Breaking Radio Silence: What's Been Up With Research and Teaching

It's been a great while since I've posted to this blog, but I'm back and hope to be consistently posting once again. I did manage to get a lot of comics-related work done this summer, both on the Marvel 1976 project and on an essay called "More at Stake: Vampires and the Comics Code." That work and the current work I'm doing on The Electric Company and their partnership with Marvel in the 1970s (remember Spidey Super Stories? Spider-Man's recurring appearances on the television show?) really seem to be swirling around the same ideas regarding multimodal literacy that I've been developing over the last several years. So, over the last few months, the larger project has been becoming more coherently articulated in my head and that's been very exciting. I'll try to spin out some of these ideas and the relationships I see between them over the next few months.

The other pressing issue right now is book orders for next semester's Contemporary Graphic Novels seminar. Here's my mostly finalized list (in no particular order). Any comments would be much appreciated.

Fell: Feral City (Ellis/Templesmith)
Batman: Year One (Miller/Mazzucchelli)
DMZ: On the Ground (Wood/Burchielli)
Fables: Legends in Exile (Willingham/Medina)
Swallow Me Whole (Powell)
The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard (Campbell/Best)
The Sandman: The Dream Hunters (Gaiman/Russell)
Exit Wounds (Modan)
Nat Turner (Baker)

There you have it. I'll likely be having the students in the seminar blogging here about graphic novels in the collection at UW's Leddy Library, so stay tuned for that beginning in January. And I promise not to take six months between posts again. No, really.

Marvel 1976 Project

As I mentioned in my last post, I am just beginning work on a book-length project that uses Marvel comics circa 1976 as its frame. The natural question, of course, is why this focus? Why 1976? Why Marvel? Why not DC 1985 or Charlton 1968? Or why not Marvel in the 1960s?

Let me explain. In March we taped an episode The Comic Book Syndicate on which I was a guest panelist (the episode will premiere on Wednesday, May 6 at Phog Lounge and will soon be on Cogeco in Windsor). As one segment, Michael Poirier asked us each to talk about the first comic we remember reading. It wasn't one specific comic that came to mind, but a storyline in Marvel Team-Up that involved Spider-Man and the Scarlet Witch traveling back in time to the Salem Witch Trials.The storyline, which featured Cotton Mather as one of the villains, played out over several issues, pulling my ten-year old self into the narrative in ways I had never experienced before in my casual reading of Spider-Man, Batman, or Archie.

That story arc led me to explore the rest of the Marvel universe, or at least the small corner of it that I could afford and that was available to me at the local drugstore. It led me to, among other things, the first issue of Nova, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, The Amazing Spider-Man, and the first issue of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. In other words, 1976 was the real beginning of my real interest in comics and the point at which Marvel became an important sponsor of my multimodal literacy, an idea about which I've written in "Marveling at The Man Called Nova: Comics as Sponsors of Multimodal Literacy" (College Composition and Communication 59.2, December 2007). As I thought about those issues of Marvel Team-Up and the other Marvel comics I consumed that year, it dawned on me that by focusing on Marvel comics in 1976, I could productively expand on the ideas I had begun to develop in "Marveling." The frame would allow me to discuss not only multimodal literacy, but related issues such as continuity, materiality, paratextuality, and intertextuality, and the ways in which the literacies I was developing by reading Marvel comics were intimately connected with the literacies I was developing through other sponsors of literacy in my life.

For example, in reading those issues of Marvel Team-Up, not only was I fascinated by the superheroes and their predicaments, I became so curious about Salem, the Witch Trials, and Cotton Mather that I went to the school library to find out more. For the first time history mattered to me as a ten-year old boy in rural Alberta and so, at a very rudimentary level, I began to explore it.

And, of course, the comics drew me into the world of the American bicentennial, leading me to wonder about what that all meant. What were they celebrating? Why? In essence, though I couldn't have named it at the time, I was beginning to ask questions about national identity and about my identity as a Canadian (read not-American). Hard stuff for a kid, but comics made me begin to grapple with these issues and have conversations with my friends about them.

So, why Marvel and why 1976? Short answer: because it helps me to situate my thinking about a variety of questions regarding literacy and comics. That said, I'm planning to read everything Marvel produced that year (I realized the cover date is a couple of months later than when it came out, but using a 1976 cover date simplifies the frame). That's a lot of comics -- just over 500. I'll be tracking them down in multiple forms (back issues, Essential editions, Marvel digital database, Michigan State) and thinking about the experience of reading those multiple formats will form part of the project as well.

Wish me luck as I go back in time and visit my ten-year old self. It should be interesting.

Contemporary Graphic Novel Seminar: Over Now, But Back Next Yeat

Here we are at the end of another semester. I want to thank all of the members of my Contemporary Graphic Novel Seminar for all of their great contributions to the blog over the last several months. It proved to be a fascinating class and I'm pleased that readers got to see just a bit of the complex thinking about comics that students did. Again, thanks to all who contributed, both in class and on the blog. And thanks as well to Jeff Lemire for his productive visit to class and for his wonderful reading. It was a great semester.

A lot of the students who are currently in their 3rd year at UW have asked me if I'm going to be teaching this course next year, so I am happy to announce that I will be teaching the Contemporary Graphic Novel Seminar in the Winter 2010 semester. I'm looking forward to more great conversations about comics and comics theory; readers can look forward to a whole new set of guest bloggers for More Than Words.

In the meantime, I'll be back with my regular musings about comics, theory, literacy, and education. As I do so, I plan to use the blog to do some thinking about a larger research project that involves Marvel 1976. More on that in the next couple of days.

Loss of Innocence, The Gain of Black

The Three Musketeers, The Illiad, The Wizard of Oz and The Picture of Dorian Gray: what do all these classic novels have in common? It may or may not surprise you, but Marvel has constructed all of these famous pieces of literature into the graphic novel form. The fact that such books are becoming part of the comic book realm signifies how the graphic novel has gained respect and credibility over the past several years. The transformation of these books out of their original form is definitely something to think about—comic books may tell the same story but they convey meaning differently, which completely alters how readers interact and interpret the text. After all, if comic books told the story the same way as a book with mere text, why would anyone consider altering its medium?

The basic plot line consists of an artist named Basil Hallward who paints a picture of the innocent, Dorian Gray and finishes it just as he introduces Dorian to Lord Harry. Hallward quickly regrets introducing the men to one another as Lord Harry puts ideas into Dorian’s head of how tragic it is that he will continue to grow old but his painting will forever be beautiful. Through a plea, Dorian unknowingly gives up his soul to reverse the process in which his body will always remain beautiful and youthful while the picture will age. Ultimately, with no soul, Dorian increasingly loses his innocence into a state of pure evilness committing several terrible acts no one ever thought he would be capable of. As he changes emotionally and spiritually, the picture changes physically becoming more horrific and disturbing with the amount of immoral acts that he commits.

After familiarizing myself with comic book theory and applying it to The Picture of Dorian Gray, I found it interesting how visuals and words worked together in a multimodal fashion to convey the themes, motifs and symbols. Several themes are depicted throughout the relationship between text and images, such as realism and romance as conveyed in art, the dichotomy of young and old and the loss of innocence. For the purpose of this blog, I will focus primarily on the last theme.

While the original novel evokes the theme of innocence with its depiction of the colour white, the colour black is incorporated in the graphic novel to symbolize Dorian’s growing corruption and loss of morality. The panels are always painted black but as the novel progresses and Dorian Gray becomes increasingly sinful, these dark panels become thicker, intensifying the dreary mood. This technique evokes Groensteen’s theories on the panel from "System of Comics." In this piece, he argues that the mere existence of panels in comic books makes them loaded with meaning and they can never be neutral even if they are white. Therefore, the dark mood and feeling of uneasiness that these panels establish correlate to the overall theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

It is interesting to note as well that while Sybil is typically dressed in light, pastel colours, right as she tells Dorian that she wants to give up her acting, there is a shadow over her dress that makes it look like she is literally dressed in black. In addition, in the midst of Dorian ending their relationship, Sybil leans over him to kiss his hand in which her entire face is blocked out as a black silhouette. Her change of dress and blackened face may be seen as a foreshadowing for Dorian’s change. This scene with Sybil is the first selfish and cruel act that he commits which signifies the initial step to his losing of innocence. Her blackness as an innocent character reminds the reader that all people are capable of losing their sense of purity and all humans have the potential to commit immoral acts (just like Dorian Gray).

The relationship between the text and images of Dorian in this scene also reveals the growing loss of his innocence as a young man. Originally, his body language presented him to have a delicate nature as a gentleman when he shook hands warmly and made eye contact when he greeted other characters. However, in this scene when ending the relationship with Sybil, his body language evokes a sense of coldness and distance, which correlates to his unkind and insensitive words. He tells Sybil, “You have killed my love” when he looks carelessly to the ground as she stands over him. He repeats this phrase more abrasively by shrugging her off, glaring with an angry face. Again, with the final panel before he leaves her, there is a dark shadow over his face as he states, “What are you now [without your art]? A third-rate actress with a pretty face.”

Marvel’s The Picture of Dorian Gray shows how the comic book medium can evoke major themes from the classic text through its multimodal nature. The relationship between text and images helps extrapolate various themes often through complex and sophisticated modes. For some reason, visuals in literature have been discredited while words are placed at an utmost importance. However, visuals can be just as stimulating and evoke imagination in different ways than text does alone (as we have seen in this novel). Since the “picture” of Dorian Gray is a loaded, iconic symbol, it seems only appropriate that The Picture of Dorian Gray should be captured into the form of a comic book.

Black Hole -- Charles Burns

The story is set in the 1970’s at a highschool in Seattle. The main character/couple in the graphic novel are ‘Keith’ and ‘Chris’ (female character). This ‘Black Hole’ graphic novel allows readers to take a giant step back into time and possibly remember or create the highschool never and worries of fitting in. Charles Burns wrote this graphic novel to raise awareness of STDs and AIDS, because this subject was not spoken of and also not educated
This comic in particular is very important in my opinion to the education of young teenagers who are sexually active or beginning to engage in sexual activity. Charles Burns raises awareness about sexually transmitted disease. This telling tale is strictly fictional, plot wise but the dangers of unprotected sex are very real. The strange plague preys on teenagers through sexual content is a clever way to educate and provide a scare tactic for parents. The importance of text and visual in this piece is understanding that the teens are not aware of what the plague is or how exactly it is transmitted. They have an idea but I don’t think they realize the seriousness of this issue because it is not talked about. I believe that the relationship between the text and its morals plus the images gave a multimodal meaning to this graphic novel. For example, when Chris gets out of the water and we get a visual image on the entire page that is only the back of her naked body. She has the ‘plague’ and it is ripping her skin apart starting from the spine. All of this teenagers see this and are dumbfounded but know to stay away from her. This is a multimodal approach to Charles Burns graphic novel. Black Hole describes a dark passage of time where we cannot see what it is that is infecting us because we refuse to acknowledge it. Burns bring this to our attention many times and in many different ways. From the woman who has a tail to main character, Chris who has a fear of holes and openings… hence his plagued body that consists of a hole in the center of his neck.
I took out the graphic novel ‘Black Hole’ by Charles Burns from the Leddy library. I was mesmerized by the use black and white images that concentrated on black bold visuals to convey a dark truth.
Comics are useful in education because of the theory multi-modality where words, images and gestures are put together to make meaning. This is very useful for those who are not literate in English or any other language for that matter that is translated or written in a different language for comics. Have you noticed that
I believe that by Burns delivering these important messages for safe sex he is using forms of reflexivity. From Jones article regards author’s reflexive voice, it is clear, to myself that the ‘Black Hole’s’ narrator/ character… Keith is a representation and form of reflexivity—authorial awareness using Keith’s character to come through the text and be able to go through the discovery of illness, sex and character.

