Between terra incognita and silence: Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz’s Sztuka Komiksu [The art of comics] and comics theory behind the Iron Curtain

This article discusses the comics theory study Sztuka Komiksu: Próba Definicji Nowego Gatunku Artystycznego [The Art of Comics: Attempt at Defining a New Artform]. Published in 1985 by the Polish scholar Krzysztof Teodor Toeplitz (1933–2010), the book has not been translated into English and remains relatively unknown to the international community of comics scholars. Sztuka Komiksu is contextualised alongside contemporary English‑language milestones, including Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art and Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. Rather than positioning it as a missing ‘third pillar,’ the article argues that Toeplitz’s study represents a parallel development in comics theory that emerged under different political, linguistic, and academic conditions. Toeplitz’s analyses of sequentiality, visual narration, and the formal distinctiveness of comics demonstrate that similar conceptual frameworks were being articulated behind the Iron Curtain when the foundational Anglophone works appeared. By situating Sztuka Komiksu within this historical and intellectual landscape, the article reflects on what Toeplitz’s work reveals about the development of comics theory. Recognising his contribution enriches the understanding of how comics was theorised across different cultural and ideological contexts.