The Expanding Art of Comics

Ten Modern Masterpieces

Thierry Groensteen, Ann Miller

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781496808028
• eBook ISBN: 9781496813701
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Comics & Graphic Novels Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

In The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces, prominent scholar Thierry Groensteen offers a distinct perspective on important evolutions in comics since the 1960s through close readings of ten seminal works. He covers over half a century of comics production, sampling a single work from the sixties ( Ballad of the Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt), seventies ( The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius by Moebius), eighties ( Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons), and nineties ( Epileptic by David B.). Then this remarkable critic, scholar, and author of The System of Comics and Comics and Narration delves into recent masterpieces, such as Building Stories by Chris Ware.Each of these books created an opening, achieved a breakthrough, offered a new narrative model, or took up an emerging tendency and perfected it. Groensteen recaptures the impact with which these works, each in its own way, broke with what had gone before. He regards comics as an expanding art, not only because groundbreaking works such as these are increasing in number, but also because it is an art that has only gradually become aware of its considerable potential and is unceasingly opening up new expressive terrain.

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Aâma (Peeters)

Abellio, Raymond

abstraction: in Ballad of the Salt Sea; in The Grand Narrative; in Pretending Is Lying; in Watchmen

Abu Dhabi

Accursed Stamp, The (David B.)

Ache, Caran d’

Acme Novelty Library, The

Actes Sud

adolescence: in Epileptic; in Fun Home; in Habibi

adulthood. See maturity

adventure comics: Airtight Garage and; Ballad of the Salt Sea and; Mœbius’s early work in; Watchmen and

age. See adolescence; childhood; maturity; time

Airtight Garage (Lofficier, Shanower, and Bingham)

Airtight Garage (Mœbius); adventure comics and; beginning of; characters in, (see also individual character names); clothing in; comics medium and; decorations and paraphernalia in; drawing style in; dreams in; ending of; enigmas in; genre and; innovations of; readers of; serialization of; sources and allusions of; title of, (chap. 2)

Airtight Garage, form and narration in: braiding effects; circularity; improvisation and; layout; metanarrative; metaphors for; serialization

alcoholism

Alexander the Great

Allah

allegory: in The Arrival; in Epileptic

allusions. See sources and allusions

alternative medicine

ambiguity: in Epileptic; in Pretending Is Lying

ambivalence: of Are You My Mother?; in Ballad of the Salt Sea; in Pretending Is Lying

analepses: in The Arrival; in Building Stories; in Epileptic

anger

Angoulême comics festival: The Arrival at; Ballad of the Salt Sea at; Epileptic at; Grand Narrative at; Pretending Is Lying at; Watchmen at

animals: in Aâma (Peeters); in The Arrival; in Building Stories; in Epileptic; in The Grand Narrative; in Leviathan. See also dragons; environment; monsters

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

Ann of the Jungle (Pratt)

Anthropogenics (Van Lier)

Anthroposophy

Anubis

apocalypse

Arabic calligraphy

Arab Muslim world

Archer

archetypes. See also myths

architecture: in Airtight Garage; in The Arrival; in Building Stories; in The Grand Narrative; in A Short History of America

Are You My Mother? (Bechdel)

Aristotle

Arrival, The (Tan); animals in; architecture in; beginning of; braiding effects in; circularity in; comics medium and; decorations and paraphernalia in; drawing style in; ending of; family in; immigration in; innovations of; photographic images in; silence in; symmetry in; universality in; writing in

Arrival, The, characters in: creature; development of; family and; girl; individuality of; photographs and; universality of; woman; wordless narrative and

Arrival, The, form and narration in: circularity; immigration and; lack of text; layout; photographic images and; realism and documentarism; sections

Arrival, The, sources and allusions of: Bicycle Thieves; comics; New York; photographs; teepees

Arrouye, Jean

Art Institute of Chicago

Arzach (Mœbius)

astrology

(À suivre) [To be continued]

Atangan, Patrick

audience. See readers

autobiography: in Airtight Garage; in Building Stories; Craig Thompson and; in Epileptic; in Fun Home; in Pretending Is Lying

B., David (Pierre-François Beauchard): artistic development of; background; dream transcription by; Epileptic (see Epileptic); imaginary of; on marginalization; mother of; other works by; on seizures of brother; on symbols; university education. See also Beauchard, Pierre-François (character)

background and foreground: in Airtight Garage; in The Arrival; in Ballad of the Salt Sea; in Building Stories; in Epileptic; in Habibi; in Pretending Is Lying; in Watchmen. See also decorations and paraphernalia

Bahia...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Translator’s Foreword
• Introduction
• Hugo Pratt, Ballad of the Salt Sea
• Mœbius, Airtight Garage
• Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen
• David B., Epileptic
• Alison Bechdel, Fun Home
• Dominique Goblet, Pretending Is Lying
• Shaun Tan, The Arrival
• Craig Thompson, Habibi
• Chris Ware, Building Stories
• Jens Harder, The Grand Narrative: Alpha, Beta
• Notes
• Sources
• Index