Comics: Pragmatics

doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/00336-9

Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition)

2006, Pages 623-627

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The general term of ‘comics’ covers any sequence consisting of interrelated combinations of pictures and text. Comics either appear as regular features in printed media (the so-called ‘comic strips’), or as the content of comic magazines and comic books. Like normal text, comic panels have to be read in sequential order. To create coherence within the story, the author uses what is called a ‘chain of reference’ that will enable the reader to recognize the different panels as narrative elements of the same story. Among the narrative means proper to the comics genre, we find first of all the so-called ‘balloons,’ pieces of text that are visually linked to a particular agent or other element in the story.

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Kari-Anne L Mey (born 1959 in Copenhagen, Denmark) studied English and ethnology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where she also obtained the degree of licenciate in English studies in 1989. Her studies included research on popular culture and gender, as well as work on the literary genres of comics, science fiction, and utopian literature. After working for some years as an organizer of thematic cultural events at the cultural center ‘Rote Fabrik’ of the City of Zurich, she attended the Lucerne School of Journalism, MAZ, where she also obtained her degree in journalism (focusing especially on the dramaturgy of texts). She currently works as a journalist and editor for Schweizerisches Arbeiter-Hilfswerk (‘Swiss Labor Assistance’), an NGO based in Zurich.

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