Thierry Smolderen's Books

The Origins of Comics

From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen

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The Origins of Comics

From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen

In English for the first time, a foundational text that places the beginning of comics well before Rodolphe Töpffer

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175

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Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1617031496

ISBN 13

9781617031496

The Origins of Comics

From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen

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The Origins of Comics

From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen

In The Origins of Comics: From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay, Thierry Smolderen presents a cultural landscape whose narrative differs in many ways from those presented by other historians of the comic strip. Rather than beginning his inquiry with the popularly accepted "sequential art" definition of the comic strip, Smolderen instead wishes to engage with the historical dimensions that inform that definition. His goal is to understand the processes that led to the twentieth-century comic strip, the highly recognizable species of picture stories that he sees crystallizing around 1900 in the United States. Featuring close readings of the picture stories, caricatures, and humoristic illustrations of William Hogarth, Rodolphe Töpffer, Gustave Doré, and their many contemporaries, Smolderen establishes how these artists were immersed in a very old visual culture in which images—satirical images in particular—were deciphered in a way that was often described as hieroglyphical. Across eight chapters, he acutely points out how the effect of the printing press and the mass advent of audiovisual technologies (photography, audio recording, and cinema) at the end of the nineteenth century led to a new twentieth-century visual culture. In tracing this evolution, Smolderen distinguishes himself from other comics historians by following a methodology that explains the present state of the form of comics on the basis of its history, rather than presenting the history of the form on the basis of its present state. This study remaps the history of this influential art form.

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175

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Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496801334

ISBN 13

9781496801333

Gypsy - Volume 3 - The Day of the Tsar

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 3 - The Day of the Tsar

By: Thierry Smolderen

The idealistic young Prince Ivan, Oblivia's sweetheart, has just been crowned Tsar of Russia, and it seems like the vast state might finally be on its way to a better future. But following a vicious battle with Slomo and his men, it becomes clear that there's a tangled web of bad guys who see the young tsar as nothing more than a pawn in their game. Gypsy, as wild and as brazen as ever, bumps into an old friend and an old flame, but all he's really interested in is getting his beloved truck back! What he doesn't know, is that Oblivia's in danger... But as ever, he's got his little sister's back, despite their familial disagreements, and steps in just at the right time...

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032801154

Gypsy - Volume 2 - The Fires of Siberia

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 2 - The Fires of Siberia

By: Thierry Smolderen

It's all kicking off in this action-packed series from Marini and Smolderen: Car chases on the intercontinental highway; struggling for survival during the global cooling; the coronation of a young Russian tsar; the resurrection of a Mongol army tracing the footsteps of Genghis Khan; a multinational superpower controlling all terrestrial transport... and right in the middle of all that, there's the man who goes by the name of 'Gypsy', a loveable tough-guy truck driver.

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032800621

Gypsy - Volume 5 - The White Wing

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 5 - The White Wing

By: Thierry Smolderen

Somewhere on the circumpolar tri-continental expressway, the highway covering Eurasia, Africa and America, you'll find Al Desir, the jewel of the socialist republic of Turdistan. And that's where Gypsy's heading. He's got a rendezvous with his little sister, Bibi, who is there for research purposes to write a book on The White Wing (a sect that's been forbidden since the revolution) and Sissiah the sorceress, who was recruited by the sect when she was just 10 years old because of her power to change faces...

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032801680

Gypsy - Volume 6 - Aztec Laughter

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 6 - Aztec Laughter

By: Thierry Smolderen

Our favorite gypsy trucker is partaking in a humanitarian operation in Central America. At the border, he's stopped by nurses from the military health service. Like all new arrivals, Gypsy is vaccinated against "Aztec Laughter," the deadly virus ravaging the population, of which the symptoms include fits of extreme violence. In the first town he stops at, Gypsy finds a bunch of half-crazed zombies and suicidal dancers: they've all been infected with the pernicious disease. He gets out as soon as he can, but the journey only gets more macabre from there on in...

