Comics and the Senses

Attempts to define what comics are and explain how they work have not always been successful because they are premised upon the idea that comics are inherently and almost exclusively visual. Drawing on social definitions for its object, my study challenges that premise, and asserts that comics is not just a visual medium. My work outlines the multisensory aspects of comics: the visual, audible, tactile, olfactory and gustatory elements of the medium. It rejects a synaesthetic approach (by which all the senses are engaged through visual stimuli) and instead argues for a truly multisensory model by which the direct stimulation of the reader’s physical senses can be understood. A wide range of examples demonstrate how multisensory communication systems work in both commercial and more experimental contexts. The thesis concludes with a case study that looks at the works of Alan Moore and indicates areas of interest that multisensory analysis can draw out, but which are overlooked by ocularcentric approaches.