The Narratology of Comic Art By placing comics in a lively dialogue with contemporary narrative theory, The Narratology of Comic Art builds a systematic theory of narrative comics, going beyond the typical focus on the Anglophone tra­ dition. This involves not just the exploration of those properties in com­ ics that can be meaningfully investigated with existing narrative theory, but an interpretive study of the potential in narratological concepts and analytical procedures that has hitherto been overlooked as well. This research monograph is, then, not an application of narratology in the medium and art of comics, but a revision of narratological concepts and approaches through the study of narrative comics. Thus, while narrato­ logy is brought to bear on comics, equally comics are brought to bear on narratology. Kai Mikkonen is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Routledge Advances in Comics Studies Edited by Randy Duncan, Henderson State University Matthew J. Smith, Radford University 1 Reading Art Spiegelman Philip Smith 2 The Modern Superhero in Film and Television Popular Genre and American Culture Jeffrey A. Brown 3 The Narratology of Comic Art Kai Mikkonen The Narratology of Comic Art Kai Mikkonen First published 2017 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Taylor & Francis The right of Kai Mikkonen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data has been applied for. ISBN: 978­1­138­22155­0 (hbk) ISBN: 978­1­315­41013­5 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by codeMantra Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction: Comics, Narrative, and Medium 1 P ART I Time in Comics 31 1 Time in Comics 33 P I ART I Graphic Showing and Style 71 2 Narration as Showing 73 3 Character as a Means of Narrative Continuity 90 4 Graphic Style, Subjectivity, and Narration 109 P ART III Narrative Transmission 127 5 Narrative Agency (in Jiro Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood) 129 6 Focalisation in Comics 150 7 Characterisation in Comics 174 vi Contents P VART I Speech and Thought in Narrative Comics 201 8 Presenting Minds in Comics 203 9 Dialogue in Comics: Medium­Specific Features and Basic Narrative Functions 220 P ART V Narrative Form and Publication Format 243 10 Picture Story and Narrative Organisation in Early Nineteenth­Century British Caricature and Comic Strips 245 Afterword 277 Bibliography 279 Index 293 List of Figures I.1 “After that it was my turn” © Matti Hagelberg. 1 1.1 “April 20th, 2005.” Building Stories (2012) © Chris Ware. 35 1.2 Extrait de l’ouvrage. A Taste of Chlorine (2011). Bastien Vivès © Casterman. Avec l’aimable autorisation des auteurs et des Editions Casterman. 39 1.3 Matti Hagelberg. Kekkonen (2004) © Matti Hagelberg. 44 1.4 Fred. Philémon. La mémémoire (1977) © Philémon— tome 11, La mémémoire DARGAUD by Fred. All rights reserved www. dargaud.com. 52 1.5 Guy Delisle. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea © 2006 L’Association/Guy Delisle; courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly. 59 1.6 Extrait de l’ouvrage A Taste of Chlorine (2011). Bastien Vivès © Casterman. Avec l’aimable autorisation des auteurs et des Editions Casterman. 62 2.1 John Leech. “Substance and Shadow” (1843). 78 2.2 H.M. Bateman. “The One­Note Man” (1921). 79 2.3 H.M. Bateman. “The One­Note Man” (1921). 80 3.1 Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Saga © 2014 Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples. 93 3.2 Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn. The Walking Dead 4 (2005) © Robert Kirkman. 95 3.3 John Tenniel. “How Mr. Peter Piper Enjoyed a Day’s ‘Pig­Sticking’” (Near Burhampoor, Bengal)’ (1853). 98 3.4 John Tenniel. “Mr. Spoonbill’s Experiences in the Art of Skating” (1855). 100 4.1 Tommi Musturi. Walking with Samuel (2009) © Tommi Musturi. 114 4.2 Winshluss. Pinocchio (2008) © Winshluss. 117 4.3 Winshluss. Pinocchio (2008) © Winshluss. 118 4.4 Manu Larcenet. Blast 4 © Blast—tome 4, Pourvu que les bouddhistes se trompent DARGAUD by Larcenet. All rights reserved www.dargaud.com. 121 viii List of Figures 4.5 Tommi Musturi. Walking with Samuel (2009) © Tommi Musturi. 123 5.1 Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood. Vol. 1. (2009) © 1998 Jiro TANIGUCHI © Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 2016 for the English edition. www.ponentmon.com. 140 5.2 Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood. Vol. 1. (2009) © 1998 Jiro TANIGUCHI © Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 2016 for the English edition. www.ponentmon.com. 141 5.3 Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood. Vol. 1. (2009) © 1998 Jiro TANIGUCHI © Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 2016 for the English edition. www.ponentmon.com. 142 5.4 Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood. Vol. 1. (2009) © 1998 Jiro TANIGUCHI © Fanfare/Ponent Mon, 2016 for the English edition. www.ponentmon.com. 145 6.1 Jarmo Mäkilä. Taxi van Goghin korvaan (2008) © Jarmo Mäkilä. 