Abstract

In the second decade of the 21^st century, academic comics studies is well established as a serious intellectual subject, but for many non-specialists, including university administrators, a sense of frivolity still attaches to comics. This brief essay braids together personal history and intellectual analysis: 1) it compares the cultural position of comics today to the position of novels in the 19^th century; 2) it analyzes the complementary nature of the verbal and visual channels; 3) it argues that neither words nor pictures should be considered primary in a narratology of comics; and 4) that comics are eminently well suited to be studied as a branch of literature (though fine arts departments can also stake a claim).

Keywords: comics studies, transmedial narratology, personal essay

How to Cite:

Braithwaite, J., (2017) “Words + Pictures: A Manifesto”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 42(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1957