Myth in the Heroic Comic-Book: a Reading of Archetypes from the Number One Game and Its Models
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Myth in the Heroic Comic-book: a reading of archetypes from The Number One Game and its models Robert A.C. Birch Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Visual Arts Stellenbosch University December 2008 Declaration By submitting this thesis electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the owner of the copyright thereof (unless to the extent explicitly otherwise stated) and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. Date: 10 December 2008 Copyright © 2008 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Summary Title: Mythic Formulations in the Heroic Comic-book: a reading of archetypes from The Number One Game and its models This thesis considers the author's project submission, a comic-book entitled The Number One Game, as production of a local heroic myth. The author will show how this project attempts to engage with mythic and archetypal material to produce an entertaining narrative that has relevance to contemporary Cape Town. The narrative adapts previous incarnations of the hero, with reference to theories of archetypes and mythic patterning devices that are derived from the concept of the “mono-myth”. Joseph Campbell's conception of myth as expressing internal psychic processes will be compared to Roland Barthes' reading of myth as a special inflection of speech that forms a semiotic “metalanguage”. The comic-book is a specific form of the language of comics, a combination of image and text that is highly structured and that can produce a rich graphic text. Using the Judge Dredd and Batman comic-books as models it will be shown how The Number One Game adapts traditions of representation, such as in genre references, to local perspective to create a novel interplay of archetypes. It will be shown that this interplay in the author's project work and the rich potential of the comic-book as a site for mythic speech makes the mythic a useful paradigm for considering the expression of ideology in the heroic comic-book. Opsomming Titel: Mitiese Formulerings in die Heroïese Strokiesprent-boek: ’n Interpretasie van argetipes in The Number One Game en modelle Hierdie tesis neem die skrywer se projek-voorlegging, ’n strokiesprent-boek met die titel The Number One Game, as ’n skepping van ’n plaaslike heroïese mite in oënskou. Die outeur sal demonstreer hoe hierdie projek poog om deur interaksie met mitiese en argetipale materiaal ’n onderhoudende verhaal te produseer wat ’n verband met die hedendaagse Kaapstad het. Die verhaal gebruik aanpassings van vorige inkarnasies van die held, met verwysing na teorieë van argetipes en mitiese patroon-hulpmiddels (mythic patterning devices), wat van die konsep van die ‘mono-mite’ afgelei is. Joseph Campbell se voorstelling van mite as die uitbeelding van interne psigiese prosesse sal vergelyk word met Roland Barthes’ se interpretasie van mite as ’n spesiale spraakinfleksie wat ’n semiotiese ‘metataal’ vorm. Die strokiesprent-boek is ’n spesifieke vorm van die taal van ‘comics’, ’n kombinasie van beeld en teks wat hoogs gestruktureer is en wat ’n ryk grafiese teks kan voortbring. Met behulp van die Judge Dredd en Batman strokiesprent-boeke as modelle, sal daar getoon word hoe The Number One Game uitbeeldingstradisies soos in genre-verwysings na plaaslike perspektiewe aanpas om ’n nuwe wisselwerking tussen argetipes te skep. Daar sal gedemonstreer word dat hierdie wisselwerking in die skrywer se projekwerk en die ryk potensiaal van die strokiesprent-boek as ’n terrein vir mitiese spraak, die mitiese as ’n bruikbare paradigma vir die inagneming van die uitdrukking van ideologie in die heroïese strokiesprent-boek bewys. Contents Chapter 1 Introduction: the comic-book as a medium for myth 1 Premise and introduction to the argument 1 An heroic comic-book for Cape Town 2 The mythic story-world and its narrative 3 “Cape Island”: The story-world for The Number One Game 5 Locating the discussion of comic-book narratives 9 Chapter 2 The comic-book as a mythic text 15 Defining the “language of comics” and the “comic-book” 17 Text and image as graphic signs 22 Alternative and mainstream traditions in the comic-book 25 Comic-book “fandom” 29 Chapter 3 The mythic narrative representation 32 Narrative, myth and archetype 32 Settings: Mythic city and archetypal cave 34 The Number One Game's employment of “heroic” traditions 36 Ambiguous heroes: Judge Dredd and Batman 36 Judge Dredd as an archetype 37 Batman as an archetype 39 Joe K as an archetype 42 The villain: Nic Lord 44 The mentor figures: The Bergies 45 The mythic archetypal story in The Number One Game 47 Joe’s heroic journey: Vogler’s mythic narrative scheme 50 The Number One Game: South African myth of progress? 