Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment

AUTHOR: Talbot, Bryan

ARTIST: Bryan Talbot (illustrator); Jordan Smith (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2007

Publication History

Bryan Talbot began his comics career creating underground comics in the early 1970’s. Though he has worked for publishers as varied as DC Comics, Tekno Comix, and Paradox Press, his work has always maintained an independent feel. Talbot was never a prolific creator, and his published output declined considerably in the early 2000’s as he began work on Alice in Sunderland.

According to the book itself, Talbot was struck by the idea during a performance of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake at the Empire Theatre in Sunderland, England. He conceived of Alice in Sunderland as a “dream documentary” to discuss the root idea of storytelling, both as a form of entertainment and as it pertains to crafting one’s own history and destiny. Talbot started with Lewis Carroll’s two Alice stories, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), and branched out in many different directions to showcase how these tales have been updated and modified over the years, as well as how individuals might later take cues from Carroll’s plot and themes to alter their own personal stories.

Talbot worked on Alice in Sunderland for several years. The book was first published nearly simultaneously by Dark Horse Comics in the United States and Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom, and was soon followed by Italian, Spanish, French, and Czech editions. For the third printing of the U.K. edition, Talbot took the opportunity to correct a few typographical errors and make minor adjustments to some of the images.

Plot

Alice in Sunderland opens as the Punter idly wanders into the Empire Theatre, looking to kill some time. The Performer takes the stage and begins discussing the history of the Empire Theatre up to its only original production, a 1970 musical loosely based on Carroll’s two Alice books. Joined by the Pilgrim, he then segues into a lengthy history of Sunderland, its inhabitants, Carroll, and the creation of the Alice books. The Performer teases his audience by stating that one of his subsequent tales will be completely false, and it is the job of the audience to figure out which. He traces Sunderland’s history from the building of St. Peter’s Church in 674 through 2007, with a discussion of how the area has reinvented itself with artist-in-residence Colin Wilbourn and writer-in-residence Chaz Brenchley. He also touches on the centuries-old rivalry between Sunderland residents, called Mackems, and the Geordies of nearby Newcastle upon Tyne. The Pilgrim closes the first act by concentrating on Carroll’s publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, including his collaboration with artist John Tenniel and the engravers, and his ultimate success at getting a bound copy into the real Alice’s hands, although not before Alice’s mother puts an end to the platonic relationship.

During the show’s intermission, the Punter tries to figure out which stories are true. Some of the pieces presented sound more like myths and legends than historical fact, and the ghost of actor Sid James goads him on to sort things out for himself.

The performance continues with the Pilgrim’s and the Performer’s tales still circling around Sunderland. The narratives always seem to come back to the Alice stories, although occasionally in extremely tangential or tenuous ways. Increasingly, the stories become more about telling stories and creating myths, and how they can endure and permeate culture; the tales cited are a varied lot, ranging from the legend of the Lambton Worm to how Carroll first spontaneously concocted Alice’s underground adventures while on a boating trip. Also discussed is how the real Alice Hargreaves (née Liddell), in financial trouble following the deaths of her son and her husband, is given a hero’s welcome in the United States as part of a centennial celebration of Carroll’s birth. This is all copiously documented by a Paramount newsreel, which perpetuates some of the myths around the Alice books.

The Performer finally admits that, despite his original statement to the contrary, everything he has relayed is absolutely accurate as far as anyone is able to determine. He ends his performance with a grand song and dance, featuring fireworks, flying jets, and final cameos by as many of the people he has discussed as can fill the stage, before finally commanding the Punter to go home.

Talbot awakes suddenly in the Empire Theatre. He remains seated with an astonished look on his face as those around him applaud and eventually leave. On their way out of the Empire, his wife scolds him for sleeping through Swan Lake.

Characters

•The Punter is initially described in the book as simply “this guy” and is presented accordingly. He is past his prime, somewhat overweight, and carries himself with a casual weariness. Initially, he seems to be the audience to whom the Performer speaks, but it soon becomes clear that he represents the reader. His questioning and heckling of the performance often serves to directly address issues the book’s readers might have with the main text.

•The Performer acts as host to the narrative, trying to keep the Punter entertained with dramatic and sometimes highly emotional flourishes. Wearing a billowing shirt and occasionally a white rabbit mask, he guides his audience through the web of stories that weaves in, out, and around Sunderland’s roots.

