Editorial

A while back, a reader contacted us about the lack of papers on British comics in our journal. They made the strong point that we need more research and publication in this area. We have published papers by Mel Gibson, Maggie Gray and others, mainly looking at girl’s comics, comics readers and Gothic comics for girls, but the reader was correct as there has been no consistent publication of articles on British comics. This is mainly because we publish what we receive and is subsequently passed by peer reviewers as suitable for publication. The sheer volume of potential materials on British comics can be seen on the cover of this issue, which features a quilt by artist, Gillian Johnson. Gillian Johnson produced her quilt for her dissertaion at Dundee University. She explained ‘I fell in love with the artistry of British comics when researching for my dissertation. To create a lasting memory I made a quilt (150cms x 180 cms) of the title strips, which themselves are gorgeous’.

Returning to my original premise, this journal has featured special issues on Indian, German, Italian and Scandinavian comics, where is the writing on British comics? The editors are currently considering ither one or two special themed issues focused on British comics in the future (please do keep on the look out for hem), but in the meantime some inclusions in this issue may pique your interest.

This issue has two papers on that most British of comics institutions, the Beano. For those who are not conversant with the Beano, it is one of the oldest comics published weekly by Dundee publisher, D.C. Thomson. It was first published 30^th July, 1938 for children aged 5–10 years and is an anthology featuring anarchic humour and mischievous characters such as, Dennis the Menace, The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, Lord Snooty and his Pals who have become integral parts of British culture. Yet, as Mark Hibbett points out in his article, ‘Why Aren’t we talking about the Beano?’, it is rarely discussed in academia. To answer this question, he uses empirical evidence and concludes by discussing why it matters. Following this an article by Robert Hagan, ‘Slippers, canes and hospitalisations: adult to child violence in 1970s UK comics’ looks at 1970s UK children’s comics with particular emphasis on the Beano to examine punishment and physical abuse in the context of broader social issues of child abuse. Hagan argues that smacking of children was banned in the Beano before corporal punishment was ended in culture. Indeed, a bill before Parliament this week considers whether smacking children will be completely banned in Britain.

Gareth Brookes, ‘Stylistic co-existence and the chronotope in Stone Fruit and Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths’ examines drawing styles in Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit (Lai 2021). Brookes uses the notion of the chronotope (Bakhtin 2011) to discuss how time and space works in the graphic novel. He distinguishes the use of chronotope in film form from comics form through aesthetics in the different styles of artwork.

The rise in comics dealing with ecology and sustainability has led to a consequent rise in research and analysis in this area, for instance, Apocalyptic Ecology in the Graphic Novel: Life and the Environment After Societal Collapse (Jones 2020), and EcoComix (Dobrin 2020). The focus of the 2023 International Conference of Bande Dessinnee, Graphic Novels and Comics was also on ecology and sustainability with presenters worldwide discussing climate awareness and the concerns of marginalised peoples as represented in comics and comics creation. There has been a number of articles submitted to the journal in the past few years. One of these, Shrabanee Khatai and Seema Kumari Ladsaria’s, ‘Elucidating petroleum affinity in modern car culture through Monster Motors’ analyses the dependency of people on petro-products in Monster Motors (Lynch and Roche 2015). The narrative draws attention to the love and passion people have for car culture and consequently petrol.

The ability of comics to represent the concealed nature of epilepsy as an invisible illness is examined in Sathyaraj Venkatesan & Prerna Tolani’s ‘Unravelling crip temporalities: epilepsy, chronic illness and Elodie Durand’s Parenthesis’. Venkatesan and Tolani use the conceptual framework of Ellen Samuels to analyse the award winning graphic memoir, Parenthesis (Durand 2021). They discuss the embodied experiences of epileptic seizures and the author, Elodie Durand’s attempts ‘at narrative reconstruction’.

The final article, Matt Reingold’s ‘On talking birds and jelly donuts: tracking new developments in Israeli comics’ analyses two Israeli webcomics in their use of traditional comics superhero and funny animal genres to critique Israeli society. Reingold argues that the popularity of the two webcomics creators, Barlev and Nachmany ‘can lead to future novel expressions in Israeli comics’.

The issue contains two interviews. Darnel Degand interviews comic artist Barbara Brondon-Croft on her experiences growing up, education and influences in ‘“Black lines on white paper”: how comic artist Barbara Brandon-Croft draws on Where [she’s] Coming from’. Ishani Anwesha Joshi and Sathyaraj Venkatesan ‘Graphic public health: an interview with Meredith Li-Vollmer’ discuss with the creator the growing use of comics ‘as a dynamic tool for raising awareness, promoting healthy behaviour, enhancing understanding of public health messages, and effectively reaching diverse audiences, including those with low health literacy and language barriers’. The use of comics in graphic memoirs of mental health is continued in Ranny Rastati’s book review of Tōjisha Manga: Japan’s Graphic Memoirs of Brain and Mental Health (Okuyama 2022). The issue finishes with Diana Baldwin’s book review of Bodies and Boundaries in Graphic Fiction: Reading Female and Nonbinary Characters (Baldanzi 2023).

Lots to enjoy in this issue!