COMICS: DEFINITION AND ETYMOLOGY

DEFINITION OF COMICS

Many scholars interested in comics have attempted to offer concrete definitions. The most important of definitions belong to Steve McCloud, and Robert C. Harvey. Scott McCloud defined comics in  Understanding Comics as  “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer” (9), Robert C. Harvey,  in an article named Defining Comics Again: Another in the Long List of Unnecessarily Complicated Definitions, which appeared online in The Comics Journal, defined comics as:

pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa (par. 10). 

ETYMOLOGY

The English term comics comes from the humorous or "comic" work which appeared in early American newspaper comic strip. Later, non-humorous works, also became known as comics. Nowadays, the English language accepts  to refer to comics of different cultures by the terms used in their original languages: manga for Japanese comics, bandes dessinées for Franco-Belgian comics. In the introductory pages of History and Politics in French Language and Graphic Novels it is argued that:

 Une bande dessinée is litterally translated as a drawn strip or band. Une BD or une bédé are less formal versions of the term. Un album de bande dessinée is the English comic book. (xiii)

Other languages have somehow adopted the English version of the term. For example, José Alaniz in his work Comic Art in Russia, states that :

the Russian Комикс, komiks derives from the English „comics“and it is singular in number. One does also hear  komiksy which retains the plural sense. (7)

The German comic also comes from English, and as Ole Frahm states in an online article named Too much is too much. The never innocent laughter of the Comics, published in 2003.

In German, Comics is a borrowed word, and the fact that there are so many synonyms for it seems to indicate that the word is not satisfying. But perhaps we have to take "comics" literal and they really are comic, komisch, funny and strange, entertaining and weird. In German komisch has both these meanings. If something is komisch you can laugh about it and be puzzled by it at the same time.

The Japanese term manga has had a great influence in deriving certain geographically specific terms. As Wendy Siuyi Wong states in in the introduction  of her work Hong Kong Comics: A History of Manhua

The Chinese word manhua is the equivalent of comics in English. Its Chinese character is the same as that of manga, the Japaneseterm for comics. Although it is difficult to tracethe exact origin of the term, most Chinese historiansof comicsbelieve the conteporarry usage was borrowed from Japan at the begining of the 20th century. Today manhua means all the forms styles and cartoons and comicsin Hong Kong (11).

WRITTEN BY RUXANDRA MANEA

EDITED BY ANTONIA GIRMACEA AND EDUARD GHITA