What Makes a Comic: Text vs Image

So what makes a comic? At first it may seem like a silly question; but like all academic questions, it gets more complicated the more you think about it.  It's very easy to look at a Spider-Man comic and know that it is a solid representation of the form, as easy as it is look at a prose novel and know that it is not a comic. But being a hybrid form, determining whether the text or imagery of the comic is more important can be difficult. Words and pictures on a page are not enough to make a comic. Little Golden Books are not comics. That being said, I do think that imagery ranks more important than text in comics. It is easy to construct a wordless comic. It is veritably impossible to construct a comic without images without utterly deconstructing the medium. As mentioned earlier, scholars such as Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics make the defining aspect of comics the sequence of images. Thierry Groensteen in The System of Comics similarly focuses on sequence,  but he also maintains that the framing of panels is important as well.

However, frames alone do not necessarily make a comic. The fact of the matter is that no single constituent element within comics, whether it be the imagery, text, or the framing, is enough to make a comic. Groensteen puzzles over the complicated nature of comics as he considers the concept of abstract forms in Comics and Narration. Just as abstract art can exist, apart from all conventions of representation, Groensteen wonders how far one can flout convention in constructing a sequence of images. At what point exactly do we call two separate images related? Does a Mondrian painting count as a comic?

I personally feel that defining the vital components of comics is a query that contains a few layers. On the one hand, we can safely state that most conventional comics contain a sequence of related images that also often convey verbal or textual messages as well. I would like to add that my use of the word "conveyance" includes, to a degree, some nonverbal forms of communication. A character in a comic can impart a verbal idea using body language, for example.  A verbal or textual conveyance is often necessary to separate the sequential art of comics from the static art of painting or single imagery. 

On the other hand, it is also important to note that the conveyance of messages is a negotiation between the author of a work and the reader. Therefore it would be too much to say that the forms themselves are the only defining characteristics.  Some aspects of form can be interpretive, especially when dealing with works that stretch meaning into the abstract. In a sense, the above Mondrian piece could be interpreted as being a sequence of frames conveying some abstract message, which could be seen as a comic.

Ultimately, like any other art-form, there is a continuum of shapes that comics can assume. While most of the popular titles are superhero comics (which are some of the best, I might add), a wide berth exists that contains innumerable permutations of artistic value.

So what makes a comic? I don't know for sure. Impress me.