53 Conclusion 54 Chapter 4 The mythic image in the comic-book 56 Introduction 56 Myth as a depleted language: Roland Barthes 59 Visual Style considered as a modality within the genre of the heroic adventure comic-book 62 The visual expression of archetypes in a comic-book 65 The depiction of myth in drawing 70 The page as a visual rhetoric through guided eye travel 75 Lettering the text – Narration, dialogue and sound design in comic-books 85 Conclusion 87 Chapter 5 Conclusions 91 Sources 95 Addendum 1 Story overview 99 Addendum 2 Point form summary of episodes 102 Addendum 3 The Number One Game: Episodes 1-3 complete 115 Addendum 4 156 The Number One Game: Story Bible List of Illustrations 1. The Veritable History of Mr Batchelor Butterfly, 1845, Rodolphe Töpffer page 20 2. Judge Dredd comic strip,“Mermaid” from The Daily Star, 1986 (script by John Wagner, art by Ron Smith) page 39 3. The Legend of Batman, Bob Kane, 1950. Reproduced from Vaz (1989:5-6) page 40 4. Judge Dredd illustration from Judge Dredd Annual 1986. Artist: Pat Mills page 65 5. Line-quality, detail of page from McCloud's Understanding Comics (1993:125) page 71 6. The “cartoon”, detail from page in McCloud’s Understanding Comics (1994:45) page 72 7. “Mask” Effect, detail from page in McCloud’s Understanding Comics (1994:31) page 74 8. An example of the finished page-edge, The Number One Game Page 05, see Addendum 4 page 82 9. Batman # 393 “The Dark Rider”, art by Dick Giordiano (March 1986). Reproduced from Vaz (1989:139) page 84 10. Hand-lettered “sound” versus font for “speech”, detail, The Number One Game. page 86 Chapter 1: Introduction – The comic-book as medium for myth Premise and introduction to the argument In this thesis, “comic-books” will be shown to be a form of visual storytelling that are particularly well suited to the transmission and adaptation of myths. Seeing the reading and writing of comics through a mythic framework will be shown to have been useful in generating the comic-book project, The Number One Game, and will be used for describing its operation as entertainment in this thesis. The relationship between conventions of form and representation, cultural systems, and mythic narrative structures, serve to shape the relationship between the comic-book and its readership. The most obvious synonym for myth is “fictive” or “false” and beyond that the word tends to have associations with archaic or classical tradition. However myth has also been held to preserve an “essential truth” or “fundamental expressions of certain properties of the human mind, and even of basic mental or psychological human organisation” according to Raymond Williams (1988:210). It is this conception of myth, in which archetypes and archetypal patterns are explored (as, for example, in the work of the mythological researcher Joseph Campbell), that I have referenced in constructing the narrative of my project. This use was based on my need for a structuring device, which is offered in derivations of Campbell's concept of the mono-myth, dealt with more fully in Chapter 3. The other conception of myth that has become important to my project is that enunciated by Roland Barthes, particularly in his article “Myth Today”, which he introduces with the statement that, “myth is a type of speech”(2000:109). Barthes sees myth not as a body of content but as a “system of communication” and a “mode of signification” (2000:109) and therefore without a specific ideological purpose. On the other hand, bodies of myth with definite narrative content, such as those identified by Campbell and Christopher Vogler, are made by the encoder, the reader, and the common culture that they share. In spite of their differences, both these accounts of the mythic point out that it is a set of representations that can be charged with being “tired”, “worn-out” and lacking veracity. The derogatory senses of the word “myth”, particularly those that associate mythological speech with a conventionalised untruth, or with “primitive” societies or children’s entertainment, do seem to find purchase in discussion of popular comics in this way. I will argue later in this thesis that it is precisely these characteristics of myth that lay it open to such charges, that make it so 1 productive for my work as a comic-book author1. Contemporary mythic speech, it will be shown, can be an effective way of conceiving and delivering thematic material for entertainment that engages with societal concerns as in The Number One Game2. An heroic comic-book for Cape Town I am aware that there is no pre-existing local (Capetonian or southern african) comic-book culture or reading network that my project can conveniently “slot” into. There have been a number of published anthologies, conferences and exhibitions, but no commercially viable, regular comic- books in the Superhero or other genre traditions.