Playfulness in Comics

Drawing on theories from comics studies and game studies, this monograph offers the first extended theory of playfulness in comics and comics-like works. To account for forms of playfulness in these mediated or designed contexts, the book opposes the prevailing characterization of playfulness in game studies as an “autotelic” attitude marked by spontaneity, voluntariness, and intrinsic motivation, instead approaching playfulness as a primarily “appropriative” attitude that manifests when individuals “reframe” situations to serve their own ludic ends. Hence, the book presents three interconnected “lenses” that invite consideration of where, when, how, and for whom playfulness may be involved, enabling a focus on three dimensions of playfulness as it manifests in comics contexts: producer-oriented, work-oriented, and recipient-oriented playfulness. The book consists of three theoretical chapters that outline and discuss the lenses and three case study chapters that demonstrate their theoretical and analytical value via the extensive analysis of one or more works related to the corresponding dimensions of playfulness.