What Makes Ticking Boy Tick?

TY - CONF

T1 - What Makes Ticking Boy Tick?

AU - Herd, Damon

PY - 2014/8/15

Y1 - 2014/8/15

N2 - In Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology, Richard Reynolds puts forward a definition of a superhero that includes superpowers, a secret identity, and justice. Another condition is ‘science as magic’, by this he means that although there is scientific phenomena in these books, it is usually only a ‘superficially plausible’ background detail as the world inhabited by superhero characters is ‘mystical rather than rational’. Autobiographical comics are by nature more rational than mystical, but many still include tropes from superhero comics to aid metaphor and storytelling. In my comic The Adventures Of Ticking Boy, I detail my real life experience of undergoing heart surgery to replace a genetically defective aortic valve, but I introduce the stories in the language and visuals of superhero comics - ‘Is he faster than a speeding bullet? No’ This paper examines the medical, mystical and mundane influences behind The Adventures Of Ticking Boy. These inspirations include works of literature that mythologise the dangers of scientific knowledge, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Heart Of a Dog, as well as other nonsuper superhero comics such as Glenn Dakin’s Captain Oblivion. This paper also looks at these influences on my wider artistic practice of creating comics, zines and artists’ books. My minicomic You’re So Vain takes a sideways look at scalp replacement surgery, and my illustrated artists edition of The Heart of a Dog uses the intertextuality of linocut printmaking, typography, and medical records, as well as photographs of my own surgical scars to further investigate the influence of science on our lives.

AB - In Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology, Richard Reynolds puts forward a definition of a superhero that includes superpowers, a secret identity, and justice. Another condition is ‘science as magic’, by this he means that although there is scientific phenomena in these books, it is usually only a ‘superficially plausible’ background detail as the world inhabited by superhero characters is ‘mystical rather than rational’. Autobiographical comics are by nature more rational than mystical, but many still include tropes from superhero comics to aid metaphor and storytelling. In my comic The Adventures Of Ticking Boy, I detail my real life experience of undergoing heart surgery to replace a genetically defective aortic valve, but I introduce the stories in the language and visuals of superhero comics - ‘Is he faster than a speeding bullet? No’ This paper examines the medical, mystical and mundane influences behind The Adventures Of Ticking Boy. These inspirations include works of literature that mythologise the dangers of scientific knowledge, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Heart Of a Dog, as well as other nonsuper superhero comics such as Glenn Dakin’s Captain Oblivion. This paper also looks at these influences on my wider artistic practice of creating comics, zines and artists’ books. My minicomic You’re So Vain takes a sideways look at scalp replacement surgery, and my illustrated artists edition of The Heart of a Dog uses the intertextuality of linocut printmaking, typography, and medical records, as well as photographs of my own surgical scars to further investigate the influence of science on our lives.

UR - https://iawis.org/international-iawisaierti-conferences/

M3 - Paper

T2 - International Association for Word and Image Studies (IAWIS/AERTI) Conference

Y2 - 11 August 2014 through 15 August 2014

ER -