Today on the site, frequent contributor Kim Jooha inaugurates a new column. She begins with a look at the material side of comics, explored through the works of three cartoonists: Warren Craghead, Alexis Beauclair, and Erin Curry.
Letters including punctuation marks and images are scattered across all over the page just like creatures and things are in [Craghead's] "Backyard". Words are drawn, rather than written. To apprehend "Backyard", you need to “comb” through the “web” of words and drawings on the newspaper sheet sized page. The act of reading is physically analogous to sifting through a back yard.
And this is where touch, the second most crucial sense in comics, comes in. At the gallery, we glance at the artwork on the wall in the distance. In contrast, we physically touch and hold the comic. We can examine it more closely, thoroughly, and longer in any way we want. We can “listen” carefully to what the artwork says in private.
