My article on poem comics and profluent lingering is up at The Comics Journal. Thanks to Dan Nadel and the TCJ staff, and to Bianca Stone for letting us reprint her two poem comics, “How It Is” and “Kneeling in a Pile of Leaves.”
Here’s an excerpt from the essay:
The clear problem in my [previous] definition of profluent lingering is that poem comics infrequently derive their momentum from narrative, and yet they certainly possess momentum. Is this the same as profluence? (And of course there are narrative poems, but one crisis of definition at a time, please.) It’s also not accurate to say that poem comics only linger due to their frequent emphasis on economy and the building of a singular mood or even image, since they still work in a read sequence, swelling and relenting, breathing in and out more noticeably than a long narrative. Because of that economy, a poem comic’s profluence may be abrupt but profound.
I may have an “Extended Thoughts” follow-up here before too long. In the meantime, go read some poem comics. Stone’s site is linked above and here’s Derik Badman’s work.
Robert Loss 