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Toward Early Modern Comics

Thomas, Evan Benjamin
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5328-2249
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502561240762248

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
This project contributes to the field of comics studies by extending its range of investigation into the early modern period. If comics are to be defined as sequential art, scholars of comics must contend with a vast historical archive reaching at least to the origins of print. The first chapter argues that there is warrant to study sequential images from early modern England as “comics,” first because historiographical prohibitions against the study of images from early modern England are no longer acceptable, and second because multiple sequential images from early modern English presses exhibit the qualities of “sequential art.” The second chapter considers “sequential art” might mean, other than panels and strips, for the early modern English. Contemporary conventions of sequential images, regulated by existing theories, tend to presume both a black rectilinear panel as well as a linear, non-recursive, non-random strip; whereas early modern English sequential images were organized by naturalistic formats. Chapter two introduces six alternatives to the panel-strip convention of sequential images: processions; steps; wheels, calendars; decks; and curtains. If comics are alternately defined as image-text, then scholars of comics must contend with an even greater archive of early modern art. Chapter three addresses inclusive, integrated, and exclusive criteria for the combination of image and text, and ultimately demonstrates that early modern examples are coherent with the most exclusive standards. Furthermore, sustained attention to the integration of image and text reveals an emergent practice at work during the English republican period. This move to historical relevance invites the analysis of chapter four, which considers the persistent influence of caricature from the early modern period. Specifically, a definite lineage of racial caricature reveals the unbroken aesthetic influence of early modern English caricatures of blackness from that crucial period of racial formation. Ultimately, this project argues that the introduction of print was a pivotal event in the formalization of sequential art, image-text, and caricature, which comprise the art form now known as comics.
Frederick Aldama, Dr. (Advisor)
Jared Gardner, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jenny Robb (Committee Member)
195 p.
Art History; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Literature
Comics; comic books; comic strips; graphic novels; cartooning; literature; early modern England; Renaissance England; print history; book history; Shakespeare; Spenser; Milton; Middleton; Will Eisner; Scott McCloud; narrative theory; critical race theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Thomas, E. B. (2017). Toward Early Modern Comics [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502561240762248

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Thomas, Evan. Toward Early Modern Comics. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502561240762248.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Thomas, Evan. "Toward Early Modern Comics." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502561240762248

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1502561240762248
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.