{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.025377643504531724, 'fraction_numerical': 0.012386706948640483, 'mean_word_length': 5.247169811320755, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 1, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Sexual violence in comics

This is the first of two special issues of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics dedicated to the exploration of the representation of sexual violence in the medium of comics. The contributors included in this issue have focused on sexual violence in fictional comics; our next issue, to be published in the summer of 2018, will explore the theme of sexual violence in historical and autobiographical comics. We started from the premise that the visual representation of sexual violence tests the limits of what can be shown in different contemporary cultural spaces, but it also provides a good testing ground for what the medium of comics can do to contribute to wider conversations about the ethics and aesthetics of the depiction of difficult subjects. Important contributions to this topic have already been made by comics creators working in many different areas of the medium, and who speak from a variety of cultural backgrounds, from the autobiographical work of authors like Debbie Drechsler (Daddy’s Girl), Phoebe Gloeckner (A Child’s Life and Other Stories), and Katie Green (Lighter Than My Shadow), to graphic reportage (Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde), historical graphic narratives (Paolo Cossi’s Medz Yeghern. Le Grande Mal), fantasy (Saga, Sex Criminals), historical fiction (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Manifest Destiny), as well as in many other examples from both alternative and superhero comics. This list is by no means exhaustive: there are many other graphic narratives where sexual violence is not a minor plot point, but an important part of the narrative which positions it at the intersection of current conversations on violence, gender and sexuality, as well as trauma and memory. The contributors to this special issue use the topic of sexual violence to explore matters such as the limitations/taboos of the visual representation of sexual violence, the aesthetics of trauma and post-traumatic memory, the ethics of retribution/revenge, the complicated dynamics between power and vulnerability, the visual construction of the interactions between violent and violated bodies, the historical precedence as well as intertextual dynamics of representations of gendered violence presence of sexual violence during war and conflict, as well as the gendered dimension of various acts of sexual violence. Erin Barry’s paper reads a substantial corpus of Tijuana Bibles in order to examine the manner in which sexual violence has helped create a communal space upon which the construction of normative white masculinity can take place. Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Michael J. Prince both provide readings of Alan Moore’s work. Piatti-Farnell analyses the implications of the ambiguity of the representation of sexual assault on Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen, against a theoretical background that illuminates the connection between national and personal memory, gender and representation, as well as the superhero body and the national body. Michael J. Prince’s work on Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell reads the connection between sexual violence and patriarchal domination through the JOURNAL OF GRAPHIC NOVELS AND COMICS, 2017 VOL. 8, NO. 3, 225–226 https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2017.1329981