Graphic Design Histories and the Absence of Comics

“Most usually words and images are used together, either text or image may dominate, or each may have its meaning determined by the other” (Hollis, 1994, p. 7).

Comics combine words with images and employ many visual and material features of graphic design, including typography, grids, and magazine format printing, but they are rarely included in histories of graphic design. Comics are completely absent from canonical histories of graphic design by Meggs (1983) and Hollis (1994) and are even omitted from a more recent critical and inclusive history by Drucker and McVarish (2009). When comics and graphic novels are included, as in the second edition of Ekilson’s Graphic Design: A History (2012), they are presented as a vernacular aesthetic employed by designers rather than a graphic design practice. The disconnect between graphic design and comics also persists on the other side of the academic boundary: just as graphic design omits comics, Comics Studies omits graphic design, tending to focus on narrative and formal properties of comics as a distinct form. Where visual components of comics are interrogated, the analysis has tended to proceed from fields such as art history (Horton and Gray, 2022), drawing (Grennan, 2017) or even literary studies (Hatfield 2012) rather than graphic design.

This paper focuses on three features of comics to explore how graphic design and comics might usefully interact: typography, grid systems and the magazine format. Considering both historical and formal components, the paper shows that the form of comics can be interrogated through the lens of design, and conversely design can be interrogated through the lens of comics. The paper seeks to establish a broader theoretical foundation that allows for the interaction of comics and design on common ground.

References

Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish (2009) Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Stephen J. Eskilson (2012) Graphic Design: A History. London: Laurence King.

Simon Grennan (2017) A Theory of Narrative Drawing. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Charles Hatfield (2012) Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Richard Hollis (1994) Graphic Design: A Concise History. London: Thames & Hudson.

Ian Horton and Maggie Gray (2022) Comics Studies and Art History: Past, Present and Potential Futures. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave.

Phillip Meggs (1983) History of Graphic Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.