poetry

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A History of Poetry Comics

A Map of Roots & Influences


Poetry comics and haiku comics are a relatively new development in the historical context of artists and writers using words and pictures together to create meaning deeper than either could do on its own.

Historical roots can be traced back centuries to pattern poems and illuminated texts in Europe and calligraphic pictures and poems in Asia, Japanese haiga for example. By the 1800s painters and poets were looking at things differently and becoming more experimental and more accepting of non-traditional influences. This led to the concrete poetry movement in poetry and the pop art aesthetic in painting.

Comics, which can be defined as drawings that tell a sequential narrative, started in the (mostly agreed to) 1870s. The rise of comics and comic strips, which were going full bore by the 1940s in newspapers and magazines, provided source materials for poets and artists who used influences from comic book aesthetics, comic strip characters, and comics’ mechanics.

Poetry comics, a term finally coined in the 1970s, have continued through today, running parallel with the mainstream acceptance and interest in graphic literature, DIY, and zines. Haiku comics, starting around 1995 as a natural outgrowth of poetry comics, have been recently popularized by poets/comic artists.

I’m sharing the first draft of my map of “A History of Poetry Comics” that attempts to show related roots, influences and representative practitioners of poetry comics. While definitely not definitive, hopefully it will serve to illuminate and inspire further investigation. This is what I’ve learned so far.

Timeline: 2025

Warning: This incomplete history maps my journey as a poet learning about comics and doesn’t follow a strict chronological order.

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A History of Poetry Comics

Naming Poetry Comics

“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” -Gertrude Stein

Although labeled differently by poets, artists, and historians, work that investigates the relationship between pictures and words (i.e. drawing and poetry) strives for the same result: create meaning that’s not possible with words or pictures alone.

Here are terms “A History of Poetry Comics” has uncovered that each point in their own way to the practice of incorporating words and pictures into art.

TermRepresented byTimeline
haiga (Japanese haiku drawings)Bashō, Buson1500s on
illuminated poemsWilliam Blake1780s
sequential narrativesRodolphe Topffer1830s
comic books, comic strips, comics Various*1890s-1930s
pictorial prose poems (without words)Lynd Ward1930s
picture poemsKenneth Patchen1940s-70s
concrete poems –> vispo (visual poetry)Augusto deCampos,
Nico Vassilakis 		1950s-70s on
graphic novelscoined by Richard Kyle1960s
hand-drawn poemsbpNichol1970s
poetry comics (drawings w/ other’s poems)Coined by Dave Morice1980s
comics mainly without picturesKenneth Koch1990s
haiku comicsSeth1995
poetry comics** (drawings w/ own poems)Bianca Stone2010s
poem/drawingsAlice Notley2020s
graphic poetryNaoko Fujimoto2021

*A good starting point to get perspective on when these terms were first use is Wikipedia’s History of Comics. For U.S.-centric perspective, American Comics: A History by Jeremy Dauber (W.W. Norton & Co., 2022) comes recommended.

**See A History of Poetry Comics #05 for suggested ways to identify poetry comics.

Timeline: Pre-history to Current

Warning: This incomplete history maps my journey as a poet learning about comics and doesn’t follow a strict chronological order.

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Curated by David Lasky and J.B., this exhibition features 22 poet-artists with 69 haiku comics.

Artist statement

“A Whistling Kettle: An Exhibition of Haiku Comics,” that I co-curated with David Lasky, provokes a mixed bag of feelings. It’s like when I heard the punk band Ramones broadcast on radio for the first time. And when I saw 1970s street art and graffiti were taken inside to be exhibited and sold in art galleries (RIP Keith Haring). And when I discovered I wasn’t the only angst-riddled teenager that read MAD magazine (thanks to my dentist’s office).

It’s feelings of disbelief that the things I identified with were now being mass marketed. Disappointment at losing another counter-culture fixture to the mainstream. But also pride that things I admire and worship were deemed worthy and valuable. In the end, this validation increased my hip credentials — I knew about an art movement, a music scene, a zine before a lot of others caught on.

We are all students and explorers. The haiku comics here are the direct result of classes taught by Lasky, a comics artist learning about haiku. I’m seeing first-hand, as a poet learning about comics (and trying some myself), the transformative power that pictures and words have together. (See the note on “Illumination” in A History of Poetry Comics #05, part of my attempt to define poetry comics.) I believe the best poetry comics create a third meaning that words or pictures can’t do on their own.

This show collects works that transcend what’s hung on the gallery wall. There are underscores and counterpoints. There are kireji (the “cut” in Japanese haiku) and kigo (the season word in Japanese haiku). There’s context, witnessing, confessions. There’s complexity and simplicity sometimes in the same work. And there’s illumination — that “third meaning” that happens when your mind jumps beyond the words and pictures.

For me, this show is validation of the exploration we poet-artists have been doing on the fringes of both comics and poetry. It expands the audience for our work. And it makes us feel (perhaps) a little less like outsiders.

Enjoy the hip credentials!