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032802014

The Iron Duke

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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The Iron Duke

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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Humanoids, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1643378023

ISBN 13

9781643378022

Gypsy - Volume 4 - Dark Eyes

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 4 - Dark Eyes

By: Thierry Smolderen

When he was a kid in the slums, Tsagoï would do everything in his power to avoid violin classes. He'd rather be having a punch up with some poor unsuspecting victim. He dreamed of owning his very own truck, while his cousin Mirno dreamed of marrying Milena and getting rich. Twenty-five years down the line at the Czech border, "little" (nearly two meters tall) Tsagoï is at the wheel of a truck full of Slovakian caviar, renowned for its inedibility, and Mirno, dressed like a lord, spends his time buying fur coats for Milena. It's the day of the football world cup finals, and all the cops are glued to their TV screens. So of course everyone's making the most of it—the Russian mafia, all manner of degenerates... and Mirno. But the day gets off to a bad start. It then has a bad middle, and not such a good ending either...!

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032801437

An Afternoon Full Of Lead

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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An Afternoon Full Of Lead

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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Humanoids, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1643377795

ISBN 13

9781643377797

A Hand of Steel

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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A Hand of Steel

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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Humanoids, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1643377892

ISBN 13

9781643377896

The Expanding Art of Comics

Ten Modern Masterpieces

By: Thierry Groensteen

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The Expanding Art of Comics

Ten Modern Masterpieces

By: Thierry Groensteen

In The Expanding Art of Comics: Ten Modern Masterpieces, prominent scholar Thierry Groensteen offers a distinct perspective on important evolutions in comics since the 1960s through close readings of ten seminal works. He covers over half a century of comics production, sampling a single work from the sixties (Ballad of the Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt), seventies (The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius by Moebius), eighties (Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons), and nineties (Epileptic by David B.). Then this remarkable critic, scholar, and author of The System of Comics and Comics and Narration delves into recent masterpieces, such as Building Stories by Chris Ware. Each of these books created an opening, achieved a breakthrough, offered a new narrative model, or took up an emerging tendency and perfected it. Groensteen recaptures the impact with which these works, each in its own way, broke with what had gone before. He regards comics as an expanding art, not only because groundbreaking works such as these are increasing in number, but also because it is an art that has only gradually become aware of its considerable potential and is unceasingly opening up new expressive terrain.

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Page Count

280

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496813707

ISBN 13

9781496813701

Comics and Narration

By: Thierry Groensteen

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Comics and Narration

By: Thierry Groensteen

This book is the follow-up to Thierry Groensteen's groundbreaking The System of Comics, in which the leading French-language comics theorist set out to investigate how the medium functions, introducing the principle of iconic solidarity, and showing the systems that underlie the articulation between panels at three levels: page layout, linear sequence, and nonsequential links woven through the comic book as a whole. He now develops that analysis further, using examples from a very wide range of comics, including the work of American artists such as Chris Ware and Robert Crumb. He tests out his theoretical framework by bringing it up against cases that challenge it, such as abstract comics, digital comics and shojo manga, and offers insightful reflections on these innovations. In addition, he includes lengthy chapters on three areas not covered in the first book. First, he explores the role of the narrator, both verbal and visual, and the particular issues that arise out of narration in autobiographical comics. Second, Groensteen tackles the question of rhythm in comics, and the skill demonstrated by virtuoso artists in intertwining different rhythms over and above the basic beat provided by the discontinuity of the panels. And third he resets the relationship of comics to contemporary art, conditioned by cultural history and aesthetic traditions but evolving recently as comics artists move onto avant-garde terrain.

