Materiality and metalepsis in handmade small press alternative comics

This article reconsiders the narratological theory of metalepsis in comics through a discussion of handmade small press publications. I will argue that material and formal elements can collapse categories through which metalepsis is theorized. I will give examples of cases in which traces of the author’s body coexist on the object of the comic through both mechanical reproduction and artisanal intervention and argue that this undermines binary metaphors such as ‘descending/ascending’ and ‘inside/outside’ through which metaleptic incursions from and into storyworld are understood. I will argue that material aspects, as well as production and distribution contexts, have been under-considered in formulations of metalepsis in comics, and that consideration of these aspects helps us rethink the role that the body of the author and reader play in metaleptic encounters.