What does Baetens (2001) mean by ‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and the ‘graphiateur’?

Graphiation is defined as 'the narrative and graphic enunciation of the comics'. I believe this to mean that how the illustration is drawn also serves to depict the attitude and feel behind what is occuring, it is all very well to show a person hiding around a corner but graphiation would be the addition of darkness/shadows and from which point of view the illustration is drawn. Colours and shades are indicators, used by the author to show the emotion and mood of the scene which are not depicted simply by the expression of the characters face or body language and the graphiateur is the person who combines the written words with the images showing how the narrative is developing.

Monstration is the further development of the illustrations, in the sense that a single scene without words or description manages to depict the narrative, as Rizwana said it can be likened to a silent movie, in which the plot develops with images, without the words telling the audience what is going on.

Week One

'Do you think comics are a children's or adults media?

Tintin comics are somewhat blurry when trying to analyse whether or not comics are an adults or childrens genre in the sense that, obviously they appeal to children through the cartoons and humorous action delivered through herosim and adventure. But where it becomes slightly more mature are when the plot of the comic becomes centered on drug trafficking and kidnapping. I remember reading about the multiple kidnappings of Lois Lane in the Superman comics when I was younger, but with that level of fantasy in the story, the kidnapping serves only as a trap for the superhero to come save the day. Tintin is a little different, he is not a superhero, he is a human and therefore anything happening to him has a much more realistic impact on the audience. Comics have always exaggerated the antics of its protagonists so it will appeal to the little boy/girl who wants to fly around and save the day but they also contain themes, as to also appeal to the adult audience. The Blue Lotus for example contains the typical hero story in which the good guy saves the day, but an adult can see the messages put in by the author which speaks of drug epidemics and the lunacy associated with drug use, all of which a child may find amusing but to an adult is a commentary on society.

'How and why are comics becoming more accepted as an art form? Can/should they be accepted as a literary genre?

To argue that comics are not a form of literature would be close minded, obviously with much of the story delivered through text and what the character's saying, the literary aspects cannot be ignored but in saying that, comics do contain less literary quality than say a novel or a poem. The words, although the plotline requires them for clarity reasons, are not always well chosen, nor is it of a high quality, but as Varnum and Gibbons (2001) state that "stories, in comics are received as a graphic whole and as the creation of a single 'graphiateur'". Suggesting that although the comics are a mixture of both art and literature, the purpose is to unite the two, allowing the reader to see the comic as a whole rather than a story with pictures.

In that same sense they are becoming more accepted as an art form because the illustrations are not just the charicatures and characters but also the speech bubbles and the words being spoken by a character. (Varnum and Gibbons 2001) mention that Kordoc focused on the speech bubbles in Asterix, stating that "the ballons tell the reader how to hear the message. They are visual symbols for sound". This is why I believe comics should be classed as both art and literature, not excluded because of it's hybrid nature.

Sam wk 3

This week I've attempted to answer the following questions;

How is science-fiction different from fantasy according to Le Guin?

Can you identify any common fantasy meta-narratives from your own reading/viewing?

Note while you are reading A Wizard of Earthsea Le Guin's depiction of race and/or gender. Is there anything surprising in this? Why?


Fantasy, (both Attebery, 1980 and Le Guin agreeing) generally has to mitigate it’s whimsy with consistency as (for example, with Earth Sea) original universes are being established and an author cannot rely on a readers previous impressions of place; rather a reader must be taken in hand and introduced to these invented realms fully realised. Earth Sea’s introductory geographical descriptions, elaborate and consistent throughout, substantiate Le Guin’s ‘secondary world’ occasionally allowing it to touch with naturally occurring phenomena of the actual, if only to further “extrapolate” it from the real, anchoring fantastic narratives in a believably parallel world (Attebery, 1980). Tolkein was aware of this, having written pedantically about the panoramic layout of his Middle Earth before plotting or even populating it.

This then separates fantasy from science fiction in that the latter builds no alternate reality, rather juxtaposes the mundane world with supernatural happenings and, as it hasn’t constructed it’s own rules (as with the world building of fantasy), is forced to bend or break the rules frequently calling on a readers suspension of disbelief, as opposed to the initial affective ‘wonder’ of fantasy (Attebery, 1980). Meaning with this that fantasy lays it’s foundation tax of the imagination, expanding from and maintaining this while science-fiction is a succession of absurdist ‘what ifs?’.