CROSSED -- Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows

I went down to Rogues Gallery in search of a comic. I told the very friendly and helpful young man that I was looking for something that I was going to be excited about reading... something twisted... wrong... sexy... hellish... raunchy... gross, perhaps?... and so the 'very friendly and helpful young man' asked me how I felt about zombies... I love zombies and so, there it was ... he suggested and later presented me with the "Crossed" comic series from Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows.
I was not aware of Garth Ennis' twisted reputation for comic book writing. I flipped through the comic and there was alot of blood, alot of gore and alot more disturbing images... that I am guessing I asked for. This comic definitely grasped my attention and left a lot of lines on my forehead. Garth Ennis uses many different types of panels—but one in particular is his two page spread that has to be the most disturbing and questionable form of art. While the zombies are ripping apart the young daughter, they proceed to use crude (anal, masturbation) sexual content that by far is the most moving spread from the entire comic. In fact… when I think of ‘Crossed’, I think of that sexually gory detailed two page spread.
This comic is used for complete sick pleasure. I would definitely recommend it to those who crave an ‘eye opener/jaw dropped’ but it is not suitable for young children in the least and I’ve heard that some adults have a hard time taking in these images.
I read ‘Crossed’ a couple of times and I did not cover any panels as I read. I simply read it word for word and image by image. I really felt the author’s authorial awareness /reflexive voice come to life. In Jones article, he talks about how the authors foreground the narrating voice and speak through characters. But I don’t think that the text is something that Garth Ennis was shining through, rather the images and shocking ideas. When people at the comic book store saw ME buying Garth Ennis comics they had huge grins and eyes. I didn’t get what the big deal was… but later I found out that Garth Ennis’ sick imagery comes to life in the zombies’ character. The zombies speak for the sick world that takes over Garth’s mind and leads him to create such twisted graphics for comics. So apparently Garth Ennis has a 'reputation' for raunch.

Adapting a Classic: Marvel Illustrated tackles Treasure Island!

Marvell Illustrated has adapted many classic literary work such as Dumas' The Man in the Iron Mask (April 2008), Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (April 2008), Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey (September 2008), Homer's The Illiad (November 2008), Melville's Moby Dick (October 2008) and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (April 2008).

Writer Roy Thomas, admits that his first interaction with the story was through film; the 1950's Disney version featuring Robert Newton as Long John Silver and Bobby Driscoll as young, Jim Hawkins. The reader can see the film's influence in comparing the graphic novel cover and the film cover from the movie. The characters of Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins were drawn to look very similar to the actors from this version of the film and even echo each other in a this screen caption.

The film influence can also been see in the choice of panels throughout the novel. Like in film, when a particular event is supposed to cause tension in the audience the frames are long, rectangular panels that show the eyes of a scared Jim Hawkins and the events that surround him.

Personally, I believe it is a perfect story for the comics medium based generally on the content and audience that is the same in the cases of The Illiad, The Man in the Iron Mask, Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohicans. Treasure Island is essentially "a boys' adventure novel--or an adventure novel period" says Thomas (Thomas, i). Like some of the great superhero comics, it has an "intriguing, and richly-described setting... well-drawn and fascinating characters... and a story that just won't quit" (i). The villain, Long Joh Silver, is if not more so, than just as terrifying as Lex Luthor any day with young, bright-eyed boy characters who strive for justice.

Thomas claims that the challenges of adaptation included "paring down its approximately 250 pages to the 132 pages of a graphic novel, to be published first in six equal-size installments" (ii). He also references the problem with stories that have been adapted many times over: "the most quoted lines from the novel are usually misquoted" (ii). The name Billy Bones, used in all the movies and the television shows, never appears in the original work because the character is referred to as Bill Bones (ii). Also the line "fifteen men on a dead man's chest" is actually supposed to say "the dead man's chest" (ii).

Thomas even admits to making a mistake in the costuming that they didn't get away with: "An English-born friend informed me later, men's ties didn't really come along till a few decades later" (i). He also reveals that by reading the novel again, he realized that "Long John Silver...is a [much] more three-dimensional, fascinating personage than [he] had remembered from either the film or the novel. He is the focal point of the story the thing on which one's pleasure in it rises and falls" (ii). This could explain the first page and last pages of the graphic novel that show the larger, main image of Long John Silver with a smaller picture of Jim Hawkins at the bottom-left or upper-right corner. Also the cover design emphasized Long John Silver over Jim, as well as in the multiple versions featured in the last pages of the graphic novel.

Thomas says that "the editors as well as the artists and I tried to make certain we used the right kinds of guns and ships and scenery, as far as possible" ( i). He hopes that the graphic novel version of the story will give fans "an excuse to read [it] again" and to create fans out of other comics readers. Lastly, he describes the problem with adapting this particular novel, over others, was the entire narration spoken by the character, Jim Hawkins (ii). There was the temptation, says Thomas, to leave out the narration but "Jim's captions are dialogue, in their way, nearly as much as are the conversations between him and Silver" (ii). While Thomas credits the movie as influencing the graphic adaptation, he lastly states that "[Jim's] narration gives the novel its point of view. A graphic novel adaptation should, I think, be more than just a movie on paper" (ii).