'Sparks of Meaning': Comics, Music and Alan Moore. Issue 1 (2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Summers, Tim
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Volume 140:Issue 1(2015)
• Page Start: 121
• Page End: 162
• Publication Date: 2015
• Subjects: Music -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Music -- Periodicals; 780.5
• DOI: 10.1080/02690403.2015.1008865
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-0403

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Comics have become a significant part of modern popular culture. This article examines the ways in which music is involved with comics, and develops methods for analysing musical moments in comic books. The output of the writer Alan Moore (b. 1953) is used as the domain for examining music and comics. This popular author's works are notable for their sophisticated use of music and their interaction with wider musical culture. Using case studies from the comic books V for Vendetta (1982–9), Watchmen (1986–7) and the second and third volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2002–12), the article demonstrates that the comic can be a musically significant medium (even to the point of becoming a piece of virtual musical theatre), and argues that music in comics serves to encourage readers to engage in hermeneutic criticism of musical and musical-literary texts.