Fantasy can also operate as allegory (which of course science fiction can too), writers utilizing these alternate realities as open spaces in which the mysterious or threatening forces of our own reality can be archetypally reconciled. Attebery (1980) identifies the moral and the philosophical as fundamental elements of the fantasy genre, most notably the thematic recurrence of ‘good vs. evil’, which can be seen in anything from Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter. It could even be said that many western literatures of the genre incorporate biblical threads to elevate their good/evil conflict to the status of myth or fable. Le Guin’s Earth Sea is rife with such references (debatably there to reinforce the messianic nature of her protagonist). For example, during one of Sparrowhawk’s sea voyages an unruly wind is roused by his shadow, closely resembling the story of Jonah, the stowaway fugitive from god whose ill favour with the divinity made the seas storm (until a fellow crew member kindly suggests casting him over board, successfully placating the weather).

However, in Earth Sea Le Guin seems to have unnecessarily borrowed some of the bible’s prejudices, namely those denigrating of women. For example, Duny’s crone mentor is presented as being a crooked or fickle practitioner of the craft, with the additional old Gont saying “weak/wicked as woman’s magic”. Throughout the text there’s a decided lack of women in the mage-world, as if they’re somehow unfit to wield magic, being innately impotent or amoral. Unfortunately Le Guin offers no clue as to why Earth Sea women are positioned as subordinate, or why the practice of magic is an almost exclusively male-dominated one.

This is perhaps an attitudinal by-product of the earlier time period in which Earth Sea was written, or at least Le Guin could have excused herself as such before a chapter in which the novel’s only major female character plays a role excruciatingly similar to Eve’s, the great temptress of Genesis guilty of smuggling sin into a perfect world, and single-handedly marring the moral aptitude of mate Adam. Sparrowhawk, unwittingly driven by his shadow to a mysterious stone-tower, is almost seduced into relinquishing his power to a terrible, ancient force in it’s foundation; attempted seduction committed by none other than the beautiful Serret, female agent of a nameless evil. Le Guin’s gender bias is inexplicable, and barely redeemed with the entrance of Vetch’s younger sister Yarrow, who despite being less-nefarious remains a weak, ‘Lolita’-styled representation. Again, if fantasy must labour to convince it’s audiences by intermittently curbing it’s ‘fantastic’ realms with doses of the real, then Earth Sea’s sexism might just be an un-critical reflection of that time.

Let’s hope so.

Week 2

This week I am going to discuss further what Harri has posted in regards to 'Monstration', 'Graphiation' and 'Graphiateaur'; and also give my opinion on what Khardoc thinks the Asterix series does better that Herge's Tintin.

Baetons (2001) describes Graphiation as 'the narrative and graphic enunciation of the comics' and the Graphiateaur as 'the agent responsible for it'. I understand this to mean that Graphiation is the style in which an image is drawn which creates a certain tone or setting for the story. The tone and sentiment of the author can be detected by the way in which lines, contours and colours are used in the comics images and this is then underlined by the accompanying utterance.

Monstration is described as 'events are performed by the characters themselves in a situation in which the story seems to narrate itself, without any narrators intervention'. In this instance the process is like a silent movie in which all information is gained by seeing the character in action.

Khardoc explains how narration can detract from the Graphiation in a comic and how for this reason as well as others he believes the Asterix series does better than Herge's Tintin. He explains that in the Tintin series speech balloons were used as well as narrative commentary at the bottom of each panel in order to further explain the story. However this proved confusing to the reader as the focus was then split between the image and the narration . In the Asterix series the use of speech balloons helped to create an idea that the utterances were coming directly from the character which helped to sync the the image to what the character was saying.

The Asterix series also uses various strategies to create 'sound' in order to promote the humour of the cartoon. Herge does not use many 'sound' techniques in the Tintin series, however Khardoc does allow that this could be due to the more intricate nature of the comic.

Harri - Week Two

According to Horricks (2004), how have perceptions of comics as media changed?

