Comics poetry

Comics poetry is a hybrid creative form that combines aspects of comics and poetry. It draws from the syntax of comics, images, panels, speech balloons, and so on, in order to produce a literary or artistic experience akin to that of traditional poetry.

Comics poetry traces its origins to illuminated manuscripts, graphic novels, concrete poetry, and poets who combined images and text such as Kenneth Patchen. In the mid-2000s, a number of artist-poets began publishing independently of one another, referring to what they were doing expressly as comics poetry. According to artist and scholar Tamryn Bennett, "The term comics poetry can be applied to a growing field of works that fall outside of traditional definitions of both comics and poetry. These works include Warren Craghead’s How To Be Everywhere (2007); Matt Madden’s Comic Sestina (2004), Michael Farrell’s BREAK ME OUCH (2006); as well as a host of comics poetry collections by Bianca Stone, Alexander Rothman, Paul K. Tunis, Gary Sullivan, John Hankiewicz, Anders Nilsen, Derik Badman, Eroyn Franklin, Franklin Einspruch, Sommer Browning, Kimball Anderson, Kevin Czapiewski, Malcy Duff and Julie Delporte, among others."

Use of the terms "comics poetry" and "poetry comics" is widespread among its practitioners. Alexander Rothman, editor-in-chief of Ink Brick, has written, "I call the work that I make and publish 'comics poetry.' ...at the end of the day, more than any other practitioner, a poet is just dealing with words.... Words aren’t necessary for comics, but of course they’re there to use. Panels aren’t necessary, but they’re also there to use. Where the poet’s toolbox contains every imaginable arrangement or manipulation of words, the cartoonist’s holds analogs for the visual elements of the page."

...
Wikipedia