Framing (In) Comics and Cartoons

"Panels, grids, gutters, and pages--graphic narratives rests f irmly on practices of setting apart and framing spaces. At the same time, frames--in the sense of cognitive categories as well as semiotic and material manifestations--form basic prerequisites of meaning-making. In contrast to virtually all other media in comics, frames represent not only general communicative aspects; they form its very basic grammar. The essays collected in this volume discuss some of these medial characteristics of comics and cartoons as materialized through their particular carrier media, and they investigate works that range from the inception of the form in the nineteenth century up until its most recent incarnations." --Page 4 of cover.