Aaron Meskin

The University of Leeds

Comics, Literature, and Performance

In his introduction to McSweeny’s Quartery Concern No. 13, Chris Ware describes comics as “a page by page pattern, brought to life and ‘performed’ by the reader—a colourful piece of sheet music waiting to be read”. In this paper, I explore analogies between reading comics and experiencing musical and theatrical performances. I pay special attention to Peter Kivy’s recent suggestion that silent readings of literary works are importantly akin to performances. If some comics are literature, then Kivy’s arguments may provide support for Ware’s suggestion. In addition, I address specific issues raised by authorship practices in serially published comics; for example, I explore analogies between artists’ ‘runs’ on established titles and performances or performance interpretations.