163 6.2 Emmanuel Guibert, Frédéric Lemercier, and Didier Lefèvre. The Photographer © 2009 by First Second. 163 6.3 From The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Scholastic, Inc./ Arthur A. Levine Books. Copyright © 2006 by Shaun Tan. Reproduced with permission. 169 7.1 Gary Panter. Jimbo’s Inferno © 2006 by Gary Panter. 181 7.2 Guido Martina and Angelo Bioletto. Mickey’s Inferno (1949) © Disney. 182 7.3 Guido Martina and Angelo Bioletto. Mickey’s Inferno (1949) © Disney. 187 7.4 Glyn Dillon. The Nao of Brown © 2012 Glyn Dillon. 191 8.1 Rodolphe Töpffer. Monsieur Vieux Bois (1827). 205 8.2 Charlier and Giraud. Blueberry: Le Spectre aux balles d’or © Blueberry—tome 12, Le spectre aux Balles d’or DARGAUD by Giraud and Charlier. All rights reserved www.dargaud.com. 207 8.3 Madame Bovary par Daniel Bardet et Michel Janvier © Éditions Adonis, 2008. 211 9.1 Abel Lanzac and Christophe Blain. Weapons of Mass Diplomacy © DARGAUD 2010, by Blain (Christophe), Abel Lanzac. 224 9.2 Aapo Rapi. Meti (2008) © Aapo Rapi. 228 9.3 Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. PREACHER. Book One (1995) © Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related elements are trademarks of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. 235 9.4 Jérôme Mulot and Florent Ruppert. Barrel of Monkeys © 2008, Ruppert, Mulot and L’Association, Rebus Books for the English translation. 237 List of Figures ix 10.1 George Cruikshank and J. Pxxxy’s “Back & Front View of the Ladies Fancy­Man, Paddy Carey O’Killus” (1822). Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. 254 10.2 Charles Jameson Grant. Every Body’s Album 15 September 1834. © The British Library Board, LOU. LON 1052. 259 10.3 William Heath. “Life of a Soldier”. Northern Looking Glass XII. 12 December 1825. © The British Library Board, P.P.6223.dba. 261 10.4 William Heath. William Heath. “Life of an Actress”. Northern Looking Glass X. 14 November 1825. © The British Library Board, P.P.6223.dba. 263 10.5 Robert Seymour. “Colonial Slavery”. The Looking Glass, No. 8, 1 August 1830. © The British Library Board, RB.31.c.31. 267 10.6 Robert Seymour. “St. Michael of London”. The Looking Glass, No. 8, 1 August 1830. © The British Library Board, RB.31.c.31. 270 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements The writing of this book would have been impossible without the University of Helsinki Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge, 2014–2015. I am deeply grateful to Maria N ikolajeva, Professor of Education and Director of Children’s Literature Centre of Homerton College, for helping to make that happen. My special thanks are also due to John Calton, Matti Hagelberg, Essi Varis, Philip Jenkins, and Mark Shackleton, and the anonymous readers of Routledge Advances in Comics Studies, for reading earlier drafts of this work. Thank you, Matti, for your artwork and the enjoyable experience of teaching a course together on comics storytelling at the University of Helsinki in 2013. Over the past decade, my work has profited greatly from the input from colleagues and friends involved in the Nordic Network for Comics Research (NNCORE) and the comics studies research committee of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA). I am very grateful for the sense of scholarly community and real friendship that I have enjoyed with the members of these two groups. Portions of earlier versions of some chapters have first appeared in the journals Partial Answers 6.2 (2008), American Studies/ Amerikastudien 56.4 (2011), International Journal of Comic Art 13.2 (2011), and Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art 1 (2012), and in the anthologies The Rise and the Reason of Comics and Graphic Literature (Eds. Joyce Goggin and Dan Hassler­Forest, 2010), From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels (Eds. Daniel Stein and Jan­Noël Thon, 2013, 2nd edition 2015), and Dialogue across Media (Eds. Jarmila Mildorf and Bronwen Thomas, 2017). I would like to express my gratitude to the publishers and the editors for their permission to reproduce this material here. In the same vein, I would like to extend great thanks to all the copyright holders who have generously given the permission to reproduce the images included here.