GLOBAL MEDIA: CATEGORIES OF PRODUCTION. AUTEUR THEORY

According to comics scholar Mark C. Rogers, one can delineate two broad categories of production which occur in the American comic industry (cf. Duncan & Smith 113-7):

1. The Industrial Process.

It involves a number of collaborators that perform specialized tasks: editor, writer, penciller, letterer, inker and colorist. It is informed by the “cog in the machine” rationale whereby one piece in the mechanism is easily replaced if need arises. If say, the penciller doesn’t want to do his job anymore, then a new one is hired. The specialization of labour is effective, all the more that this category generally accommodates a “mainstream tendency”. The collaboration per se was mostly done in “The Marvel Method”, focusing on eleven steps which start with the idea and end with the printed comic book.

2. The Artisan Process.

This category accommodates people who fulfill the roles of both writer and artist, and sometimes maybe other jobs as well.

The so-called “alternative comic books“, unlike their “industrial” counterpart have usually fewer than 50,000 readers, and often less. They are characterized by small runs – fewer copies as opposed to mainstream publishers (often in excess of 100,000 copies) (cf. 116-7).

Comparing the artisan with the industrial process, Rogers noted:

While I do not wish to suggest that the artisan method is inherently artistically superior to the industrial method, artisan production has tended to produce comics more varied in scope and more interesting aesthetically. Industrialized production is limiting in and of itself; the fact that it is used to produce comics mostly in the superhero genre makes it even more limiting. There are, of course, plenty of exceptions to this. There are many examples of creators who work well within the context of the specialization of labor caused by the industrial process and many examples of cartoonists who work alone and produce bad comics. (117)

Will Eisner believed that “the ideal writing process occurs where the writer and artist are the same person” (cf.117). In the 50’s, French film critic Francois Truffant developed the auteur theory to explain how out of collaborative work, a single artistic vision could emerge. Extended to comics, the auteur theory postulates that in the team work, a single and personal artistic vision emerges, whether that of a cartoonist or a writer. (cf. 117)

The auteur theory identifies certain characteristics of auteurs (cf. 117-8)

Technical competence in using the art form: understanding how to use encapsulation, layout, and composition to effectively tell a story.

Frank Miller, creator of Sin City and 300 is known for his ability to depict moments of powerful action using stark contrasts of shadow and light. The overall granular texture accounts for the roughness of the moment.

2. Recurrence of certain themes across works.