Meeting with my supervisor clarified my direction to completion of the doctorate. The graphic novel will round out to about 300 pages and will have Part One at the end of the title. Not what I planned, but what it has to be. More to come, but not feasible (or really required) within the scope of these studies. I’ll spend more time cleaning up what I have and making choices about the structure of chapters, use of motifs to define characters, and other things I’ve played with as a concept, including Heads Up Displays (HUDs) for characters to indicate mood, alignment, or things like attraction or substance intake. In addition to the two diary comic compendiums (over 300 pages each), plus the 90-odd pages mini-comics, and an assortment of visual experiments it will be enough to satisfy the studio requirements of the study. Which is good, because I really need to focus now on the exegesis! Andi has given me advice on structure and picking out the main three to five things that I want to talk about. These will form chapters, and within these chapters, I’ll sort sub-chapters. At the moment my writing is scattered all over the place, so it will take some amount of thought sand work to bring it all together. Narrative threads to tie it together. At the moment it looks like I’ll be talking about the following things:
Context
A brief history of comics.
Circumstances that lead to the creation of autobiographic comcics as a genre.
Key independent, ‘underground’ creators and their role in the development of autobio comics.
Definitions of terms
An overview of relevant texts
Detailed examinations of a few key texts.
Methodology
Action research
Grounded research
Autoethnography
Blog writing- Reflexitivily reflecting
The parallels between blog writing and diary writing
Diary comics as play and means of record
Representation
Outlining the visual experiments I’ve undertaken.
How does everything I’ve done funnel into the final work?
Theories of representation and reading- semiotics, logocentrism.
Analysing technical processes
Clarifying discoveries
Identity
What is identity?
How is it communicated in autobio comics?
How can communication of identity engage the reader?
Investigating identity through manipulation of visual devices.
Truth
What is truth?
The limits of disclosure.
How is it conveyed in different media?
What are the expectations of truth in autobiography?
How does the author of autobiographic comics communicate a feeling of truth to the reader?
What are the limitations of script revision before truth becomes fiction?
Are there any clear separations at the boundaries of truth and fiction?
Introducing the concept of Autofictography.
Story
Script writing and revision processes within the context of translating diary entries into a graphic novel.
What are other examples of this method of working?
What are the narrative structures to consider?
What is the drafting process’s effect on truth?
How to engage the reader- a comics perspective
The tension between truth and engagement.
World building
