‘Once regarded as one of the lower forms of mass entertainment, comic books are today widely considered to be potentially capable of complex and profound expression as both literary and visual art forms’ Nancy Dziedric and Scot Peacock, Literary Critics, 1997 Gloria Hunniford: Do you regard yourself as a cultural icon... Adam? Adam West: ....it... doesn’t matter. (Adam west with Will Brooker and Gloria Hunniford, Open House with Gloria Hunniford, Channel 5, 14 April 2000)
The Killing Joke: A Textual Analysis Reading Comics AFMS6007 Lecturer: Steve Gerrard By David Roberts 30001220
A
Comic is a ‘sequence of drawings in boxes that tell an amusing
1
story, typically printed in a newspaper or magazine.’ But the
explanation of this art form is not so simple. When most people hear the term comic strip, they conjure up an image of the Beano or the Dandy if they are British and perhaps a DC or Marvel Comic if they are American. The term itself is not so specific however, as Randy Duncan explains; ‘Comics is a useful term for designating the phenomenon of juxtaposing images in a sequence. As comics theorist Scott McCloud points out, this umbrella term has been used to cover comic strips, comic books, cave paintings, Grecian urns, tapestries, stained glass
2
windows and more.’ It can be pointed out that items such as the Lascaux cave paintings or the Bayeux Tapestry are pieces of sequential art, however today this is not at all what people think about when you mention the word comic strip. As Will Eisner explains ‘ This ancient form of art, or method of expression, has found its way to the widely read comic strips and books which have established an undeniable position in the popular culture of this century.’3 The history of ‘comics’ is a complex an interesting one, and historians and analysts have many contradicting opinions on what defines a comic and where it all begins. Thierry Groensteen argues against the masses in his essay ‘Why are Comics Still in Search of Cultural Legitimisation’ that ‘By celebrating the so called centenary of comics in 1996, some of these have simply chosen to ignore everything that was published between 1833 – when Toppfer printed Monsieur Jabot – and the release of the Yellow Kid. Over half a century of French, English, German, Dutch, Spanish and even American comics denied existence because they weren’t mass produced.’4 Most people however point to ‘Yellow Kid’ by Richard Outcalt as the first comic strip as we understand it today. Published in ‘The World’ newspaper, based in New York City, the comic was the first to use balloons as an outlined space for characters to talk.
But why the term comic? Comic is associated with humour and some of
these comics like ‘Maus’ have absolutely nothing to do with humour. It is quite simple really. When the first comics were being released, they were humorous 1 (2013) Oxford Dictionaries, Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com (Accessed: 27th February 2013) 2 Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith (2009) The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, : Continuum International Publishing Group 3 Will Eisner (2008) Comics and sequential art: principles and practices from the legendary cartoonist, New York: W.W. Norton. 4 Jeet Heer, Kent Worcester (2009) A Comics Studies Reader, : Univ. Press of Mississippi
strips in the paper and were first referred to as ‘the funnies’ which evolved into the term ‘comic’ which caught on and became popular and the name stuck ever since. In recent times, authors have attempted to rehabilitate the image by using a different term, graphic novel, to describe the more ambitious works in the art form. For creators, labelling their work a graphic novel allows them to distance themselves from the commercial and periodical connotations associated with comic books.
