A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
The Disintegrating (Comic) Book Object and the End of the Narrative Universe in Promethea (2024)

Rantala, O. (2024). The Disintegrating (Comic) Book Object and the End of the Narrative Universe in Promethea. In S. Sjöberg, M. Keskinen, & A. Karhumaa (Eds.), The Experimental Book Object : Materiality, Media, Design (pp. 124-141). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003334293-9

JYU authors or editors

Rantala, Oskari

Publication details

All authors or editors: Rantala, Oskari

Parent publication: The Experimental Book Object : Materiality, Media, Design

Parent publication editors: Sjöberg, Sami; Keskinen, Mikko; Karhumaa, Arja

ISBN: 978-1-032-36881-8

eISBN: 978-1-003-33429-3

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 30/11/2023

Pages range: 124-141

Number of pages in the book: 336

Publisher: Routledge

Place of Publication: New York

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003334293-9

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access:

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/92468

Abstract

Promethea (1999-2005), a comics series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by J. H. Williams III, thematizes, foregrounds and interrogates the comic book object in a number of interesting ways. The narrative of Promethea is highly metatextual, drawing on comics history and employing historical visual styles. Furthermore, some issues experiment with interruptions of the visual flow of the graphic narrative as well as the act of reading itself—the final comic book, for example, is designed to be materially taken apart by the reader and rearranged, mirroring the events and the disintegration and reassembly of the storyworld.

Keywords: comics; comic magazines; comic art; metatextuality; visuality; visual narrative; literary research