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Page Count

217

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1628467967

ISBN 13

9781628467963

The System of Comics

By: Thierry Groensteen

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The System of Comics

By: Thierry Groensteen

This edition of Thierry Groensteen’s The System of Comics makes available in English a groundbreaking work on comics by one of the medium’s foremost scholars. In this book, originally published in France in 1999, Groensteen explains clearly the subtle, complex workings of the medium and its unique way of combining visual, verbal, spatial, and chronological expressions. The author explores the nineteenth-century pioneer Rodolphe Töpffer, contemporary Japanese creators, George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, and modern American autobiographical comics. The System of Comics uses examples from a wide variety of countries including the United States, England, Japan, France, and Argentina. It describes and analyzes the properties and functions of speech and thought balloons, panels, strips, and pages to examine methodically and insightfully the medium’s fundamental processes. From this, Groensteen develops his own coherent, overarching theory of comics, a “system” that both builds on existing studies of the “word and image” paradigm and adds innovative approaches of his own. Examining both meaning and appreciation, the book provides a wealth of ideas that will challenge the way scholars approach the study of comics. By emphasizing not simply “storytelling techniques” but also the qualities of the printed page and the reader’s engagement, the book’s approach is broadly applicable to all forms of interpreting this evolving art.

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208

Publisher

Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496801555

ISBN 13

9781496801555

Gypsy - Volume 1 - The Gypsy star

By: Thierry Smolderen

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Gypsy - Volume 1 - The Gypsy star

By: Thierry Smolderen

This first volume of the six-part series introduces us to the crazy world of the orphaned Tsagoi (aka Gypsy) and his little sister, Oblivia. After swearing to himself and Oblivia that he'd find a way to make his fortune and get them both out of their down-and-out beginnings, Tsagoi disappears from Oblivia's life for the next 12 years. The only contact Oblivia has with her roguishly handsome big brother are the money packages he sends in order to pay for her expensive boarding school in Switzerland that he has her enrolled in. And she was just fine with that... right up until the money runs out. Oblivia is left with no choice but to seek out her brother in Port Radium, where the pair embarks (against Oblivia's will) on one of Tsagoi's totally illegal money-making ventures. Living within the confines of Tsagoi's trusty truck, the modern-day Gypsy's caravan, Oblivia is forced to face up to the reality of what her brother has become: not the noble benefactor she had hoped for, but a first-rate scoundrel!

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Europe Comics

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ISBN 13

9791032800157

McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen,Jean-Philippe Bramanti

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McCay

By: Thierry Smolderen,Jean-Philippe Bramanti

Winsor McCay revolutionierte mit "Little Nemo", der ab 1905 auf den Sonntagseiten des "New York Herald" erschien, das Medium Comic. Der kleine Nemo erlebte in seinen Träumen nicht nur die fantasievollsten Abenteuer, sondern McCay experimentierte mit Farben, Formen, Erzählebenen und Seitenarchitektur wie kein anderer. Thierry Smolderen ergründete das spannende Leben McCays zunächst in einem fiktionalisierten Roman, während der Zeichner Jean-Philippe Bramanti an einem Projekt über "Little Nemo" arbeitet. Als die beiden sich kennen lernten entstand "McCay" in dem der Künstler und seine Figur zueinander finden. Im August 2019 würde der Zeichner seinen 150. Geburtstag feiern.

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Page Count

102

Publisher

Carlsen

Published Date

ISBN 10

3551733643

ISBN 13

9783551733641

Comics and Narration

By: Thierry Groensteen

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Comics and Narration

By: Thierry Groensteen

How all the elements in the grammar of comics merge to create a storyline

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217

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Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published Date

ISBN 10

1617037702

ISBN 13

9781617037702

A Hand of Steel

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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A Hand of Steel

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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Humanoids, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1643377892

ISBN 13

9781643377896

An Afternoon Full Of Lead

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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An Afternoon Full Of Lead

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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Humanoids, Inc.

Published Date

ISBN 10

1643377795

ISBN 13

9781643377797

The Iron Duke

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

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The Iron Duke

By: Philippe Marcele,Thierry Smolderen

The merciless quest of two women to find the murderers who decimated their families and shattered their lives. A violent thriller inspired by real events.

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