Hero vs antihero: spatial form and the graphic novel

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the relations between the formal aspects of the contemporary graphic novel and the fictional character portrayed within these works. The transformation of the comics form into the graphic novel is examined with regard to the intention to attain spatiality in both the verbal and the visual dimensions of the medium. In this context, the transformation of the traditional comics hero into the antihero of the contemporary graphic novel is analyzed in relation to the visual representation of the character and the composition of the work through the fictional strategies collected under the literary theory of spatial form in narrative.