This is a thesis that details the process of writing a short 30 page novel, and then converting the subsequent story into a graphic format via illustrations and into a comic book layout. The story itself deals in reworking our learned assumptions of good and evil, specifically in the supernatural and human possibility for both. The comic book format is an exploration of my reader’s different responses to the written and the graphic.

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The goal of this thesis is to explore the way heterosexism and homophobia are present in the coding that has created an implied and monstrous queer identity for the Joker, present in many versions of the character over the past forty years. Through close readings of several of the Joker’s most iconic appearances, queer theory texts, and analytical essays on pop culture, this paper will analyze the use of queer signifiers present in the comics and the way that these portrayals of the Joker are rife with harmful and heterocentric perceptions of what comic creators have seen as necessary signifiers for queerness. Additionally, I will be using knowledge gleaned from my own preexisting work with fan and cultural studies in order to talk about the way that this portrayal of the Joker has been developed within fandom/fan communities and how it is continually replicated in superhero media.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Spanish)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Il presente studio propone un’indagine critica del pensiero di Johann Caspar Schmidt, meglio noto come Max Stirner, volta sia a investigare la sua posizione all’interno del contesto filosofico della prima metà del XIX secolo, e più in generale della storia della filosofia, sia a valutare la cogenza e l’attualità della sua proposta teoretica. L’ipotesi guida della ricerca mira all’approfondimento dell’idea, già prospettata da alcuni studiosi, di una valenza ironica della riflessione stirneriana in direzione di una complessa strategia parodica, che assume come fulcro l’umorismo e si declina in un duplice movimento convergente nel plesso concettuale “unico-proprietà”. Mediante un puntuale confronto testuale con i suoi avversari diretti – Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer e Hegel – si mostrerà come Stirner operi un raddoppiamento di tali corpi di pensiero e una parodia dei propri stessi assunti, al fine di delegittimare l’ambito della significazione e attingere il piano dell’evenemenzialità dell’esistenza e della storia. La parodia stirneriana assume pertanto valenza euristica e pragmatica in quanto prospetta una diversa idea di soggettività intesa come struttura di differenza sempre operante e apre a inedite configurazioni etiche e politiche, caratterizzate da un ripensamento delle nozioni di uso e consumo. / This research proposes a critical inquiry of the thought of Johann Caspar Schmidt, best known as Max Stirner, both for investigate his peculiar position in the philosophical context of the early half of XIX century, and in the history of philosophy in general, and for understand the theoretical and topical interest of his proposal. The aim of the analysis is the widening of an ironic value of his work, suggested for some critics, in order to assert that Stirner makes a complex and humoristic parody of his contemporary context of thought – in particular of the works of Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer and Hegel – and of his own assumptions for displace the philosophical discours from the level of the meaning to the level of the event. In this way, his parody attains a heuristic and pragmatic function, suggesting a different idea of subjectivity as structure of difference and new ethical and political forms, based on the reconsideration of the notions of use and consumption.

This thesis is a queer analysis of two graphic novels by writer Alan Moore: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series (art by Kevin O’Neill, 1999-Present) and Lost Girls (art by Melinda Gebbie, 1992-3). These two works re-contextualize familiar characters such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mina Murray, and Alice to uncover both the liberating desires and the sexist, homophobic, and imperialistic anxieties underlining historically popular fiction. Focusing on three characters utilized in Moore’s work, this thesis argues that the ideological associations with those chosen characters and the reconstructions of queerness in their narratives offer contemporary subjects resistance to limiting cultural tendencies and create an alternative space that call attention to phobic societal constructs. Both Lost Girls and the League series redefine discursively constituted identities and offer the potential to re-write normative codes of sex and sexuality.

The Batman media franchise (comics, movies, novels, television, and cartoons) is unique because no other form of written or visual texts has as many artists, audiences, and forms of expression. Understanding the various artists and audiences and what Batman means to them is to understand changing trends and thinking in American culture. The character of Batman has developed into a symbol with relevant characteristics that develop and evolve with each new story and new author. The Batman canon has become so large and contains so many different audiences that it has become a franchise that can morph to fit any group of viewers/readers. Our understanding of Batman and the many readings of him gives us insight into ourselves as a culture in our particular place in history.

There are many perceived advantages of developing a film from a comic book series such as its preexisting built-in audiences, easy marketability, licensing opportunities of comic book characters, and easily adaptable stories. All these qualities make the comic book conducive to film adaptation and profitable franchises. Studios have also taken notice and have been producing comic book inspired films in record numbers in the past decade. This thesis will investigate the comic book-to-film phenomena and will attempt to quantify whether it is in fact as lucrative as it appears. In order to quantify the effect of the comic book variable on film's success, this study will utilize the ordinary least squares method. By regressing the comic variable along with all other control variables, we hope to determine if the effect of the comic variable varies between two different measures of success.

After a general historical outline of the term and concept 'grotesque' attention is focused on the grotesque in Southern fiction and an attempt is made to explain the abundance of this mode in the literature of the South. It can seemingly be linked to the distinctiveness of that region as compared to the rest of the United States—a distinctiveness that has been brought about by historical, geographical, sociological and economic factors.Basing the discussion on the theory of Philip Thomson, who defines the grotesque as "the unresolved clash between incompatibles in work and response," various critical approaches to the Southern grotesque are examined, all of which are found to be too all-embracing. An effort is then made to analyse the grotesque as displayed particularly in Caldwell, Capote, Faulkner, Goyen, McCullers, O'Connor and Welty. The study deals first with the macabre-grotesque, then the repulsive/frighten-ing-grotesque and finally the comic-grotesque. The last chapter is devoted to more recent authors writing in the 1960s. Their works reveal that the South is still a breeding ground for the grotesque. / digitalisering@umu