“Others:” A Staten Island Meme Discussion – Collectors Confessions

“Others”

By Brian VanNostrand

I first encountered the (now) ubiquitous word meme in the pages of Grant Morrison’s comic series “The Invisibles”, and, like so many things in Morrison’s stories, the idea left me a bit excited and a bit disturbed.

Originating with the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the word meme was coined to describe ideas, thoughts, and behaviors that spread in a similar way to genes or a virus. This wasn’t the way Morrison was using it, though. In the final issue of “The Invisibles”, Jack Frost and his protege Reynard climb a corporate tower to confront the CEO of an addictive video game.

Jack is the same character he was throughout the series, but the younger Reynard is something altogether different. You see, in order to be maximally successful in an ever-changing environment, Reynard switches personalities to match the specific situation she is dealing with. It is “multiple-personality disorder” as a lifestyle choice. Looked at all together, Reynard calls her personalities the “memeplex”, and each different persona she adopted was a “meme”.

The whole idea of adopting different personalities to adapt to a context is fascinating and unique, but since Morrison is a very devoted, longtime comic book fan, the concept has roots in almost every other superhero comic ever.

Just think of how often a mild-mannered man gains superpowers (in comics that is; don’t think I mean in real life) and has to adopt a separate and unique identity. In D.C. Comics, Kal-El of Krypton adopts the identity (meme?) of Clark Kent and then the identity of Superman in order to adapt to Earth and to protect those he loves from revenge by his enemies.

Bruce Wayne hones his physical and mental skills to peak levels and adopts the meme of Batman, both to protect his identity and to frighten villains. Finally, my favorite superhero, Spider-Man, who balances the stresses of the perpetually down and out Peter Parker, and the wildly dangerous plans of one of comics’ best rogues galleries.

“Hey,” I hear you saying, “Isn’t this column supposed to be linking comic books and Staten Island?”

Yes, it is. I’m getting to that. Just a second for a sharp left turn:

David Johansen was born on Staten Island on January 9, 1950 and died on Staten Island on February 28, 2025. In the early 1970s, Johansen broke away from his high school band and helped to found the proto-punk band The New York Dolls.

Coming up in the music scene at that time, Johansen and the Dolls were heavily influenced by the gender-bending and shape-shifting David Bowie. The New York Dolls performed in heavy women’s makeup and gender-fluid costumes that made them look like space beings arriving on Earth as both a threat and a friend.

Later, after the New York Dolls had imploded, Johansen toured and recorded as a solo artist, and in the mid-1980s transformed into the lounge-singer, party guy Buster Poindexter. In the meme of Poindexter, Johansen had a radio hit with his cover of “Hot! Hot! Hot!”.

Johansen did the same thing a superhero might do: he adopted new personalities to suit the contexts he found himself in, and succeeded twice in doing so. I don’t think he’s the only one; all of us do something like this all the time, albeit not as extreme. How many of you out there can honestly say you are the same person at work that you are at home? Or the same person with your parents that you are with your significant other?

We all adopt memes, and that’s why we like superheroes and performers like David Johansen and The New York Dolls: They reflect a larger-than-life image of ourselves and all the little personas we use. They are us, writ large and mythic.

Check out this space in a week for Chad’s article, and my follow up to this one that’s about another group of Staten Island artists who adopted memes to create art.

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Banner Image: New York Dolls.  Image Credit – GothEric from Italy licensed by CC