Jeremy Stoll
Columbus College of Art and Design, Liberal Arts, Faculty Member
- Folklore, Narrative, Comics and Graphic Novels, Comics Studies, Storytelling, Environmental Justice, and 34 moreComics/Sequential Art, India, Visual Narrative, India (Anthropology), Transmedial Storytelling, Vernacular Religion, Narrative Art, Anthropology, Media Studies, Popular Culture, Visual Culture, Japan, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Sustainability, Comic Book Studies, Comic Strips, Indian studies, Media Anthropology, Graphic Novels, Ethnography (Research Methodology), Practice theory, Anthropology of Media, Creative Industries, Dalit Literature, Theory of Comics, Dalit studies, Graffiti, Comic Book History, Publishing, Periodical Studies, Audience and Reception Studies, Creative Labour, Indian Epics, and Comicsedit
- For advice and feedback, please contact me directly at [jstoll(at)ccad(dot)edu]. For additional works, visit my websi... moreFor advice and feedback, please contact me directly at [jstoll(at)ccad(dot)edu]. For additional works, visit my website: www(dot)jaromirstoll(dot)com
I am a comics creator, researcher of comics in India and internationally, and Associate Professor & Head of Science & Social Science at Columbus College of Art & Design. As a scholar and practitioner, I balance my commitments to research, instruction, and comics practice through a focus on creativity & community. My hybrid background in the arts and folkloristics provides a strong foundation from which to support learning communities, pursue my creative practice as Great Bear Comics, perform ethnographic research on comics culture in India, and otherwise flourish as an artist & scholar. I work through all aspects of my career to celebrate and shape our creative communities - and the vibrant traditions of storytelling within which we are each deeply rooted.edit
In this article, I look at how comics creators in the Indian comics world frame themselves as people working with and united by a shared medium. I will bring together the voices and work of Berlin-based graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee,... more
In this article, I look at how comics creators in the Indian comics world frame themselves as people working with and united by a shared medium. I will bring together the voices and work of Berlin-based graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, Delhi-based creator Priya Kuriyan, and itinerant illustrator Prashant Miranda to illustrate this concern. In looking at how they each struggle to cultivate comics in or of India, I am grounded in fieldwork performed in Delhi in 2010 and 2013, as well as more recent interviews, online articles, and personal blogs. Drawing out these creators’ experiences will reveal the difficulties of arguing for comics as an art form without transforming comics-making into a profit-oriented endeavor. Their voices and works will specifically demonstrate the multiple ways that artists and authors re-mediate visual storytelling to enrich their everyday lives, needs, and comics communities.
Research Interests:
In my interviews with comics creators from 2010 onwards, I have encountered many creators who point out that the roots of comics culture lie in the broader visual culture of India, whose traditional visual storytelling primes readers for... more
In my interviews with comics creators from 2010 onwards, I have encountered many creators who point out that the roots of comics culture lie in the broader visual culture of India, whose traditional visual storytelling primes readers for critical engagement with visual narratives. This understanding allows them to push for a greater awareness of the comics medium as an international form with the potential for great variation beyond corporate production. Several authors and artists explicitly work to establish an alternative or independent comics culture that is focused on creators, their craft, and the communities that form around them. In particular, Orijit Sen of the Pao Collective in Delhi, Vidyun Sabhaney of Captain Bijli Comics in Delhi, and Pratheek Thomas of Studio Kokaachi in Cochin are working to develop more independent and community-focused platforms for their own and others’ work. This chapter briefly explores how each of these creators approaches the work of establishing an alternative or indie comics culture by placing craft and community over industry.
Research Interests:
Many authors and artists in India are conscious of or even directly engaged with international comics, especially from the USA, Japan, and Europe. Yet, Indian comics remain relatively obscure in those same countries. When they are... more
Many authors and artists in India are conscious of or even directly engaged with international comics, especially from the USA, Japan, and Europe. Yet, Indian comics remain relatively obscure in those same countries. When they are recognized, readers and reviewers tend to frame them as novelties, rather than part of a vibrant comics world. Despite the rich history of this medium on the subcontinent, many critics and scholars remain mired in earlier educational or later transnational comics publishers. This not only loses the complexity of such works, but also holds such works to transnational and often corporate standards. The result is a lack of appreciation for comics communities and an over-emphasis on works that reach readers within well-established industries outside of India. This chapter highlights the tapestry of the medium in this context – with a focus on the people, titles, publishers, and moments that remain important for creators and their communities in India today.
Research Interests:
Historically, a corporate model of production in Indian comics culture has predominated that is predicated upon a division of labor, where writers, pencillers, inkers, and otherwise each perform their step in the creative process with... more
Historically, a corporate model of production in Indian comics culture has predominated that is predicated upon a division of labor, where writers, pencillers, inkers, and otherwise each perform their step in the creative process with limited interaction with other steps or the people behind them. While such an approach has helped certain companies flourish, the obvious cost has been the inability for most creators to make a living from their work. Furthermore, there is little space for an active, critical community in that model of production. Accordingly, contemporary comics creators, editors, publishers, and many of their readers have recently begun to turn to a different model of creativity.