It is obvious why they wanted to rebrand themselves when you hear the story of ‘Maus’
which was awarded the Pultizer Prize of literary merit for it’s harrowing portrayal of the Holocaust. But despite this praise, Lawrence L. Langer’s review in the New York Times Book Review said ‘Art Spiegelman doesn’t draw comics’.5 Randy Duncan explains in The Power of Comics that ‘Forget that the narrative consisted of hand drawings and word balloons presented in a series of panels; it seems that it could not be a comic book because it was good.’6
Will Eisner perfectly described the huge change in comics from the early 1930’s comic
books to modern graphic novels in Comics and Sequential Art saying:
‘In modern times daily newspaper strips, comic books and more recently, graphic novels provide the major outlets for sequential art. For many decades the strips and comic books were printed on low-grade newsprint never intended for long shelf life. The often-ancient presses utilized for printing comic books and Sunday strips could not even guarantee proper color registration or clarity of line. As the form’s potential has become more apparent, better quality and more expensive production has become more commonplace. This, in turn, has resulted in the slick full-color publications that appeal to a more sophisticated audience, while black and white comic books printed on good paper have found their own consitutency. Comics continue to grow as a valid form of reading. The first comic books (circa 1934) generally contained a random collection of short features. Now, after nearly three quarters of a century, the routine appearance of complete ‘graphic novels’ has more than anything else, brought into focus the parameters of their structure.’ Will Eisner (2008) Comics and sequential art: principles and practices from the legendary cartoonist, New York: W.W. Norton.
5 Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith (2009) The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, : Continuum International Publishing Group. 6 ibid.
ABOVE: Bayeux Tapestry (circa 1066) RIGHT: The Yellow Kid Takes A Hand At Golf from New York Journal 24/10/1897 [Source: cartoons.osu. edu] BELOW: Excerpt from Maus by Art Spiegelman in 1991
The authors of comic books have tried to distance themselves from the label of comic books, either because they consider there work more serious in tone than the funny and childish comics of infamy, or they refuse to box themselves into the traditional comic audience. This transition from the more colourful and child-friendly comics to the serious and usually darker toned graphic novel can be best traced in my opinion by the Batman franchise.
So what is Batman? Well, the Batman character was formed in May 1939 and appeared
first in issue #27 of Detective Comics, a famous comic book series that still runs today that featured a variety of different characters, usually of the superhero type. In this particular issue a new character was introduced on the cover and was called ‘The Bat-Man’. The character became widely popular and by issue #35 was the main character billed on the cover (usually the comic was titled Detective Comics featuring Batman’). Throughout the detective comics a variety of Batman’s friends and foes were introduced to the Batman chronology including Robin, Penguin, Two-face and the Riddler. The character was created by Bob Kane and the uncredited Bill Finger and is described in what is now referred to as ‘The Bat Bible’ with the following;
‘the character remains a rich man who dresses in an iconogrophically specific costume (cape, cowl and bat-logo). Because of the murder of his parents, he obsessively fights crime, using his superb physical abilities in combination with his deductive capacities. He maintains his secret identity of Bruce Wayne, who lives in Wayne Manor in Gotham City. He is surrounded by a supporting cast of friends and foes.... His name was The Batman. A dark, mysterious character of the night, stalking the streets, defying criminals with intelligence, athletic powers and state of the art gadgetry, terrifying enemies who dare cross his path. The Batman had a secret identity, that of Bruce Wayne, wealthy playboy. At a very young age, his parents were killed on the streets of Gotham City’ Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group.
ABOVE: Various Batman villians. [Source: http://bit.ly/LlnMwz] BELOW LEFT: The cover of the first issue of Detective Comics to star ‘The Bat-Man.’ BELOW RIGHT: Batman creator Bob Kane [Source: http://bit.ly/VGc5dM]
Excerpt from Batman Vol 1 - 92 from June, 1955. An example of the campier and more child friendly Batman comics of the era. In this colourful story, Batman and Robin have to rescue a dog from a nearby stream. Not very thrilling.....
Batman: The Killing Joke (1988)
The plot revolves around a largely psychological battle between Batman and his longtime foe the Joker, who has escaped from Arkham Asylum.
Executive Editor Dick Giordano Cover Artists Brian Bolland Writers Alan Moore Pencilers Brian Bolland Inkers Brian Bolland Colourists John Higgins Letterers Richard Starkings Editors Dennis O'Neil
Synopsis:
"one bad day."
The Joker intends to drive James Gordon, the Police Commissioner of Gotham City, insane, in order to prove that the most upstanding citizen is capable of going mad after having
Along the way, the Joker has flashbacks to his early life, gradually explaining his origin.
