- Bartual begun his professional career as an actor helmed by Spanish film director Jess Franco (El abuelo, la condesa ... moreBartual begun his professional career as an actor helmed by Spanish film director Jess Franco (El abuelo, la condesa y Escarlata, la traviesa, 1994). Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Bachelor's Degree in English Philology. Doctor in European Literature with the Ph. D. Thesis Extraordinary Prize awarded by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Bartual's research is focused on graphic narration, the origins of comics and the evolution of its formal devices. He has published the book Narraciones gráficas, about his research in this area. He is also author of a diverse number of articles about graphic narratives and illustrated literature in academic publications such as Studies in Comics, Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art, CuCo: Cuadernos de Cómic, Goya, Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is also a frequent collaborator in several divulgation magazines such as Factor Crítico and Mincho Magazine. He is one of the founding members of The Comics Grid, one of the most relevant English language on-line sites about graphic analysis. Bartual works also translator of classics of English literature such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte and The Mirror of Love by Alan Moore. His work as fiction author can be found in the science-fiction anthology Prospectivas (2012), Ficciones (2005), and he is also co-author of the mash-up La casa de Bernarda Alba zombi (2009) and of the photonovel series Dramáticas Aventuras Trimestrales Ilustradas (2010-15). Presently, he works in Universidad Europea de Madrid teaching Children's Literature, History and Geography.edit
Comics have renegotiated their role in the economy of the imaginary by generating some radical mutations, processes of transformation, and hybridization on their own techno-cultural body to preserve their existence - albeit in the context... more
Comics have renegotiated their role in the economy of the imaginary by generating some radical mutations, processes of transformation, and hybridization on their own techno-cultural body to preserve their existence - albeit in the context of a substantial re-foundation of codes and statutes - in the new mediascape of cultural consumption. From the advent of the definition of a "graphic novel" to experimenting with comic journalism, from resizing mass production to the growth of dedicated consumption, from new forms of participatory collecting to the digital transformation of narratives and media, from high-quality publishing to adaptations for film and television, the "old" language of hand drawn pencil and ink comic strips hand-drawn confirmed - paradoxically in many aspects - as "currently outdated" or "outdatedly current". Within the horizon of the transformation taking place in the world of media, this monographic issue of H-ermes journal, designed and edited in conjunction with several European universities, wishes to explore emerging practices and new aesthetic trends in comics.
Research Interests:
Gracias al creciente interés académico por el cómic y la novela gráfica, algunos autores como Roger Sabin o Santiago García han llamado la atención sobre el paren- tesco que estos géneros modernos de narración gráfica comparten con las... more
Gracias al creciente interés académico por el cómic y la novela gráfica, algunos autores como Roger Sabin o Santiago García han llamado la atención sobre el paren- tesco que estos géneros modernos de narración gráfica comparten con las hojas volanderas que, durante la Baja Edad Media y el Renacimiento, referían vidas de santos, escenas populares, alegorías místicas o pasajes bíblicos mediante secuencias de viñetas. En su monumental obra The History of Comic Strip, David Kunzle reunió el pri- mer y hasta el momento único corpus de este tipo de gra- bados, a los que denominó “tiras narrativas”, dejando pendiente la tarea de analizar sus características forma- les; tarea a la que nos proponemos dar comienzo en este artículo con el fin de establecer un puente de diálogo entre la narración gráfica y la historia del arte.
Research Interests: Comics Studies, Comics, Comics/Sequential Art, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, and 10 moreComics and Graphic Novels, Critical Theory, Deconstruction, Graphic Narrative, Comics, Latin American Literature, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Graphic Narrative, Theory of Comics, Comic Strips, Comics Journalism, English Literature, Graphic Novels, Comics Studies, Manga Studies, Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Visual Culture, Broadsheets, History and theory of sequential art, comics and graphic novels, and Broadsheet Newspaper
Aunque las secuencias narrativas de imágenes no son desconocidas por los estudios del arte, apenas se ha investigado, desde el punto de vista formal, cómo están estructuradas secuencias visuales como las de la Columna de Trajano o las de... more
Aunque las secuencias narrativas de imágenes no son desconocidas por los estudios del arte, apenas se ha investigado, desde el punto de vista formal, cómo están estructuradas secuencias visuales como las de la Columna de Trajano o las de los manuscritos iluminados. Este trabajo pretende elaborar un primer esbozo de los principales patrones formales que escultores y miniaturistas siguieron, desde la Antigüedad a la Edad Media, para organizar dichas imágenes en un relato, analizando asimismo las necesidades tecnológicas y sociales que influyeron en la elección de determinadas opciones estilísticas.
