Psychometric properties of the Comic Style Markers – Portuguese version: applying bifactor and hierarchical approaches to studying broad versus narrow styles of humor

Given the relevance of humor for psychosocial assessment and promoting positive functioning, it is important to understand the relationship between humor and personality. A recent framework for describing individual differences in humor posits eight comic styles that can be measured using the Comic Style Markers (CSM). In total, 665 Portuguese adults (M age = 32.1 years) completed the CSM and Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory. CFAs supported modeling the CSM as a bifactor model. Bifactor indices suggested a general humor factor could be interpreted as a unidimensional construct, but that CSM items are multidimensional. A hierarchical analysis showed the styles could be represented at several levels of abstraction. A SEM analysis suggested certain styles had distinct associations with personality dimensions. These findings suggest that the use of certain styles (namely wit, sarcasm, and cynicism) was related to individual differences in temperament and character beyond a person’s overall humor potential.

Comic styles and their relation to the sense of humor, humor appreciation, acceptability of prejudice, humorous self-image and happiness

The present study investigates the relationships of eight comic styles (fun, benevolent humor, nonsense, wit, irony, satire, sarcasm, and cynicism) with acceptability of prejudice (laughing at different groups and topics), humorous self-image (funniness and frequency of laughter), humor appreciation (funniness and aversiveness of cartoons with different structures and contents), and happiness. A representative Chilean adult sample (N=857, 60.8% women; age M=40.50, SD=17.28) was recruited in face-to-face interviews and online surveys. They completed self-reports of all variables as well as a humor appreciation test. Most of the comic styles related to finding the cartoons funnier. Furthermore, the darker styles were more strongly related to laughing at a variety of topics and groups. Also, happiness was positively related to fun and benevolent humor and negatively to cynicism. This study provides evidence of the criterion validity of the Comic Style Markers in Latin-American cultures and highlights differences between lighter and darker styles.

Eksplorasi Jukstaposisi Visual dalam Novel Grafis ‘The Photographer’

The Exploration of Visual Juxtaposition in a Graphic Novel titled ‘The Photographer’. Comic as a story book full of drawings is now popular under the name of graphic novel, which in its development begins to vary. A graphic novel titled ‘The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders’ presents two types of pictorial texts, which are drawings in comic styles and photographic works. The study of this graphic novel aims to explore the visual juxtaposition of the comics and photographs by establishing the graphic novel as the narrative medium in delivering the message and context as well as how they intertwine with each other since there are two types of pictorial texts. The development of technology in photography has made it possible to actuate photography juxtaposed with other visual media which have come to popularity in advance, to blend, and to combine a unique and specific narrative combination. The method employed in this research is a qualitative method that believes in a holistic reality as a result of a construction of comprehension of case by case since the characteristic of each case is different one to another. Besides that, the multimodal discourse is also employed as an approach proportionally to evaluate the effectiveness of the message and the contextual meaning of its visual juxtaposition. Therefore, the result is expected to bridge over the understanding of various visual texts given sequentially by using the approach of multimodal discourse as the instrument for an effective communication in enhancing the visual literacy. ABSTRAKKomik sebagai sebuah buku cerita bergambar yang kini lebih dikenal dengan istilah novel grafis, makin hari makin berkembang keragamannya. Dalam sebuah novel grafis yang berjudul The Photographer: Into War-Torn Afghanistan with Doctors without Borders disajikan dua jenis teks piktorial, yaitu dalam gambar komik dan karya foto. Pengkajian novel grafis ini akan mencoba mengeksplorasi jukstaposisi visual yang berupa gambar komik dan hasil karya fotografi dengan menempatkan novel grafis sebagai media naratif dalam menyampaikan pesan dan makna serta menilik saling keterkaitannya satu sama lain dengan munculnya dua ragam jenis teks piktorial. Perkembangan teknologi dalam dunia fotografi membuat fotografi mampu menyandingkan diri dengan media visual lain yang lebih dahulu populer, melebur dengan saksama, dan menciptakan kombinasi naratif yang unik dan spesifik. Metode yang dipakai dalam penelitian ini adalah metode kualitatif dengan prinsip bahwa suatu realitas yang bersifat menyeluruh adalah sebagai hasil konstruksi dari pemahaman terhadap kasus per kasus karena sifat suatu masalah yang satu berbeda dari yang lain. Selain itu, pendekatan kajian dengan multimodal discourse juga akan diaplikasikan untuk meninjau efektivitas pesan dan pemaknaan jukstaposisi visualnya. Dengan demikian, hasil analisis diharapkan akan membantu menjembatani pemahaman teks visual yang hadir secara beragam secara sekuensial dengan pendekatan wacana multimodal sebagai upaya komunikasi yang efektif dalam meningkatkan literasi visual.

ANALISIS PENYAJIAN KARAKTER DAN ALUR CERITA PADA KOMIK VULCAMAN-Z

Analysis of Character Presentation and Storyline in the Comic "Vulcaman-Z" aims to find out and identify visually how the presentation of characters and storylines in the comic Vulcaman-Z by Galang Tirtakusuma. This comic is a 4 point comic (yonkoma) or four panels, a slapstick action-comedy genre that is rarely found in the Indonesian comics industry. This comic also has several unique features such as the use of layouts, characters, colors, expressions, action lines, and word balloons. This research uses a descriptive qualitative method with interviews, literature study and observation data collection methods. The purpose of this research is the initial research conducted jointly with students to uncover several Indonesian comic artists' styles which later become a study of revealing comic styles from Indonesia. As we know that Indonesian comics are still very influential with foreign comics, both Japanese and American. The comic style possessed by Indonesia does not yet have own characteristics, although some comic artists have tried to express the identity of Indonesia through cultural ornaments and stories. But the presentation and style of comics are still using or the same as the style that is outside. Based on this, this research is present as an effort to discover the characteristics of Indonesia in Comics or to give an idea to Indonesian comic artists to present new style contributions to Comics.