University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2006 Icon, representation and virtuality in reading the graphic narrative David Steiling University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Steiling, David, "Icon, representation and virtuality in reading the graphic narrative" (2006). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/2713 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Icon, Representation and Virtuality in Reading the Graphic Narrative by David Steiling A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Phillip Sipiora, Ph.D Silvio Gaggi, Ph.D. Victor Peppard, Ph.D. Joseph Moxley, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 8, 2006 Keywords: comics, graphic novel, illustrated novel, stereotype, multi-modal narrative, © Copyright 2006, David Steiling Dedication For my wife, Sarah Warren, who has made any success I have had possible. I am grateful for my life with her and our son. I owe everything to her tolerance and patience, her consideration and her love. Acknowledgements I would like to appreciate the late Dr. Jack Moore of the Department of English for his initial support of what was then a very unusual dissertation. I wish to extend my thanks also to Dr. Phillip Sipiora for his willingness to undertake direction of the dissertation after the untimely death of Dr. Moore. I am also grateful for the support of my academic institution, The Ringling School of Art and Design and its President, Dr. Larry Thompson, who provided support for my efforts with a semester’s sabbatical leave. Conversations with the late Will Eisner, Howard Cruse, Mary GrandPré, Brian Clevinger, Ho Che Anderson, Joan Stavely, Kim Deitch, Joe Sacco, Bill Griffith and Diane Noomin contributed substantially to my understanding of the ideas laid out in this discussion. My interaction with students over the last 15 years that I have taught classes in the comics and graphic narrative has helped shape several discussions in this dissertation. I was materially aided by the opportunity to organize and coordinate The Comics Summit on Diversity at the Ringling School of Art, March 15-19 of 2003, an initiative created by the campus committee on diversity and funded by the president of the college. Portions of my dissertation were presented in early versions at two symposiums on the graphic narrative held at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 2001 and 2002. Table of Contents List of Figures iii Abstract vii Critical Introduction 1 Chapter One Prelude: Hogarth and Virtuality in the Early 12 Graphic Narrative Hogarth and the Prototype of the Graphic 33 Narrator Chapter Two Literature and the Graphic Narrative 38 Chapter Three “Icon” and “Virtuality” 48 Virtuality and Illustration 54 Ernst, Evocation and the Graphic Narrative 64 Virtuality and the Continuum from Absence to Presence 82 Chapter Four Representation, Iconic mode and the 96 Contemporary Illustrated Novel Reading Breakfast of Champions as a 105 i Graphic Narrative From the Novel with Illustrations to the 126 Illustrated Novel Chapter Five Icon, Stereotype and the Ethics of Representation 166 in the Graphic Narrative Summary Conclusion 263 Works Cited 280 Illustrations 285 Notes 288 Appendices Appendix A 290 About the Author End Page ii List of Figures Page Number Plate One of Hogarth’s Hogarth’s of One Fig. 1 Plate A Harlot’s Progress 20 Plate Two of Hogarth’s Hogarth’s of Two Fig. 2 Plate A Harlot’s Progress 29 Fig. 3 Limited Edition Cans Issued by Campbells 51 Fig. 4 A Set of Silk Screen Prints by Andy Warhol 51 Fig. 5 Collage from the Hundred-Headed Woman 64 Fig. 6 Collage from Une Semaine de Bonte 64 Fig. 7a-i Plates from Une Semaine de Bonte Thursday 66-68 Fig. 8a-f Plates from Une Semaine de Bonte, pgs. 43-48 69-70 Fig. 9a-d Pages from New Motor Queen City 81 Fig. 10 Page from Little Nemo in Slumberland 86 Fig. 11 Nemo Wakes 87 Fig. 12 McCay Creates the Virtual Space of the Dream 89 Fig. 13 McCloud on Iconic Content 99 Fig. 14 McCloud on Levels of Abstraction 100 Fig. 15 Photorealism to Icon 101 Fig. 16a-b Perception of Icon 101-102 Fig. 17a-b Becoming the Cartoon 102 iii Fig. 18 Beaver icons from Breakfast of Champions 110 Fig. 19a Light Switch 112 Fig. 19b Asterix 112 Fig. 20 Sanitary Strip 113 Fig. 21 Pop Art Cover 115 Fig. 22a Cow 116 Fig. 22b Burger 116 Fig. 23 Look Mickey 118 Fig. 24 Source Image for Takka Takka 119 Fig. 25 Takka Takka 120 Fig. 26 Kaikaikiki News 124 Fig. 27a Harry Potter 127 Fig. 27b Mary GrandPré 127 Fig. 28 Harry Potter Title Logo 128 Fig. 29 Chapter Illustrations for Harry Potter 129 Fig. 30 The Little King 131 Fig. 31 “ Pagein 12 of Frank The River” 132 Page 182 from Craig Thompson’s Thompson’s