The Narrative Corpse was a graphic chain-story by 69 artists based on Le Cadavre Exquis (see Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite corpse is a surrealist technique, but may also refer to:Literature* Exquisite Corpse , edited by Andrei Codrescu* Exquisite Corpse , a 1996 novel by Poppy Z...

), a popular game played by André Breton

André Breton

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....

 and his Surrealist

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 friends to break free from the constraints of rational thought. The Graphic novel

Graphic novel

A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...

 had a limited run in 1995 of 9500 copies and was the winner of the 1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Graphic Novel.

The Creative Process

The idea was first conceived of, in May, 1990, as a project for RAW

RAW (magazine)

RAW was a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly and published by Mouly from 1980 to 1991. It was a flagship publication of the 1980s alternative comics movement, serving as a more intellectual counterpoint to Robert Crumb's visceral Weirdo, which followed squarely in the...

.
An artist would begin the story with three black and white comic-book panels, starring an innocent stick-figure named "Sticky." This artist passes his three panels on to the next artist who continued the story in any manner he wanted with three more panels. The next artist received only this artists' part of the story, and so on.

To expedite the project, two strands were started simultaneously, one in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 by R. Sikoryak, the second in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 by Savage Pencil

Savage Pencil

Savage Pencil is a comics artist, and is the nom de plume of English music journalist Edwin Pouncey.-Biography:...

. Nevertheless, the project kept growing (outliving RAW itself, which ceased publication in 1991) until it was brought to an end five years after its inception.

