The Wendy-verse as Resistance: A Doubleweave Reading of Wendy’s Revenge
Written by Rosalind Sweeney-McCabe
Edited by Sarah Holley-Carney
Figure 1: Scott, Walter. Wendy's Revenge. Toronto, ON: Koyoma Press, 2016.
The focus of this paper will be the graphic novel Wendy’s Revenge, the sequel of Wendy, by Kahnawake-born artist, Walter Scott. Using the humorous paradoxes of the “Wendy-verse” (Wendy’s world) and various characters, Scott is able to express an intricate conception of Indigenous identity to a broad audience [1]. Engaging Qwo-Li Driskill’s Indigenous Two-Spirit theory of doubleweaving, their response to contemporary queer theory, this paper will examine how both the narrative and form of Wendy’s Revenge work to communicate complex ideas of identity. First, the Wendy narrative, the Wendy-verse, and the medium of the graphic novel will be introduced. Qwo-Li Driskill’s doubleweaving theory will then be used as a lens to analyze Wendy’s Revenge: the characters within the narrative and the visual form of the work. It will be shown using Driskill’s theory how the medium of the graphic novel and Scott’s narrative structure function in Wendy’s Revenge to create a work that’s both accessible and intricate, allowing for the communication of resistance to a broad audience.
Wendy’s Revenge, released in 2016, is a continuation of the graphic novel Wendy, released two years prior by artist Walter Scott. Both works are situated in the Wendy-verse, and follow the reality of Wendy and her friends while they navigate the Montreal art/punk scene, expanding to Los Angeles, Toronto, Winona’s reservation, Tokyo and Vancouver in Wendy’s Revenge. The main characters are Wendy, the namesake of the works and an artist; Winona, an Indigenous artist and friend of Wendy; and Screamo, another friend who is drawn like a ghost. The panels of Wendy’s revenge follow the characters in situations which explore how they negotiate their own identities and experiences, both in their art and in the art world which surrounds it. A striking component of what made Wendy and subsequently Wendy’s Revenge so popular with such a broad audience is Scott’s comedic commentary on contemporary culture and the art world (fig. 1) throughout the narrative. These moments are the ever “relatable” vignettes of the negotiation of self-love, care and awareness within a pretentious art and music scene familiar to many 20 somethings living in urban centres. Though Wendy’s Revenge is populated by many moments like this, the narrative takes place in more varying geographic locations with longer periods devoted to the characters individually. This garners more space for development, and a nuanced view of identity. While all the characters are presented separately in the space, the exploration of Scott’s own identity moves fluidly throughout the characters, in an interview with Canadian Art:
‘My characters shapeshift a bit. They’re all prisms coming out of me, and there are different versions of me in each of them. I grew up in Kahnawake with an understanding that people just change their forms. It’s part of our culture; people can turn into animals, stuff like that. It was very natural for me to create characters that are neither human nor non-human. Screamo is a spirit who almost exists but doesn’t,’ [2].
Around the comedic pretense of the Wendy-verse, Scott is able explore various problems of identity, describing it in the same interview as a ‘Trojan horse’ vehicle to communicate harsher political realities to a wide readership [3].
Figure 2: Scott, Walter. Wendy's Revenge. Toronto, ON: Koyoma Press, 2016.
Before further discussing Walter Scott’s Wendy’s Revenge, the format of the ‘graphic novel’ will be defined. The medium is characterized by a mixture of images and text to present a complete narrative for the reader/viewer. Aesthetically, graphic novels share much with comic books. Their difference is length: the graphic novel is a complete narrative whereas the comic is one instalment within a broader narrative [4]. While both genres share a mixture of image and text to present narratives, using the cue of length as definition, Wendy’s Revenge will be referred to as a graphic novel. The term graphic novel is also helpful as it situates Wendy within a genre with other works that have found the graphic novel a successful medium for explaining complex political situations [5].
In ‘Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies,’ Qwo-Li Driskill conceptualizes doubleweaving as a means of introducing Two-Spirit critiques into queer studies. Driskill sees this critique as necessary within the field as they observed that contemporary queer studies, while more inclusive than it has previously been, has included Indigenous experience now only marginally, if at all [6]. Driskill identifies Two-Spirit as:
‘a word that is intentionally complex. It is meant to be an umbrella term for Native GLBTQ people as well as a term for people who use words and concepts from their specific traditions to describe themselves. Like other umbrella terms — including queer—it risks erasing difference. But also like queer, it is meant to be inclusive, ambiguous, and fluid,’ [7].
Using this term, Driskill also is able to conceptualize outside of a colonial framework by avoiding settler-colonial language, and instead works within an Indigenous tradition [8]. Two-Spirit is a way of speaking about identity outside of a settler-colonial vernacular and imagination. This is especially pressing to Driskill as they do not situate their theory as post-colonial, quoting ‘Aborigine activist Bobbi Sykes, who asked at an academic conference on post-colonialism, “What? Post-colonialism? Have they left?”’ [9]. The critique is not limited to theory, Driskill utilizes the metaphor and language of Cherokee doubleweaving basketry to explain how various splints (theories and practices) can be woven together in order to create an approach composed of various intersections [10]. Thus, Driskill argues that Two-Spirit critiques ‘through theory, arts, and activism—are a part of larger radical decolonial movements’ [11]. Doubleweaving as a Two-Spirit critique within theory and practice can then be applied within works not necessarily identified within a Two-Spirit narrative or created by an Indigenous artist who identifies as Two-Spirit, ‘Native Two-Spirit/queer people are already participating in several Native activists, artistic, and academic movements. These movements, even if not “Two-Spirit,” are part of the splints that doubleweave Two-Spirit resistance,’ [12]. Doubleweaving theory is an understanding of identity which is independent of settler-colonial forms, and whose practice is a form of resistance.
Figure 3: Scott, Walter. Wendy's Revenge. Toronto, ON: Koyoma Press, 2016.
Walter Scott’s examination of identity throughout Wendy’s Revenge is an illustration of Driskill’s conception of doubleweaving in practice. The use of different characters – Screamo, Wendy, Winona – to express one fluid idea of identity is parallel to the metaphor of the physical act of doubleweaving. To begin the explanation of their theory, Driskill quotes Sarah Hill: ‘One of the oldest and most difficult traditions in basketry is a technique called doubleweave. A doubleweave basket is actually two complete baskets, one woven,’ [13]. By using different parts of different characters, Scott is able to insert a more nuanced and forthright expression of Indigenous identity. Just as Driskill conceives the practice of their theory as a political tactic, so does Scott, observing that ‘you’re able to slip in more direct references to an Indigenous experience that can grow in this garden you’ve already cultivated, by using or understanding what possibility and what privilege can allow,’ [14]. Wendy’s Revenge, through the use of various characters, is able to weave together a more complex presentation of identity which does not assume separate experiences. While a reader could interpret Wendy’s Revenge simply as a humorous account of individual characters, the narrative can be understood as one of resistance when read through Driskill’s theory and Scott’s intentions. Fluidity in identity throughout Wendy’s Revenge furthers a narrative of resistance as it sits explicitly outside settler-colonial expectations in narrative. In this way, Scott’s narratives of identity in Wendy’s Revenge become a Two-Spirit critique.
Wendy’s Revenge typically employs minimal text, usually a maximum of two text bubbles within a panel. This places more of a focus on Scott’s drawings of the characters, as well the changes in the layout of his panels. In a fantasy or dream sequence, for example, Scott will use wavy dividing lines around panels, or will use different colours or panel backgrounds to delineate different sections of the graphic novel (see figs. 1 – 4). In the ‘graphic novel’ section of Krazy! Art and Seth Spiegelman discuss the emotional value behind various panel arrangements. To use their discussion of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel to contrast, Seth and Spiegelman discuss Brown’s minimal change in layout and perspective as Brown minimizing emotional influence on the reader [15]. Unlike Louis Riel, the panel sizes, layout and perspectives of Wendy’s Revenge change constantly to reflect the emotional state of the characters. The emotional dialogue of the characters as at the centre of the narrative of Wendy’s Revenge become reflected in Scott’s visual arrangements. In this way, Scott is able to further the reader’s emotional understanding of the characters.
Walter Scott uses selective translation in the Tokyo residency of Wendy’s Revenge. Scott, who originally made this section as a part of his own artist residency in Tokyo, chose not to remove the original Japanese, and instead added on an English translation on the adjoining page (see fig. 2). For the reader this creates a certain amount of distance that had not been experienced up until this point. With this device, Scott removes the immediate ability to relate to characters of the Wendy-verse. The division of panels and translation places a slight obstacle in the ability to understand or connect. This distance is furthered in the section when Winona is talking to her aunt on the computer (see fig. 3), where the Kanien’kéha they are exchanging in is not translated for the reader [16]. It affirms the distance in understanding implied previously, and connects a lack of translation directly to Indigenous experience. In Sarah Henzi’s article, “A Necessary Antidote”: Graphic Novels, Comics, and Indigenous Writing, she discusses the linguistic possibilities of the graphic novel: ‘because of the importance given to the visual aspect, they are essential tools towards bridging linguistic and intergenerational gaps,’ [17]. The untranslated text, then, is a political tool Scott is able to employ to force his more privileged readership to acknowledge their distance and perspective. Scott stated that “I was thinking about our language. I wanted people who read Wendy and feel like it’s theirs to get a sense of how that feels – to feel like something is yours but it isn’t – you feel a kinship to it, but you don’t understand,” [18]. Using the medium of graphic novel Scott is able to manipulate the distance between various demographics of readers and the Wendy-verse.
Figure 4: Scott, Walter. Wendy's Revenge. Toronto, ON: Koyoma Press, 2016.
Winona, Wendy and Screamo’s vulnerable emotional states, as a catalyst for narrative throughout Wendy’s Revenge, are what bring a lot of humour to the work. Humour out of vulnerability is an aspect of the Wendy-verse which Scott has identified as key to what makes the graphic novel effective [19]. The Wendy-verse can also be seen as a satire in the way it comments on political situations through humour. An example of this is the section entitled ‘Princess Leia starring in: Scene Hair’. In this section Winona invites ‘Princess Leia’ over as she thinks, ‘She’s had a pretty interesting life. We have the same interest in identity…’ and Wendy is skeptical because, ‘Isn’t she like super rich? I thought you said rich people are annoying,’ [20]. Wendy is pointing out Princess Leia’s privilege, the panels go on to show the character, Leia, ranting about how her culture’s hairstyle was misrepresented by George Lucas while cutting Winona off every time she tries to speak to her own experience. While the situation is obviously humorous because ‘Princess Leia’ is from Star Wars and it’s not a real culture, the political implications of the conversation are poignant. As Princess Leia goes on about her culture’s misrepresentation from her pre-established place of privilege, Winona’s experience is shut out (see fig. 4). This disregard of Winona’s perspective echoes Qwo-Li Driskill’s critique of Indigenous experience being left out of contemporary queer theory, but does so using humour within a platform which has the ability to communicate differently from an article in an academic journal [21]. Scott has described the genre of graphic novel’s capability of satire as an ability to, ‘get away with saying a lot more than if I were writing a critical text for a magazine, because that has its own restrictions,’ [22]. Scott is able to communicate a nuanced political commentary, as in Driskill’s article, to a different audience using the satirical ability of the graphic novel genre.