According to Horricks (2004), in the 1950s there was a widespread concern on the influence which comics have on young readers in New Zealand, and what about the mediums of music and television which also influence the younger generation? This has changed over time as comics have made a big leverage in society, in movies, books, and TV programmes. The whole concept of hero versus villains is adapted from the medium of comics. Although comics are looked upon as drawing in boxes that tell amusing stories, Horricks (2004) describes comics as graphic novels as they are known in book-length form. Horricks (2004), also argues that comics aren’t given as much appreciation as it applies with other literature book, and that we should consider the ‘beauty’ within a comic, almost like judging a book by its cover scenario.

Horricks (2004), explains that we often find ourselves puzzled by the popularity of a new genre or medium as some people relate to this when working with or reading comics.  He also suggests that we always focus on components such as the characters, plot, and narrative structure, so when we come across a piece which is weak within these areas, we dismiss the medium, and so goes on the perception of comics as a media.

What does Baetens (2001) mean by ‘monstration’, ‘graphiation’ and the ‘graphiateur’?

Baetens (2001), describes ‘graphiation’ as the distinguishing factor between the narrator and the graphic artist – a maker of images and calligrapher, but the ‘graphiateur’ is what makes these two elements different. The graphiation is where the individual artist aims to coincide the meanings of his or hers drawings with the targeted theme or genre of a comic. Baetens (2001) also implies that “every drawing bears the trace of graphiation” , and that the interpretation of lines, colours, letter or words give the concept of what the graphiateur and his or her graphiation is likely to provide.

Monstration, however is a different element from graphiation and graphiateur, as they are both linked to each other whereas ‘monstration’ and a different concept. According to Baetens (2001), she indicates that ‘monstration’ is linked to the theory of storytelling and how graphiation and the graphiateur are not involved in this process.  Baetens (2001) cites Gaudreault’s theory of ‘monstration’ is hidden in comics as we heavily rely on the graphics to tell the story, even though narration is present, as the process of ‘monstration’ tends to go unnoticed and not shown.  

Sam, wk 2

(Know it’s a little bit late but will definitely catch up within the week. Also, I’ve answered the following two questions in the one post, as instructed/corrected.)


According to Horricks (2004), how have perceptions of comics as a media changed?


Compare the relationship between images and words and how these differ in Hergé (1933) and Spiegelman’s (2004) works.

Horricks (2004) first defines the comic, differentiating it from the static image in that it’s a succession of panels dictating a narrative (in which the SPACE across panels is read as TIME), the narrative comprehension invisibly occurring in-between these panels aptly called ‘closure’. The ‘closure’ of Tintin is conventional in that it’s sequentially linear, panels succeeding each other in a classical narrative grid which, considering the simultaneity of Tintin’s ‘younger’ audiences could be seen as both deliberate child-friendly simplicity, but also as proof of an emerging format establishing it’s basics before its popularity could allow any such ‘experimental grandeur’ of modern pioneers, the likes of Spiegelman. At the core of each work, that of both Herge and Spiegelman, is a shared unrest over current political events, though in Herge’s work there’s some reason to identify as his underlying incentive an optimistic reversal of then-widespread xenophobic attitudes, Herge’s political allegories being but vehicles in his whimsically ambitious bid to integrate all the cultures of the world.

Tintin himself is a somewhat stereotypical ‘British fellow’, the new-and-improved ‘colonist-as-tourist’ whom Herge hopes will take a similarly ‘white-collared’ readership with him (every man and his iconically British ‘snowy’ dog) on his wide-eyed globe-trotting, sharing in the same epiphanies and cultural insights, rousing in a dated-British reader a heady, then-modern sense of the ‘global village’. Horricks (2004) cites the ‘jingoistic’ nature of some American comics as one of the earliest causes for criticism against the infant genre. Tintin is no exception as Herge chronicles the discovery of exotic realms and races through European eyes, suggesting the European outlook is not only somehow superior to those stumbled upon off the continent, but also as transcending the category of ‘race’; rather it is the perceptual framework of the human experience itself.

