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From Black &White to Color and Back: What Does It Mean (not) to Use Color?Author(s): Jan BaetensSource: College Literature, Vol. 38, No. 3, Visual Literature (Summer 2011), pp. 111-128Published by: College LiteratureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41302875 .

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From Black & White to Color

and Back: What Does It Mean

(not)

to Use Color?

Jan

Baetens

Is

t

Really

Just)

he

conomy?

Color

underdiscussed

tures

is

of

undoubtedly

comics

and

and

graphic

undertheorized

one of

novel

the

schol-

most

fea-nderdiscussed nd undertheorized ea-

tures f

comics and

graphic

novel

schol-

arship.

t

is both

everywhere

most

case

stud-

ies of comic

books and

graphic

novelsmen-

tion color and make room to discuss tsuse)

and

nowhere

as

far s

I

know,

global theory

of

color

n

the

comics field

s still

missing).1

At

first

sight,

the

simplest

reason

to

explain

this

(relative)

absence

of

color

in

comics criticism

s

economical,

n

the

very

classic sense of

the term.

Since

it

is and

remains,

despite

all

technological

innovations

more

expensive

to

print

in

color, t is thelack ofmoneythat hatforces

authors, ditors,

nd

publishers

o limittheir

production

to

black

and white

(often

even

deprived

of the

many

hades of

grey

hat re

between

them ),

whereas

the

availability

f

Jan

Baetenss

professor

f

Culturaltudies

t the

Universityf

euven.

member

of

he nternational

oard

f

IAWIS

iawis.org),

e

s also he

author

f

he

hapter

n

graphic

novelsn the

orthcoming

Cambridge istory

f

the

American

ovel.







112

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

]

larger roduction udgetsnotonlyallows artists o work n color but forces

them to do so. Art or

non-art

s not a relevant riterion

n

this

regard,

nd

therefore

here s

not much to

say

about the use of color.

This

reason, owever,

s not

very atisfying.

irst f all

because

it tends

o

put

between brackets

hose cases

Maqane

Satrapi's

ersepolis

2007)

being

an illustrious

xample

of

it

in

which black

and

white is chosen

for other

reasons han

ust

cost-effectiveness:

articular

rtistic

hoices

regarding

orm,

line,

and

color

(of course )

play

here

an eminent

role,

and too

strong

n

emphasis

n

financial

spects

would

missthe

point

of thiskind of

work.But

even fone does notreduce thediscussion o matters fcost-effectiveness,t

is

always

dangerous

to

forget

bout economical considerations

when dis-

cussingpopular

culture,

whose

basic

domain

is

less art

n

the old-fashioned

sense

of the word than

the

culture

ndustries,

here the cultural

spects

of

the

production

re

inevitably

ntertwined

with

industrial nd commercial

aspects.2

n

that

ense,

he more

economical

a criterion

s,

the more

impor-

tant s should be for ultural

ritics,

s

has

been

arguedby

some scholars

who

are

resisting

he

(ideological)

split

between mass-cultural omics and

high-

cultural

raphic

novels

Hatfield

005,

162).

Moreover,

ne should be

aware

of thegeneralizationshat reinvolved n theoppositionbetweensmall nd

large

budget productions,

or

t often

occurs

that

artists,

ven

if

they

are

encouraged

o

work

n

color,

do continue

o

prefer

he

apparently

ow-scale

black

and white.

The

reasons

why

color

remains

uch a

neglected

tem

n

our

approach

of comics

are

manifold. think

hat,

erygenerally peaking,

t is

possible

to

suggest

wo main

types

of

obstacles

hat

prevent

s

readers,

ritics,

heo-

reticians

from

ully cknowledging

ts

mportance.

The first

roup

of

obstacles

may

be

labelled

deological

nd

they

have

to

do with the sociologicalnotion of"distinction"Bourdieu 1984) as well as

with

the

art-historicalotion

of"auteur"

Truffaut

976).

Comic

books

tend

to be

in

color

(even

if

there

have been

and still re

many

comic

books

in

black

and

white,

the

global

cultural

perception

s that of

color,

as

clearly

expressed

y

the name of

many popular

comic

characters,

rom he

Yellow

Kid to the Green

Lantern, r,

more

mportantly,

y

the dramatic

mportance

of color

in

the

representation

f characters

uch as the

red,

yellow

and blue

Superman),

whereas

graphic

novels,

he

more

distinguished"

orm f comic

art,

end

to be

in

black

in

white

(and

here

again,

even

if

there

are

many

examplesof the contrary,uch as Chris Ware'sJimmy orrigan2000), we

"spontaneously"

ssociate he

graphic

novelwithblack and

whitebooks

such

as

Spiegelman's

Maus

(1991),

Satrapi's

ersepolis

2007)

or the

many

works

by

Robert

Crumb).

This

culturally

onstructed

opposition

between

comic

books

and

graphic

novelsmakes

critics

o a certain xtent color-blind":

o







Jan

aetens

13

strong s the alleged difference etween "bad" comic books in color and

"good" graphic

novels,

hatfurther

eflection

n

color

does no

longer

eems

necessary.

his "color-blindness"

s

even

increased,

et

n

a more direct

nd

aggressive

manner,

y

its

nterferences

ith

auteur

heory

i.e.

the

theory

hat

in

collective

forms

f

art-making

uch as

cinema and comics

there

s

one

"author"

who,

ike an artistic

od,

is

in

full

ontrol f

everything,

ut whose

brilliant deas and

insights

re often

n

conflict

with the lower"

read:

finan-

cial)

constraintsnd

interest f the

business. olor is then

typically

n

aspect

of such

a clash between the

genius

and the

industry:

omic

authorshave

often omplained bouttheways heir intended" olorswere destroyed" y

the carelessness

f their ditors

nd

publishers

a

famous

xample

here

s the

Belgian

author

E.P.Jacobs,

he

creator f the Blake and Mortimer

eries,

who

played

a crucial

role

in

the

shift rom

black and

white to color

in

Herge's

work on

which

I

will

come back later

n

this

essay).

Colorization

can

be

experienced

s a

trauma,

nd for hat

reason,

many

auteurs"

preferred

o

go

on

working

n

black and white a situation

uite

similar o that

n

photog-

raphy

nd

cinema,

where

many

of

those

having

rtistic mbitions emained

reluctant o

color for

many

decades

(for

survey

f this nti-color

attle,

ee

Aumont1994).