Artist List

Max Andersson Max Andersson Max Andersson is a Swedish comic creator and film maker, mostly doing "underground style" and "artistic" comics. His comics have mainly been published in Swedish albums, and in the Swedish art magazine Galago....	Peter Bagge Peter Bagge Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...	Lynda Barry Lynda Barry Lynda Barry is an American cartoonist and author. One of the most successful non-mainstream American cartoonists, Barry is perhaps best known for her weekly comic strip Ernie Pook's Comeek. Barry's cartoons often view family life from the perspective of pre-teen girls from the wrong side of the...
Mark Beyer Mark Beyer Mark Beyer is a comic artist known for his bleak storylines, often featuring death, disfigurement, depression, and humiliation, which contrast with his childlike, geometric drawing style. Most of his stories are about the adventures of a codependent yet resentful couple named Amy and Jordan.His...	Chester Brown Chester Brown Chester William David Brown , is an award-winning, best-selling Canadian alternative cartoonist and, since 2008, the Libertarian Party of Canada's candidate for the riding of Trinity-Spadina in Toronto, Canada....	M.K. Brown
Charles Burns Charles Burns (cartoonist) Charles Burns is an American cartoonist, illustrator and film director.-Life:Burns is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, painter Susan Moore, and their two daughters Ava and Rae-Rae.His father was an oceanographer for...	Max Cabanes	Daniel Clowes Daniel Clowes Daniel Gillespie Clowes is an American author, screenwriter and cartoonist of alternative comic books....
Paul Corio	R. Crumb	Georgeanne Deen
Kim Deitch Kim Deitch -Sources:* at Lambiek's Comiclopedia-External links:* Ford, Jeffrey. *Heller, Steven. **...	Julie Doucet Julie Doucet Julie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...	Pascal Doury
Debbie Drechsler Debbie Drechsler Debbie Drechsler is an American illustrator and comic book creator. Her semi-autobiographical graphic novel about incest, Daddy's Girl , was nominated for an Ignatz Award....	Will Eisner Will Eisner William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...	Mary Fleener Mary Fleener Mary Fleener is an American alternative comics artist, writer and musician from Los Angeles. Fleener's drawing style, which she calls cubismo, derives from the cubist aesthetic and other artistic traditions...
Drew Friedman	Scott Gillis	Justin Green
Bill Griffith	Matt Groening Matt Groening Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....	Gilbert Hernandez Gilbert Hernandez Gilberto Hernández, born February 1, 1957, in Oxnard, California, usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also known by the nickname Beto , is an American comics writer/artist...
Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator of the black & white independent comic book Love and Rockets .-Early life:...	Kamagurka Kamagurka Kamagurka, aka Luc Zeebroek, is a Belgian cartoonist, playwright and television producer, known for the absurd nature of his work. He has a big variety of comic figures, but "Bert en Bobje" are the most well-known...  and Herr Seele	Ben Katchor Ben Katchor Ben Katchor is an American cartoonist best known for his comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. He has contributed comics and drawings to The New Yorker and The New York Times...
Kaz	Aline Kominsky-Crumb Aline Kominsky-Crumb Aline Kominsky-Crumb is an American underground comics artist best known as the wife of cartoonist R. Crumb....	Krystyne Kryttre
Mark Landman	Carol Lay Carol Lay Carol Lay is the author of a weekly comic strip, Way Lay, which first appeared in 1992 and which runs in the LA Weekly and Salon. It is also printed in daily and weekly newspapers as far afield as Hong Kong and Norway. Lay has been drawing professionally for over 25 years.-Biography:Lay was born...	Gary Leib Gary Leib Gary Leib is an American underground cartoonist, animator, and musician. Best known for the comic book Idiotland , Leib's work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Musician Magazine, The New York Observer, RAW, BLAB! and as weekly...
Jacques Loustal Jacques de Loustal Jacques de Loustal is a French comics artist who uses a painterly style reminiscent of David Hockney.-Biography:...	Jason Lutes Jason Lutes Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction...	Jay Lynch Jay Lynch Jay Lynch is an American cartoonist who played a key role in the underground comix movement with his Bijou Funnies and other titles. His work is sometimes signed Jayzey Lynch. He has contributed to Mad, and in 2008, he expanded into the children's book field.-Early life and career:Born in Orange,...
Mariscal Javier Mariscal Javier Mariscal is a Valencian Spanish artist and designer whose work has spanned a wide range of mediums, ranging from painting and sculpture to interior design and landscaping. He was born in February 1950 in the city of Valencia, Spain, into a family of eleven brothers and sisters...	Lorenzo Mattotti Lorenzo Mattotti Lorenzo Mattotti is an Italian comics and graphical artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue, The New Yorker, Le Monde and Vanity Fair...	David Mazzucchelli David Mazzucchelli David Mazzucchelli is an American comic book artist and writer. His latest work is the award-winning graphic novel, Asterios Polyp.-Career:...
Scott McCloud Scott McCloud Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium...	Richard McGuire	Ever Meulen Ever Meulen Ever Meulen is a Belgian illustrator and comic strip artist. His work has appeared in Humo, the magazine for which he drew "Balthazar de Groene Steenvreter" and "Piet Peuk"...
Jose Munoz José Muñoz José Muñoz may refer to:*José Antonio Muñoz, a.k.a. Muñoz , Argentine artist and cartoonist.*José Esteban Muñoz , U.S. Latino writer, academic.*Jose C...	Thomas Ott	Gary Panter Gary Panter Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
J. Pirinen	Jayr Pulga	Bruno Richard
Jonathon Rosen	Joe Sacco Joe Sacco Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American comics artist and journalist. He achieved international fame through the 1996 American Book Award-winning Palestine, and his graphic novel on the Bosnian War, Safe Area Goražde.- Biography :...	Richard Sala Richard Sala Richard Sala is an American cartoonist, illustrator, and comic book creator with a unique expressionistic style whose books often combine elements of mystery, horror and whimsy.-Biography:...
David Sandlin David Sandlin David Sandlin is a Northern Irish-born American artist. His drawings, prints, paintings, and installations are in private and public collections worldwide, and his limited-edition artist's books are in the collections of several prominent libraries, including those of the Museum of Modern Art, New...	Savage Pencil Savage Pencil Savage Pencil is a comics artist, and is the nom de plume of English music journalist Edwin Pouncey.-Biography:...	Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He is the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Philbert Desanex, Not Quite Dead, and the cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.He graduated from Lamar High...
R. Sikoryak	Spain Spain Rodriguez Manuel Rodriguez , better known as Spain or Spain Rodriguez, is an American underground cartoonist who created the character Trashman. His experiences on the road with the biker gang, the Road Vultures, provided inspiration for his work, as did his left-wing politics.-Biography:Born in Buffalo, New...	Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
Carol Swain	Joost Swarte Joost Swarte Joost Swarte is a Dutch comic artist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term....	Carol Tyler Carol Tyler Carol Tyler aka C. Tyler is an award-winning American painter, educator, comedian, and Eisner nominated cartoonist known for her autobiographical stories.-Background:...
Typex Typex In the history of cryptography, Typex machines were British cipher machines used from 1937. It was an adaptation of the commercial German Enigma with a number of enhancements that greatly increased its security....	Mort Walker Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...	Chris Ware Chris Ware Franklin Christenson Ware , is an American comic book artist and cartoonist, widely known for his Acme Novelty Library series and the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he resides in the Chicago area, Illinois...
G. Wasco	Willem	S. Clay Wilson S. Clay Wilson S. Clay Wilson is an American underground cartoonist and central figure in the underground comix movement. Wilson is known for aggressively violent and sexually explicit panoramas of "lowlife," often depicting the wild escapades of pirates and bikers. He was an early contributor to Zap Comix,...
Jim Woodring Jim Woodring Jim Woodring is a Seattle-based cartoonist, comic book author, artist and toy designer. He also produces fine art works in a variety of other media, including painting and charcoal....	Mark Zingarelli

External links

• Gates of Heck