Searching for a Common Ancestry: Linguistic and Biological Analogies in Comic Art

Abstract

Sometimes comic book readers randomly encounter images in a comic that closely resemble images in other comics. This artwork could appear to the reader to have been copied, even directly 'lifted' from older or better-known comics. Sometimes, however, it does seem like any similarities have been generated independently, by chance or serendipity. In this note we draw on the work of Umberto Eco, William Lethaby, Walter Benjamin and Carl Jung to describe a multidisciplinary conceptual framework to analyse similar images using a heuristic approach involving two analogy concepts drawn from two different disciplines: linguistics and biology. When the origin of similarity between images is well documented, we propose the linguistic analogy approach can explain the phenomenon of recurrent images. When the similarity between two images appears to be unexplainable, or the result of mere chance, we propose that the concept of biological analogy can be helpful to explain the superficial resemblance of elements that have different origins.@font-face{font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}@font-face{font-family:Cambria;panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;mso-font-charset:0;mso-generic-font-family:roman;mso-font-pitch:variable;mso-font-signature:-536869121 1107305727 33554432 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal{mso-style-unhide:no;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:0cm;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:none;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:Cambria;mso-ansi-language:ES-MX;mso-fareast-language:ES-MX;}.MsoChpDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;mso-default-props:yes;font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:Cambria;mso-ansi-language:ES-MX;mso-fareast-language:ES-MX;}.MsoPapDefault{mso-style-type:export-only;margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-pagination:none;}div.WordSection1{page:WordSection1;}