The

second

group

of

obstacles

s

methodological,

nd has ess to do with

the

viewpoint

of

the

makers nd artists

consciously

r

unconsciously

mi-

tated

by

theirreaders

nd

critics)

han with

the theoretical

oolkit

of

those

who

are

"doing"

comics

scholarship.

n

most

cases and the authorof these

lines is not an

exception

to this rule

comics

scholars

have never been

trainedor

educated as such:

they

are

literary

cholars,

media

specialists,

rt

historians,

tc.,

who

bring

their

previous

knowledge, oncepts,preferences,

and tastes

o theirnew field.

Although

this

ituation s farfrom

xception-

al fora studyof the literary ackgroundofthemajorphotographyheo-

reticians n the

way

photo

theory

has been

shaped,

ee

Baetens

2007)

the

lack of

any

previous

medium-specific" heory

has been

dramaticallyignif-

icant

n

comics

theory,

hich is still

truggling

o find

ts own voice and to

free itself

form

the influences

of

both

literary heory

and

film

studies

(despite

let me

make this

point very

clear the

immensely mportant

nd

positive

nfluenceof these two

fields).

Nevertheless,

he

study

of color

in

comics,

or

the

ack of

t,

s a blatant

llustration f

the

imits

f

our

interdis-

ciplinarity:

ince

comics

scholarship

s

still o

indebtedto

literary

tudies,

t

is onlynormalthat olor was not selected s a prioritytem n theemerging

field

of

comics

studies.

As

a

result f all these

obstacles,

olor is either

neglected

r seen as a less

essential

eature,

omething

hat s

ust

being

added at the end of the

assem-

bly

ine

by

unskilled

and,

yes,

las,

t

least

n

the

European

tradition,

emale)







114

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

]

workerswho haveno creative oice in this matter t all. Contrary o film,

where since the

use of color

film

tock color is no

longer

added"

as a

sup-

plementary

xpressive

ayer,

raditional

omics

were not

made

directly

n

color

(as

we will

see,

things

ave

changedtoday,

ut

only quite

recently).

his

division of labor

has contributed o the

undervaluation

f the chromatic

aspects

of the work

n

the

field.

Luckily

things

are

slowly changing

now.

Newer

technologies

enable

authors o

reduce the

gap

between what

they

nitially

want" and

what the

readers

ventually

get,"

nd this reates

more

relaxed ttitude oward

olor

in theauteur-graphicovel.Extremelynterestingn thisregards thegrow-

ing blurring

f the

boundaries

between black and

white and

color,

uch as

in

Daniel

Clowes's GhostWorld

2001),

which mixesblack and white with

a

very particular

kind of

pale

blue,

a

special

blend

of colors that

reminds

of-according

o the authorhimself-

he kind of

light

n

the streets

f a

big

city Chicago,

n

his

case)

when

people

come home from heirwork

and

put

on their elevision

creens.3

Color s

Multilayered

ractice

But how to tackle olor?As we have seenabove, possible tarting oint

here

might

be

the

elementary

bservation hat

today

most comics are

in

color,

while

many

graphic

novels

re

n

black and

white.As

argued

before,

t

is clear that the

policy

of "distinction"

eems to

play

a crucial

role

in

this

opposition:

n

the field

of

graphic

torytelling,

olor is associated

with mass

culture,

ence

the

prevalence

f

its use

in

comics,

whereasthe

discrete

al-

ues

of

black and

white are claimed

to

denote

high-brow roduction.

uch

an

approach,

however,

oes

not

work,

nd it is

not difficulto list

number

of reasons hat

eopardize

this rude

sociological

reading

f the color

issue

n

graphic torytelling.

Besides the

fact that the

very opposition

between comics and

graphic

novel

reflects ld

stereotypes

n

high

and

low

that

unfortunately

rove

very

hardto deconstruct

n

the

ower areas

of cultural

roduction

uch

as

comics,

the

dichotomy

f black and

white

versus

olor

s

dramatically

ore

complex

than

what is

often

hought.

lack

and

white,

ndeed,

s oftennot

black and

white but chromatic

onochrome

many

comics

that

are

not considered

in

color" are

actually

not

black

and

white

but,

for

nstance,

lue

or brown

per-

haps depending

on the

price

and

availability

f

ink

in the

printing

ffices).

The alreadymentionedbook byDaniel Clowes,GhostWorldis a great on-

temporary xample

of such

a

monochrome,

ut

one

can think

lso

of works

like Ben Katchor's

The

Jew of

New York

2004)

and

many

works

by

the

Belgian avant-garde

roup

Frion

Baetens

2008).

A

variation

n this

kind of

monochromatic ork s the combination

f

a

black and white

tyle

with one







Jan

aetens

15

supporting olor, s Reinhard

Kleist's

1994) Lovecraftnd manychapters f

David

Mazzuchelli's

Asterios

olyp

2009).

Furthermore,

hese

monochromes

were not

ncompatible:

hanks

o

the use of

monochrome

ayers

dded to the

drawings uring

he

printing rocess,

arious

monochromes ould be com-

bined

(this

s

more

particularly

Mazzuchelli's

approach

in

Asterios

olyp).

Finally,

his addition of

layers

n

order to obtain chromatic

nuances within

black

and

white contour

drawings

a traditional

andmade

practice

hat

has

been revitalized

y

all kinds of

Photoshop

devices is not restricted o the

fieldof

color,

but is used withinthe fieldof

black and white

graphic tory-

telling s well,wherethe varioustypesof dottedgreys re used to suggest

color

differencesnside a

palette

of

black,

white

and

grey

for

n illustration

of

Herge's

work n this

regard,

ee

Peeters nd

Sterckx

1988).

All

these

ele-

ments

demonstrate hat

neitherblack

and

white nor color are monolithic

concepts

or

practices.

he notion of

non-color

cannot be

identified

n

an

unproblematic

manner

with black and

white,

given

the

importance

f

non-

black and white

monochromes

s well

as the

emphasis ut

on

grey

s a

sub-

stitute or

olor.

nsteadof

speaking

f

black and

white versus

olor,

t

might

be more

suitableto

oppose

monochromatic

nd multi or

polychromatic

graphic torytelling.

A

second

difficulty

hat

eopardizes

the

polar

distinction etween color

and black

and

white has to do

with

the

complexity

f the medium's

history,

which

contrary

o

film nd

photography

oes

not evolve

in

a more or less

linear

way

from

lack

and white

(or

rather

ertainkinds of monochromes:

Talbot

pictures,

s

we

know,

were not black and

white

mages)

to

color.

Not

only

did

graphic torytelling

ery

oon

become

multichromatic

at least

f

we take as

the

starting oint

of this

history

he

newspaper

omics,

nstead f

the

18th-Century

radition f

sequential

torytelling

Smolderen 009)

the

shifts rommonochromatic o polychromaticannotbe reducedto changes

in

technology,

with the

black

and white or

monochromatic

echnology

being

the

"primitive"

ne and color or

multichromatic

eing

the

more

"evolved"

one.

