Glyndŵr academic explores work of legendary British comic book writer

An expert on one of Britain’s foremost comics writer has discussed his research at a major conference – and is in talks to publish a book based on his work.

Dr Andrew Edwards works in Wrexham Glyndwr University’s academic skills centre – and is a graduate of the university himself, having achieved both undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications at the Plas Coch Campus over the years, including a PhD which he completed alongside his job with support from the university.

His PhD focussed on Northamptonshire-based comics writer Alan Moore, whose work revolutionised the comics industry in the 1980s and beyond.

Titles of Moore’s – such as Watchmen, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell and more- have since become million-selling films, although Moore has, on principle, asked for his name to be removed from most of these works.

Andrew said: “The work I do here at Glyndwr is as an academic skills tutor – that means I work to help students their writing skills, guiding them as they prepare academic assignments. When I started that job, back in 2011, I was also supported by the university to help secure my PhD.

“My research began after I started off writing non-fiction articles about comics, as it was something I have always been interested in – and that got me thinking about a PhD.

“I completed that PhD last year – the title was Intertextuality and Gender in the work of Alan Moore. I selected eight of his works and wrote a chapter on each, looking at the ways he uses characters from other sources and employs them to critique gender stereotypes.

“For instance, one of his works, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, uses characters from literature and he makes use of a male character, like Alan Quartermain, and a female character, like Mina Murray – but he uses them to critique their usual roles, so Quartermain becomes a much weaker character while Murray becomes the leader of the group.

“I wanted to apply some of the techniques of literary research I had been using on my BA and Masters courses here at Glyndwr onto comics and graphic novels. Doing a PhD has widened my experience – and it helps me in a broad sense to assist other students who are going for similar qualifications as well.”

Andrew presented his work on Moore at a leading comics festival in Manchester at the start of the summer – and is now in discussions with a major publisher to produce a detailed book based on his research.

He said: “The paper I was talking about in Manchester was on Moore’s work on Captain Britain – it was part of a five-day conference and it’s quite a place to present an academic paper!

“The conference – the Joint International Conference of Graphic Novels, Comic and Bande Dessinées – was marking its tenth year and joining other researchers on its panels was a real honour.

“I’m also writing a book on Alan Moore’s issues of Swamp Thing – it is an issue by issue analysis of each – and I have submitted a book proposal to Bloomsbury as well, who have expressed an interest in it – it would be a monograph based on my PhD.”

You can find out more about Study Support at Wrexham Glyndwr University, here.