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    <p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/08/10/comics-as-place/">https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/08/10/comics-as-place/</a></p>

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    <p>Robert Crumb’s 1979 “A Short History of America” upends all of

      the above. It is a small miracle of concision and grace,

      consisting of a mere twelve panels that span across four pages (of

      three horizontal panels each) and roughly a hundred and fifty

      years of history. Every line, every mark in this comic imparts not

      only texture, but vital narrative information. In some ways, this

      short piece encapsulates the very art form of comics: one panel

      becomes panels, becomes a page, becomes pages, becomes story. Here

      the background is not simply a component of the story; one might

      say it is entirely the story.</p>

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