Craig from 182 Fig. 32 Page Blankets 137 “Victorian Novel” Illustration for for Illustration Novel” Fig. 33 “Victorian Diary of a 147 Teenage Girl At Monroe’s Apartment Fig.Monroe’s 34 At 149 Fig. 35 Minnie in Crisis 151 Charlie’s Workshop Fig. 36 Charlie’s 157 iv Charlie’s Pani Fig. 37 Charlie’s c 159 Fig. 38 Three Seasons 160 Fig. 39 A Baroque Cartoon 162 Fig. 40 Label the Stereotype 170 Fig. 41 The Basis of Stereotypical Imagery 172 Fig. 42 Employing Characters that Resemble Animals 175 Fig. 43 Standards of Reference 176 Fig. 44 Stereotypical Humor 177 Eisner’s Apparatus Fig. 45 Eisner’s 179 Fig. 46 Double Entendre 183 Fig. 47 Night and Day 189 Fig. 48 Remarks on the Methods of Procuring Slaves 192 Fig. 49 Ally Sloper in Africa 194 Fig. 50 Mickey on a Desert Island 196 Fig. 51 Musical Mose 197 Fig. 52 Intentional Offense 204 Fig. 53 Threatening Stereotypes 209 Bitchin’ Bod Fig. 54 A Bitchin’ First Panel Detail 210 Fig. 55 A Panel Showing the Big Foot Style 212 Fig. 56a Keye Luke and Mantan Moreland 214 Fig. 56b Eddie Anderson and Lena Horne 214 Bitchin’ Bod Fig. 57 Bitchin’ 219 Fig. 58 Franklin 228 v Fig. 59 Lieutenant Flap 229 Fig. 60 Puffy and Entourage 230 Fig. 61 Stuck Rubber Baby 231 Fig. 62a-b Photos are Turned into Comics. 238 Fig. 63 I Just Married a Frog 245 Fig. 64 Lara Croft in Rare Repose 249 Fig. 65 Screenshot from The Sims 252 Fig. 66 Screenshot from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 254 Fig. 67 Intimacy in The Sims 258 vi Icon, Representation and Virtuality in Reading the Graphic Narrative David Steiling Abstract con,” “representation,” and “virtual and “representation,” “Icon,” ity,” are key elements to consider when reading multi-modal narratives, including graphic narratives. By considering in detail how these elements are realized in various examples, the author shows how the study of the comics can lay groundwork for critical reading across the technological continuum of storytelling. The author looks at how icon, representation, and virtuality interact in a reading of William Hogarth’s A Harlot’s Progress. He then examines each term in more detail through readings of a variety of graphic narratives including Max Ernst’s, Une Semaine de Bonte, Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, Craig Thompson’s Blankets, Phoebe Gloeckner’s Diary of a Teenage Girl, and Posy Simmonds’s Gemma Bovery. The author distinguishes between two types of virtuality, internal and external, and ties the construction of virtuality to reader response theory. In exploring issues related to the icon, the author builds on Scott McCloud’s vii conjecture that the iconic character is the means through which the reader inhabits the virtual space of the graphic story. The author advances the proposition that icons are metonymies and that graphic narratives are centered in metonymic, not metaphoric devices. He also undertakes a discussion of how icon operates within the expanding tradition of the illustrated novel.” novel.” “illustrated Throughout the dissertation an attempt is made to express observation and analysis through continuous instead of binary descriptors in order to emphasize the cooperative rather than oppositional arrangements of word and image within the graphic narrative. The dissertation concludes with an extended examination of Will Eisner’s contention that the use of stereotype is a necessity in graphic storytelling. Examples from Frederik Strömberg’s Black Images in the Comics are used to test this theory and illustrate its consequences. The treatise finishes with an analysis of approaches to representation that avoid stereotypical treatment, are inclusive but sufficiently flexible to operate through caricature..These observations are applied to issues of characterization and representation in electronic gaming narrative. The author concludes that ethics, effectiveness, reputation and empathy are all compromised when artists resort to stereotypes. viii Critical Introduction The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of the graphic narrative as a genre through which we can connect traditional literary study with the study of complex multi-modal narratives. In this discussion I attempt to describe some specific ways the study of the graphic narrative can connect to the study of narrative in emerging technologies like electronic gaming and virtual reality. The controlling thesis of the exposition is that ―icon,‖ ―representation,‖ and ―virtual ity,‖ are key elements to consider when reading multi-modal narratives, including graphic narratives, and that these three elements form a continuous platform from which to observe and read narratives that are related in multisensory form.