SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education - Vol. 2 - Issue 9 - Article 1 - Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria

Oct 15, 2026

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Parody and mis-unda-stendings in comics function as a clear case of miscommunication between interlocutors whose language, vocabularies, and grammatical rules differ. The article uses Krazy Kat’s linguistic premise to argue that differing “worlds” create gaps that complicate understanding within comics art and between comics and the broader artworld. It documents the problem and proposes new terminology, vocabulary, rules for comics language, and criteria for classifying parody works, aiming to bridge interpretive distance and improve contemporary theoretical discourse.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages33

Reading Time51 min

AccessFree to download

Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria

Key premise: language gaps and misunderstood meanings

Comics art and artworld communication

Parody as the most striking example

Prior theory and terminology

Institutional art theory versus comics framework

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education | Volume 2 Issue 9 | Article 1 | | --- | --- | | April 2025
Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria
Yannis Koukoulas
Department of Preschool Education Sciences and Educational Design, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece, [gkouk1969@yahoo.gr](gkouk1969@yahoo.gr)
Follow this and additional works at: [https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane)
Part of the Art Practice Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Illustration Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Theory and Criticism Commons, and the Visual Studies Commons | | Recommended Citation Koukoulas, Yannis (2025) "Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria," SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education: Vol. 2: Iss. 9, Article 1. Available at: [https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane/vol2/iss9/1](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane/vol2/iss9/1) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria Cover Page Footnote Parody and Mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the Gap with New Criteria Dr. Yannis Koukoulas, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Preschool Education Sciences and Educational Design, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece This article is available in SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education: [https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane/](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane/)[ ](https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sane/)vol2/iss9/1 Parody and mis-unda-stendings in Comics Art World: Bridging the gap with new criteria Krazy Kat's iconic phrase "Lenguage is that we may mis-unda-stend each udda" (=language is that we may misunderstand each other) to Ignatz has been used and reproduced repeatedly to highlight George Herriman's comics around language and its functions. Such a phrase hides great truths when the interlocutors do not understand words with the same meaning, when their 'worlds' are separated by a huge gap, when the vocabulary and even more so the grammatical rules of the language of understanding are different. Comics Art World, being de facto, consciously or unconsciously, inconstant and two-way communication with Artworld, is often confused as to the concepts with which it attempts to describe its works. This exacerbates the difficulty of understanding Artworld and also of understanding within Artworld. Comics Art World's re-imaginings ofArtworld's works, and in particular the parody with its many manifestations and meanings, is perhaps the most striking example of miscommunication and misunderstanding. This paper seeks to document this problem and aims to encourage those who formulate contemporary theoretical discourse on comics to propose new terminology, new vocabulary, new rules for the use of comics language, new criteria for classifying and categorizing parody works, which are becoming more and more numerous as the years go by. Or accept the existing ones on the basis of a common agreement in order to bridge the gap and make the consultation more effective. The relationship between comics and the visual arts has for years been an area open to exploration and interpretation as evidenced by studies such as Bart Beaty's deliberately provocative and cleverly'confrontational' title Comics Versus Art (2012) and series such as Craig Yoe's Modern Arf (2005), Arf Museum (2006), Arf Forum (2007) and Comic Arf (2008) . In the second chapter of his book, Bart Beat

FAQs

How does the article connect parody in comics with miscommunication?

It frames parody as a striking example of miscommunication and misunderstanding arising when interlocutors do not share the same meanings and “worlds.”

What does Krazy Kat’s phrase contribute to the argument?

The phrase is used to highlight how language functions and how misunderstanding occurs when words, meanings, and rules of understanding differ between people.

What does the article propose to improve comics theoretical discourse?

It seeks new terminology, new vocabulary, new rules for using comics language, and new criteria for classifying and categorizing parody works to bridge the interpretive gap.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Riley