Week One- (Rachel)

Does Varnum (2001) define the difference between cartoon, comics and graphic novel? According to Varnum, what distinguishes comics from other media?

Varnum states that ‘comic books, graphic novels, single-panel cartoons, wordless comics, animated cartoons and various other kinds of visual texts, bear resemblances to each one another. None of the members of the family shares one feature in with common with all the others, but any two share common features‘ (p 17.)  This makes it difficult to define the differences between the different genres.

Varnum points out the view of Frank Cioffi, explaining that in a comic the combination of the word with the image ‘cause discordances which disturb the reader.’  Playing between the gap between the word in the image.

When reading a comic there is a space where you wither process the reader processes either the picture or the words first, it is difficult to these both at the same time. In that gap there is room to throw out the reader expectations of what they will be presented visually or literally. The reader moves between them.

Cartoons, Varnum points, work in a ‘civilised partnership’.

Reference:

Varnum, R. & Gibbons, C. (Eds.). (2001). Introduction. In The Language of Comics: word and image (pp. ix-xix). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi