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Ally Sloper on Stage

This essay argues that the significance of the nineteenth-century comics character Ally Sloper cannot be understood without reference to the parallel career that this fictional celebrity developed across other media, most notably Music Hall. It thus contributes to debates on intermediality in cultural studies and performance studies, and draws on a wide range of original sources to demonstrate the centrality of Sloper to a specifically British theatrical tradition that moved away from earlier continental models. Ideas were tested in a number of plenary conference papers before publication in European Comic Art, an international, peer-reviewed journal. The essay builds on Sabin’s two books about comics culture, credited as instrumental in establishing Comics Studies as a field, and his broader award-winning research into Sloper (the Franco Fossatti Prize). It will become the basis for a chapter in a forthcoming book, under contract from the University Press of Mississippi (2014).