In my interviews with comics creators from 2010 onwards, I have encountered many creators who point out that the roots of comics culture lie in the broader visual culture of India, which primes readers for critically engaging with visual narratives through experiences with traditional visual storytelling. Many have used this understanding to push for a greater awareness of the comics medium as an international form with the potential for great variation beyond corporate production. Most recently, several authors and artists have begun explicitly working to establish an alternative or independent comics culture in India that is focused on creators, their craft, and the communities that form around them, rather than the corporate focus on establishing an industry. In particular, Vidyun Sabhaney of Captain Bijli Comics in Delhi and Pratheek Thomas of Studio Kokaachi in Cochin are working to develop more independent and community-focused platforms for their own and others’ work. This article briefly explores how these two creators approach the work of establishing this alternative or indie comics culture by placing craft and community over industry.
In my interviews with comics creators from 2010 onwards, I have encountered many creators who point out that the roots of comics culture lie in the broader visual culture of India, which primes readers for critically engaging with visual narratives through experiences with traditional visual storytelling. Many have used this understanding to push for a greater awareness of the comics medium as an international form with the potential for great variation beyond corporate production. Most recently, several authors and artists have begun explicitly working to establish an alternative or independent comics culture in India that is focused on creators, their craft, and the communities that form around them, rather than the corporate focus on establishing an industry. In particular, Vidyun Sabhaney of Captain Bijli Comics in Delhi and Pratheek Thomas of Studio Kokaachi in Cochin are working to develop more independent and community-focused platforms for their own and others’ work. This article briefly explores how these two creators approach the work of establishing this alternative or indie comics culture by placing craft and community over industry.
Research Interests:
This article situates India’s comics history and culture in an international context to analyze what makes it unique. The medium has transformed from socially critical roots in cartooning through the rise of corporate comics, the graphic... more
This article situates India’s comics history and culture in an international context to analyze what makes it unique. The medium has transformed from socially critical roots in cartooning through the rise of corporate comics, the graphic novel, and a recent turn to alternative comics. Yet, what drives comics in India is a combination of international influences, critically aware creators, and an orientation around community. Through the support of important works, scholarship, and creator’s voices, drawing out this medium’s history reveals that what defines comics in India is a culture of passionate storytellers committed to excellent storytelling.
Research Interests:
In Indian comics culture, there is a small group of five creators who have worked hard to push the medium forward. Together, they represent some of the most insightful and innovative comics creators in India today. From graphic novels to... more
In Indian comics culture, there is a small group of five creators who have worked hard to push the medium forward. Together, they represent some of the most insightful and innovative comics creators in India today. From graphic novels to political cartoons, strips, and other kinds of visual storytellings, the Pao Collective has set the bar for creative excellence high in Indian comics. Their anthology, Pao: the Anthology of Comics Volume 1 and the critical praise for it, as well as multiple events, publications, and even some research projects, have proven their importance, especially for long-form comics and stories about everyday life in South Asia. In this article, I will provide a brief history of the Pao Collective, leading to and beyond their recent anthology in 2012. Along the way, I will shine a light on the main challenges and issues that Pao’s members, including Orijit Sen, Sarnath Banerjee, Vishwajyoti Ghosh, Parismita Singh, and Amitabh Kumar, have addressed in coming together as a collective. Throughout, I am grounded in fieldwork and interviews that I performed in 2010 and 2013 in Delhi, India, alongside and through the generosity of the Pao Collective and many other comics creators. I will describe how these five individuals became important figures in Indian comics, how they then came together in order to put forth a platform for comics culture, how they worked on Pao: the Anthology of Comics, and finally, what they see as the future of their community and organization.
Research Interests:
NOTE: This article has a few out-dated details; please read alongside my Comics in India chapter in the Routledge Companion to Comics, or refer to that piece instead. Despite a diverse and long history of the comics medium in India,... more
NOTE: This article has a few out-dated details; please read alongside my Comics in India chapter in the Routledge Companion to Comics, or refer to that piece instead.
Despite a diverse and long history of the comics medium in India, much scholarship has tended to focus on just a small sampling. As the most widely published and read Indian comics, books from the Amar Chitra Katha series are the ones that most scholars have focused upon, to the detriment of understanding the wider context of India’s comics, storytelling, and visual cultures. While Amar Chitra Katha would eventually transcend earlier comics and visual narratives in popularity, such works are important for their ability to engage local or regional arts and international comics culture. More importantly, few scholars have addressed the work of contemporary comics creators or the graphic novels and comics currently coming out of Delhi and the rest of India. This article provides a historical account of the path from comic books to the later rise of graphic novels grounded in one creator, Amitabh Kumar’s, experiences as an author and researcher on Indian comics and culture. As a comics creator and researcher, he celebrates the importance of other publishers and creators in maintaining comics as a narrative medium. Based on Kumar’s perspective, as he works to establish a historical narrative himself while engaging with that precedent in crafting his own comics, this article traces the roots of the comics medium in India, from political cartoons to superhero comics and graphic novels.
