Justification of Poetry Comics: A Multimodal Theory of an Improbable Genre

Abstract

With an ever-increasing variety of comics being produced, it was inevitable that someone try to create poetry comics. However, most attempts at merging comics with poetry have ended in texts that fail to engage the hybrid nature of comics in a satisfactory manner. One of the main problems in creating true poetry comics is the veneration that language has in poetry. The strict language constructions of poetry, if explicitly maintained, will at best result in an illustrated poem. This paper argues that there is a way to create true poetry comics by realizing the segmentivity of poetry and merging that with the comic’s modes of panel and frames. Analyzing two examples of problematic poetry comics, the paper shows how too much reliance on the language and structure of poetry can undermine the poetry comic. A third example illustrates the principles needed in order to create an effective poetry comic.