Eridan15

ERIDAN 15SandmanRevisited - Froma Laywoman’sPerspectiveAna HartmannReviewDid you know that comics have becomea bone fide subject of serious academicresearch, essays in cultural studies andliterary criticism? I only found out ayear ago. Rows of images with speechballoons - artefacts of an entertainmentphenomenon which is not at all new- have transferred from the world ofobscure publishing for kids and teenagersinto a domain of intense study. Througha short research on comics studies (Iguess “comicology” just didn’t sound good enough) I encountered contextualisation,dissection, theorising, analysis and interpretation aiming to explain structural, narrative,visual, psychological and other conjunctions, backgrounds, contexts, structures, motifsand devices that turn comics into art. (A lot of words in the previous sentence, but really,it’s all out there and it’s about comics!)Not so long ago my understanding of comic books was far from serious (let aloneacademic), defined by the adventures and characters of Alan Ford, Zagor, Asterix, MartinMystère, Dylan Dog and a rare Corto Maltese. I’m talking about dilapidated small-sizepulps printed on cheap paper and read during languid summer afternoons of my schoolholidays over two decades ago, paper personas that created an occasional distractionfrom my then usual reading material (which mostly comprised of more or less “serious”books for teenagers - Karl May, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and numerous others). Bythe time I was finishing high school, I was old enough to leave comics behind, and myuniversity studies (old fashioned and very conservative as they were) only reinforced myattitude that comics are mostly for kids with nothing else to do.Years later my younger sister suggested I should read Gaiman’s Sandman, since I alreadyknew and liked Gaiman as co-author of Good Omens and writer of Stardust and AmericanGods. Of his comic opus I didn’t have the foggiest idea. So I was promptly borrowed the10-volume story of the Lord of Dreams, accompanied by a warning that Sandman is nota classic comic, but a complex narrative combined with great visual art, which deservesany reader’s respect.11