Event overview
A talk by Darcy Sullivan
Supernatural tales and gothic fiction have long been a mainstay of comic books and graphic novels, so The Picture of Dorian Gray had an immediate appeal to creators and publishers. However, while crime and horror of every sort proliferated in this medium from its outset, sexuality — and particularly homosexuality — was taboo. How did this affect the treatment of Dorian Gray in comics? Starting from its first adaptation in British boys’ adventure comics, Darcy Sullivan will chart the evolution of Dorian Gray in Western comics, and show how artists and writers adapted the story to the commercial demands of what was considered a children’s market. Discover how the decadent sensibilities and ground-breaking sexual shadings of Wilde’s novel made their first tentative appearances in the comics format, and finally flourished in the medium more than 100 years later.
Darcy Sullivan is Press Officer for the Oscar Wilde Society. He is a regular contributor to The Chap, and has written extensively on comic books for The Comics Journal and other publications. Darcy played James McNeill Whistler in Oscar’s People, a short play written and directed by Society member Neil Titley in 2018. He curates the Facebook page The Pictures of Dorian Gray, featuring 100 covers of the book.
British Association of Decadence Studies web page
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 26 Nov 2020 | 7:30pm - 8:30pm |
Accessibility
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