In

other

words,

he

greater

vailability

f color

and the

ow-

ering

of

costs

are one

thing,

esthetic nd

ideological

considerations re

another.

A

good

example

of

the

intertwining

f

the

technological

nd

the

cultural s

the

European

"direct color"

movement

of the 1980s

and

1990s.

Ideologically

speaking,

his

movement,

which in

many respects

nticipates

the

eventual

plit

between comic books

and

graphic

novel,

s a revolt

gainst

the traditional ssembly ine and the corresponding ivision of labor in

comics.

Made

possible by technological

evolutions

that

enabled

a better

reproduction

f

the

originaldrawings,

his

movement

exemplarily

llustrat-

ed

by

authors

uch as Alex

Barbier

and

Enki

Bilal

not

only

blurred he

boundariesbetween

sketching, rawing,

nking,

nd

coloring

four

aspects







116

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

sharply ivided n the classic tudiowork but alsobetween torytellingnd

drawings,

ince the

graphic

artists

ow claimed the

right

o tell their

own

stories,

nsteadof

relying pon

a scenario

or

story

made

by

somebody

else.

In

other

words,

he

technical

nnovations

ncouraged by

the

new

printing

techniques

"direct

color"

movement)

encounteredthe artists'

deological

combat

in

favourof

a

larger

utonomy

and

this

s what has

been called

"complete

author" movement

see

Peeters

1999

and

Baetens

2008).

The

problem

with

the "direct

color"

movement,

owever,

nd this

s where

we

see

how the

shift rommonochromatic

o

polychromatic

s far

rom inear

n

comics, s that tsometimes roved o be less a progresshan n obstacle at

least

n

the case of esser

rtists

han

Bilal and

Barbier.

s

a

matter

f

fact,

he

craving

or

complete

control

of all the

visual

aspects

of

comics-making

was

reinforced

y

the desire f several

omics artists o

develop

a

painterly

areer

and the

shift rom

omics to

painting

rovoked

noticeabledecline

of narra-

tive

tension

n

"direct

olor"

comics,

which were beautiful isual

objects

but

desperately

n

need of minimalnarrative

ension

for

more details

n this

ri-

tique,

ee

Groensteen

1993]),

whose

ideas on the

essentially

arrative

imen-

sion of the medium are articulated

ith

great trength

n

his

magnum

opus

TheSystem fComics2007)).The awareness f thisproblem hen resultedn

a

move

away

from

he aesthetics

f the

polychromatic

nd a

conspicuous

return

o

plain

black and

white and

even a

disapproval

f

sophistication

s far

as color

is

concerned.

n

a certain

ense,

t

is

not

absurd

o

argue

that

n

the

wake

of the

"direct olor" failure

similar

uspicion

has been raised

gainst

"nice

drawing."

n

the current

raphic

novel

movement,

t is

personality

nd

attitude

hat

matter,

ot

the

classic

virtues nd

qualities

f

"good

drawing."

The

major

difficulty

n

studying

olor,nevertheless,

s the

factthat

t is

not

possible

to

approach

t as an

isolated

parameter. sing

or not

using

cer-

tainkindsofchromatic lements,mostclearly fcoursethe choice between

monochromatic lack and white

and

polychromatic

olor,

s never

a matter

of

making

hoices between this

or thatuse

of a

specific spect

or

dimension

of a comics.

t

always

nvolves

more

general

choices thatbear

many

conse-

quences

for

he whole of the

work,

nd

vice versa.

A

good

illustration

f the

intertwined haracter

f color can

be found

n

the seminal

work

by

Herge,

the

founding

father

f modern

European

graphic storytelling.

is "clear

line"

technique,

which continues

to be an

inspiring

model for

many

con-

temporary

rtists,

as

often

been

defined

n

narrowly

isual

terms,

with a

strong mphasis n thespecific reatmentf color.However, closerreading

of

Herge

s art

demonstrates

hat

his use

of color is

strongly

ndebted

to an

all-encompassing

ision of narrative

n

which color is both a

consequence

and a

cause.

In

the narrow

sense

of the

word,

the "clear line"

aesthetics

implies

foregrounding

f the contour

ine

of

the

figure

s well as the

avoid-







Jan aetens

17

ance ofanyconflict etweenthetwo majorforces fanydrawing:ine and

color. Color is

therefore

trictly

ubordinate o

line:

first,

olor

never

blurs

the

black

contour

ine,

which

remains

lwaysperfectly

isible;

econd,

color

is

always

monochromatic

nside the surface

delineated

by

a contour line

(Tintin's

ersey

s

pale

blue,

and it is the same

kind

of

pale

blue

in

each of ts

fibres,

rooftop

s red

from he first o the astof

ts

tiles,

Haddock's

ersey

s

similarly

ark

blue,

the

sea is blue or

grey

r

green

or black or

whatever,

ut

in

each

panel

therewill

be

only

one

color,

nd so

on);

third nd

finally,

here

are

(almost)

no

shades

n

the

Tin

tin

universe,

rrespective

f

any

naturalism

whose role s,bydefinition, uch smallern comicsthan n othermedia) Yet

it would be a mistake o

reduce the use

of

color to the mere

foregrounding

of the

contour

ine,

which some readers

may

find cold"

or "artificial"

n

their

pinion,

he

price

to achieve

clarity

nd

readability

f the

figure

s

too

high.

However,

what

Herge

is

doing

in his

work s

something

otally

iffer-

ent.The

most

mportant

imension

of his work

s not

the

drawing,

ut the

narrative,

nd the "clear

line"

aesthetics

s

actually

narrative

more than

a

visual

device. f

t s so

important

or

Herge

to

obtain

mmediately

he

direct

recognition

f

the

figures

nd their

background,

t is not

in

order

o

impose

a certainkind of"puredrawing" utin orderto achieve theirnarrative se-

fulness.Each

panel

of a comics

book must be

immediately

eadable

and

understandable,.e.,

capable

of

being integrated

nto the

larger

whole of

a

storytelling

hat

s

unavoidably

lliptic, iven

the

mportance

f

the

"gutter"

and the

"untold"

n the

space

between the

discontinuous

anels.

Color

must

help

the

reader

better

understand

fictional

world

whose coherence and

continuity

an

never

be

taken for

granted

n

a

medium

whose

basic

pub-

lishing

tructures the

nstalment nit.

For

readers

ntering

fictional

world

during

one or

two

pages

every

week,

the

story

mustbe

instantly

lear,

f

not

theymaydropout. Color,in thisregard,s a crucial factor. t helps dentify

the characters

mmediately: light

blue

spot

means"

Tintin,

darkblue

spot

"means"

Haddock,

a

green

sport

"means"

professor

Cuthbert

Calculus),

while

organizing

lso

the

page

in

an almost

ubliminal

way.

