Exhibition in photos: Chris Ware at the 49th Angoulême International Comics Festival

Building Chris Ware. Sonia Déchamps, Benoit Peeters and June Misserey. Angoulème. Salle Iribe - Espace Franquin. 17-20 March 2022.

Chris Ware's Grand Prix exhibition at the 2022 Angoulême International Comics Festival was greatly anticipated by festival goers curious to see if there was more to this American auteur than meets the page and it certainly did not disappoint in delivering a visual smorgasbord to contemplate. With over 120 original pages on display alongside an impressive collection of publications (his own and those which he had a handle in designing), this exhibition was a revelation especially for audiences who may have only encountered Ware through the collected (and translated) 'graphic novel' versions of his work and were thus unfamiliar with the range of different sizes, shapes and formats of his comics that culminated in BUILDING STORIES (2012). If the collected versions of JIMMY CORRIGAN (2000) and RUSTY BROWN (2020) suggested a standardized book format, this exhibition set out to confound that notion and offer visitors the experience of confronting Ware's formal inventiveness and experimentation in their original and published dimensions.   

Curated by Benoit Peeters and June Misserey in generous collaboration with Ware himself, the exhibition was spatially organized into five sections ordered along a chronological path that took visitors on a journey through his published work. The first four sections showcased his four major comics (the ACME Novelty Library; Jimmy Corrigan; Building Stories; and Rusty Brown) and a fifth section, entitled "Comics & Co", highlighted many of Ware's para-comics projects that have resulted in posters, book and magazine covers, comic strip collections, self-published magazines, animated shorts, toys and novelty artifacts. 

The exhibition was deliberately designed for visitors to experience Ware's work and its formal and artistic evolution through the chronology of his work. The amazement at the sheer breadth of Ware's published output was matched by disbelief and admiration for the discipline and labor that comes with very close examination of his original pages. A greater appreciation of Ware's page and panel layout shone through in their original pages, and the meticulous details in the drawings (and under-drawing) were so precise that it immediately evoked comparisons with engineering drawings and architectural blueprints. 

One question that was clearly on people's mind through the exhibition was just how much time in the day does Ware give to work on his pages, as the sheer labor involved in the creation and planning of each of these pages seems incredibly intense. By the end of the exhibition journey, one could be forgiven for feeling fatigue as the sensory overload of deciphering loads of Chris Ware original pages in large format has an exhaustive effect. That said, there was no denying that the organization of the exhibition, from its display installation to its blend of critical and biographical captions to illuminate select pieces, succeeded in showcasing a unique comics artist with total control over his work from page to bookshelf and beyond.

The photos below offer as much of a complete record of the components that made up BUILDING CHRIS WARE in the order of the exhibition's narrative path.  A video walkthrough of this exhibition is also presented on this blog.

-Nick Nguyen

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen

 Photos are organized in an attempt to present a visual chronology of the exhibition installation as experienced in a sequential walkthrough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book review: Nancy Pedri. A Concise Dictionary of Comics.

reviewed by John A. Lent

Nancy Pedri. A Concise Dictionary of Comics. Jackson:  University Press of Mississippi, 2022. 204 pp. ISBN:  978-1-4968-3805-6. US $25.00. https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/A/A-Concise-Dictionary-of-Comics

 

To complete a dictionary of any type is an extraordinary accomplishment. Knowing the field well enough to choose terms. Determining what should be included and excluded. Finding the most correct, simplest definition for each term. Being familiar with the literature related to the terms. Including cross references. Writing in a comprehensible, jargon-free style.

Nancy Pedri faced these challenges in compiling A Concise Dictionary of Comics, and for the most part, succeeded in coming up with a very useful research tool. She has kept the entries jargon-free, paired the terms with references (in fact, 95 pages of sources), and in some cases, used cross references. The bibliography includes books, book chapters, articles, and other up-to-date materials, making it an excellent guide to the field of comic art. Pedri lists articles from all comics-related journals, as well as those appropriate in medicine, English, mass communications, art, social sciences, and other fields. About 20 comic art periodicals were surveyed for this literature review; most articles were cited from International Journal of Comic Art, followed by Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Studies in Comics, Image/Text, and European Comic Art, in that order. These five journals accounted for 198 of the total 275 citations in comics-related journals.