The duo drew upon many sources of 1930’s popular culture and characters such as
Zorro, Scarlet Pimpernel and Sherlock Holmes as a master sleuth who performs heroic deeds in secret and the use of symbols and iconography to create a myth and legend.7 8
The rise in popularity of the character was so fast that by Spring 1940 the first standalone issue of the comic entitled ‘Batman’ was launched and the caped crusader’s long standing foe, ‘The Joker’ was established.9
The comic books starring Batman between 1939 and 1986 were very much in the vain of
many of the superhero comics produced during the Golden Era of comic books (circa 1938 to 1950) and later on during the 50’s and 60’s. The character and story never really had a consistency with the back story of characters constantly changing due to different writers and many thematic elements changing with the social period of the times. For example, during the late 50s and 60s, Batman was involved in many storylines involving science fiction and out of this world characters. The comic books at this time only carried one real element throughout all the publications – they were all child friendly, colourful and unrealistic.
Batman has always been described as a superhero, and to some extent that’s exactly what
he is. But unlike most other superheroes, he is an ordinary human being with no super-powers. All the amazing feats use technology or intelligence, in the same vain as Sherlock Holmes for example. This is for me why Batman has become a cult icon and loved by so many. He represents the ordinary citizen fighting the criminals in their society, something people wish they could do (and some copycats have done so). In some ways Batman isn’t even a person, but an ideology. A social message and a powerful thought that is used to combat the foreseen ills in our world, and as the character himself says in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ ‘A hero can be anyone.’
It was in the 1980s, when sales of Batman comics had significantly decreased, that the
new darker toned graphic novels started to be written with such publications as ‘Batman: Year One’ and ‘Dark Knight Rises’, all of which attempted to re-write the Batman chronology and rules and create a new Batman for a new era that was starting to experiment with many darker films and TV shows at the time and was not willing to accept the friendly Batman comics of the past because they didn’t seem relevant anymore.
The Killing Joke was a one of graphic novel published in 1988. Written by Alan Moore
and drawn by Brian Bolland it tells the story of how an unknown engineer falls into a vat of acid in an accident which scars him for life and sends him psychotic (also due to his unfortunate day) thus creating Batman’s arch-enemy ‘The Joker’. This story ignored previous origins 7 Les Daniels (2003) DC Comics: a celebration of the world’s favorite comic book heroes, New York: Billboard Books 8 Roberta E. Pearson, William Uricchio (1991) The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, : Routledge 9 Mike Voiles (2013) Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, Available at: http://www.dcindexes.com/indexes/indexes.php?character=7&choice=appearan ces (Accessed: 1st March 2013).
for the Joker and was a storyline that influenced Tim Burton when he made his 1989 film ‘Batman’.
The story then continues in the present day
as the Joker kidnaps Commisioner Gordon and paralyses his daughter Barbara (who is also Batgirl). Batman comes to rescue the commissioner from an abandoned amusement park and Batman and the Joker have another infamous showdown and exchange of words before the police catch up with the villain himself. In the story, after the Joker kidnaps the commissioner’s daughter, Gordon is forced to view naked images of his paralysed little girl. The Joker explains ‘All it takes is one bad day to reduced the sanest man alive
‘...the dark 1980s vision of the character, which progressively removed all helpers from Batman’s side – Robin murdered, Batgirl crippled, Nightwing estranged – until the Dark Knight became an obsessive loner.
to lunacy’. Gordon demands though to play by the
Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group.
adults that were reading the older Batman comics as
rules and catch him, despite his ordeal, saying ‘We have to show him that our way works!’. These adult themes really push the boundaries to the franchise, and it shows that the franchise’s audience has radically changed from young children to adults. The same young children when they were first released perhaps?
