Comics Scholarship, Not Necessarily Chess

Wobbling on with this weekly, Monday series, the previous post was Chess Comics - Grids and Panels (February 2024). At the end of that post, I gave myself a direction:-

How should I use the different grids to create a more interesting series of pages? I really have no idea. [...] Maybe I should spend some time on this subject.

As usual, the time I used was spent badly and I have only the following composite image to show for it. The left, colored portion is an excuse to use another AI generated image on this chess blog.

Left: 'comic artist draws chess'; AI Comic Factory (aicomicfactory.com)
Right: Google search on 'comic grid' -> 'People also ask'

The right, B&W portion is an example of my favorite section in Google search results, the 'People also ask' section. It's a great way to get up to speed quickly on any subject. The first question, 'What do you call comic squares?', is answered,

A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book, as well as a graphic novel.

The same answer leads to Panel : comics (wikipedia.org), which opens Pandora's box on the subject of comics, whether short or long or in-between. See, for example, Wikipedia's ensuing page on the 'graphic novel'.

In the same Google search, the top result was The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship (comicsgrid.com). If, like me, you have a STEM education, you might think the phrase 'Comics Scholarship' is an oxymoron. Nothing could be further from the truth and I look forward to discovering the journal.