A

dizzying

xam-

ple

of

thisuse of

color

is

given

n

the

opening

page

of The

Red Sea

Sharks

(Herge

1990),

which is a

marvellous llustration

f the

multiple

ways

in

which the

clear-line esthetics

an turn an

apparently imple

use of color

into a

highly

ophisticated,

ut

most of all

extremely

unctional

evice.

Roughly

speaking,

erge

is

doing

a double

ob

with color here.

On

the

one hand, olor is used to establish isualrhymes etween thepanels, o that

the

reader an

smoothly

rogress

rom ne

panel

to

another

without

being

"trapped"

n

the individual

panels.

The

distribution f

green

and red

props

in

the

opening strips

hows the reader

mmediately

he

strength

f the nter-

connectionof

the

panels.

n

the

ast

plate

of

strip

1,

the

two main

characters,







118

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

Tintin ndHaddock,are surrounded ya number fgreen ndredelements

that

put

them

literally

etween

brackets,

he chiasm

effect f the

red and

green being very

trong

the

choice

of

red and

green

s not a coincidence:

these colors are

bright

nd

easy

to

identify,

ven for

very

distracted

eaders;

moreover,

hey

re

interpreted

s

being very

differentrom he colors that

"label" the

pale

blue Tintin and the

dark blue

Haddock).

In

the

following

strip,

his

relationship

etween

the two colors is

spread

out over

two con-

tiguouspanels,

nd this

mechanism

s then continued

nd intensified

uring

the rest

f

the

page,

which the

reader

an

then

grasp

veryeasily

s a

whole.

On theotherhand, his tructuralse ofthecolor,whichenablesthe reader

to

link

elements crossthe limits

f the

panel,

s also

a means of

redefining

the

relationship

etween color as a narrative evice and color as an anecdot-

ic

feature

f

fictional

lements.

he

fact hat

many

elements

n

this

opening

page

"are"

green

or

red does not

(only)

mean thatTintin and Haddock

are

walking through

universewith

mainly

red and

green

colors. Rather

it

means

that

Herge

is

using

that

chromatic bundance to draw our attention

to certain

lements hatwe

might

miss

otherwise: t the end of the

page,

a

cliff-hanger

ill

appear

that lso

represents

variation

n

the red

and

green

paradigm. he "preparation" fthis liff-hangerhroughouthewhole page,

which teaches he

reader o

spot

red and

green

tems

rrespective

f

the

kind

of

persons

nd

objects

that re colored

n

this

way guarantees

ot

only

a bet-

ter

ntegration

f the

cliff-hanger

n

the

whole

page,

but also a better

nder-

standing

f

Herge

s

narratives

well,

which uses

cliff-hangers

and

one

might

add:

which

has to

use

cliff-hangers,

iven

ts

being

part

of the mass

cultural

instalment arrative

ublishing

niverse),

et

not

without

uggesting

hat he

story

s more than

ust

the

cliff-hanger

for

more detailson

Herge

as

narra-

tor,

ee Baetens

2006).

For all thesereasons,tmight e useful o proposea differenteading f

color

in

comics, .e.,

not

a

reading

hatfocuses

n

color

exclusively

its

ym-

bolic

values,

ts

historical

eferences,

ts lexical

equivalents,

nd

so on

(see

Aumont

1994)

for n

in-depth

nalysis

f

all these

spects

n

the case

of

film

studies),

ut one that

highlights

he

paradigmatic

alue of color

in

the

light

of a certain

oetics.

n

this

regard,

t

can be

stimulating

o

analyze

the

use of

color,

not as a

"being",

but as

a

"becoming"

(in

the Deleuzian sense

of the

word),

more

specifically

s

a

process

between successive r

competing

ypes

of

color,

as a contact-zone

between

monochromatic nd

polychromatic

r

vice versa. he concrete xamplethatwill guideme for he rest f this ssay

will be a famous

case

of

"change"

in

the

history

f

comics,

namelyGeorge

Herriman's

hift rom

lack and

white to

color.







Jan aetens

19

The ermanentBecoming"fKrazyat

If

the

legend

is to

be

trusted,

he adventures f

Krazy

Kat,

which first

appeared

in

1913 and continued

until the

death of their

maker,

George

Herriman,

tarted

y

chance

McDonnell,

O'Connell and

Riley

de Havenon

1986).

In

order

o

fill

he ower

part

of a

daily

eries,

The

Family

Upstairs

one

day

the artist

dded

a minuscule cene

in

which one could see

a little

mouse

throwing

brick at

an

equally

small cat.

A

young employee

of the

newspa-

per

office s said

to

have

enjoyed

the new

gag

and to have drawn

the

atten-

tion of his

boss to

it,

who

equally

iked the

nnovation,

nd so Herrimanwas

encouragedfirst o maintain nd develop the little tory s a runninggag,

then to

transformt

in a

new comics

printed

under the

original

eries,

nd

eventually

o make

Krazy

Kat and

Ignatz

Mouse

the heroes

of

a

totally

nde-

pendent

comics

story

It

does not matter ere whether he

story

s true or false.

n

either

ase,

the

anecdote s

telling,

ince few

other

erieshave

been

transformed

nd even

radically

hanged

due to

the

nspiration

nd

the

constraints

f the

moment,

first

y

discovering

esourceful nswers o the

heavy

burden of a

daily pro-

duction,

second

by discovering

heir

own coherence

and

the

formal,

in-

guistic,thematic, nd philosophical aws of theirown fictionaluniverse.

When

Herriman ets

up

his

story, othing

s

there o

show

him

the

way:

no

narrativemodel

that

can be

copied,

no

overall

nstalment

ormat

o

be fol-

lowed and

implemented,

ot even a

theme

to

be

exploited,

nd

despite

all

these difficulties

he artist

ad to start

roducing story

day

after

ay,

week

after

week

(for

the

long running

eries

appeared

n

both

daily

and

weekly

formats).

t

was a stroke f

genius

that

helped

Herriman

o

find

his

way

out

of this

abyrinth:

he

story

e was

about

to

tell,

would never

hange.

Day

after

day,

week

after

week,

month fter

month,

ear

fter

ear,

ll he would

do

was

to make up endless but also endlessly urprising- ariations n the same

narrative nit:

Krazy

s

n

love

with

gnatz,

ut

the

atter

ates he

former

nd

does

not cease

throwing

ricks t his admirer

who,

blinded

by

sentimentali-

ty, nterprets

he mouse's nastiness s

a

symbol

f

true ove.

