Drawing God: Echoes of Emblems in Comic Narratives

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dc.contributor.advisorBeaty, Bart H
dc.contributor.authorEllsworth, Aaron Desmond
dc.contributor.committeememberJoseph, Clara A. B.
dc.contributor.committeememberGrove, Laurence Francis Roger
dc.date2022-02
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-21T20:51:52Z
dc.date.available2021-12-21T20:51:52Z
dc.date.issued2021-12
dc.description.abstractWe are told that emblem books, which were popular from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, are a dead genre. However, the symbols that appear in emblem books live on in another genre that combines text and image: comic books. Heavenly lightning, a bearded man in the clouds, rays of sunshine, and the tetragrammaton in a ball of light; these were all symbols emblematists used to represent God. These emblematic symbols, among others, still inform western imaginations and understandings today. This thesis will focus on just a few comics, dating from the 1980s to the 2000s, in order to demonstrate that emblem symbols are alive and well, existing in a new context. Indeed, God appears in Jeff Smith’s Bone, Dave Sim’s Cerebus and Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck in ways that are similar to the symbolic depictions of the Christian God found in the emblems. The symbol still points to God, or a God substitute, yet describes the deity in a new way. Thus, these comics contain what I term “iconographic echoes” of the emblematic signs for God. Since emblems were both popular and designed to be remembered, their symbols potentially became commonplace, passed down and re-used. It is almost as if the emblematists yelled out, and that yell reverberated through the canyons of literature, art, and culture; echoing even in the comics many generations later. Still, the comics creators do not merely copy the symbols – the signifier may not look the same, and the signified may now be understood differently – rather each uses the emblem images for God for his own narrative (and meta-narrative) purposes. Gerber critiques religious hierarchies and makes God the equivalent of a comics creator in the corporate system. Sim presents an angry yet unknowable deity. Smith uses emblem symbols to build the mythology of Bone, examining the nature of good and evil. By placing these images into their comics, Sim, Smith and Gerber reinforce the notion that these symbols indicate God, while also voicing their own particular ideas regarding that divinity.en_US
dc.identifier.citationEllsworth, A. D. (2021). Drawing God: echoes of emblems in comic narratives (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/39433
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/114191
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectComic Booksen_US
dc.subjectEmblem Booksen_US
dc.subjectChristianityen_US
dc.subjectCerebusen_US
dc.subjectDave Simen_US
dc.subjectBoneen_US
dc.subjectJeff Smithen_US
dc.subjectSteve Gerberen_US
dc.subjectHoward the Ducken_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Language and Literatureen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Religiousen_US
dc.subject.classificationLiterature--Comparativeen_US
dc.subject.classificationLiterature--Modernen_US
dc.subject.classificationLiterature--Americanen_US
dc.subject.classificationLiterature--Canadian (English)en_US
dc.titleDrawing God: Echoes of Emblems in Comic Narrativesen_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEnglishen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (MA)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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