| The comic strip has been a common experience for people around the world in the last century. More than 100 million Americans alone read newspaper comic strips daily. Unfortunately, the field of Communication has generally neglected this ubiquitous form of communication and the few studies that have been published tend to take for granted the conventional wisdom that meaning in comic strips is unproblematic.;This study revisits Roland Barthes' S/Z and adapts its critical strategy so that the process of reading comic strips may be systematically scrutinized. Analyses of two comic strips demonstrate that, in sharp contrast to conventional wisdom, meaning is not discovered in or through the comic strips but produced by the reader according to dominant conventions of reading. Further, meaning is demonstrated to reside in the interaction between culture, reader, and comic strip rather than in the properties or effects of the comic strip or the intent of its creator(s).;Broader application and continued modification of this strategy by Communication scholars, both to further this line of inquiry and also to challenge it, is recommended. |