Walter Scott is able to utilize the genre of the graphic novel to elicit various emotional connections with the reader: through form, selective translation and satire. Because the graphic novel is able to harness all of these aspects, through both visuals and text, the form itself becomes a manifestation of Driskill’s doubleweave Two-Spirit critique. The graphic novel is able to practice Driskill’s theory because it is able to include ‘part of the splints that doubleweave Two-Spirit resistance,’ [23]. The graphic novel as a medium in Wendy’s Revenge employs various tactics to communicate a highly emotionally detailed idea of Indigenous identity, and in this way it becomes an embodiment of Driskill’s Two-Spirit theory.
Wendy’s Revenge by Walter Scott is a statement of Indigenous identity which, in its form and narrative, exemplifies Qwo-Li Driskill’s Two-Spirit critique of doubleweaving. The blending of character and the application of various visual and textual techniques allow Scott to express a contemporary and self-determined conception of Indigenous identity. This work answers the call for a ‘more expansive representation of fierce feminist, gender-variant and sexually diverse realities within Indigenous art,’ [24]. Because of how Scott has formatted the Wendy-verse, his narrative is able to reach a large and diverse audience, who would not normally be inclined to expose themselves to a work which explores Indigenous identity so intently. In the preface to The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, author Gord Hill concisely sums up the strength of the graphic novel/comic book genre to communicate the complex histories and experiences of Indigenous peoples: ‘The strength of the comic book is that it uses minimal text with graphic art to tell the story. This format is useful in reaching children, youth and adults who have a hard time reading books or lengthy articles,’ [25]. Within the medium of graphic novel, the combination of accessibility and intricacy in the Wendy-verse’s narrative structure, Walter Scott creates a space of resistance.
Endnotes
1. Walter Scott, “Walter Scott on Life in the Wendy-Verse”, interview by David Balzer Canadian Art, 1 Apr. 2015.
2. Walter Scott, “Walter Scott on Life in the Wendy-Verse”.
3. Ibid
4. Grenville, Bruce, Tim Johnson, Will Wright, Kiyoshi Kusumi, Seth, Art Spielgelman, and Toshiya Ueno. Krazy!: the delirious world of anime comics video games art. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008., p. 21
5. Some examples that first come to mind are the aforementioned Louis Riel by Chester Brown, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco.
6. Driskill, Qwo-Li. "Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, no. 1-2 (2010): 69-92. p. 70
7. Ibid, p. 72
8. Ibid
9. Ibid, p. 70
10. Ibid, p. 74
11. Ibid, p. 69
12. Ibid, p. 84
13. Ibid, p. 74
14. Walter Scott, “Walter Scott on Life in the Wendy-Verse”
15. Grenville, Bruce, Tim Johnson, Will Wright, Kiyoshi Kusumi, Seth, Art Spielgelman, and Toshiya Ueno. Krazy!: the delirious world of anime comics video games art. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008., p. 82
16. Walter Scott, "Book review: Wendy is back, with a real townie vengeance", interview by Jessica Deer, The Eastern Door. November 09, 2016. Accessed December 04, 2017. http://www.easterndoor.com/2016/11/09/book-review-wendy-is-back-with-a-real-townie-vengeance/.
17. Henzi, Sarah. "“A Necessary Antidote”: Graphic Novels, Comics, and Indigenous Writing." Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 43, no. 1 (March 2016): 23-38. doi:10.1353/crc.2016.0005.
18. Walter Scott, "Book review: Wendy is back, with a real townie vengeance"
19. Walter Scott, “Walter Scott on Life in the Wendy-Verse”
20. Scott, Walter. Wendy's Revenge. Toronto, ON: Koyoma Press, 2016.
21. Driskill, Qwo-Li. "Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies." p. 70
22. Walter Scott, “Walter Scott on Life in the Wendy-Verse”
23. Driskill, Qwo-Li. "Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies.", p. 84
24. Nixon, Lindsay. "Making Space in Indigenous Art for Bull Dykes and Gender Weirdos." Canadian Art, April 20, 2017.
25. Hill, Gord. The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010, p. 6