Very

oon,

a third

character will

complete

the fictionalworld:

Officer

"Uffisa")

Popp,

a

grumpy op

with

a

dog-head

who

is

fond

of

Krazy

and

trieswith no

great

success to

shield

him

(or her?)

from

gnatz's

mean

projectiles.

ther charac-

ters

will

be seen

in

Coconino

County,

he

desert-like

lace

where

the

story

is

set,

but

none of them

will introduce

major change

to the series' core:

each strip s well as each panel, duringmore thanthreedecades,will turn

obsessively

roundthe

throwing

f

the brick

just

as,

little

arlier nd

with

much

ighter

arrative

onstraints,

ach

episode

of

Little

Nemo n

Slumberland

will

end

up

withthe same

mage

of

the

young

boy wakingup

from

is

dream

or

nightmare.







120

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

KrazyKafc"system"s thereforeasyto see through,nd manycritics

agree

on

a limited et of

elements

nd

techniques

hat

ompose

Herriman's

work: n

extremely

fficientnd

tense

drawing tyle,

with

nervous

etchings

that

may

seem a

little

lumsy

but which

perfectly

it

he

tone and the

spirit

of the characters

s well as of the

story;

n

experimentalanguage

thatblends

English, Spanish,

French and

sometimes Latin

words,

with

a

permanent

curiosity

or ll

kinds of

plays,

anging

rom

uns

to

phonetic

English

over

numerous

ypographicalseudo-errors;

properly

urrealist reatment

f set-

ting

nd

props,

oth distortable nd

changeable

t

will;

a sense

of

psycholog-

icalprofundityhatno other omichad ever chieved; completely ew and

paradoxical

mixtureof the

very

trivial nd the

utmost

sophisticated;

nd,

finally,

systematic

lay

of

page

lay-out

hat

managed

to

keep

the series

fresh

during

more than

thirty

ears.

Despite

the success of

Krazy

Kat

in

intellectual

circles,4

George

Herriman was all but an

underground

rtist.

n

employee

of the William

Randolph

Hearst

pressgroup,

he neverfailed

o

obey

the commercial

ules

and

preferences

f

his

CEO,

who,

n

exchange,

was

loyal

to the talent

f the

artist,

ven

in

those

years

n

which

the

special

humour of the serieswas

less

appreciated y thepublic. t shouldthusbe clear thattherewas no friction

at all between

Krazy

Kat and

the

culture

ndustry

hat accommodated

Herriman'swork. It is

important

o stress his

good relationship

etween

employee

nd

boss when one

wants o

analyze

he

tremendous

mpact

of

the

shift

rom lack and

white to

color that

will take

place

in

1935.

5

As occurredwith

Herge

as

well,

t was the

publisher

who took

the

ini-

tiative

or he

change.

he

motivation, owever,

was

totally

ifferent.

erge

s

publisher,

asterman,

was

eager

to

give

a

more

glorious

appearance

to the

(unexpected)

commercialhit of

the

company,

whose success since

the start

of the Tintin eries n 1929 had been growinguninterruptedly,oth as an

instalment

n

the

weekly

upplements

f he

Petit

Vingtieme

nd

in

the

albums

thatwere made

of

t.

However,

n

the

case

of

Krazy

Kat the dea

behind

the

abandonment

f the

black and

white

formatwas less to increase

steadily

growing

uccess

than to

try

o

slow down

the further ecline of the

series,

which was

definitely

o

longer

n

tune

with the

spirit

f the

times,

nd

of

course

f

possible

o turn he commercial

ituation f

Krazy

Kat

around,

ince

it was clear

t

could not survive

much

longer

n

the

institutional

ontext

of

the

Hearst

newspapers.

he

difference

n

externalmotivation

f the

change

towardcolor also found an echo in the dissimilar eactionsof the artists.

Herge,

who

considered himself

draughtsman

nd a technical

designer

(besides

his

comics,

he

made

part

of his

iving y

drawing

dvertisements

nd

during

the restof his ife he would

be as much

a

business

man as an

artist),

did not react

enthusiastically

nd

it

took

quite

some time before

he

accept-







Jan

aetens

21

ed the

generous ffer y

his

publisherwho was certainlylsothinkingf the

commercial

enefits f the

operation).

Herriman,

y

contrast,

eems to have

skipped

his

kind

of

aesthetic eluctance.

n

his

case,

the shift rom lack

and

white to

color

was made almost

vernight,

nd

there re no traces

f

any

ack

of

enthusiasm

whatsoever.

robably

Herriman

musthave

felt hat

mbracing

color offered

n

opportunity

o reinvent is own

work,

nd thiskeenness o

open

himself o

surprises

nd

unexpected

constraints

ay

have been one of

the most

mportant

eatures f Herriman's

rtistic

ersonality.

s a

result,

t

will

not

come as a

surprise

hat he material

mpact

of the

change

was diver-

gentin the two cases.Herge has definitelymade use of color in order to

increase

he

further

disciplinarization"

f the

still

new and

emergent raph-

ic

style

f

comics

and

he has succeeded n

making

olor a decisive ool of

his

clear-line

esthetics,

s the

above

given

examples

will

have made

obvious.

Herriman,

on

the other

hand,

has

relied on

the

sudden and

editorially-

imposed

change

to

thoroughly

evisehis

way

of

drawing.

his is at eastwhat

most critics

have

argued,

nd

they

ll

concur as

well

in

underlining

he

ben-

eficial

spects

of

the

change

for

Herriman's

tyle

nd career.

HerrimanVersus

erriman

1

As a

matter f

fact,

he

transformations

hat

accompany

the shift rom

black

and

white

to

color

are

dramatic,

nd the

already-mentioned

tudy

by

McDonnell,

O'Connell

and

Riley

de

Havenon

gives

a

very

convincing

overview:

the

often

minuscule

panels

of the

black and white

Krazy

Kat

become much

larger

(and

hence less

numerous,

ince the final

format

remains

he

same);

the

previously inely

hatched

and

shaded

backdrops

re

replaced

by

homogenousbackdrops

with

saturated

olors;

the sense

of

more

"square"

compositions

now

taking

he

place

of

detailed

finishing;

tenden-

cyto usemoreand moregeometrical ormsmade withthehelpofruler nd

compass;

the

thickening

f

contour

ines;

the

introduction

f new

forms f

page

lay-out,

ften

made before he

drawings

hemselves;

stronger

mpha-

sis

put

on

characters nd no

longer

on

backdrops,

rops,

nd

dialogues;

nd

finally

more

systematic nterplay

etween

the

work and its

"paratext"

(Genette

1997),

more

specifically

he form

of

the

words

of

the title.

