Jan Baetens

The emerging field of comics studies has grown rapidly in recent years with many introductory and theoretically based books being written to provide comic books and graphic novels with their own theoretical language, separate from the discourses of literary and film studies from which many works of comics criticism have emerged. The Graphic Novel: An Introduction by Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey, is one such text.

Published in 2015, Baetens and Frey’s The Graphic Novel: An Introduction is part of the Cambridge Introductions series, and one of the first extended critical explorations of the graphic novel. The purpose of the book is, in simplified terms, to fully distinguish the graphic novel as an art form from comic books as popular entertainment, and to provide the tools and vocabulary to engage critically with this newer medium.

Baetens and Frey argue that while graphic novels share many of the same features as comic books, they go beyond these origins: the graphic novel, ‘represents at least some level of self-knowing “play with a purpose” of the traditional comic book form, and in some cases a radical reformation of it’ (19). The sense of the graphic novel as pushing boundaries, experimenting with form and storytelling, allowing artists an individual style rather than imposing the “house style” of mainstream comic books production, gives the medium a creative legitimacy that Baetens and Frey would quite rightly see recognised. On a more practical level, the graphic novel is distinguished from the comic book in terms of its preference for more mature, adult content, moving away from the more ‘juvenile’ superhero genre, and for the use of the book format over single issues and serialisation.

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As a whole, The Graphic Novel: An Introduction is informative, and enjoyable. It introduces key concepts and ideas in a way that is easy to understand, and presents a solid and sustained central argument that is fully supported through well discussed examples. A particular strength is the middle section on ‘Form’ which offers a number of strategies for achieving critical readings of graphic novels, illustrated by well-chosen examples, and supported by relevant theoretical models. Overall, a brilliant introduction to the graphic novel, and to comics studies more generally.

For the full review: https://ahermitsprogress.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/the-graphic-novel-an-introduct...… (mais)