“Evil Witch! I’m Not Scared!”
In this chapter, Justin Wigard bridges a gap in research on Coraline by focusing on the visual semiotics of the narrative across its adaptations, specifically by examining the intertextual connections between McKean's surreal and monochromatic illustrations in Gaiman's novel, David Russell's comic book adaptation grounded both in realism and a muted pastel color palette, and Henry Selick's garishly, brightly colored film adaptation. The dominant discourse surrounding the canonical children's text has keyed in to the novella's psychoanalytic underpinnings, Gothic conventions, and postfeminist ideology while largely leaving out discussion of the visual aspectsofGaiman's novella, namely McKean's illustrations. When examined intertextually, the illustrative styles used to depict the Other Mother give insight into what monstrous traits are emphasized through medium-specific visualization techniques, ultimately revealing the fears that the Other Mother embodies through visual semiotics.