New Tools for Storytelling: Flexible Ethnicity and Adaptation in Comics & Television

Abstract

This thesis examines different forms of storytelling by using graphic novels, comic books and television series to efficiently do so. The first chapter features a fairly new comic called Ms. Marvel where the superhero is a teenage Muslim instead of the traditional blue-eyed, blonde-haired superhero. The chapter describes Marvel Comics’ direction of changing ethnicity, sex, gender, etc. to better suit the vastly-growing and diverse consumer market. Chapter two concentrates on the tool of flashbacks in a comic called Bitch Planet and in a television show called Orange is the New Black. The use of flashbacks is investigated, further demonstrating its ability to humanize characters. Chapter three focuses on adaptation as a form, tracing its roots from creation to present-day. In the chapter, I discuss the call and current need for changes within adaptations. I also examine an original comic called Preacher, while also comparing it to the newly-finished TV series adaptation by the same name. Throughout the three chapters, portable ethnicity, flashbacks and adaptation are all a common theme and all play a part in the storytelling of these pieces