Under Construction @ Keele 2017 Under Construction @ Keele Vol. III (3) | Page 61

would also have to consider the physical object itself, something which comics
theory is ill-equipped to do.
Yet, meaning is also being created by aspects of the texts beyond the
immediate enunciations of individual images and phrases. Not only does the
existence of such meaning-making elements suggest a validity to the process of
treating MALM as a comic, it also indicates that the study of MALM might further
elucidate such concepts, despite the fact that the manual is not obviously comic-like
in all its aspects. In The System of Comics, Groensteen argues that we must accept
two things to be necessarily true about comics. These are that any comic ‘is
necessarily (constitutionally) a sophisticated structure and that it only actualises
certain potentialities of the medium, to the detriment of others that are reduced or
excluded . 9 I subscribe to Groensteen’s points, with the caveat that the actualisation
of certain entities need not necessarily preclude others, except insofar as they
occupy space. I can think of no example of a feature of a comic (that in any way is
specific to comics) that would actively prevent the articulation of another feature
except within the same space. Regardless, that any given comic is likely to only
‘actualis[e] certain potentialities’ and therefore, two comics could be written that bear
only the faintest formal resemblance to one another and could still be called comics,
is undoubtedly true.
MALM certainly excludes many features common to comics if not necessary
to them. Characters are almost absent (although it does appear that we are in the
presence of a narrator on page 7); calling the progression through the comic a plot or
narrative is a stretch; and the presence of the above-discussed critical paratextual
element is highly unusual. Even if we conclude that MALM is a comic, it is likely so
only in degrees, and places MALM at the fringe of comics and at an intersection with
other kinds of texts. Yet, as a text on the periphery of comics it is probable that while
some typical aspects of comics might be missing, MALM will have other elements in
abundance and/or i n a particular situation or form, giving us a perspective on those
elements that traditionally canonised comics might not offer. Exploring at the fringes
of a particular literary or scientific field has often been the most fruitful way to
understand aspects of its core. If MALM or any other fringe text is to do this, it must
be established (as we have already begun to do) which elements of comics they
9
Groensteen, The System of Comics, 12.