Recent work in cognitive science has examined the makeup of the "visual language" of comics and its cognition in the brain. Neil Cohn (University of California, San Diego) will provide an overview of this scientific approach to comics, setting the stage for three presentations that directly coded 40 comics each for properties within and across panels. First, two studies explore the changes in structure that have occurred in American superhero comics from the 1940s through the present. Ryan Taylor (University of California, San Diego) will report on how text and images interactions have changed in the service of storytelling over time. Then, Kaitlin Pederson (University of California, San Diego) will detail how page layouts have become more systematic across the decades while also growing in complexity. Finally, Nimish Pratha (University of California, San Diego) will describe how sound effects differ across genres of American comics and Japanese manga. Together, these presentations show the benefits of a data-driven, scientific approach to studying comics.
Friday July 10, 2015 11:30am - 1:00pm PDT
Room 26AB
