The Temporalities and Radical Possibilities of American Comics" (2020)
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UnUniivveersrsiittyy of WiWissconconssiinn MiMillwawaukukeeee UWM DDiigigittaall CCommonommonss Theses and Dissertations May 2020 Historical Dissidence: The Temporalities and Radical PossibiliPossibilities ties of AmeAmeriricacann CComiomicscs Jeremy M. Carnes University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, and the United States History Commons RReecommecommennddeedd CCiittaattiionon Carnes, Jeremy M., "Historical Dissidence: The Temporalities and Radical Possibilities of American Comics" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 2361. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2361 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HISTORICAL DISSIDENCE: THE TEMPORALITIES AND RADICAL POSSIBILITIES OF AMERICAN COMICS by Jeremy M. Carnes A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2020 ABSTRACT HISTORICAL DISSIDENCE: THE TEMPORALITIES AND RADICAL POSSIBILITIES OF AMERICAN COMICS by Jeremy M. Carnes The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2020 Under the Supervision of Professor Jason Puskar Formal criticism of comics has often focused on the importance of sequence and the filling of gutters with causative logics. Practitioner-theorists like Will Eisner and Scott McCloud have focused on “sequentiality” and “closure” to conceive of how readers connect the disparate panels of a given comic. More contemporary scholars of the form have followed Eisner and McCloud, foregrounding the causative logics that create narrative progression in the comics form. Yet, these approaches implicitly rely on dominant, western logics of temporality in the construction of narrative in comics. This project considers how comics form actually relies on various temporalities and thus complicates a single, dominant approach to historical consciousness. I argue that comics work as historically dissident cultural productions given the ways comics forms anatomize and even actively question normative western temporality and history. I take a broader approach to form, considering the aesthetic, narrative, and publication elements formally. Such an approach keeps this study from focusing solely on auteur comics or mainstream comics. In fact, I explore these formal elements in comics like Richard McGuire’s Here, Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers, Marvel’s The Uncanny X-Men and Black Panther, Moonshot: The Indigenous Comics Collection, and Red: A Haida Manga. Because comics are ephemeral pulp and because they ii offer fragmented narratives that are often mutated from accepted forms, they rely on a flexible understanding of how time works, how narratives progress, and what it means to tell a story. Thus, comics forms actually encourage readers to question their own experiences of western, imperial, or heteronormative histories. iii © Copyright by Jeremy M. Carnes, 2020 All Rights Reserved iv For Jessica, Dreamy Codack, and Eila v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures.................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... x INTRODUCTION: TELLING TIME IN COMICS FORMS............................................ 1 Historical Dissidence.............................................................................................. 5 Queer, Postcolonial, and Indigenous Temporalities............................................. 12 Methodology......................................................................................................... 15 I. THINKING TIME AND HISTORY: HERE, IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS............................................................. 21 The Formal Characteristics of Comics Time........................................................ 25 Here and the Complication of Dominant Temporalities....................................... 32 Historical Dissidence from Page to Collection..................................................... 43 II. THE QUEER STATUS QUO: QUEER TIME AND MARVEL’S X-MEN UNIVERSE................................................................................................................. 63 Queer Temporality and Queer Comics Studies.................................................... 69 The Queer Politics of Comic Book Time Travel.................................................. 74 Collective Kinships and Time in Queer Worlds................................................... 84 Queerness, Contingency, and Retroactivity.......................................................... 93 III. “CONJURING MY OWN MYTHOLOGY”: REORIENTATION, RETROACTIVE DECOLONIZATION, AND MARVEL’S BLACK PANTHER...102 Reorienting American History............................................................................ 111 Revisiting Origins............................................................................................... 117 vi Recovering Wakanda’s “Deep Past” ................................................................. 132 IV. DEEP TIME, VAST PLACE, AND THE AFFORDANCES OF INDIGENOUS COMICS................................................................................... 142 Deep Time and Vast Place.................................................................................. 148 Ways of Seeing Connections.............................................................................. 153 The Aesthetics of Haida Gwaii Across Time and Space ................................... 170 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 181 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 183 CURRICULUM VITAE................................................................................................. 198 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Little Nemo in Slumberland, September 9, 1907............................................... 27 Figure 2. Indigenous Leaders and Dutch Colonists in Here............................................. 34 Figure 3. Opening Spread in Here.................................................................................... 36 Figure 4. An Early Page in Here....................................................................................... 37 Figure 5. The First Superimposition in Here.................................................................... 37 Figure 6. 1623, 1957, and 1999 Simultaneously in Here................................................. 40 Figure 7. The Opening Illustration of In the Shadow of No Towers................................. 48 Figure 8. “Gott in Himmel!” ............................................................................................ 50 Figure 9. Transhistorical Superimposed Postcards in No Towers.................................... 53 Figure 10. “Marital Blitz” in No Towers.......................................................................... 60 Figure 11. Cover of Uncanny X-Men #141....................................................................... 78 Figure 12. Opening Splash Page of Uncanny X-Men #141.............................................. 79 Figure 13. Depiction of Kitty as Older Kate’s Psyche Leaves Her Body......................... 82 Figure 14. Opening Splash Page of Uncanny X-Men #142.............................................. 87 Figure 15. Opening Splash Page of New Mutants #48..................................................... 91 Figure 16. A Confrontation Between Rayne and Dani..................................................... 92 Figure 17. Jungle Action #22.......................................................................................... 114 Figure 18. Jungle Action #22’s Ending........................................................................... 115 Figure 19. The Opening of Fantastic Four #53 (1966) ................................................. 121 Figure 20. Visiting the Past in Hudlin’s Black Panther (2005)...................................... 127 Figure 21. T’Chaka Showing the Power of Wakanda.................................................... 128 viii Figure 22. Placing Black Panther Within the 1960s Marvel Universe........................... 129 Figure 23. Jakarra from Rise of the Black Panther #5 (2018)........................................ 131 Figure 24. The Djalia...................................................................................................... 135 Figure 25. Shuri Learning about Adowa in the Djalia.................................................... 137 Figure 26. T’Challa on History....................................................................................... 139 Figure 27. Visiting the Cree Home World in “Ue-Pucase: Water Master”.................... 158 Figure 28. Chi-Bonnee’s Dream in “Ue-Pucase: Water Master”................................... 160 Figure 29. The Dispectors from “Ayanisach” ................................................................ 161 Figure 30. Steampunk