Given

the

blatantdifferences

before" nd

"after",

ne

may

be

tempted

to

essentialize

hem nd

to

oppose point by

point

each

of the

distinctive ea-

turesof

Krazy

Kat

in

black and

white and

in

color.

As the

given

overview

suggests,ucha reading s notimpossible.Nevertheless, hatI would liketo

stress

n

my

analysis

s neither olor

per

se,

nor

its

global impact

as

such.

Rather

than

scrutinizing

he

(indeed

tremendous)

ifferencesetween

the

two

periods,

prefer

o

investigate

ere

the

dynamic

spects

of the

change,

the

snowball

effect f the

change

of a

theoretically

ndependent

haracteris-







122

College

iterature8.3

Summer

01

tic,namely olor, hatwill slowlybuteventually hangeall the other spects

of the

work. For

after

ll,

Herriman

could have

restricted imself

o

simply

colorizing

his

black

and white

plates,

s

he

had used to do when he

wanted

to offer hem as

gifts

o his friends

nd

relatives

here

as

well,

the

difference

with

Herge

is

noticeable),

et

this

s

definitely

ot

what

he

did

when

Hearst

offered

im

the

possibility

o

work

in

color.

Something

more

important

changed,

ut

these

changes

did

not arrive

imultaneously

nd all

of sudden:

it needs a

diachronic ook at the

work of the

second

period

to

notice

how

the modification f

the chromatic

arameter

will

"disseminate"

hrough

he

whole workand generatenew changeselsewherebeforeeventually new

balance

will be

found. uch a

way

of

reading

Herriman

s not

only

a

way

of

doing ustice

to

the hesitations

nd

uncertainty

f a

truly

reative

rtist,6

ut

to the

very

basics of the work

within

medium

thatwe too often

educe

to

a

kind of

museum-like inished

bject.

With

Krazy

Kat"

going

color,"

verythinghanges,

or ure.

But the most

eye-catching

hange

s

undoubtedly

he

page lay-out

used

by

Herriman,

nd

the

changes

n

question

are

not made

once and for

ll,

they

re

continuous.

As

can be seen

in

the volume

of

Krazy

Kat

that

gathers

he first eeklies

n

color (Herriman 2006), the page structures first eryconventional i.e.,

based

upon

a more or less

regular rid

using neatly eparatepanels),

before

turning ery

rapidly

o a wide

range

of almost narchicalmodels.

et

if

one

analyzes

hese

changes

within he

diachronic

erspective

hat

have sketched

above,

the critical

ppreciation

f this

phenomenon

will

change

as

well.

In

what

follows,

would like to defend

twofold

hypothesis.

irst,

will

argue

thatthe

apparent

ffervescence

f the colored

page lay-out

s not an

addi-

tion,

.e.

something

hat

omplicates

model that s

supposed

to

be

initially

simpler.

econd,

I

will

argue

that

he new

page lay-out

of Herriman

s

not

even effervescent,et, t a less superficialevel,much more traditionalhan

commonly

believed.

The evolution

f

heGrid

The

very

first

razy

Kat

plate

n

color

obeys

a

fully

raditional

age lay-

out.

t has

four

dentical owsof

square

mages,

ll

of

the

same

format

s well

as

separated

y

a

gutter,

he

only

exception

being

the ast

mage

of the

plate,

which

actuallyoccupies

the

place

of two

small

panels.

This conventional

structure

s

very

functional,

or

t increases

he

impact

of a

typical

omics

techniquethat Herrimanexploresvery radically n the variouspanels. In

comics,

he

continuity

f an action

or

of a

setting

rom ne

panel

to anoth-

er

does not

imply

that all elements

of

this action of

this

setting

must be

repeated:

ertain

elements

may

be

dropped

or

modified,

while

others

that

were not

present

n

the

beginning

may

pop

up

in

often

nexpected

ways.

We







Jan

aetens

23

all knowpanels n which thebackdrop uddenlydisappears" r ratherhifts

to a

monochrome r

geometrical

ackdrop,ust

as we know

panels

n

which

elementshave

changed

places

or

swiftly

ecome visible.

his

possibility

s

of

course not a

rule:

authors

and

works

who

emphasize

realism

will be less

inclinedthan

others

o

play

with

t;

n

certain

ases

the

appearance

or

disap-

pearance may

be due

to

strictly ractical

considerations

for

nstance the

huge

workload nd the

rapidity

f

publishing

which force rtists

o leave

the

drawings

nfinished);

et

n

many

omics,

he

relative

iscontinuity

rom ne

panel

to another s

quite

usual

(so

usual that

we

do not

always

notice

it).

However,what Herriman s doing in his firstweekly strip n color goes

much further

han

what s

commonly ccepted

n

comics.He

not

only

plays

with the

presence

nd absence

of

forms,

e also

introduces

very ophisti-

cated

system

f variation

with

repetition

ased

on the dea that ach

element

of the

drawing

s

capable

of

being

replaced

by

another

ne.

If

we take

a close

look at this

plate,

we

notice that here

re four

rules7

hat

govern

he

appar-

ently

haotic

changes

from

ne

panel

to another.

The

content

of the

plate

is

simple:

t

startswith UfFisa

Pup chasing

Ignatz,

who

hides

himselfwithin

one-storey

ouse where the

dog

cannot

findhim. He looks aroundeverywherewithoutnoticing hatthemouse is

hidden

inside the

electric

chandelier.

up

is

than

surprised

y

the sudden

arrival f a

dangerousburglar,

ho scares

him

so much

that he

runs

away.

And thenall's

well that nds

well: nstead f

throwing

is

brick

to

Krazy

Kat,

Ignatz drops

t on

the

head of the

burglar,

ho

is

eventually

aken

to

ail by

Krazy

and

Ignatz.

In

order o

analyze

he

hyperconventional

age lay-out

f this

irstnstal-

ment

in

color,

t is

necessary

o

link

it to the

frenzied

hanges

that occur

within the

panels.

Two

major

and

inextricably

inked

techniques

must be

stressedn thisregard. irst fall,one can notice thatthe notionofchange

from

ne

panel

to another

s not

applied

n

an anarchic

way.

On the

contrary,

the

changes

remain

dramatically

isible

and readable thanks o

the

balance

between

elements

hat re modified

n

each

panel

and elements hat

remain

the same

(and

that

moreover remain

n

the same

place).

