Expanded Comics
Jennifer Bartlett, Rhapsody (1975)
Beginning in The Comics Journal #303, I write a column called Expanded Comics.
I suggest to see comics as a part of Visual Communication Systems that have existed since the dawn of humanity across every culture, such as Illuminated Manuscripts, Mesoamerican Codices, Bayeux thread, Chinese Lianhua, Dongba symbols, pictograms, infographics, artist books, serial paintings, paintings and drawings with words, multi-screen films, picture books, collages, Charlotte Solomon’s Life or Theatre, David Shrigley’s drawings, etc.
Expanded Comics is a comics-centric way of calling these Visual Communication Systems that can be viewed as comics or comics-like objects regardless of the intention of the creator.
Drawing the definitive boundary of comics is arbitrary, artificial, and ultimately impossible because these Visual communication Systems are diverse. For example, Sol LeWitt’s artist books and Jennifer Bartlett’s Rhapsody can be read as comics as I argued.
Moreover, many artists and cartoonists study same questions. For instance, Aidan Koch (Rabbit’s Rebirth and Translation), Lars Arrhenius (A-Z), bpNichols, and Henri Michaux all study the universality of Visual Communication System or Expanded Comics. Besides, comics and other visual arts are produced, distributed, and received by the same people more and more.
The goal of Expanded Comics is to diversify the production, distribution, reception, and discourse of comics and to highlight the potential of comics’ diversity.
Please read the column for the expanded arguments.