Comparing the novel to Frank Moore’s ‘Dark Knight Returns’, a graphic novel released in the same period, Will Brooker says:
‘Compare this hard-boiled vigilante with the Batman in Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke. Moore opts not to use narrational or ‘internal’ captions here, instead constructing his version of the character through dialogue: in this case, with the Joker.
Hello. I came to talk. I’ve been thinking lately. About you and me. About what’s going to happen to us, in the end. We’re going to kill each other aren’t we? Perhaps you’ll kill me. Perhaps I’ll kill you. Perhaps sooner. Perhaps later. I just wanted to know that I’d made a genuine attempt to talk things over and avert that outcome. Just once…. I don’t fully unerstand why ours should be such a fatal relationship, but I don’t want your murder on my … hands… While the actions and behaviour of this Batman are not so different from those of Miller’s Dark Knight …… Miller’s Batman simply does not deliver such long speeches. … Dialogue defines these two Dark Knights as very different characters.’ Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group.
I think what this novel allows is a far fuller and more in-depth Batman character. He
has feelings and motives and tries to reason with his enemies. The dialogue throughout the book is more adult and provides more explanation than any previous comics that were simply full of short, sharp and witty one-liners. In this case, the speeches provide insight into the mindset of the characters and develops their feelings of remorse and regret and in some ways, their philosophy.
Throughout the novel the story is focused on The
Joker, who is the villain, which is an interesting take as most
‘The Killing Joke is a story about control, structure, rules and order’ Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group.
Batman comics (and most comics and other works of art and literature) focus on the hero but in this instance Batman is very much a supporting character.
The joker is a crazed megalomaniac who has no morals or rules and doesn’t follow any
sort of plan. He just enjoys chaos and detests society and wants to do something about it – but not in a positive way. The Joker himself says in the novel on page 35 in panel 4 ‘…..Most repulsive of all, are its frail and useless notions of order and sanity. If too much weight is place upon them… they snap.’
What is interesting is the Batman character is the same as the Joker. They are both
crazed and driven and hate the society they see. They both champion the underclasses of soci
ety, but in very different ways. The Joker wants chaos and anarchy and has no remorse whereas the Batman likes order and wants to destroy the criminals of society to make it better.
Throughout the novel, the imagery uses
iconic moments to influence the audience into understanding certain elements. For example, in the first two panels of page 24, the imagery is very reminiscent of the old Western Hollywood movies where the cowboys walk through the saloon doors to save the day. This then translates to the audience so that we know that the policeman coming through the door are the heroes, here to catch the villains
Another interesting part is page 17, whose
The Killing Joke [pg 35 - Panel 4]
panels are very reminiscent of the 1940s noir films and gangster films from Hollywood history. It has a sea of dim yellow and reds and some stark blacks and whites or greys. The scene involves the robbers who convince the to be ‘Joker’ into helping them with their crime. This story is told sperodically throughout the novel and it’s not till near the end you understand what these sections of the comic are about. It splits the two stories (the current and the backstory) up and gives them to the reader (e.g. Memento) and the audience has to piece it together by the end. It’s not the most complicated multi-strand narrative to understand but it’s an interesting way to deliver it.
The interesting thing about this novel is that it completely changed the way Batman
stories were represented. To start with, the colour palette used to ink was the darkest up to
Bolland’s artwork is in the traditional comics mould, built around detailed pen lines and solid blacks. Sometimes criticised as stilted, his figuredrawing tends toward the static, frozen movement, and he relies on ‘speed lines’ to convey action. Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group.
that point. It is dark and has many blacks and ‘shadows’ and in many scenes this is offset with dull angry red’s. There is browns and greys and dull green’s aswell as some burning yellow and deep purple colours to represent the Joker.
The layout of the killing joke is pretty rigid. Every
page has between 6-9 panels with a guttering of roughly quarter of an inch. The border around all the pages is roughly half an inch. Usually, the panels are rectangular and slim in shape. Sometimes it breaks away from this and has larger frames taking up half a page but not often.