Spiegelman’s “In the Shadow of No Towers’ is similarly patriotic, but seeks to distil (or instil) a subverted patriotism, offering views and political insights that argue rather than compliment the standard American identity, blindly trusting of (obedient to ) it’s government. Also unlike Tintin, Spigelman’s closure functions sporadically, the grid of his narrative broken, the effect of which is immersive and plays out closer to Kochalka’s world building; SPACE=SPACE over SPACE=TIME (Horricks, 2004). This then marks the modernization of comics in that Spiegelman’s ‘Towers’ does away with allegory, being openly commemorative of 9/11, mapping emotional landscapes with its anarchic panelling instead of simply ‘plotting’ and inhabiting these highly subjective spaces with American’s that, unlike Herge’s Tintin, are bewildered, despairing and ultimately disillusioned about their national identity; no ‘jingoistic’ characters here, rather the ‘Towers’ populace are the anti-patriots.

That ‘Towers’ does away with the tentative political allegory of Tintin (which in its time was ‘controversial’), replacing it instead with overt illustrated-complaint without guise of innocent fable, says much about both the democratic atmospheres then and now, and also the comic-book genre itself, both of which having seen immense shifts in (aesthetic) paradigm (Horricks, 2004). That such subversive and politically oriented subject matter can be put forth in the pages of a comic book signals the maturation of the genre, that comics can now significantly communicate with audiences beyond escapism, perhaps even (as with Spiegelman) capture the unheard voice of a generation. Indeed, Spiegelman even ironically uses the comic-book, discussing America’s loss of innocence through a youth-affiliated medium so that his means is as much a message as his text. Truly, when the genre is harnessed as the unitary point of so poignantly layered a cultural awareness (such as Spiegelman’s), then that is a ‘comic-book’ worthy of a spot in ‘significant’ canons of literature; we might even be moving into a trend of ‘significant comics’ in which the genre is the preferred medium for subversive illustrators, looking for a more ‘knowing’, instantaneous or immersive means of communication. It makes sense that somone so politically driven would choose the comic-genre in that, visually, the emotional brunt of any message can be instantaneous, as opposed to the gradual digestion of text alone; it has an urgency which books lack.

(I know there’s basically an underground society when it comes to comics, so pardon my ignorance if we’re already in the midst of the above proposed trend).

Harri - Week ONe

Do you think comics are children or adult genre/media?

Comics. Are they children or adult genre? The first thing that comes to mind when someone speaks of ‘comics’ is a book full of pictures and fictional characters suitable for younger readers. We think of heroes such as Superman and X-Men, and the many times that they always win the battle. However, comics are a fascination and as Rizwana stated below “they cater to a wide range of audiences...” The genre of the comic depends on the readers preference and interest, but we also need to realise that as a reader we interpret our own way of understanding the storyline and that opinions may differ in regards of whether the context of the story was appropriate or not.

In Herge’s production of the Tintin series; Tintin in the Congo, he received some criticism with characters and racial context he used. Characters are imitated with childlike natives. The colour of skin stands out (used pitch black colours as skin tone), facial details such as big noses or lips have also been used and cultural background is also depicted through the themes in its story. (NZ Herald, 19 July 2007). Although young readers may not interpret such a meaning, where as an adult reader could clearly see how racial themes have been used throughout the story.

Herge tries to correct racial stereotypes of Chinese among Europeans in Tintin and the Blue Lotus. Tintin explains to his dear friend Chang that not all ‘White’ men are wicked or conniving people and that we shouldn’t judge people based on what others perceive them to be. So to finally answer the topic question, comics are both children and adult media as this media considers all its potential readers.

How might Herge’s The Blue Lotus address or relate to what Said (1977) terms ‘orientalism’?

Tintin and The Blue Lotus has by far been Herge’s best work out of all the Tintin series, The Blue Lotus has been carefully well thought out as it is portrayed through the Chinese culture and art applied in Herge’s work. Herge’s cultural inspiration comes from a Chinese art student Chang Chong-chen (Farr, 1991) who’s name ‘Chang’ of Tintin’s Chinese companion in The Blue Lotus. Chang Chong-chen’s contribution, lead Herge into his oriental state, where he could research and elaborate the Chinese culture and portray this through the images and context we read and see in The Blue Lotus.

According to Said (1977) he describes the Orient being a European invention as it represents “material civilization and culture” (pg. 88). Also to take in consideration, Herge was Westerner and his views or ideas about China, is what Said (1977) suggests as ‘orientalism’, the idea that a Westerner establishes ‘the East’.  Herge has done this through The Blue Lotus, as he expresses Chinese culture through images, colonial themes, and characteristics of certain characters.