Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels

214 Pages·2014·2.246 MB·English

by  Ian Hague

Comics and the Senses
Attempts to defi ne what comics are and explain how they work have not
always been successful because they are premised upon the idea that comic
strips, comic books and graphic novels are inherently and almost exclusively
visual. This book challenges that premise, and asserts that comics is not just
a visual medium. The book outlines the multisensory aspects of comics: the
visual, audible, tactile, olfactory and gustatory elements of the medium. It
rejects a synaesthetic approach (by which all the senses are engaged through
visual stimuli) and instead argues for a truly multisensory model by which
the direct stimulation of the reader’s physical senses can be understood.
A wide range of examples demonstrates how multisensory communication
systems work in both commercial and more experimental contexts. The
book concludes with a case study that looks at the works of Alan Moore
and indicates areas of interest that multisensory analysis can draw out, but
which are overlooked by more conventional approaches.
Dr. Ian Hague holds a BA in English from the University of Hull, an MA in
Cultural Studies from the University of Leeds, and a PhD from the Univer-
sity of Chichester. He is the director of Comics Forum (http://comicsforum
.org).
Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
25 International Journalism and 33 Branding Post-Communist
Democracy Nations
Civic Engagement Models from Marketizing National Identities in
Around the World the “New” Europe
Edited by Angela Romano Edited by Nadia Kaneva
26 Aesthetic Practices and Politics 34 Science Fiction Film, Television,
in Media, Music, and Art and Adaptation
Performing Migration Across the Screens
Edited by Rocío G. Davis, Edited by J. P. Telotte and
Dorothea Fischer-Hornung and Gerald Duchovnay
Johanna C. Kardux
35 Art Platforms and Cultural
27 Violence, Visual Culture, and the Production on the Internet
Black Male Body Olga Goriunova
Cassandra Jackson
36 Queer Representation, Visibility,
28 Cognitive Poetics and and Race in American Film and
Cultural Memory Television
Russian Literary Mnemonics Melanie E. S. Kohnen
Mikhail Gronas
37 Artificial Culture
29 Landscapes of Holocaust Identity, Technology, and Bodies
Postmemory Tama Leaver
Brett Ashley Kaplan
38 Global Perspectives on Tarzan
30 Emotion, Genre, and Justice in From King of the Jungle to
Film and Television International Icon
Detecting Feeling Edited by Annette Wannamaker
E. Deidre Pribram and Michelle Ann Abate
31 Audiobooks, Literature, and 39 Studying Mobile Media
Sound Studies Cultural Technologies, Mobile
Edited by Matthew Rubery Communication, and the iPhone
Edited by Larissa Hjorth,
32 The Adaptation Industry Jean Burgess, and
The Cultural Economy of Ingrid Richardson
Contemporary Literary Adaptation
Simone Murray
40 Sport Beyond Television 49 Reading Beyond the Book
The Internet, Digital Media The Social Practices of
and the Rise of Networked Contemporary Literary Culture
Media Sport Danielle Fuller and
Brett Hutchins and David Rowe DeNel Rehberg Sedo
41 Cultural Technologies 50 A Social History of
The Shaping of Culture in Media Contemporary Democratic
and Society Media
Edited by Göran Bolin Jesse Drew
42 Violence and the Pornographic 51 Digital Media Sport
Imaginary Technology, Power and Culture in
The Politics of Sex, Gender, the Network Society
and Aggression in Hardcore Edited by Brett Hutchins and
Pornography David Rowe
Natalie Purcell
52 Barthes’ Mythologies Today
43 Ambiguities of Activism Readings of Contemporary Culture
Alter-Globalism and the Edited by Pete Bennett and
Imperatives of Speed Julian McDougall
Ingrid M. Hoofd
53 Beauty, Violence, Representation
Edited by Lisa Dickson and
44 Generation X Goes Global
Maryna Romanets
Mapping a Youth Culture
in Motion
54 Public Media Management for
Christine Henseler
the Twenty-First Century
Creativity, Innovation, and
45 Forensic Science in
Interaction
Contemporary American
Edited by Michał Głowacki and
Popular Culture
Lizzie Jackson
Gender, Crime, and Science
Lindsay Steenberg
55 Transnational Horror Across
Visual Media
46 Moral Panics, Social Fears,
Fragmented Bodies
and the Media
Edited by Dana Och and
Historical Perspectives
Kirsten Strayer
Edited by Siân Nicholas and
Tom O’Malley 56 International Perspectives on
Chicana/o Studies
47 De-convergence in Global “This World Is My Place”
Media Industries Edited by Catherine Leen and
Dal Yong Jin Niamh Thornton
48 Performing Memory in Art and 57 Comics and the Senses
Popular Culture A Multisensory Approach to
Edited by Liedeke Plate and Comics and Graphic Novels
Anneke Smelik Ian Hague
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Comics and the Senses
A Multisensory Approach to Comics
and Graphic Novels
Ian Hague
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Ian Hague to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hague, Ian, 1986–
Comics and the senses : a multisensory approach to comics and graphic
novels / Ian Hague.
pages cm. — (Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies ; 57)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Comic books, strips, etc.—History and criticism. 2. Graphic
novels—History and criticism. 3. Senses and sensation in literature.
I. Title.
PN6710.H27 2013
741.5ʹ9—dc23
2013020354
ISBN: 978-0-415-71397-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88305-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Note xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
1 Eye Like Comics, or, Ocularcentrism in Comics Scholarship 9
2 Sight, or, the Ideal Perspective and the Physicality of Seeing 34
3 Hearing, or, Visible Sounds and Seeing With the Ears 63
4 Touch, or, the Taboo/Fetish Character of Comics and
Tactile Performance 92
5 Smell and Taste, or, the Scent of Nostalgia and
the Flavour of Advertising 123
6 Multisensory Aspects of the Comics of Alan Moore 150
Conclusion 172
References 177
Index 191
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Illustrations
1.1 Adapted from: Priego, Ernesto. ‘On Cultural Materialism,
Comics and Digital Media’. O pticon1826 no. 9 (August 2010):
1–3 [image separate from text, accessed March 19, 2012, at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/opticon1826/archive/issue9/imagegallery/
Image_Priego.pdf]. Adapted image used with the permission
of the original artist. 23
2.1 ‘Schematic Diagram of the Human Eye’. 2007.
Accessed May 15, 2013, at http://commons.wikimedia.
org/wiki/File:Schematic_diagram_of_the_human_eye_en.svg.
Public domain. 39
2.2 Mack, David. Kabuki: Metamorphosis. Berkeley,
CA: Image Comics, 2005, n.p. Image used with the
permission of the artist. 55
3.1 Chittka, Lars, and Axel Brockmann. ‘A Diagram of the
Anatomy of the Human Ear’. 2009. Accessed May 15, 2013,
at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anatomy_of_the_
Human_Ear.svg. Used under a Creative Commons
Attribution 2.5 Generic (CC BY 2.5) license. 67
6.1 Moore, Alan, and Eddie Campbell. A Disease of Language.
London: Knockabout—Palmano Bennett, 2005, n.p.
© Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Image used with
the permission of the publisher. 159