Similarities between page 24 of The Killing Joke and western movies such as Silverado [1985]. Also between page 17 of the novel and noir and gangster films from 40s - e.g. Casablanca [1942]
There is occasions throughout where the image bleeds over the lines of the panel and into the gutters and these scenes usually contain the joker.
Will Brooker
explains the layout in ‘Batman Unmasked’ with the following ‘There is no ambiguity about the content of each frame, and the art is contained within scrict panelo grids – except…during brief moments associated with the Joker’s tem-
The Killing Joke pg 27 - one of the occasions the Joker breaks the frame.
porary dominance. Here the image escapes its frame and spreads across the page, uncontrolled; but on the next page the grid system is reinstated, indicating long before the conclusion that it is Batman’s system of order and control which will ultimately prevail’10
There are two splash pages that start and end the novel, both of which are just pictures
of rain falling onto the ground. They come across essentially as just protective cover pages.
So what has ‘The Killing Joke’ done for Batman. Well, it has changed the way in which
Batman continued. To this day, these darker toned Batman novels are the avenue it has travelled with new releases. In 2004’s ‘Push Back’ from ‘Batman: Gotham Knights 50-55’, the Joker back story is utilised from ‘The Killing Joke.’ On a larger scale – the 1989 Tim Burton movie ‘Batman’ was heavily influenced by the novel. Tim Burton said ‘… I loved the Killing Joke…. Made our ideas more acceptable.’11 It later went on to influence Christopher Nolan when writing ‘The Dark Knight’ Heath Ledger said in an interview that he was given a copy of the novel to understand the psychology of the character he wanted to bring to the screen in what has become probably the most iconic and my favourite rendition of the character. 12 10 11 12
Interrogation Scene from The Dark Knight [2008]
Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group. Tim Burton (2006) Burton on Burton, : Faber & Faber. Daniel Robert Epstein (2013) HEATH LEDGER TALKS JOKER - Available at: http://bit.ly/Xrao3P (Accessed: 1st March 2013).
The first scene in Gotham Police Station is almost identical to the interrogation scene employed in Nolan’s The Dark Knight including the line ‘Where is he?’
It has even influenced the video games ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’ and ‘Batman”
Arkham City’ aswell as the cartoon series of Batman from the 1990’s. The influence on the dark iconography, the psychology of the characters, the Joker’s backstory and the destiny of two characters – ‘Batman and the Joker’ – has forever been altered by this iconic graphic novel. As the Joker himself says in ‘The Dark Knight – ‘I think you and I are destined to do this forever.’ By David Roberts Word Count: 2184
BIBLIOGRAPHY (2013) FLIMGEEKS - A BRIEF HISTORY OF COMICS – GOLDEN AGE & SILVER AGE, Available at: http://flimgeeks.com/2009/a-brief-history-of-comics-golden-age-silver-age/ (Accessed: 1st March 2013). (2013) Oxford Dictionaries, Available at: http://oxforddictionaries.com (Accessed: 27th February 2013). Daniel Robert Epstein (2013) HEATH LEDGER TALKS JOKER - Content taken from Newsarama :, Available at: http://www.filmwad.com/heath-ledger-talks-joker-1351-p.html (Accessed: 1st March 2013). Jeet Heer, Kent Worcester (2009) A Comics Studies Reader, : Univ. Press of Mississippi. Les Daniels (2003) DC Comics: a celebration of the world’s favorite comic book heroes, New York: Billboard Books. Mike Voiles (2013) Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, Available at: http://www.dcindexes.com/indexes/indexes.ph p?character=7&choice=appearances (Accessed: 1st March 2013). Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith (2009) The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, : Continuum International Publishing Group. Roberta E. Pearson, William Uricchio (1991) The Many Lives of the Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, : Routledge. Tim Burton (2006) Burton on Burton, : Faber & Faber. Will Brooker (2001) Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, : Continuum International Publishing Group. Will Eisner (2008) Comics and sequential art: principles and practices from the legendary cartoonist, New York: W.W. Norton.