Journal of English Language Teaching

Pictures that Speak: A Compendious Study of the Poly-Semiotic Visual Language of Comics

Sarita G

Assistant Professor of English, Govt. College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram

Keywords: comics, visual language, layout, image-text relation, representation, format

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Abstract

Previously dismissed as an escapist reading matter, comics have evolved from a temporary novelty to a very dominant visual form of modern popular culture worldwide. They have later on come to be treated as serious literature that reveals a lot about the culture and other aspects related to it. Comics have a language of their own- the language of visual art. The paper makes an effort to study it as a separate and distinguishable genre, providing an illuminating discussion on the relationship between words and pictures.

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