Graphing a Hemispheric History of Latinx Comics Creation

doi:10.1017/9781108976459.011

Chapter 10 - Graphing a Hemispheric History of Latinx Comics Creation

from Part II - New Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2022

Frederick Luis Aldama

Edited by

Mónica Szurmuk and

Debra A. Castillo

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Mónica Szurmuk: Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de San Martín and National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina
Debra A. Castillo: Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York

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Summary

The chapter considers: (1) the importance of historical period as well as social and political contexts in the making, distribution, and consuming of comics by and about Latinx subjects and experiences of the hemispheric Americas; (2) the specific techniques (panel layout, perspective, coloring, bubble placement, font, and so on) used by Latinx comic book creators to give shape to the everyday lives, unique traditions, and representations of the very varied ethnoracial make-up of Latinx subjects within specifics of times and regions; (3) the construction of Latinx reader-viewers as co-creators of Latinx hemispheric visual-verbal narratives; (4) how these Latinx comics work within and radically resist mainstream comics; and (5) how Latinx comics can and do complicate, enrich, and make new reader-viewers’ perspective, thought, and feeling concerning the experiences Latinx subjects and experiences hailing from the hemispheric Americas. This chapter will provide readers with an analysis of the history of Latinx comics built out of Latin/x hemispheric idiomatic and shared visual and verbal narrative systems. It will provide a history of Latinx hemispheric cross-pollination that includes the physical transmigration of artists and their styles and worldviews from one place (region or country) to another. It will provide a critical history that understands Latin/x comics to be built out of the active participation of entities (creators and editors and translators) in the publishing and translating of comic books across Latin/x hemispheric time (history) and contexts (languages and cultures).

Keywords

Latinx readers comics popular culture

Type: Chapter
Information: Latin American Literature in Transition 1980–2018 , pp. 155 - 165

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108976459.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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