Although narrative sequences of images are not unknown to Art Studies, a formal analysis about the structure of visual sequences like those we can find in illuminated manuscripts or all over Trajan’s Column, has never been undertaken. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the main formal patterns sculptors and illustrators followed from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in order to organize images in a narrative way. In addition, we will also analyze the technological and social needs that influenced the formal choices made by these pioneer visual narrators.
Although narrative sequences of images are not unknown to Art Studies, a formal analysis about the structure of visual sequences like those we can find in illuminated manuscripts or all over Trajan’s Column, has never been undertaken. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the main formal patterns sculptors and illustrators followed from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in order to organize images in a narrative way. In addition, we will also analyze the technological and social needs that influenced the formal choices made by these pioneer visual narrators.
Research Interests: Comics Studies, Comics, Comics/Sequential Art, Comics and Graphic Novels, Narrative Art, and 8 moreCritical Theory, Deconstruction, Graphic Narrative, Comics, Latin American Literature, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, Theory of Comics, Egyptian art, Comics Journalism, English Literature, Graphic Novels, Comics Studies, Manga Studies, Popular Culture, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Visual Culture, Column of Trajan, Medieval Spanish Codices, and Narrative In Early Greek Art
Este artículo, en el que se aborda el trabajo de algunos de los pioneros del cómic, tiene una doble intención. En primer lugar, definir la representación secuencial del movimiento como característica básica del cómic y que lo distingue... more
Este artículo, en el que se aborda el trabajo de algunos de los pioneros del cómic, tiene una doble intención. En primer lugar, definir la representación secuencial del movimiento como característica básica del cómic y que lo distingue de las narraciones gráficas que le precedieron. En segundo lugar, analizar los parecidos formales entre los cómics de principios de siglo y las primeras películas, con el fin proponer un modelo explicativo diferente al de la influencia mutua; si ambos exhiben recursos narrativos similares es más bien porque se derivan del mismo medio de representación del movimiento: la cronofotografía.
Research Interests: Comics Studies, Comics, Comics/Sequential Art, Comics and Graphic Novels, Critical Theory, Deconstruction, Graphic Narrative, Comics, Latin American Literature, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, and 8 moreTheory of Comics, Chronophotography, Hal Foster, Winsor McCay, Rodolphe Topffer, Origins of the Cinema, Fliegende Blätter, and George Cruikshank
The way we conceive time is conditioned by sequential narrative mediums that generally work in a linear manner. Literature and film force the reader or spectator to grasp single units of meaning one at a time according to our dominant... more
The way we conceive time is conditioned by sequential narrative mediums that generally work in a linear manner. Literature and film force the reader or spectator to grasp single units of meaning one at a time according to our dominant conception of duration; that is, a chain of frozen moments that come and go in a continuous succession.
Henri Bergson challenged that idea, arguing that we can only truly perceive time in those exceptional occasions of self-absorption in which we lose the sense of succession, melting past and present in an organic whole. Bergson called this particular conception of time “pure duration”, developing a new theory of memory that inspired some of the most important modernist novelists, especially Marcel Proust, who reconstructed his life remembrances following Bergson’s theories in À la recherche du temps perdu.
In this article I relate both Bergson’s theory and Proust’s narrative technique to the work of Chris Ware. By conceiving the page as a network of panels that must be grasped simultaneously, Ware challenges the merely sequential narrative technique most comics use, directly addressing Bergson’s notion of “pure duration” as a perception of overlapping moments. Ware has shown, as I will argue here, that comics may be the ideal medium for representing time in a non-linear manner because of its panoptic quality: its power to make the reader see past, present and future simultaneously in the panels of a single page.
Henri Bergson challenged that idea, arguing that we can only truly perceive time in those exceptional occasions of self-absorption in which we lose the sense of succession, melting past and present in an organic whole. Bergson called this particular conception of time “pure duration”, developing a new theory of memory that inspired some of the most important modernist novelists, especially Marcel Proust, who reconstructed his life remembrances following Bergson’s theories in À la recherche du temps perdu.
In this article I relate both Bergson’s theory and Proust’s narrative technique to the work of Chris Ware. By conceiving the page as a network of panels that must be grasped simultaneously, Ware challenges the merely sequential narrative technique most comics use, directly addressing Bergson’s notion of “pure duration” as a perception of overlapping moments. Ware has shown, as I will argue here, that comics may be the ideal medium for representing time in a non-linear manner because of its panoptic quality: its power to make the reader see past, present and future simultaneously in the panels of a single page.