host Scott Niswander.
And it may seem like a really weird question to ask.
What is comics?
But do you know what they are?
I mean, obviously you likely have read one
or seen one or know the basic idea of what they are,
but can you define what comics is?
Now before we go any further, I should explain
that the word "Comics" can be used
as the singular word that represents the entire
art form of the comic, comic strip,
comic book, graphic novel, etc.
So when I say "Comics," just know that I'm referring
to the art of the comic form, and not just these guys.
That's pretty important in finding
a definition for what comics is.
Believe it or not, defining comics
is a heavily debated subject.
In trying to come up with a solid definition for comics,
people have come up with many descriptions
that vary pretty heavily,
but everyone usually falls within two camps:
People who want a quick and snappy definition
that is typically pretty broad to allow
for inclusion and experimentation,
and the other side is people who want a strict
and detailed definition where things have to meet
certain criteria to be classified as comics.
I like to call these two camps
the Comprehensive vs the Fastidious,
or the Loosey Goosey vs Choosey if that's easier.
On the Loosey Goosey side,
we have things like the general dictionaries.
Merriam Webster, for example, defines comics as
"A series of cartoon drawings
"that tell a story or part of a story."
Thierry Groensteen, a leader of comics studies
who I will be pulling a lot from in this episode said,
"The necessary, if not sufficient, condition required
"to speak of comics is that images
"will be multiple and correlated in some fashion."
Will Eisner probably has the most succinct
definition of comics with just two words,
"Sequential art."
You probably can already see the issues
with these definitions being a little too broad.
Music is art and when it's compiled on to an album
it's put into a sequence.
So a CD could be considered sequential art,
but does that mean that albums are comics?
Groensteen's definition of multiple correlated images
could be applied to you scrolling through your phone
showing your friends pictures
from the crazy weekend you just had.
Is that comics?
And Webster's definition of a story told
through cartoon drawings could be applied to,
well, cartoons. Are cartoons comics?
On the Choosey side we get a lot more specific
with people like Bill Blackbeard,
founder of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art,
who says, comics are "A serially published, episodic,
"open-ended dramatic narrative or series
"of linked anecdotes about recurrent
"identified characters, told in successive drawings
"regularly enclosing ballooned dialogue
"or its equivalent and generally
"minimal narrative text." That is a lot of words.
Additionally, David Kunzel author of,
The Early Comic Strip, created four criteria
for what can be considered comics.
Number one: It's a sequence of separate images.
Number two: A higher importance is placed
on the images over text.
The opposite would be something like a
school textbook where there are pictures,
but the main focus is more on the words.
Number three: It must tell a story
that is BOTH moral and topical.
And number four: The medium it appears in
and was originally intended for
must be able to be mass produced.
Again, we see some issues with these
definitions being incredibly exclusive.
If we break down Blackbeard's interpretation,
we can find examples of comics
that don't fit his description.
One-and-done silent comics like Bill Watterson's
latest comic for example abides by the rule
of having an identifiable character,
but it's not episodic, nor does it contain
dialogue or narrative text.
So even though it looks like comics,
to Blackbeard, it's not comics.
My favorite example that breaks all his rules
is A Short History of America by Robert Crumb
which doesn't even have recognizable characters.
I still think and it looks like a comic.
With Kunzel's definition, he says stories have to be
BOTH moral AND topical.
Going back to A Short History of America
or even instructions or safety procedures
portrayed in a sequence of pictures,
there's really no moral story here.
It's simply conveying information.
Take any Internet comic you find,
is it both topical and moral, or maybe it's just
simply trying to express a random joke.
Plus, with the requirement that comics
have to be able to be mass produced,
this basically means that there were
no comics before the invention of the printing press.
Some would argue that paintings and carvings
and tapestries of stories
from ancient civilizations are comics,
but Kunzel's definition prohibits them
from being defined that as such.
I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention
Scott McCloud's definition of comics as
"Juxtaposed pictorial and other images
"in deliberate sequence, intended to convey
"information and/or to produce
"an aesthetic response in the viewer."
At first, this sounds like a Choosey side description,
because it's a little bit wordy, but it's still
open-ended for things like children's books
and even things like a physical photo album
to be considered comics.
Even Kunzel's definition leaves room
for something like movies that are technically
a series of images that could definitely
tell a moral and topical story,
and is easily mass produced.
Especially in the age where anyone can just
download as many movies as they want
completely legally.
So while none of the definitions are really perfect,
I do want to point out that interestingly enough,
all of these definitions seem to agree
on one root of what comics is:
Sequential art, successive drawings,
a series of images, etc.
Every definition we've talked about
describes comics as at least two images.
Single panel comics aren't comics at all,
at least by these definitions.
McCloud says these are examples of "comic art"
which are images that reflect the style of comics,
but are not comics in of themselves.
No more than a frame of a movie is a movie itself.
There are dangers in both sides of argument
Loosey-Goosey and Choosey.
Some say that strict definitions limit
what we can do in the art form,
and doesn't allow for experimentation
of new ideas or concepts.
On the other hand though being too broad
has to have limits somewhere
or else everything could be comics.
Roger Odin, which is a great last name
for a show about comic books,
described a similar frustration with defining cinema
to include experimental works
and even animated films.
He said the fact that the definition of cinema
excludes these productions
is reason enough to change the definition.
However, if we broaden it too much,
then we'll arrive at a definition that tells us
nothing about the subject.
When asked "How do you know what a word means?"
Oxford Dictionaries replied by saying,
"Dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive."
The resulting definition should reflect how a word
is actually used instead of how we think
it should be used.
The problem with a lot of the definitions
we've covered is that they feel like they are
describing how the person behind it
wants comics to be instead of how it's actually used.
So perhaps comics is a subjective term.
Maybe you judge what is and isn't comics
not based off of any explicit criteria or analysis,
but just a gut reaction when you see it.
Of course X-Men is comics
and Cyanide and Happiness and sure,
Marmaduke as well, but I draw the line
at Cat in the Hat, safety instructions,
and vision boards!
They just don't feel like comics to me,
even though they do share
some of the similar elements.
That being said, if there ever was a community
of comic fans who are qualified to workshop
a better definition of what comics is,
I know it's the NerdSync community.
What do you guys think?
How do you define comics,
or is it even possible to define it?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
(upbeat music)
Remember the trivia challenge?
Well, this week we brought it back onto the podcast
where Chris, Bryce, and myself quizzed each other
on our comic book knowledge and it was a lot of fun!
Why not go check it out for yourself.
Link in the description.
And don't forget that next week is the 50th episode
where I'll be doing a Q&A-type video.
So make sure you leave some good questions
down below and I'll answer them on the next video!
If this is your first time hanging out
with us here at NerdSync, we love you to hit
that big, sexy subscribe button.
We do weekly comic book videos just like this one
every Wednesday and we don't want you
to miss out on any of it!
Once again I'm Scott.
You can find me on Twitter and Instagram,
and I'll see you right here next week
for the 50th episode of Comic Misconceptions!
See ya!