Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel

Notes

16 NOtEs iNtROduCtiON 1. Comics were considered deprecable examples of lowbrow culture for a long time before being recognized as art. A key moment in the United States was the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent (1954), which led to cultural ostracism and extended prejudice toward what consequently came to be considered a cause of juvenile delinquency (see Nyberg and Wright for further reference), even though comics already had their appreciators (see, for example, Abel and Manning White, or Geipel). Wertham’s theories had consequences in Europe, too, especially in Britain. However, it must be noted that other intellectuals started moving toward recognition of the validity of popular culture—including comics—right from the fifties. Among the fundamental contributions, it is important to remember French critic Roland Barthes with his Mythologies (1957), Italian semiotics expert Umberto Eco (Apocalittici e integrati, 1964; Il superuomo di massa, 1970), and the constitution of the Birmingham Centre for Cultural Studies in the U.K. in the 1960s. For an overview on the ups and downs of comics in social consideration, see Inge and again Wright. 2. Eisner, who was also actively engaged as a comics teacher and scholar (see Comics and Sequential Art, 1985), offers further considerations on the graphic novel in his book Graphic Storytelling (1996). 3. Chris Ware’s work is extremely complex and his comics, which often border on graphic design, constitute an appropriate example of visually constructed narrative. For an overview on his production, I recommend Daniel Raeburn’s concise but fairly complete monograph Chris Ware (2004). ChAptER 1. fORMAL CONsidERAtiONs ON ALAN MOORE’s wRitiNG 1. It is also interesting to remark that Burroughs scripted a short comics story, “The Unspeakable Mr. Hart” (artwork by Malcolm McNeal), that was published in Cyclops magazine in 1964. 2. Moore certainly knows Raymond Williams’s work, as testified by the profound influence that his People of the Black Mountains had on Moore’s Voice of the Fire, which will be dealt with in chapter 3. 3. In the Sandman series McKean only worked as a cover artist (see McKean). However, notes 177 he has long collaborated with Gaiman on a regular basis, in the fields both of comics, producing such works as Violent Cases (1987) and Signal to Noise (1992), and of children’s narrative (The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, 1997; Coraline, 2002; The Wolves in the Walls, 2003). One of their latest creations is the animated movie Mirrormask (2006). 4. In this regard, see the declarations provided by Dave Gibbons in Salisbury’s Artists on Comic Art, especially 74–97, and by Eddie Campbell in his interview with Moore on the pages of his own magazine Egomania. Geoff Klock (15) also explains that, when writing comics criticism, one must take into account that it is a collective narrative, but that everyone usually tends to refer more to scriptwriters than to artists for reasons of clarity and synthesis. 5. Among the many authors Moore mentions, Harlan Ellison (1934–) is particularly important, for he edited Dangerous Visions in 1967. The short stories he collected in this anthology were an attempt to break with the formulaic sci-fi conventions that constituted a trend in the sixties and seventies. He thus focused on stylistic experimentation and, in some cases, on representation of the characters’ inner world. Therefore, Dangerous Visions anticipated somewhat the revisiting of science-fiction formulas Moore carried out later. Moreover, Ellison himself manifested an interest in word and image interaction: he published an adaptation of his short story A Boy and His Dog (1969) as a comic book titled Vic & Blood (1989, art by Richard Corben), and later wrote Mind Fields (1994), thirtythree short stories that draw inspiration from as many paintings by Polish neo-surrealist artist Jacek Yerka (see Ellison and Yerka). 6. The last name Moore and Gebbie have chosen for the character of Alice constitutes another intertextual reference, to The History of the Fairchild Family (1818) by Mary Martha Sherwood, a famous Calvinist book for children. The authors are being ironic, for their Alice is a sophisticated, opium-addicted, middle-aged lesbian who has always contravened the rigid customs of her wealthy family. 7. As for “misprision,” we must remember that in Bloom’s terminology this term indicates the act of “misreading,” which implies a creative, emotionally deceptive interpretation of the literary tradition (see Bloom 94–95). 8. The character of Gargunza is actually a bit comic, starting with his funny name...