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Summary

The journey of the research on the softening of borders between comics and jazz is explored, starting with considerations and anecdotes from the past. Billie Holiday’s connection to comic books, the transformation of jazz and comics into accredited forms of art, and the evolving relationship between jazz and comics are key points of exploration in the research. The impact of recognition on these art forms and the representations of jazz in comics are also critical topics for discussion.

In 2017, I presented a paper at a communication conference in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, entitled On Comics and Jazz and, since then, I have been dedicating myself to the subject from both an academic and artistic point of view. In fact, one of the issues raised concerns precisely the softening of borders.

I would like to share with you the journey of this research, starting with some considerations that served as starting points. Enjoy!

In the Spring of 1948, the promoter Ernie Anderson met legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in midtown Manhattan. They discussed details of her much waited come-back to show-business in the Carnegie Hall stage the following night. After leaving the Federal Reformatory for Women at Alderston, Virginia, where she served 10 months for ‘receiving and concealing a narcotic drug’, Billie depended on that act to re-establish her career.

As Anderson prepared to leave, ‘Lady Day’ asked him for some comic books. In that crucial evening, comic books made company to the great artist.

Forty-five years later Billie herself would become a much praised graphic novel by the hands of Argentinean authors José Muñoz and Carlos Sampayo (1993) and much before, in 1927, the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian had published “Jazz and the Neo-Plasticism”, claiming that jazz and the new movement he helped to put up were nothing less than expressions of a new life and considered them revolutionary movements capable of dealing with the new time and space impositions of the metropolis.

In 2015 jazz performer Kamasi Washington released his debut album called The Epic, a three hour piece, comparable to an opera and deliberately inspired in comic art both musically and also in the art of the album. Washington revealed he was actually working on a graphic novel and album final structure was directly influenced by it.

Both considered during long time marginal forms of expression, comics and jazz proudly arrived in the twenty first century as accredited forms of art and a regular subject for thesis and dissertations. But does this recognition also have a price? Did it implicate in some sort of compromising?

How (far) did it change jazz and comics features? Since the links between both jazz and comics continue to develop, how are these two languages interacting, that is, what are the representations in comics about jazz?

These are some of the questions we will develop throughout this topic.

Be seeing you!

G. F.  

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Everybody’s got a thing
But some don’t know how to handle it.

– Stevie Wonder

Last week I have mentioned a new podcast project I was work on, and today I would like to talk a bit about it, but be prepared, because you mught be surprised with my bombastic revelation! Drum roll, please: it is not about music, but about comics. Research on comic art, as a matter of fact.

How come? Although I have always been involved with music, my academic background is not in the field of music. I have a degree in History, a Masters in Communication and Culture and a PhD in Communication Sciences. The reason why I changed areas was precisely my object of research: comic books. Now you are probably thinking about superheroes or graphic novels. Of course these are also on my radar, but my area of expertise is caricatures and cartoons, especially those with political and satirical content.


Among the many comic-related activities that I have already carried out, perhaps the one that most impacted my life was my term as chair of a research group on the Ninth Art called Comic Art Working Group, created by Prof. John A. Lent, who is also responsible for the International Journal of Comic Art an essential publication for any researcher in the field. The Comic Art Working Group is part of the IAMCR International Association for media and Communication Research.

I shalll say no more for my story in the group is precisely the subject of the second episode of the podcast Comments on the Top, created to celebrate the 35 years of the group celebrated in 2019. You can listen to all ten episodes on your preferred streaming platform or just click here.

For a long time I insisted on keeping music activities completely separate from research activities, and I came to think that they would never meet, but my friend S. was right when he said that, with time (and a lot of commitment, too) the loose ends in our lives end up coming together.

And now that you know all about the other me, how about you telling me about the other you?

Be seeing you!

G. F.