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8/2/2019 Plymouth Medieval & Early Modern Comics Review
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Comics in Medieval and Early ModernLiterature Classrooms
Forrest C. Helvie
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What Constitutes a Comic?
To be considered a comic book, the work must do more than
merely incorporate pictures into its narrative.
Pictures in comics must be arranged in a meaningful order to
help drive the narrative, and language may or may not be used
to aid in this process
For the narrative to make sense, it depends upon the reader to
piece together the pictures on a page and construct the
sequence of the story, using his or her imagination to fill in thegaps between the panels
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Picking the Right Comic for Your Class
Is this comic a graphic translation of the source? If so, how faithful to the source material is it?
If not, are the changes meaningful?
A comic that takes some creative liberties in translating the source
material into comic form is an excellent choice as these points ofdeparture provide fertile territory for teachers and students to
engage in critical discussions and analyses of each work.
Do you want to trace the influence of your primary source to
the present day?
A comic that is different from the original sources, but incorporates
many similar elements can provide students and teachers with
opportunities to engage students in higher levels of critical thinking
and discussion 3
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Beowulf (IDW, 2007)Written by Caitlin Kiernan, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery
Art by Gabriel Rodriguez
The
Boasting of
Beowulf &
Unferth
Notice text
is used todescribe
sounds.
The
readers
imaginationmust now
take over
and piece
events
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Beowulf
succumbs to
the
temptations
of Grendels
mother
And lies to
covers his
tracks in a
significant
change tothe original
hero.
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The Battle
Between
Beowulf &
Grendel
Note how
panel layouthelps drive
the
narrative.
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The Canterbury Tales (Bloomsbury, 2011)By Seymour Chwast
TheGeneral
Prologue
for The
Canterbury
Tales
Notice the
significant
reduction
of the
original
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The Wife of Bath & The
Prioress:
For all of the detail Chaucer
provides, notice how little is
given in these visual
representations.
This recalls McClouds use of
iconic v. realistic art. Does
form compliment or obstruct
content?
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The Pardoner:
Although there is a slight
leering, indulgent appearance,
how much do we truly see of
the Pardoners unsavory
nature depicted here?
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Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard(Archaia, 2010)By David Petersen
Setting the Frame:
Here we see the
innkeeper establishing
the storytelling contest
for the patrons
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Crown of Silver,
Crown of Gold:
This story draws
heavily upon the
biblical story of King
David, Uriah, and
Bathsheba.
Notice the use of sharp
lines on the face and
crown of the king.
Here, we can infer theking might be a
particular hard, cruel
ruler (which matches
what read about him)
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The Canterbury Tales (Image, 2009)Written by Brian J.L. Glass & Michael Avon Oeming
Art by Micahel Avon Oeming
The Chosen One:
Karic descends into
a cave and
encounters the fish
gods who mark him
as The Chosen
One similar toFionn mac Cumhaill
from Irish myth.
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The Knight & his
Squire:
Karic learns the
ways of the Templar
Knight from Pilot
the Tall.
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MacBeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet(Sparknotes, 2008)By William Shakespeare
MacBeth:
Hecate visits the
sisters prior to
MacBeths arrival in
Act Four, Scene
One.
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Romeo & Juliet:
Romeo receives
word of Juliets
death in Act Five,
Scene One.
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Hamlet:
Hamlet after
meeting the actors
in Act Two, Scene
Two.
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The End
(Thank You!)
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