Other dictionaries, glossaries, lexicons, and lists preceded A Concise Dictionary of Comics, some using a casual style, others emphasizing sound effects, foreign languages, and the visual. Pedri made use of these predecessors to come up with the most useful compendium to date. She was wise to use brief definitions, realizing that comics terms are malleable and open to modification. We have seen examples of this with the multiple challenges, reinterpretations, and discussions during the 30-year history of McCloud's Understanding Comics.

Some terms that are defined seem obvious; for example, "rat or mouse chew:  (noun) damage caused to a comic caused by a rodent." However, one must realize all dictionaries have self-evident terms; to one learning the language, the definitions might not be evident.

Taking Pedri's statement, "others [inclusions and exclusions] are surely due to oversight," as an entry point, I would like to make suggestions that will improve a second edition.

First, the two-page Introduction must be lengthened to answer questions that are undoubtedly on readers' minds:  How were terms chosen for inclusion/exclusion? Was an attempt made to ensure that terms were all inclusive and mutually exclusive, or was that necessary? Did the compiler consult with cartoonists and researchers while searching for and defining terms? What constitutes comics in this volume--e.g. animation, advertising cartoons?

Second, there are shortcomings that can be rectified. The compilation is weak on foreign terms. If manga, manhua, manhwa, bande dessinée, and fumetti are used, why not komiks, karikatur, tebeo, and historieta? If the British Invasion is listed, why not the Filipino invasion? Some letter sections are almost non-existent:  one each entry under "J" and "Y," two under "Q," and eight under "K." [Some definitional issues also arise. "Zombie comics" is defined as comics 'that portray zombies', a not-particularly-useful definition, especially as the term is also used to refer to "legacy strips" or comic strips that survive after their creator has died or left, and may not contain any new work at all. Current examples include Peanuts, Doonesbury dailies, Get Fuzzy, and can also refer to Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, The Family Circus, etc. - Mike Rhode, ass't editor]

Though not necessary, but useful information to have, are the origins of theoretical terms. For example, "gatekeeper" stems from mass communication studies, used by David Manning White in his late 1940s research about the filters (gates) that news must pass through. By the way, White was also an early "funnies" researcher.

The 25 witty illustrations by Chuck Howitt brighten up the pages, but they could do more if they were simple sketches or diagrams of some listed terms as used in standard language dictionaries.

These questions and suggestions certainly are not meant to detract from the dictionary Pedri compiled. A Concise Dictionary of Comics is worthy of the highest praise for its comprehensiveness, conciseness, and creativeness. It is a volume that should be readily at hand near the work areas of the researcher, practitioner, critic, and student.

 

Exhibition video walkthrough: Chris Ware at the 49th Angoulême International Comics Festival

 Building Chris Ware. Sonia Déchamps, Benoit Peeters and June Misserey. Angoulème. Salle Iribe - Espace Franquin. 17-20 March 2022.

Winner of the 2021 Grand Prix of the Angoulême International Comics Festival, Chris Ware was consecrated with a major exhibition that offered an intense visual and artefactual overview of his oeuvre.

Chris Ware's poster for the Angoulême Festival

The exhibition is packed with a generous collection of original pages (all on large format paper), ephemera, publications, models, toys, mock-ups, posters, para-comics projects, video interviews and animation - there is so much to take in all at once in such a compact space and time. It's akin to reading a Chris Ware comic! 

The enclosed video offers a walkthrough of the exhibition in order to give an idea of the dense sensory overload experience of the exhibition while also respecting the context of its spatial dimensions.      

A forthcoming blog entry will offer a thorough photographic record of BUILDING CHRIS WARE with some descriptive commentary for posterity. In the meantime, I hope this video offers a small taste of what it was like to see it onsite. 

 -Nick Nguyen

Video recorded by Nick Nguyen