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2020 | Book

Introduction: Genres as Formula, Genres Beyond Formula Read chapter Read first chapter

Understanding Genres in Comics

Author: Nicolas Labarre

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book offers a theoretical framework and numerous cases studies – from early comic books to contemporary graphic novels – to understand the uses of genres in comics. It begins with the assumption that genre is both frequently used and undertheorized in the medium. Drawing from existing genre theories, particularly in film studies, the book pays close attention to the cultural, commercial, and technological specificities of comics in order to ground its account of the dynamics of genre in the medium. While chronicling historical developments, including the way public discourses shaped the horror genre in comics in the 1950s and the genre-defining function of crossovers, the book also examines contemporary practices, such as the use of hashtags and their relations to genres in self-published online comics.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction: Genres as Formula, Genres Beyond Formula
Abstract
This chapter examines the theoretical blind spots in common uses of the notion of genre in comics studies. It argues that genres cannot be understood solely at the level of the texts themselves and that they do not constitute stable, finite categories, although a text-centric model of ahistorical categories often proves convenient as a shorthand. Offering a brief account of relevant genre theory in film and literature studies, the chapter argues for a socio-discursive approach to genres and their uses, based on a study of the specific context of production and reception of comics in the United States.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 2. Are Genres Media Specific?
Abstract
This chapter reflects on the interaction between genres and media, making the case that specific affordances and the fact that genres evolve in different ways across media makes it necessary to consider genre as medium-specific discourses. The chapter also examines the factors which reduce or obfuscate the distinction between these medium-specific versions of various genres, including convenience and the intermedial circulations of successful works and trends.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 3. Where Are Genres in Comics?
Abstract
This chapter investigates the ways in which genres are made manifest, both in the peritext of the comics and in the comics themselves. It argues that the use of the paratext to advertise genres has undergone a significant transformation since the 1940s, with a shift from genres to proprietary architexts, enabled by the physical properties of comic books and graphic novels. The chapter also examines the funny animal genre, to argue that nearly all of the stylistic and narrative choices to be found in these comics constitute genre signifiers.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 4. How Genres Emerge: Horror Comics
Abstract
This chapter examines the emergence of the horror genre in comics in the 1940s and 1950s. It argues that the hearings of the US Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency, in 1954, codified and enshrined generic discourses which had not fully coalesced until that point. In particular, publishers sought to distinguish between “horror” and “the weird,” which they described as more respectable and literary, in order to defend their own practices, while the two labels were perceived and used as differences of degrees up to that point. The chapter also argues that the potency of this moment of genre definition led to an unusual stability of the horror genre in the following three decades.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 5. How Genres Are Maintained: The Case of Genre Curation in Crossovers
Abstract
This chapter examines comics crossovers as privileged sites for the expression of publisher-centric discourses on genres. It argues that crossovers foreground conventions and narrative expectations in a compact and overt form. Through a close reading of the 1995 Superman/Aliens crossovers, the chapter examines the way inter-company crossovers call attention to the articulation between proprietary architexts, such as franchises and genres. In this case, the encounter between the two franchises reinscribes Superman and Alien explicitly in the science-fiction and body horror genres.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 6. The Uses of Genre: Productivity, Cultural Distinction and Shared Culture
Abstract
This chapter examines the usefulness of genres for the producers of comics, including the creators, publishers and the other actors involved into the creation and distribution of these texts. It argues that genres and other architexts serve to mitigate risks in an industry of prototype, that they can serve as intertextual building blocks and that they can be used to trigger cultural memories, occasionally tied to cultural hierarchies.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 7. The Uses of Genre: Generic Discourses Among Producing Fans
Abstract
This chapter examines the role of genres in online amateur comics. After a brief historical overview, it uses a survey of four major platforms on which amateur comics producers can post their work (DeviantArt, Tumblr, Reddit, ImgUR) to chart the form and nature of the generic discourses to be found on these sites; while genres are present in all four cases, they play a limited role, which can be partly explained by the absence of a fixed context of consumption for digital content. The chapter also examines the distinction between hashtags and genres, even in cases in which the hashtags include traditional generic labels.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 8. The Uses of Genres: Asserting Authority
Abstract
This chapter examines the role played by critics and fans in the definition of genres in comics. It argues that among the competing generic claims in the comics world, established criticism plays a weaker role than in other mass media, and that online platforms further blur the hierarchy between fans and critics. Subsequently, the chapter examines two cases in which fans have used online tools to challenge the generic claims made by comics producers, in the controversy surrounding the 9/11 issue of the Amazing Spider-Man, in 2001, and more recently, as part of the Comicsgate movement.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 9. Invisible Genres and Other Architexts
Abstract
This chapter examines the case of comics architext whose status as a genre is contested. Examining in turn literary adaptations, graphic novels, manga and YA, it details the discourses claiming that each of these categories is or is not a genre, and tracks the arguments used by the proponent of each thesis. Using the comics of Mike Mignola as an example, the chapter also points to the existence of idiosyncratic text groupings which bear most of all of the functions of established genres. It offers a range of hypothesis regarding the threshold of genericity in the comics world, based on the existing of conflicting architextual claims and on the criteria used to adjudicate the resemblance between the various members of the grouping.
Nicolas Labarre
Chapter 10. Conclusion: Beyond Genre?
Abstract
This conclusion reflects on the relevance of traditional genres in view of some of the changes highlighted in the previous chapters. It argues that genres now have to contend with a variety of other technological and discursive tools to map personal affinities and families of text. It suggests that in spite of their diminished relevance in the comics world, genres retain their functions, as well as a nostalgic and referential appeal.
Nicolas Labarre
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Understanding Genres in Comics
Author
Nicolas Labarre
Copyright Year
2020
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-43554-7
Print ISBN
978-3-030-43553-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43554-7