The work of Canadian cartoonist Seth positions itself between history and memory, and in doing so gives rise to a range of ambivalent impulses, chief among them an ambivalent longing for the past. Seth suggests that “the whole process of cartooning is dealing with memory,” and by consistently drawing attention to the narrative representation of the past, his comics reveal the extent to which the making of history is an act of great artifice. In its exploration of what Walter Benjamin calls “the mysterious work of remembrance—which is really the capacity for endless interpolation into what has been,” Seth’s work exhibits a complicated nostalgia, well aware of its own reactionary, restorative and nationalistic inclinations and able to channel them toward productive ends. Seth’s ironic, humorous and metafictional approaches to memory, remembrance and longing for the past reveal that his attitude toward these closely related subjects is deeply ambivalent. He nimbly mobilises history, (auto)biography, anecdote, documentary and other parallel modes. This investigation seeks to understand the ways in which his appropriation of such historicising discourses substantiates the powerful evocations of longing, loss and memory that characterise his fiction. Memory is here conceived not just as an invisible, ubiquitous mental phenomenon that reflects our experience of time and relation to the past, but as a medium, an art – and one which is in many ways akin to Seth’s mode of expression. The fundamental operation of comics, as a visual medium, initiates and makes space for narrative interpolations in a way that is not only comparable to but in a certain sense mimics the historical interpolations of memory; in both cases, longing is spurred by incompleteness. Seth turns the medium of memory on itself, using it as an instrument to examine the processes of remembrance and making history.

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Examining examples from a cluster of early twenty-first century comics this thesis argues that these are comics adopting a documentary mode of address. The recognition that they share a documentary ambition to visually narrate and represent aspects and events of the real world, in turn calls for a closer examination of the contribution such comics present in terms of documentary’s repertoire. This thesis challenges the persistent assumption that ties documentary to recording technologies, and instead engages an understanding of the category in terms of narrative, performativity and witnessing. In so doing, it aligns with debates and questions raised by recent academic work around animated documentary. Shared concerns include conventions, truth-claims and trust, and the limitations of representation as verisimilitude. Mindful not to overstate correspondence with animated and inherently moving image forms, however, this contribution explicitly concerns documentary in comics form: as constituted by static and silent pages. The enquiry is structured according to concerns and themes that have been identified as central to documentary theory: the relation between documentary image and its referent; the production of archives and popular history; the social function of documentary as visibility and ‘voice’, and the travelogue as cultural narrative and production of knowledge. In other words, examples of comics that address actual, as opposed to imagined, persons and events of the historical world, are read through the lens of documentary. Close reading and visual analysis, engaging comics-specific frameworks, asks how comics by means of their formal qualities might offer alternative strategies and even the possibility to overcome certain problems associated with audiovisual modes of documentary representation. The thesis simultaneously extends an alternative perspective to literary frameworks, in particular the categories of memoir and autobiography, which have come to dominate in a steadily growing field of comics studies.

In the late 1960s, underground cartoonists established the comic book form as a space for the exploration of personal identity. “Alternative” comics grew out of this tradition as subsequent writers produced work independently of the major comics publishers, aimed at an adult audience and encompassing a broad range of visual styles and narrative content. Throughout the past forty years, British, US and Canadian writers and artists have used this medium to explore questions of selfhood and perception, often implicitly or overtly relating these issues to the form, history and conventions of the comic book itself. Two main threads run through this discussion of the representation of selfhood: childhood and memory on the one hand and sexuality and gender on the other. This thesis argues that for many creators there exists a useful analogy between the comic book form and mental processes, specifically between the fractured, verbal-visual blend of the comics page and the organisation of human memory. It further suggests that the historical association of comics first with childhood, and subsequently with male adolescence, has conditioned the representation of selfhood in adult comics. Comic book consumption has often centred on a community of predominantly young, white, male, socially marginal readers, buying and collecting serialised narratives. Comics creators’ awareness of this audience (either in response or resistance) has affected the content of their work. Although presented as a chronological narrative, this thesis is not a comprehensive history of Anglophone alternative comics, but centres on eight prominent authors/artists: Robert Crumb; Dave Sim; Lynda Barry; Julie Doucet; Alan Moore; the collaborative partnership of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean; and Chris Ware. Whilst spanning a wide range of genres and themes (autobiography, fantasy, gothic horror, parody, soap opera, the grotesque and others) each confronts and negotiates with conventions regarding the representation of selfhood.

This research will seek to map the use and importation of sound symbolic forms, such as ideophones—including onomatopoeia—and interjections, into Italian through Disney comics. It will describe the slow and still on-going linguistic adaptation involved, which has been influencing the Italian language for the past eighty years by encouraging lexical experimentation and spurs of creativity on the part of Italian cartoonists and translators. Scholars tend to dismiss the topic here analysed by affirming that Romance languages have been deeply affected by Anglophonic influences, but these assumptions are rarely backed up by empirical data. Systematic studies on the creative potentials of Italian sound symbolism or on the influence of English ideophones and interjections based on an extended corpus are scarce. Similarly rare are studies on the use and function of ideophones across languages. This is a chance to look at how a single linguistic phenomenon (i.e. sound symbolism) has been moulded into a language through eight decades of assimilation and, more specifically, to study how the Italian language and Disney comics published in Italy have adapted in order to accommodate and successfully employ sound symbolic forms.

