TRICKSTER

Let's talk about Trickster, a collection I stumbled upon recently. It's a collection of twenty Graphic retellings of trickster tales written by Native American Authors who collaborate with illustrators on a one-on-one basis in order to create, basically, comics.  Right away, I think Gunn Allen and Narrative structures and I wonder about a few different things:

One: Does the visual representation, the comic and the narrative structures thereof subvert the intended plot purposes of Native story-telling. I imagine this differs tribe-by-tribe (i.e. different for the Keres People than for the distant Sioux People).

Two: Does the visual represetnation, perhaps more adequately fulfill the narrative requirements, especially for stories rooted in ritual, I imagine the visual nature of the comic/graphic novel is actually closer to the true tale than the entirely verbal re-telling.

Three: Does it matter, significantly that it's only Trickster tales. I imagine these tend to fit into the less holy or ritualistic of stories, and nearer to entertainment and moralistic stories, therefore bearing a little less of the weight than say, Kochinnenako.

Four: Does the book re-conform it's tales to typical western-european/masculine standards. Does it insist upon, what Gunn Allen says is persistent "Foregrounding." 

I would guess yes, but my guess doesn't really matter, what I'm getting at here is that an understanding of the dialogue, and of Gunn Allen and those like her is vital to a healthy reading of texts like this.