The Disintegrating (Comic) Book Object and the End of the Narrative Universe in Promethea

Abstract

Promethea (1999-2005), a comics series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by J. H. Williams III, thematizes, foregrounds and interrogates the comic book object in a number of interesting ways. The narrative of Promethea is highly metatextual, drawing on comics history and employing historical visual styles. Furthermore, some issues experiment with interruptions of the visual flow of the graphic narrative as well as the act of reading itself—the final comic book, for example, is designed to be materially taken apart by the reader and rearranged, mirroring the events and the disintegration and reassembly of the storyworld.