Comics inherently encompass multiple modalities and are published across numerous platforms, whether in print or digital form. In its distinct combinations of words and images, the multimodal medium of comics has encompassed numerous formats throughout its long history – typically appearing in numerous forms simultaneously in any given era. Comics exist in single-panel and multi-panel strips within newspapers and magazines, in single-issue comic books and longer graphic novel formats and in new digital forms such as webcomics and motion comics. Comics have also been adapted to cinema and television, in both live-action and animated incarnations – often drawing on the original words and imagery of their source material in direct ways. This essay traces the history of comics as a multimodal experience from the 1800s through the twenty-first century; it also examines how other media have translated them onto various types of screens while still drawing on the specific formal qualities used by comics to tell stories. Regardless of the particular format through which readers engage with the medium, comics offer amalgamations of two separate modes of content which allow for unique meanings via the unification of words and images.

Addressing how Dolly Parton’s Netflix anthology series uses transmedia storytelling to reimagine her earlier music, I argue that it revises narratives about country music history. As Parton reframes songs like “Jolene,” her work underscores how her gender performance challenges gender stereotypes in country music performance history. By turning songs into television stories, Parton adapts to recent trends in transmedia storytelling. Her autobiographical authenticity narratives make her especially well-suited to new media self-branding. As critics such as Nadine Hubbs, Francesca Royster, Diane Pecknold, Kris McCusker, and Jada Watson have argued, we must continue to account for more nuanced readings of gender in country music history, particularly as it intersects with race, class, and sexuality. I demonstrate how Parton’s series speaks to the variety of gender expression and gender critiques in a range of country performances. I also call for more discussion of transmedia storytelling, intertextuality, and affect studies in the field.