plymouth medieval & early modern comics review

8/2/2019 Plymouth Medieval & Early Modern Comics Review

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Comics in Medieval and Early ModernLiterature Classrooms

Forrest C. Helvie

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What Constitutes a Comic?

To be considered a comic book, the work must do more than

merely incorporate pictures into its narrative.

Pictures in comics must be arranged in a meaningful order to

help drive the narrative, and language may or may not be used

to aid in this process

For the narrative to make sense, it depends upon the reader to

piece together the pictures on a page and construct the

sequence of the story, using his or her imagination to fill in thegaps between the panels

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Picking the Right Comic for Your Class

Is this comic a graphic translation of the source? If so, how faithful to the source material is it?

If not, are the changes meaningful?

A comic that takes some creative liberties in translating the source

material into comic form is an excellent choice as these points ofdeparture provide fertile territory for teachers and students to

engage in critical discussions and analyses of each work.

Do you want to trace the influence of your primary source to

the present day?

A comic that is different from the original sources, but incorporates

many similar elements can provide students and teachers with

opportunities to engage students in higher levels of critical thinking

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Beowulf (IDW, 2007)Written by Caitlin Kiernan, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery

Art by Gabriel Rodriguez

The

Boasting of

Beowulf &

Unferth

Notice text

is used todescribe

sounds.

The

readers

imaginationmust now

take over

and piece

events

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Beowulf

succumbs to

the

temptations

of Grendels

mother

And lies to

covers his

tracks in a

significant

change tothe original

hero.

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The Battle

Between

Beowulf &

Grendel

Note how

panel layouthelps drive

the

narrative.

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The Canterbury Tales (Bloomsbury, 2011)By Seymour Chwast

TheGeneral

Prologue

for The

Canterbury

Tales

Notice the

significant

reduction

of the

original

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The Wife of Bath & The

Prioress:

For all of the detail Chaucer

provides, notice how little is

given in these visual

representations.

This recalls McClouds use of

iconic v. realistic art. Does

form compliment or obstruct

content?

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The Pardoner:

Although there is a slight

leering, indulgent appearance,

how much do we truly see of

the Pardoners unsavory

nature depicted here?

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Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard(Archaia, 2010)By David Petersen

Setting the Frame:

Here we see the

innkeeper establishing

the storytelling contest

for the patrons

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Crown of Silver,

Crown of Gold:

This story draws

heavily upon the

biblical story of King

David, Uriah, and

Bathsheba.

Notice the use of sharp

lines on the face and

crown of the king.

Here, we can infer theking might be a

particular hard, cruel

ruler (which matches

what read about him)

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The Canterbury Tales (Image, 2009)Written by Brian J.L. Glass & Michael Avon Oeming

Art by Micahel Avon Oeming

The Chosen One:

Karic descends into

a cave and

encounters the fish

gods who mark him

as The Chosen

One similar toFionn mac Cumhaill

from Irish myth.

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The Knight & his

Squire:

Karic learns the

ways of the Templar

Knight from Pilot

the Tall.

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MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet(Sparknotes, 2008)By William Shakespeare

MacBeth:

Hecate visits the

sisters prior to

MacBeths arrival in

Act Four, Scene

One.

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Romeo & Juliet:

Romeo receives

word of Juliets

death in Act Five,

Scene One.

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Hamlet:

Hamlet after

meeting the actors

in Act Two, Scene

Two.

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The End

(Thank You!)

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