The Narrative Corpse

The Narrative Corpse
The cover of the graphic novel The Narrative Corpse featuring the main character "Sticky". Artwork by Mark Beyer, Charles Burns, Paul Corio, Kim Deitch, Carol Lay, Gary Leib, David Mazzucchelli, Richard McGuire, Gary Panter, Kaz, Joe Sacco, David Sandlin, R. Sikoryak, and Art Spiegelman
Publication information
Publisher	Raw Books / Gates of Heck
Format	8" x 16"
Genre	Alternative
Publication date	1995
No. of issues	1
Main character(s)	Sticky (cameos) Sarge, The Checkered Demon, The Spirit, Akbar & Jeff, Griffy & Zippy the Pinhead
Creative team
Artist(s)	Max Andersson, Peter Bagge, Lynda Barry, Mark Beyer, Chester Brown, M. K. Brown, Charles Burns, Max Cabanes, Daniel Clowes, Paul Corio, R. Crumb, Georganne Deen, Kim Deitch, Julie Doucet, Pascal Doury, Debbie Drechsler, Will Eisner, Mary Fleener, Drew Friedman, Scott Gillis, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Matt Groening, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Kamagurka and Herr Seele, Ben Katchor, Kaz, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Krystine Kryttre, Mark Landman, Carol Lay, Gary Leib, Jacques Loustal, Jason Lutes, Jay Lynch, Mariscal, Lorenzo Mattotti, David Mazzucchelli, Scott McCloud, Richard McGuire, Ever Meulen, José Muñoz, Thomas Ott, Gary Panter, J. Pirinen, Jayr Pulga, Bruno Richard, Jonathon Rosen, Joe Sacco, Richard Sala, David Sandlin, Savage Pencil, Gilbert Shelton, R. Sikoryak, Spain, Art Spiegelman, Carol Swain, Joost Swarte, Carol Tyler, Typex, Mort Walker, Chris Ware, G. Wasco, Willem, S. Clay Wilson, Jim Woodring, Mark Zingarelli
Editor(s)	Art Spiegelman & Robert Sikoryak

The Narrative Corpse is a chain story, or comic jam, by 69 all-star cartoonists based on Le Cadavre Exquis (see Exquisite corpse), a popular game played by André Breton and his Surrealist friends to break free from the constraints of rational thought.

Edited by Art Spiegelman and Robert Sikoryak, The Narrative Corpse features contributions from some of the most notable cartoonists of its time from the worlds of underground comix, alternative comics, and European comics (as well as Will Eisner and Mort Walker).

The Narrative Corpse graphic novel, co-published by Gates of Heck and Raw Books, had a limited run in 1995 of 9,500 copies. It was the winner of the 1996 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Graphic Novel.

The creative process was designed as follows: a cartoonist would begin the story with three black-and-white comic-book panels, starring an innocent stick figure named "Sticky." This cartoonist passes his or her three panels on to the next cartoonist, who continues the story in any manner he or she wants with three more panels. The next cartoonist receives only the previous cartoonists's part of the story, and so on.

Although the "story" oscillates without beginning or end, it can be said to start (after some creative editing by Spiegelman and Sikoryak) with the panels done by Drew Friedman, and end with the ones done by Richard McGuire:

Some contributors featured cameos by their own well-established characters (for example Mort Walker's Sarge, S. Clay Wilson's the Checkered Demon, Will Eisner's Spirit, Matt Groening's Akbar & Jeff, and Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead). It is also of interest that background or guest characters seldom last more than three contributions in a row.