This practice based PhD seeks to reframe the way we think about printed surface in graphic novels. I want to define the role materiality of surface plays in the interpretive mechanism of visual narrative, and use these findings to open up new forms of sequential readings.

To do this, I will need to research Book Arts and Literary Criticism alongside Comics. The issue of materiality is common across these fields, but no comparative practice based research has yet been carried out.

The term materiality as I use it, means the study of the physical surfaces that make up a book, the materials, actions and supports that comprise the original art work, and how this is represented by the printed page. The relationship between these material states, their interpretation by readers, and their mediation by technology, broadly defines my area of interest. 

These researches will frame a practice based program, wherein I will produce three graphic narratives. Though grounded in the graphic novel form, these narratives will utilise theoretical methods of interpretation encountered in my wider research. Their production will involve the material processes of soaking, embroidery, and pyrography which alter or subvert the page surface through the action of moisture on material, the piercing of material, and the burning of material.

The graphic narratives I create will form an account of the possibilities for sequential innovation opened up by deeper understanding of materiality, working toward the development of a theory of materiality in graphic novels. 

The aim of this is to identify sequential strategies across these fields and arrive at a definition of the role materiality plays in their function. As well suggesting new methods of theoretical interpretation, this research will have implications for how we consume comics digitally and suggest more nuanced approaches to the digitisation of graphic narratives.