This thesis describes the textual strategies used in the translation into English of fictional dialogue, with particular reference to a content area as yet unexplored in Translation Studies: Japanese comic-books and animated cartoons. It does this by means of comparative case studies of the textual procedures used in different translations of Japanese source-texts. The comparisons are of target texts, and are sometimes interlingual in nature (English vs. French) and sometimes intralingual (English vs. English). The analytic approach is stylistic, focusing on the narrative functions of setting and character. The accumulation of case studies reported in the thesis provides new information about general conventions of translating fictional dialogue into English. The findings are that, unlike their French counterparts, none of the English translations investigated in this thesis makes use of intermediate translation. English translations assimilate character voice more strongly than French translations, and the same trend emerges with regard to military and scientific register. However, no overall interlingual difference emerges clearly with regard to the translation of cultural markers. The thesis also provides new insights on specific modes in the translation of fictional dialogue (dubbing, subtitling, and comic-book translation). English comic-book translations domesticate character voice strongly, adding vulgarity, as well as substituting and autonomously creating English dialects. English dubs transform indices of character by inserting jokes, vulgar language, and stereotypical expressions from foreign languages. However in the two cases where English dubs could be compared intralingually, the more recent translations adapt the Japanesed ialogue less than the earlier versions. The conventions of comic-book translation and dubbing differ in these respects from the contemporary prescriptions of literary translation theory. Subtitles are less domesticating than dubs or comic books. Although subtitling may sometimes neutralize stylistic features of Japanese dialogue, recent subtitles released in America use a number of compensatory procedures to create corresponding indices of character in the target text.

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This study was undertaken to develop a better understanding of comics, picturebooks, and their relationship through progressive attempts to combine them in practice. The study was motivated by an interest in hybrid forms as a site where narrative techniques from different forms are put to alternative use in a new context. The research contributes to current scholarly discussion of graphic narrative from a practitioner’s perspective. Reflective practice offers unique potential as a method for critical study. Comparative analysis of changes over time throws light on each form’s typical mechanisms for graphic storytelling, and demonstrates their function in different contexts. Problems arising in practice are catalysts for a process of dynamic, analogical theory-formation and -testing, which often challenges or supplements existing knowledge, leading to a more nuanced understanding of the forms with which practice engages. Findings evolved, firstly, from the insight that conventions for graphic storytelling function differently depending on the mode of reading and the formal context. Secondly, the degree to which the practitioner is constrained by formal limitations was found to demand a disciplined distillation of content that deliberately creates space for different kinds of readerly engagement. The study concluded that, due to their adaptation towards solitary reading, comics exert greater control over their readers, whereas picturebooks tend to be more flexible in order to accommodate different modes of reading. The way readers engage with a work impacts on the function of conventions and techniques for graphic storytelling as much as a change in formal context. Moreover, the discipline of the picturebook form demands greater economy, which can create more space for reader participation. However, neither distinct modes of reading nor differing degrees of constraint constitute grounds for definitive distinction between comics and picturebooks: instead, they offer alternative frameworks for the critical consideration of graphic narratives.

This thesis examines cartoons and the humour they express throughout the Great War of 1914-1918. Its aim is to highlight the relevance of visual material in an historical context, to draw upon humour as an insight to cultural moods and attitudes in wartime, and to bring an interdisciplinary approach to the cultural history of the Great War. To do this it will highlight the humour of different British cartoonists in selected newspapers and publications throughout the war and beyond. Primarily it will take a thematic and qualitative approach to visual topics expressed in cartoons analysing their connections to the rest of wartime society. Visual interpretations of public controls, entertainment, avoidance of social duty and comparisons between soldier and civilian responses to the war will be analysed. All of which will look to the use of humour in society relating to these topics in the context of war. Thereafter, the thesis will combine these themes into a formation of memory termed 'commercial' reflecting images and in turn memories sold to the public through cartoons. The thesis crosses areas of historical inquiry generating a new dialogue with the cultural history of the Great War, developing ideas of humour, media studies and visual source investigation. War, humour and newspapers are consistent points of reference throughout, combined with a broader historiography as appropriate. Cartoon sources provide the visual basis of the investigation, alongside news articles and reference to official data where applicable. Overall, the interdisciplinary dialogue created between the historiographies of war, humour and visual media promote developing historical investigations, newly bound together in an understanding of the commercial memory of humorous wartime cartoons.

A caricature is defined as a humorous drawing of a human facial figure that makes some of its distinct features appear exaggerated. It is easily observed that the exaggerations made by different artists on facial components are often different and are non-linear. This uniqueness of the exaggerations signifies the drawing style of an artist, but has unfortunately been ignored in the design of existing computer based automatic caricature generation systems. Nevertheless learning the unique drawing style and modelling the non-linear exaggerations distinct to an artist provide the key but a real challenge to the computer based automatic generation of professional caricature. This Thesis proposes a face modelling framework that includes two novel face models, which are capable of representing human faces in caricaturing applications.