Do Comics Require Pictures? Or Why Batman #663 Is a Comic.

The article examines the philosophical and aesthetic problems related to the issue of defining comics, focusing on the question on an analysis of the assumption that comics must contain pictures to be defined as such. The author's discussion is grounded in the books "The Comics," by Coulton Waugh and "Understanding Comics," by Scott McCloud which argue for the necessity of pictures in comics, a view named the pictorial thesis by the author. Topics include an analysis of Gary Larson's comics with a view of the proposition that pictures contain nothing, a thought experiment based on "Batman #663," written by Grant Morrison and drawn by John van Fleet, and the mereology of comics.