Intermediality as a tool for comics studies

Abstract

The growing circulation of comics across different platforms and communication systems calls for a critical approach capable of addressing not only their forms – traditionally intersemiotic, combining image and text – but also the relationships they establish with other media. Departing from the notion of intermediality as a theoretical framework for understanding these processes, this article draws on authors such as Lars Elleström, Irina O. Rajewsky, Claus Clüver, and Werner Wolf to discuss, first, how the four media modalities –material, sensory, spatiotemporal, and semiotic – enable us to describe the intermedial configuration of comics and, second, how concepts such as media combination and media representation, transmediality, and transmedia storytelling account for their ability to migrate, engage in dialogue, and transform through contact with other media. By emphasizing intermediality as a methodological tool, the article aims to advance our understanding of comics as a communicational medium and a vehicle of cultural circulation, situating them within a landscape in which boundaries between media appear increasingly complex and permeable.