Of multimodality and (White)men: Robert Crumb and the contact zones of comics

For a long time, comics have been considered merely a disposable form of entertainment and escapism. Nowadays, things have certainly changed for the ninth art, especially on account of the world-wide recognition of the artistic and socio-cultural relevance of comic works as well as in the light of the commercial value of their industry . Among the authors who contributed to the full acknowledgment of comics as independent, dignified form of expression is Robert Crumb, considered one of the founding fathers of underground comix. Though there is no general agreement as to when the underground comix revolution started, it is in 1967 that Robert Crumb published the comics magazine Zap Comix 1 which is unanimously reported to have reshaped the comics landscape: as opposed to the barrenness of mainstream output, Crumb’s art was straightforward, needle-sharp in his satire of American society, with no restrain in terms of contents and form. The present paper focuses on a most paradigmatic case from Robert Crumb’s colossal production, i.e., Whiteman’s adventures: in particular, it enucleates some of the themes and figures recurring in “Whiteman”, the first story included in the already-mentioned Zap Comix 1, and how these very elements are reiterated in “Whiteman meets Bigfoot”, originally published in Home Grown Funnies in January 1971 by Kitchen Sink Press . The case-study under scrutiny represents a particularly effective example of synergic use of images and words, resulting in an elaborate and vivid text and a suggestive multimodal architecture to examine. In this regard, some methodological considerations regarding the tools of analysis precede the actual discussion of the case-study and focus on Guther Kress and Theo van Leewen’s research on multimodality and Algirdas J. Greimas’ study on semantic isotopy. On the content level, the essay explores how both stories revolve around the encounter between the epitome of the prototypical, white, American, middle-class man (his very name being Whiteman) and forms of Otherness , just as with the 1950s’ Silent Generation, when the multifaceted complex of movements and groups generally falling under the umbrella term ‘counterculture’ burst forth.