Despite a diverse and long history of the comics medium in India, much scholarship has tended to focus on just a small sampling. As the most widely published and read Indian comics, books from the Amar Chitra Katha series are the ones that most scholars have focused upon, to the detriment of understanding the wider context of India’s comics, storytelling, and visual cultures. While Amar Chitra Katha would eventually transcend earlier comics and visual narratives in popularity, such works are important for their ability to engage local or regional arts and international comics culture. More importantly, few scholars have addressed the work of contemporary comics creators or the graphic novels and comics currently coming out of Delhi and the rest of India. This article provides a historical account of the path from comic books to the later rise of graphic novels grounded in one creator, Amitabh Kumar’s, experiences as an author and researcher on Indian comics and culture. As a comics creator and researcher, he celebrates the importance of other publishers and creators in maintaining comics as a narrative medium. Based on Kumar’s perspective, as he works to establish a historical narrative himself while engaging with that precedent in crafting his own comics, this article traces the roots of the comics medium in India, from political cartoons to superhero comics and graphic novels.
Research Interests:
Follow the River of Stories illustrates the importance of visual narratives as a form of social commentary on development and social injustice in contemporary India, which is the world’s fourth largest producer of comic books and graphic... more
Follow the River of Stories illustrates the importance of visual narratives as a form of social commentary on development and social injustice in contemporary India, which is the world’s fourth largest producer of comic books and graphic novels. Little research has been done on India’s thriving comics culture, beyond several studies of the series Amar Chitra Katha, or Immortal Picture Stories, which only published regularly until the late 1980’s. In contrast, this study focuses on the recent rise of graphic novels through the lens of one artists’ group, the Pao Collective, who argue for comics as an independent art form. In the process, I demonstrate the power of these visual narratives through an ethnographic approach utilizing participant observation and in-depth interviews. Accordingly, this research is based upon fieldwork performed in 2010, during which I interviewed and worked with artists, writers, editors, publishers, and readers in Delhi. Grounded throughout by the voices of Pao’s members, I investigate how Delhi’s comics creators push for a reorientation of communities around local contexts and increasing social awareness. I begin by historicizing the comics medium in India, and then work toward a definition of comics built upon the experiences and critical responses of individual creators. I then explore how these creators construct their narratives through appeals to folk culture in order to build and sustain community. Finally, I point out how these artists and authors are able to increase social awareness through their storytelling, with a focus on environmental issues in particular. My dissertation thus links social resistance to the creation of visual narratives and communities that organize around those stories. Accordingly, my work shows the importance of interdisciplinary scholarship in understanding how communities engage with globalization and social and environmental injustice.
Research Interests:
In the boom of recent comics scholarship, the comic art of India has received little attention compared to that of other nations, the United States, France, and Japan in particular. Through a basis in religious and folk narratives, Indian... more
In the boom of recent comics scholarship, the comic art of India has received little attention compared to that of other nations, the United States, France, and Japan in particular. Through a basis in religious and folk narratives, Indian comics narratives, especially those published by the Amar Chitra Katha series, have worked to update folk tales, retelling them in a modern medium. By looking at the figure of Rama in the Amar Chitra Katha and other Indian comics, this paper will analyze the process and implications of this transformation. In particular, the analysis of Rama as contemporary hero will reveal how these stories help people to deal with daily life at the same time that they affirm another, older way of understanding the world. This paper will thus demonstrate how comics creators in India have adapted the comic book to effectively re-maneuver traditional tales as a modern, folkloric inheritance to future generations.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In contemporary Japan, the traditions of woodblock prints, folktales, and religious performances have collided in the modern comic book. By tracing the history of storytelling traditions that combine image and text, the continuity of... more
In contemporary Japan, the traditions of woodblock prints, folktales, and religious performances have collided in the modern comic book. By tracing the history of storytelling traditions that combine image and text, the continuity of visual narratives through early Japanese history becomes clear. However, the modern era brings complications in the form of American comic strips, whose influence quickly transforms earlier narrative form into the roots of Japanese comic books, or manga. Just as earlier texts worked with tensions in the mind of the creator and the audience, the comic form negotiates humanity’s place in the world. Accordingly, a discussion of traditional Japanese worldview based upon vernacular religious practice and experience draws comparisons with the experience of reading and writing comics. By analyzing the graphic novel Uzumaki, by Junji Itoh, in terms of Leonard Primiano’s perspective of the individual as folk group, contemporary comics unveil their vernacular importance. These visual narratives arguably fulfill similar visual-textual needs as the earlier art forms while at the same time addressing new issues of how the individual relates to the larger community and world. In the process, the narrative of Uzumaki highlights certain values and dichotomies that run through Japanese culture, revealing the status of the natural world as no longer fully active in human, lived reality.