•The Pilgrim, dressed in a black dress shirt, provides more factual information about the subjects. While not without emotional interest, he is decidedly more reserved than the Performer. Although he is ostensibly being projected onto a screen behind the Performer, the two in fact share narrative duties, sometimes seamlessly switching back and forth as the subject changes.

•Bryan Talbot appears periodically throughout the book as himself, in a metatextual context, to comment on his creative process; he even has an existential crisis about it midway through. All of the main characters are simply extensions of Talbot and could be said to loosely represent his id, ego, and superego. Throughout the book, the characters melt from one to another, sometimes making it difficult to determine which character is speaking. Given the monologic nature of the narrative, however, this does not pose any real problems for the reader.

Artistic Style

Talbot employs a great many styles throughout the single volume. The main story is told using black-and-white figures and is drawn in his elegant, fairly traditional comic book style. As the Performer begins his story, Talbot works in collage elements, depicting photographs of persons and locations the character is discussing. Effects filters are frequently used on the photos, which vary widely in quality and style, to give the images a more unified feel. As the book goes into discussions of other artists, such as Tenniel or Scott McCloud, Talbot occasionally adopts those artists’ individual styles for short periods to emphasize his points about their work. Though the illustration style changes repeatedly, it does so in a way that serves the story and still allows for a smooth progression throughout the book.

Occasionally, Talbot also places comic book stories within the context of the narrative, and then presents them to the reader. Here, again, he adopts an artistic style appropriate to the subject. For example, when referencing a castle that is allegedly haunted by a ghost, he includes a four-page sequence that tells how the castle came to be haunted in a style reminiscent of the 1950’s horror books published by Entertaining Comics (better known as EC Comics).

Themes

The primary theme throughout Alice in Sunderland is storytelling. There is little discussion of the craft of storytelling; rather, the narrative uses repeated examples to illustrate how stories can be generated and passed along. Talbot is deliberately broad with his definition of storytelling and does not confine himself to the typical narratives of books, plays, and comics; though he certainly speaks to them, he also points out how individuals tell their own stories in how they live their lives. He looks forward and back, as people are able to influence both their past (by presenting it differently) and their future (by their direct actions).

Talbot also touches on the notion of cycles and renewal through storytelling. The same elements in storytelling can be used repeatedly by different creators, which in part is how the Alice stories can be told again and again in multiple media and with alternate takes on the same ideas. In addition, many of the ideas presented in the stories can wind their way into all sorts of seemingly unrelated and unexpected places, in some cases impacting the very language itself.

Talbot repeatedly uses both Sunderland and Carroll to illustrate his points. By referencing all of the stories he can find that are even slightly related to them, he is able to showcase a wide variety of examples of both storytelling and cycles, while still anchoring the reader with the Alice books as a common touchstone.

Impact

Alice in Sunderland is perhaps one of the broadest attempts at chronicling the life of Carroll and his most popular works. While other authors have delved into Carroll’s life in more detail, Talbot views his subject within a much larger macrocosm. He is less concerned with the intricacies of the man and more interested in his place within the much broader context of storytelling.

In that vein, Talbot tries to weave in as many references to Carroll and the Alice books as possible. He cites not only retellings and reinterpretations but also parodies and loosely derivative works, including Adolf in Blunderland (1939) and Night of the Jabberwock (1977), and even more oblique references, such as the image of Carroll on the album cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the brief discussion of the “Walrus and the Carpenter” poem in Kevin Smith’s film Dogma (1999). Many of the works Talbot does not mention by name show up in background collages.

Not surprisingly, given the medium, Talbot pays close attention to comics-related work. The influence of McCloud is apparent, especially in Talbot’s look at the Bayeux Tapestry, which McCloud similarly discussed in Understanding Comics, and of course when McCloud makes a cameo appearance to reenergize Talbot’s conviction to the work. Talbot seems to follow McCloud’s definition of comics, specifically pointing to many of the fine-art installations currently in Sunderland, such as Craig Knowles’s sculpture Taking Flight, as a form of comics.

Further Reading

Carroll, Lewis, Leah Moore, John Reppion, and Erica Awano. The Complete Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman: Fables and Reflections (1993).

Talbot, Bryan. Grandville (2009).

Bibliography

Brooker, Will. Alice’s Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture. New York: Continuum, 2004.

Carroll, Lewis, John Tenniel, and Martin Gardner. The Annotated Alice: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.” New York: Norton, 2000.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. Northampton, Mass.: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.