The

things

hat

remain

re,

roughly peaking,

he characters

nd the

global

characteristics

f

the

space

involved: nside

the

house

versus

utside the

house.What

changes

is,

more or

less,

ll the

rest.

econd,

these

variations o not take

place regard-

less of

the

panel

space,

but occur

at

specific laces

within he

panel:

the

cup-

board,for nstance,s both an element thatoccupies the same place but is

being

permanendy

metamorphosed.

his

system

makes the

changes

very

readable and

also

helps

to better

organize

the

fictional

world within the

panel:

on

the

one

hand,

ne

veryrapidly

otices

the

heterogeneity

f

certain

elements

hat

ome

and

go

(the

moon

in

the

sky,

he

already

mentioned

up-







124

College

iterature

8.3

Summer

01

board, nd actuallymost otherprops, or nstance); n the otherhand, tpro-

vides

the

non-changing

lements

with

an

exceptionalpresence

nd

strength

(the

electric

handelier,

or

nstance,

hich not

by

hazard s

the

place

where

Ignatz

s

hiding

for

Uffisa

up).

In

other

words,

Herriman

establishes

clear

distinction,

ot between

things

hat

occupy

a

stable

place

and

things

hat

evolve

in

space,

but between elements

hat

change

even without

changing

places

and

elements

hatdo

not

change,

ven

if

their

place

does not

always

remainthe same.The

result f

this

reorganization

f

the fictional

world

is

paradoxical:

hings

hat re

traditionally

een as "mobile"

such

as the charac-

tersof the story, o appearvery tatic,whereasthings hat re traditionally

seen

as static

uch as the

setting

f the

story

ecome

very

mobile.

n

light

f

this

new

distinction,

he reader

s

invited

o make a new

interpretation

f

the

page

lay-out,

with ts

conventional

rid

and the

sharply

rawn ines

separat-

ing

the

panels.

After

ll,

he traditional

rame ould have

been as

heavily

on-

tested

and torn and

twisted

s

in

the

previous

black-and-white

eriod

of

Krazy

Kat.

If

this

s not the

case,

t is

because

the

function

nd the nature f

thisframehave been

transformed

ramatically:

he frame s now on

the side

of the

things

that do

not

change

from one

panel

to another

and thus

becomes a character, oreprecisely structuralactant."

If

one

accepts

uch

a

reinterpretation

f the frame s well as of the

glob-

al

lay-out

that

t

entails,

he

page design

of

Herriman

when he shifts

rom

black and

white

to color is much less conventional

han

what

is

being

observed t first

ight.

And

if

one sticks o

this

new

idea,

t

is

imperative

o

reinterpret

n

a

quite

different

ay

the renewed ffervescencehat

will soon

appear

in

the color

plates

as well.

In

other words:

f

the

starting oint

of

Herriman

s

page

lay-out

n his

color

period

is not

simple

but

complex,

he

disorders

o

come

may

be read

n

a

simpler erspective

han the

complexity

that s oftenused to categorize hem.

Disorder

s

Consequence

Indeed,

very

oon the

page

lay

out of

Krazy

Kat

in

color will become

once

again

as

"creative" s the

one we

find

n

the

black-and-white

lates

before

the color

shift. et the

real

question

one should ask

here is

why

Herriman reestablishes he

page

design

he

had

dropped

in

1935.

Before

answering

his

question,

t

may

be useful

o

have a look at these

more "cre-

ative"

ay-outs

n

color.The first

hing

ne can observehere s that

he nven-

tiveness f Herriman n color,even in the most experimental nd totally

geometric,

lmost bstract

age

designs

f

his

ast

period

which consist

f a

mosaic

of

squares,

ircles nd

triangles,

s

not "wild" at

all.

When

Herriman

abandons

the

nitial

rid-like

age

lay-out

f the first olor

plates,

e does

so

in

two

steps.

irst,

ne notices hat

he

very

orm f the framess

being

meta-







Jan aetens

25

morphosedall thetimes as if, o follow the analysis ivenabove,the frame

ceased to be

part

of

the characters

n

order

to

become

part

of the

setting.

Second,

the

structure

f

the

panel

organization

tself s

changing: anels

are

no

longer

simplyuxtaposed

but inserted

r

encrusted

n

the

strips

while

at

the same

time

Herriman

xperiments

ith

multiple

cene

panels,

.e.,

panels

in

which

various

teps

of one

and the same action

are concentrated.

n

such

a

"continuous narrative"

to

reuse the

terminology

oined

by

Andrews

1995),

a

panel

can

show,

for

nstance,

n

the

left

gnatz's

throwing

f the

brick and

on the

rightKrazy

s

being

hurt

by

it.

But how to interprethese innovations,which are actuallyreturns o

previousexperiments uring

he

black-and-white

eriod

of

Herriman?Do

theyreally

stablish new

type

of

page design

withinthe colored

plates?

would like

to

suggest

ere that

neither

ncrusted

mages

nor the continuous

narrative

eally

ffect he

logic

behind the

very

classic

grid

of

the

first ol-

ored

plates.

n

either

case,

the

linearity

f the

represented

ction

is what

Herriman s

bringing

o the

fore.

n

the classic

as

well as

in

the nonclassic

page designs,

t s

always ossible

and even

very

asy

to follow

he

action

which starts n

the eft nd

then continues n

the

right, trip

fter

trip.

hat

Herrimanhas never ceased to numberhis panelsis a supplementary,lbeit

perhaps

anecdotal,

piece

of evidence hints into the same direction.

Furthermore,

he encrusted

mages

are never

used

to

"complicate"

he over-

all

reading

f

the

action

yet

always

o

produce

a

greater ransparency

f

the

continuous

narrative

anels,

whose

various

parts

re

neatly eparated

y

these

encrustations.

erriman,

n

order

words,

eems

to be an author

relying

pon

nonclassic

nonnarrative)

actics

o

pursue

a

much

more classic

narrative)

strategy,

nd

the later

Krazy

Kat

panels bring many

other

proofs

of

that

stance. he

gradual implification

f

the

speech

balloons s here

a

good

case

in point.On the one hand,Herriman voids thepossibleconfusion etween

dialogues

and comments

y

the

narrator f

the

comics.

On the other

hand,

he takes

great

are to make clear

who

is

saying

what.

n

both

cases,

he trans-

parency

f

reading,

which

did not seem to

be a

priority

n the last

years

of

the

black-and-white

eriod,

becomes

a

real

concern

and

Krazy

Kat will

privilege

more and more

clarity

nd

intelligibility.

In

order to

understand

his

motivation,

we

have

to come back to the

question

of

why

Herriman

has chosen to

reintroduce

ormal

omplexities

n

his

initially

ery simple

page

lay-out

n

color.

