Litcomix: Literary Theory and the Graphic Novel

270 Pages·2023·29.638 MB·English

by  Adam Geczy (author) & Jonathan McBurnie (author)

Litcomix

Litcomix
Literary Theory and the Graphic Novel
ADAM GECZY AND JONATHAN McBURNIE
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey; and London and Oxford, UK
Rutgers University Press is a department of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, one
of the leading public research universities in the nation. By publishing worldwide, it furthers
the University’s mission of dedication to excellence in teaching, scholarship, research, and
clinical care.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Geczy, Adam, author. | McBurnie, Jonathan, author.
Title: Litcomix: literary theory and the graphic novel / Adam Geczy and Jonathan McBurnie.
Description: New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, [2023] | Includes bibliographical refer-
ences and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022019249 | ISBN 9781978828650 (paperback) | ISBN 9781978828667
(cloth) | ISBN 9781978828674 (epub) | ISBN 9781978828681 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Graphic novels— History and criticism. | Graphic novels— Social aspects. |
Comic books, strips, etc.— History and criticism. | Comic books, strips, etc.— Social aspects. |
Popular culture and literature. | LCGFT: Literary criticism.
Classification: LCC PN6710 .G396 2023 | DDC 741.5/9— dc23/eng/20220421
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov/ 2022019249
A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2023 by Adam Geczy and Jonathan McBurnie
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from
the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ
08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
References to internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Rutgers University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
♾ The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National
Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48- 1992.
rutgersuniversitypress .org
Manufactured in the United States of America
To Marcel, comix demon,
and
Suzi, for being the folio edition complete works of Ursula K. Le Guin
to my ratty piles of coverless, moldering Jack Kirby comics

Contents
Introduction 1
Part I Theories
1 Literary Theory: The Relevant and the Real 21
2 Recuperating Realism: Lukács 33
3 Classic Novels, Classic Comics 49
4 Was Wertham Right? Comics as Antisocial and Subversive 65
5 The Balzac of Comics: Jack Kirby, World Building,
and the Kirbyesque 83
6 Figurative Pseudonyms: Biography and Confession 105
Part II Case Studies
7 Josh Bayer 123
8 Nina Bunjevac 143
9 Simon Hanselmann 161
10 The Hernandez Brothers 177
vii
viii • Contents
11 Tommi Parrish 197
12 Yoshihiro Tatsumi 215
Conclusion: Our New Urizens 233
Acknowledgments 237
Notes 239
Index 251
Introduction
In the era of newsprint, they used to be called the funnies: these were what
you removed from an insert in the newspaper on weekends. As a child, you
may have been given a floppy, medium- format, folio- like book with the
adventures of your favorite superhero: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman.
You may have remembered the smell of the paper and the clean glossiness of
the cover that would slowly deteriorate as it passed through many hands.
Later, in high school, you may have found, against your parents’ wishes, an
illustrated storybook of a few famous works of Edgar Allan Poe or Charles
Dickens. You may have been chastised, “Read the real thing.” If you are of a
more recent generation, you may have not received the same reproach. And
even if your English teacher may not have admired them, you had enough
friends who agreed on the value of comics and their postmodern offshoot,
the graphic novel. While you could see the inherent value of great literature,
some of the best graphic novels spoke to you with a depth and sophistication
that prompted reflection and wonder. In the hallowed halls of academia,
it would have been unthinkable even twenty years ago to have in a litera-
ture faculty an expert in graphic novels, no less than in the 1970s an expert
on jazz in a music conservatorium. Now the prospect has become a lot less
unthinkable and perhaps, indeed, a pressing question. Can there be a theory
of the graphic novel that is commensurate with literary theory? This book
answers with a resounding yes.
1