An Exploration in the Digital Analysis of Comics Images

ABSTRACT:Digital tools and methods for the large-scale analysis of comics images have seen little application within comics studies when compared against traditional methods of historical, textual, and art-critical analysis. This paper presents a digital method for analyzing hundreds of comics images using the medical imaging software ImageJ and, in doing so, demonstrates that method’s utility in opening new avenues for understanding (at times, familiar) comics. Following a review of current digital scholarship of comics, this paper demonstrates ImageJ’s utility in critically (re)examining comics through a case study focused on Winsor McCay’s early twentieth-century American newspaper comic Little Nemo in Slumberland. Beyond showcasing ImageJ’s utility for analyzing comics images en masse, I hope to demonstrate the value of deploying digital tools and methods in an exploratory rather than deterministic spirit.