Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form.

243 Pages·2017·3.91 MB·English

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LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School
1990
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Ralph Randolph Duncan II
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Duncan, Ralph Randolph II, "Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book
Form." (1990). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4910.
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Panel analysis: A critical method for analyzing the rhetoric of
comic book form
Duncan, Ralph Randolph, II, Ph.D.
The Looisiana State University and Agricnltnral and Mechanical CoL, 1990
U M I
300 N. Zeeb Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Panel Analysis: A Critical Method Far
Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the
Louisiana State University and
Agricultural and Mechanical College
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
The Department of Speech Communication,
Theatre, and Communication Disorders
by
Ralph Randolph Duncan II
B.A., Southeastern Louisiana University, 1980
M.A., Louisiana State University, 19G5
May 1990
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Acknowledgements
The writer wishes to express gratitude to Dr. A.
Mastermon King, for his patient direction of this project
over the years and across the miles. The writer wants
to give a special thanks to his parents, who encouraged
him to persevere through fourteen years of higher
education. In addition, the writer is grateful for
the time and inspiration donated to the project by
Will Eisner. Most of all, the writer wants to express
his admiration and love for his wife, Lisa, for putting
up with and making bearable three solid years of weekends
lost to dissertation work.
11
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Table dF Contents
Page
Acknowledgments........... 11
Abstract ..................................... v
Chapter
I. Introduction .............................. 1
Contributory Studies ...................... 8
Plan of the Study ............13
II. Historical Context ........................ 17
Personal History .......................... 20
Artistic Influences ...................... 24
Developments Within the Medium ............ 26
Conluslon................................37
III. Psychoanalytical Analysis ................ 41
Symbols..................................42
The Stone............................43
The Animal..........................48
The Circle..........................49
M y t h s ................................... 52
Conclusion............................... 61
IV. Psychological Analysis .................... 63
Gestalt................................. S3
S h a p e ................................... 67
Pattern..................................70
C o l o r ................................... 75
Conclusion............................... 82
V. Semlologlcal Analysis .................. .84
Semantics............................... 85
Syntax................................... 96
Conclusion.................................140
111
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VI . Macro Analysis............................143
Concepts of Montage...................... 144
Creation of Meaning...................... 146
Manipulation of Time...................... 151
Conclusion................................157
VII. Application of Panel Analysis ........... 159
Historical Context ....................... 150
Psychoanalytical Approach ............... 156
Semiological Approach ................... 173
Conlusion................................151
VIII.Conclusion .............................. 183
Notes......................................... 192
Bibliography ................................ 209
Appendix A Mrs Paraffin...................... 224
Appendix B Foul P l a y ........................ 232
Appendix C Black Alley...................... 240
Appendix D A Life Force...................... 248
Appendix E Miscellaneous ................... 269
Appendix F : Roulette..........................275
iv
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Abstract
This study devises a method of rhetorical criticism,
panel analysis, for the comic book medium. Panel analysis
focuses on how the unique form of the comic book medium
communicates content. Panel analysis consists of three
conponents: historical context, micro analysis, and
macro analysis.
The historical component makes use of a humanistic
historical approach to place a camic book or a body
of comic book work in the contexts of the creator’s
personal history and the evolutian of the comic book
medium. These contexts provide understanding of the
origins of the various formal aspects of the workCsD
being studied.
The micro component uses psychoanalytical,
psychological, and semiological approaches to examine
how meaning is produced in the individual panels of
a comic book. The psychoanalytical approach analyses
how recurring symbols and myths incorporated in the
images and text of comic book panels might communicate
meaning to the subconscious of the reader. The
psychological approach analyses the psychological forces
Cintellectual meanings and emotional reactions] created
V
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