University of Alberta Telling Stories About Storytelling: The Metacomics of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis by Orion Ussner Kidder A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies ©Orion Ussner Kidder Spring 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Examining Committee Douglas Barbour, English and Film Studies Brad Bucknell, English and Film Studies William Beard, English and Film Studies Steven Harris, Art and Design Bart Beaty, Communications and Culture, University of Calgary This document is the product of work, support, and love from many people, and so there is no one person I could possibly dedicate it to. I would like to thank my parents, Michael Kidder and Joanna Ussner, for giving me both a love of fantasy and the ability to critique it; Dr. Kirsten Uszkalo for suggesting, years ago, that I do a dissertation on comic books at all; Dr. Paul St. Pierre for encouraging me to pursue an Honours English degree at SFU; Jay Rudolph for stating, as a matter of fact, that I would eventually become an English professor; my friends Alexander Hobrough, Jan-Carlo "Jay" Garcia, and Jonathan Wong for engaging with my interest in popular culture and politics; the members of Girl- Wonder.org, specifically Rachel Edidin, for providing me with mature and intelligent fans' perspectives on comics; the graduate-student community at the University of Alberta, specifically but not limited to the English and Film Studies department; and finally, Katie McConchie, the love of my life, for giving me something to look forward to while I toiled on the final stages of this project. Abstract The Revisionist comics of the 1980s to present represent an effort to literally revise the existing conventions of mainstream comics. The most prominent and common device employed by the Revisionists was self-reflexivity; thus, they created metacomics. The Revisionists make a spectacle of critically interrogating the conventions of mainstream comics, but do so using those same conventions: formal, generic, stylistic, etc. At their most practical level, Revisionist metacomics denaturalise the dominant genres of the American mainstream and therefore also denaturalise the ideological underpinnings of those genres. At their most abstract level, they destabilise the concepts of "fiction," "reality," "realism," and "fantasy," and even collapse them into each other. Chapter 1 explains my methodological approach to metacomics: formal (sequence and hybridity), self-reflexive (metafiction, metapictures, metacomics), and finally denaturalising (articulation and myth). Chapter 2 analyses two metacomic cycles in the mainstream (the Crisis and Squadron Supreme cycles) and surveys the self-reflexive elements of Underground comix (specifically with regard to gender and feminist concerns). Chapter 3 presents three motifs in Revisionist comics by which they denaturalise the superhero: the dictator-hero, postmodern historiography, and fantasy genres. Finally, Chapter 4 analyses three major Revisionist comic-book series—Transmetropolitan, Promethea, and Sandman—all of which comment on contemporary culture and the nature of representation using the dominant genres of American comics (science fiction, superhero, and fantasy, respectively). Table of Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Theory.................................................................................................... 8 1.1: Comics and Close "Reading".......................................................................8 1.1.a: Sequence.............................................................................................12 1.1.b: Hybridity............................................................................................ 22 1.2: Meta-.......................................................................................................... 27 1.2.a: Suspension of Belief...........................................................................29 1.2.b: Metafiction......................................................................................... 30 1.2.c: Metapictures....................................................................................... 37 1.2.d: Metacomics........................................................................................ 41 1.3: Naturalisation/Denaturalisation................................................................. 45 1.3.a: Comics as Myths................................................................................ 46 1.3.b: Comics as Articulations..................................................................... 48 1.4: Conclusion................................................................................................. 51 Chapter 2: History..................................................................................................53 2.1: Silver Age.................................................................................................. 63 2.1.a: Crises.................................................................................................. 65 2.1.b: Squadron Supreme............................................................................. 71 2.1.c: Variations on Verisimilitude............................................................... 77 2.2: Underground.............................................................................................. 78 2.2.a: Tales That Drove Them Mad..............................................................79 2.2.b: Enter the Comix................................................................................. 82 2.2.c: The Underground is Revolting........................................................... 88 2.3: Conclusion................................................................................................. 89 Chapter 3: Genre....................................................................................................92 3.1: Dysfunctional Realities.............................................................................. 94 3.1.a: Analogues...........................................................................................95 3.1.b: Formal Self-Reflection.......................................................................99 3.1.c: Benevolent Dictators........................................................................ 106 3.2: Postmodern Silver Age.............................................................................112 3.2.a: Denaturalising the Superhero ........................................................... 114 3.2.b: Historicising the Superhero..............................................................118 3.3: Revisionist Fantasy.................................................................................. 126 3.3.a: Ecological Morality..........................................................................126 3.3.b: Superheroes and Myth......................................................................130 3.4: Conclusion............................................................................................... 134 Chapter 4: Culture................................................................................................137 4.1: Revisionist Fluidity.................................................................................. 139 4.2: Gonzo Cyberpunk.................................................................................... 143 4.2.a: Hunter/Spider................................................................................... 144 4.2.b: New Scum........................................................................................ 149 4.3: Magic....................................................................................................... 157 4.3.a: Sex and Self-Reflection....................................................................159 4.3.b: Apocalyptic Metacomic................................................................... 165 4.4: Dreaming..................................................................................................170 4.4.a: Rejecting Fluidity............................................................................. 170 4.4.b: Accepting Fluidity............................................................................173 4.5: Conclusion............................................................................................... 180 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 182 Works Cited..........................................................................................................185 Table of Figures fig. 1.1: