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Abstract
Setting aside historical factors and focusing exclusively on a formal definition of comics as juxtaposed images, comics may be further refined by analysing the divisions, orders and relationships of those images. The images may also have both representational and abstract levels that together produce narrative's intrinsic patterns and its extrinsic feeling of story. Although narrative comics and abstract comics sound like opposites, a representative narrative may be understood non-representationally because it is composed of abstract marks, and a sequence of abstract images can still create the experience of story through implied conflict and transformation. Analysed according to image representation, image relation, and image order, comics divide into six formally distinct categories: representational and abstract narratives; representational and abstract arrangements; and representational and abstract non sequiturs.
Keywords: abstract, definition, form, narrative, recurrence, representation
The continuing proliferation of comics definitions within an already abundant field suggests the inadequacy of not only specific instances but of definitional methods in general. Even bracketing social and historical factors and limiting analysis to formal qualities only, extant definitions are problematic because their constituent terms - 'images', 'sequence', 'narrative' - are themselves ambiguous. What, for example, differentiates two juxtaposed 'images' from an 'image' composed of two parts? In what sense can a sequence with no set order be considered a 'sequence'? Is the experience of narrative in abstract images itself 'narrative'?
To address these and related concerns, I propose a new definitional approach. Understood as the art of juxtaposed images and image-texts, the comics form may be clarified through the analysis of image division, image order and image relationship. These are qualities with both representational and abstract levels that together produce narrative's intrinsic patterns and its extrinsic feeling of story. While narrative comics and abstract comics appear at first to be oppositional, a narrative may be understood non-representationally, and a representational image is necessarily comprised of abstract elements. Applying this method results in a division of comics into six formally distinct categories, each identifiable according to the presence of relation, order, and representation.
Understood through these lenses, 'comics' is no longer an ambiguous form. To articulate this approach, I will discuss (1) existing definitions and extract from them commonalities for more precise use, (2) Neil Cohn's visual grammar in order...