My

main

hypothesis

ere is

thatthe more expressive r, fone prefers,more diverse nd experimental

page

design

that

will

rapidly eplace

the first

rids

n

the color

plates

llus-

trates basic

mechanism

of

transfer

r

removal

as

well as of an internal

reordering

f

the series.

n

the colored

Krazy

Kat

plates,

he room forback-

ground,

etting

nd

props

s

slowly

declining

nd

it

is clear thatthe shift o







126

College

iterature

8.3

Summer

01

color,whichpreventshereproductionf subtle hromatic uances nd shad-

ings,

has much

to do with his eduction.

he

effervescencef the

page

design

musttherefore e

seen as a

kind of

compensation,

or t

enables

the artist o

do outsidehe

panel (namely:

n

the

frame hat urrounds

he

panel)

what

can

no

longer

be

achieved nside

he

panel.

Or

to

put

it in

still nother

way:

t

is

as

if

the

shift

rom

lack and

whiteto

color not

only

modifies he

form f the

panels

and

the

page design,

ut

that t concerns

n

the

very

first

lace

the

nature

f the

panel

structure.The

rames

re no

longer

passive

einforcement

of the structure

f the

panels,

but

an active

player

n

the

ecosystem

f the

comic stripwhere t activelynterveneso that rupture t the level of the

drawings

an

be

compensated

y

a

new

device at a

higher

evel.

Once

again,

his

reading

s

ust

a

hypothesis.

ut

if

t

proves apable

of

renewing

he

analysis

f

a

single

parameter

color)

thathas been

read as an

almost

ndependent

eature f

the

system

f comics

instead

f

being

inked o

issues

uch

as,

for

nstance,

rawing

tyle

nd

page ay-out),

hen t

may

be use-

ful o

attempt

o

reread ther

orms nd

uses of

chromatic tructures

n

graph-

ic

storytelling

o thatnew

questions

nd

perhaps

new

answers

may emerge.

Notes

1

A

good

example

fthis elative

eglect

s thefact hat color"

s

isted

1

times

in

the ndexof

Thierry

roensteen's

ook on comics

2007),

without

eing

real

key

oncept

n

this

tudy,

hich an be

considered

he

most

horough

nd detailed

on comics

heory ctually

vailable n

the

English

market.

2

For

n

in-depthnalysis

fart

nd creation

n

the ommercialontext

f

the

creative

r culture

ndustries,

ee David

Hesmondalgh'study

2007).

he basis

ues-

tionraised

y

Hesmondalghhroughout

is

book

s

the ension etween

utonomy

and

heteronomy

f the rts

n

an

industrial

nvironment.

3

The

2001 film

directed

y

Terry wigoff pens

with

a

very

nteresting

sequence hat ries oreproducehis ffect ithinhe estheticsfa colormovie.

4

One

of

ts

greatestromoters

eems o

have

been Pablo

Picasso,

ho

proba-

bly

followed he Surrealist

einterpretation

f

mass ultural

igures

uch

s Charlie

Chaplin

hatwas so

characteristic

f the

1920s. his

high-cultural

mbrace f

new

popular

orms as notnew

n

the

history

f

comics,

s can be

seen

n

the dmira-

tion

f Goethe or

he

graphic

torytelling

fTopffer.

5

There are

two

editions n book

form,

ne

incomplete

2

volumes

with

Kitchen ink

Press,

dited

y

Rick

Marshall,

990

and

1991)

and

one

complete

5

volumes

with

Fantagraphics

ooks,

edited

by

Bill

Blackeard,

etween 006

and

2008).6

The notion

f

uncertainty

s central

o

thework

y

Pierre-Michel

enger

n

the reative

ork

Menger

009),

which consider

mongmany

ther

hings

sem-

inal ontributiono the

tudy

fwhat

high

rt nd

ow

art

ctually

hare: he

ware-

ness f theboth

rippling

nd

stimulating

ffect

fthe

nobody

knows

rinciple."







Jan

aetens

27

7

I insist n thenotion frule n order o suggesthat heoften-mentioned

appraisal

f

Krazy

Kat

as Surrealistomics s to be

nuanced. erriman

s no

adept

of utomatic

riting

r automatic

rawing;

e

only

and

lways)

orks

n

purpose.

In

that ense e

may

e closer

o the

Belgian illar

f

Surrealism

I

am

thinking

ere

of

uthors

uch s

Paul

Nouge,

mainly),

hich

trongly

ttackedhe Parisian"

raise

of

the

unconscious.

Worksited

Andrews,

ew.

1995.

Story

nd

Space

n

Renaissance

rt. he Rebirth

f

Continuous

Narrative.

hicago:

Chicago

University

f

Chicago

Press.

Aumont,acques. 994.La couleurncinima.aris Colin.

Baetens,

Jan.

2006.

"Herge,

auteur

a

contraintes?

ne relecture

e

L'Affaire

Tournesol"

French

orum 1.1: 99-112.

Baetens,

an.

007.

"Conceptual

imitationsf

Our

Reflection

n

Photography:

The

Question

f

Interdisciplinarity."

n

Photographyheory

ed.

J.

Elkins.New

York/London

Cork:

Roudedge

& Cork

University

ress.

.

2008. Of

Graphic

Novels

nd

Minor

Cultures:heFrion

ollective."

ale

Frenchtudies

14:95-114.

Bourdieu,

ierre.

984.

Distinction:Social

Critique

f

the

udgmentf

Taste.

rans.

Richard

Nice.

Cambridge:

arvard

niversity

ress.

Clowes,

aniel.

2001. Ghost

World.eattle:

antagraphics.

Genette,

erard.

997. ParatextsTrans.

ane

E. Lewin.

1987.

Reprint.

New

York:

Cambridge

niversity

ress.

Groensteen,

hierry.

993. Couleur irecteDirectolor

catalogue

f an exhibitionf

the

Hamburg

omics

Convention).

hurn:Kunst

erComics..

. 2007.

The

Systemf

Comics. rans. art

Beaty

nd Nick

Nguyen.

999.

Reprint. ackson: niversity

ress f

Mississippl.

Hatfield,

harles 2005.Alternativeomics.n

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iterature.

ackson: niversity

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Mississippl.

Herge. 990. TheRed Sea Sharks.958.Reprint. ondon:Mammoth.

Herriman,

eorge.

006.

Krazy

&

Ignatz

n

"A

WildWarmth

f

Chromatic

ravy"

(1935-1936).

Ed.

Bill Blackbeard.

eattle:

antagraphics.

Hesmondalgh,

avid.2007. The

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ndustries

Second dition.ondon:

age.

Katchor,

en.

2004. The

ew f

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intage.

Kleist,

einhard. 994.

Lovecraft.

tuttgart:gmont hapa.

Mazzuchelli,

avid.

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olyp.

ew York:

antheon.

Menger,

ierre-Michel.009. Le travailriateur.

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ans

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Documents