UCLA

In this dissertation, I will examine the formal interchange between American film and American comic books from 1978-2009. Building upon the theory of remediation defined by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, I describe a contemporary facet of the relationship between these two media forms as exemplifying stylistic remediation, or the representation of one medium's stylistic characteristics within another medium. Through the following chapters, I will investigate the complex and ever evolving formal relationship between these two media forms, which are also experiencing convergence at the levels of the industries which produce them and the customers who consume them. Moreover, I will also offer commentary upon the potential economic future of stylistic remediation and what new hybrid forms of media these trends in form and conglomeration have begun to produce. To this end, this study applies theories of form out of Comic Studies, Film Studies, and New Media Studies to analyses of texts in both media. Moreover, in order to fully contextualize these stylistic developments, I will draw upon an analysis of the industrial and popular presses representing both industries that I will elaborate upon with subject interviews.