Storytelling in “Kabuki” by Steen Ledet Christiansen

In our latest blog post, Steen Ledet Christiansen tells the story of writing his latest book for University of Nebraska Press

I remember in the late 1990s picking up a comic book titled Circle of Blood mostly because I liked the art and because the writer-artist, whom I otherwise hadn’t come across before, mentioned William Gibson and William Burroughs as inspirations. Since these were and are hugely influential writers for me, how could I resist?

Over the next few years, I was able to collect the entire run of David Mack’s groundbreaking comics series Kabuki. At first, I struggled to make heads or tails of the series because I could not figure out the story progression. Every collection seemed to repeat events that I had already read. I should have paid more closely attention to Mack’s inspirations. Neither Gibson nor Burroughs are worried about such things as clearly articulated storylines that neatly fit into preconceived ideas of form. After a while, I realized that what I did not understand and thought was a deficiency in the series was actually its main strength — not a bug but a feature. By exploring different versions of events, by showing the same events from alternate perspectives, and by allowing past events to re-emerge as distorted memories, Mack was making a profound statement on loss and pushing the boundaries of the comics medium. Since then, Kabuki has remained my favorite comic book. 

Fast-forward a few decades to 2019, when I was still on Twitter, I came across a post from University of Nebraska Press asking which comic people would want to write a book about for their critical comics studies series, Encapsulations. I responded that I would write about Kabuki because of its playful spatial expressions, simply thinking about how gorgeous the series is and that more people should know the series. A day or two later, a post came back — please submit a book proposal.

I was already deep into researching another topic — on film, not comics — and didn’t really have time to do a book on comics. I had published a bit on comics before but nothing sustained. So, what else could I do but postpone my other book project and submit a book proposal? Encapsulations said yes (and thank you for that!) and off I went, writing a book about my favorite comics series. 

Writing Storytelling in Kabuki: Spatial Poetics of Comics allowed me a deeper understanding of how the series actually works, which has only deepened my appreciation of Mack’s art. I can also say that after a sustained focus of about a year and subsequent forays back into it, Kabuki remains my favorite comic book. I take this as a testament to its refusal to follow convention and instead forge its own path.

That I ended up writing this book at all was a complete coincidence that I could have never predicted and was never on my “career path.” Yet, I am incredibly excited about the result and have been happy to work with Encapsulations and Nebraska University Press on this book. This is how academic books should be written — for the joy of its topic and our desire to explore something that matters to us. If you get the chance to write something like that, take it. Even if it all started with a social media post. 

Steen Ledet Christiansen is a professor of culture, media, and aesthetics at Aalborg University. He is the author of Drone Age Cinema: Action Films and Sensory Assault and The New Cinematic Weird: Atmospheres and Worldings. Storytelling in Kabuki: An Exploration of Spatial Poetics of Comics is published by University of Nebraska Press.