Fragmented and Framed. Precarious ‘Body Signs’ in Comics by Regina Hofer, Ulli Lust, Barbara Yelin and Peer Meter

Abstract

Drawing from Georges Didi-Huberman’s idea of the ‘threshold’ as a central trope for images and their inherent double bind, we interpret the gutter as an exponentially visualized threshold. It thus offers an alternative explanation for the often described physicality of comics as well as the precariousness of its bodies. Which ‘body signs’ and interpretations of these signs does the threshold evoke? How can we think about the interdependence of framing, fragmenting and repetition? How can we functionalize these reflections for comics studies? We explore the framing and fragmenting characteristics of the gutter by offering an exemplary analysis of four central German-language comics of the twenty-first century (Regina Hofer’s Blad, 2008; Ulli Lust’s Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, 2009/2013; How I Tried to Be a Good Person, 2017/2019; as well as Barbara Yelin and Peer Meter’s Gift, 2010).