Retrospective Analysis of Comics as an Object of Research by Ukrainian and Foreign Scientists

The aim of the article is to carry out a retrospective analysis of comics as an object of study in the scientific works of Ukrainian and foreign scholars in the field of painting and comics, as well as to systematise the main periods of studying this topic in the world scientific space. The research methodology of the article is based on the application of both general and special methods of scientific knowledge, in particular retrospective, theoretical-research and system-structural methods. This methodological approach allows revealing and analysing the research of foreign and Ukrainian scholars on the historical aspects of the formation of comics as an independent, complex multimodal entity. The scientific novelty of the study is that the paper comprehensively considers the main aspects and current scientific approaches to the study of painting among domestic and foreign scholars and periodises the development of comics with seven stages of development of comics as an information product and reveals their specifics. The author has shown that comics are an intersemiotic phenomenon of human creative activity, an independent complex multimodal formation. Conclusions. As a result of a detailed description of the features of research in comics, the article proves the emergence of new trends in the study of graphic histories by scientists not only in terms of retrospective comics as a separate art but also such as the interaction of verbal and nonverbal components; the social impact of cartoons on the lives and lives of readers; information and communication properties of cartoons; features of linguistic and cultural aspects of comics; definition of the concept of «comics»; the ratio of certain compositional components of the comic information and communication properties of cartoons; systematic study of varieties and typology of comics.