The Narrative Corpse
The Narrative Corpse is a chain story, or comic jam, by 69 all-star cartoonists based on Le Cadavre Exquis (see Exquisite corpse), a popular game played by André Breton and his Surrealist friends to break free from the constraints of rational thought.
Edited by Art Spiegelman and Robert Sikoryak, The Narrative Corpse featured contributions from some of alternative comics' most notable creators, including Charles Burns, Chester Brown, Matt Groening, Peter Bagge, Los Bros Hernandez, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Gary Panter, Julie Doucet, Scott McCloud, and Lynda Barry; as well as underground comix creators like Robert Crumb, Bill Griffith, Spain, Justin Green, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch, Gilbert Shelton, S. Clay Wilson, and M. K. Brown. A number of European cartoonists contributed as well, including Joost Swarte, Thomas Ott, Max Andersson, José Antonio Muñoz, and Jacques Loustal.
The graphic novel, published by Gates of Heck, had a limited run in 1995 of 9,500 copies. It was the winner of the 1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Graphic Novel.
The creative process
The idea was first conceived of in May 1990, as a project for Raw. An artist would begin the story with three black-and-white comic-book panels, starring an innocent stick figure named "Sticky." This artist passes his or her three panels on to the next artist, who continues the story in any manner he or she wants with three more panels. The next artist receives only this artist's part of the story, and so on.
To expedite the project, two strands were started simultaneously, one in New York City by R. Sikoryak, the second in London by Savage Pencil. Nevertheless, the project kept growing (outliving RAW itself, which ceased publication in 1991) until it was brought to an end five years after its inception. Spiegelman himself drew the three panels that linked Strand 1 to Strand 2 (bridging the contributions of Joe Sacco and Savage Pencil).[1]
- Strand 1: R. Sikoryak > Drew Friedman > David Sandlin > Ever Meulen > Mariscal > Joost Swarte > Pascal Doury > Georgeanne Deen > Chris Ware > Charles Burns > Lorenzo Mattotti > Justin Green > Julie Doucet > Kaz... Joe Sacco > Art Spiegelman
- Strand 2: Savage Pencil > Jaques Loustal > Robert Crumb > Aline Kominsky-Crumb ... > ... Jayr Pulga ... > ... M. K. Brown > David Mazzucchelli > Mort Walker > S. Clay Wilson > Chester Brown > Debbie Dreschler > Mark Landman > Jay Lynch > Gary Leib > Willem > Carol Lay > Jason Lutes > Max Andersson > J. Pirinen > Peter Bagge > G. Wasco > Spain > Carol Swain > Richard McGuire
Story structure
Although the "story" oscillates without beginning or end, it can be said to start (after some creative editing by Spiegelman and Sikoryak) with the panels done by Drew Friedman, and end with the ones done by Richard McGuire:
It is also of interest that background or guest characters seldom last more than three contributions in a row. Some contributors featured cameos by their own characters (for example Mort Walker's Sarge, Will Eisner's Spirit, and Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead).
References
- ↑ Boyd, Brian. "Art and Evolution: Spiegelman's The Narrative Corpse," Philosophy and Literature 32(1):31-57 (April 2008).
External links
- Gates of Heck
- The Infinite Corpse, an online collaborative comic inspired by The Narrative Corpse
- discussion of The Narrative Corpse and The Infinite Corpse at the Center for Cartoon Studies' Schulz Library Blog