Conferences

Bright Ideas - [|MCTE Spring Conference - 2009] "Get Right... Get Real... Get Smart: Being Realistic Without Losing Our Students or Our Souls" with John Dinan, PhD, CMU

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The 7th International Conference on the Arts in Society

Quantifying the Evolution of Comic Books: A keen look at comic books shows that they are utilizing far less text today than ever before. The amount of words decreases as the graphic art is more able to carry the message to the reader, as well as having readers who are more readily able to decode the complex visuals being utilized in the comic book. As society becomes increasingly visual through technological advancements and Web 2.0's ability to create and share visuals quickly, the evolution of the comic book as an artistic medium has brought it into a realm of popularity that seems more largely accepted than previously in the past century. This piece explains one comic fan's experience with comics in the classroom as a personal narrative surrounding why comics could and should be used as an educational tool, as well as explores questions about declining word-based text used as visual-based text use increases. Three DC Universe comic books are analyzed, Wonder Woman, Legion of Super Heroes, and Batman and Robin, spanning a period of 68 years. The content is deconstructed in terms of average number of pages, panels per page, words per page, and words per panel. The purpose is to see, in quantifiable terms, if contemporary comics have evolved into a medium that relies very little on word-based text and presents an art form that challenges readers' visual literacy skills through reliance on graphic art to carry much of the onus of telling its story.
 * Keywords:** Comics, Comic Strip, Comic Books, Graphic Novels, Visual Literacy, Fanboy Art, Trade Paperbacks, Decreasing Text Use, Emerging Literacies
 * Stream:** Literary Arts Practices
 * Presentation Type:** Virtual Presentation in English
 * Paper:** Quantifying the Evolution of Comic Books