Back to Black examines, for the first time, Jules Feiffer’s late trilogy of graphic novels — Kill My Mother (2014), Cousin Joseph (2016), and The Ghost Script (2018) — as a body of work that pays homage to the iconography and themes of film noir through constant graphic experimentation and a striking reinvention of the author’s distinctive style. In numerous close readings, it reflects on Feiffer’s singular depiction of the central political issues of America from the Great Depression to the 1950s, which still resonate today: unionization struggles, cinematic propaganda, immigration and the American Dream, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, antisemitism, and gender discrimination. It studies Feiffer’s unique storytelling voice, which playfully alternates between drama and satire through the noir lens, and retraces its antecedents in his earlier cartoons, films, novels, and plays, showing a consistency of topics in the author’s worldview and imagination.
Introduction: Back to Black
Chapter One: From Oedipus to Hollywood: Trauma and Simulacrum in Kill My Mother
Chapter Two: Cousin Joseph: A Noir Take on the American Dream
Chapter Three: Revenge, Repetition, and Reflexivity in The Ghost Script
Conclusion: Homage, Experimentation, and Irony in the Trilogy
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
