• news
  • FRIDAY OCTOBER 14 2005 9:00 PM

Graphic Novels Grow Up

Submitted by susannah_breslin

Edited by susannah_breslin

The New Yorker's Peter Schjeldahl profiles the art of graphic novels in "Words and Pictures: Graphic Novels Come of Age." The lineup includes the likes of Chris Ware, Harvey Pekar, Marjane Satrapi, Will Eisner, and Joe Sacco. While Schjendahl asserts the work of graphic artists like Ware may be challenging, he suggests that the "colonizing of the territory" of graphic novels has only just begun.

Graphic novels—pumped-up comics—are to many in their teens and twenties what poetry once was, before bare words lost their cachet. The nineteen-sixties decided that poet types would thenceforth wield guitars; the eighties imposed percussive rhythm and rhyme; the two-thousands favor drawing pens. Like life-changing poetry of yore, graphic novels are a young person’s art, demanding and rewarding mental flexibility and nervous stamina. Consuming them—toggling for hours between the incommensurable functions of reading and looking—is taxing. The difficulty of graphic novels limits their potential audience, in contrast to the blissfully easeful, still all-conquering movies, but that is not a debility; rather, it gives them the opalescent sheen of avant-gardism.

  • PERMALINK
  • PRINT
  • Digg This
  • Email To A Friend
 

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

Comments
Rested

Rested

Houston, TX
June 2004

OCT 14, 2005 10:30 PM

Its just that the nerds of the internet have taken over, and they just want to ejaculate all over the masses.

I dont know how much prettier I could have said that?

[Edited on Oct 15, 2005 by Rested]

_DictionaryGirl_

_DictionaryGirl_

NEWSWIRE

San Diego, CA

OCT 14, 2005 10:48 PM

Rested said:
Its just that the nerds of the internet have taken over, and they just want to ejaculate all over the masses.

I dont know how much prettier I could have said that?



If celebrating comics equals nerd-jaculating all over the masses, then I don't wanna be right! love

JimmyOsterberg

JimmyOsterberg

Austin, TX
July 2003

OCT 14, 2005 10:58 PM

Regardless of whether or not graphic novel is a valid term, I'm always happy to hear stories like this. Hopefully, it will lead to some great comic artists getting more recognition and support. Anything that helps the art form grow is fine by me.

Vaux

Vaux

I'm lost
January 2008

OCT 14, 2005 11:06 PM

JimmyOsterberg said:
Regardless of whether or not graphic novel is a valid term, I'm always happy to hear stories like this. Hopefully, it will lead to some great comic artists getting more recognition and support. Anything that helps the art form grow is fine by me.


Heartily agree. I think more comics should make it out there into larger markets... Brian Michael Bendis' work with "Jinx" and "Goldfish", David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Jeff Smith (Bone), Adrian Tomine (strangely not mentioned in the article...Optic Nerve), Los Bros Hernandez (Love And Rockets), Terry Moore (Strangers In Paradise), Paul Pope (THB, 100%, Escapo, The One Trick Rip-Off), Marc Hempel (Gregory)...I mean, there are tons of books out there that should be in bookstores to help reach an audience that's waiting for this stuff.

JimmyOsterberg

JimmyOsterberg

Austin, TX
July 2003

OCT 14, 2005 11:13 PM

Vauxhall said:

JimmyOsterberg said:
Regardless of whether or not graphic novel is a valid term, I'm always happy to hear stories like this. Hopefully, it will lead to some great comic artists getting more recognition and support. Anything that helps the art form grow is fine by me.


Heartily agree. I think more comics should make it out there into larger markets... Brian Michael Bendis' work with "Jinx" and "Goldfish", David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Jeff Smith (Bone), Adrian Tomine (strangely not mentioned in the article...Optic Nerve), Los Bros Hernandez (Love And Rockets), Terry Moore (Strangers In Paradise), Paul Pope (THB, 100%, Escapo, The One Trick Rip-Off), Marc Hempel (Gregory)...I mean, there are tons of books out there that should be in bookstores to help reach an audience that's waiting for this stuff.



And I sir, agree with every damn author you mentioned. It's really amazing how much great stuff there is out there when the audience is so small. There is so much vitality in the comics community.

SamuelLJackson93

SamuelLJackson93

Denver, CO
July 2005

OCT 14, 2005 11:16 PM

Another excellent example.



[Edited on Oct 14, 2005 11:17PM]

Vaux

Vaux

I'm lost
January 2008

OCT 14, 2005 11:18 PM

Gooooooood pick biggrin That's a hardcover waiting for me to pick it up!!!

Vaux

Vaux

I'm lost
January 2008

OCT 14, 2005 11:20 PM

JimmyOsterberg said:
And I sir, agree with every damn author you mentioned. It's really amazing how much great stuff there is out there when the audience is so small. There is so much vitality in the comics community.


Tell me about it, eh? And that's only from the guys in comics. I haven't even gotten to the girls yet...

Edited to add the list of women creators in the world o' comics: Jessica Abel (artbabe), Lea Hernandez (Clockwork Angels), Becky Cloonan (Jennie One; East Coast Rising), Phoebe Gloeckner (The Diary Of A Teenage Girl), Chynna Clugston (Blue Monday), Jill Thompson(Scary Godmother), Raina Telgemeir (Babysitters Club), Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma 1/2, Inu Yasha)...comics are friggin' cool.

[Edited on Oct 15, 2005 1:51AM]

TheWhale

TheWhale

Troy, MI
August 2004

OCT 14, 2005 11:53 PM

I actually prefer the term Graphic Novel when referring to more literary works. I think it's important to make a distinction between monthly superhero books and something by Chris Ware or Craig Thompson.

jonasgrumby

jonasgrumby

Portland, OR
April 2004

OCT 15, 2005 01:30 AM

I don't care much about the name, other than the fact that none of the common ones are particularly descriptive. "Comics" isn't much better than "funnies" -- the term originally described comic strips, and collections of strips, that were actually meant to be funny. The name stuck, even as the content changed.

"Graphic novels" might be better if the term actually described fictional stuff. But even Harvey Pekar's collections are called "graphic novels" -- even though they're autobiographical nonfiction.

Will Eisner liked "sequential art," which is pretty descriptive, but sucks any sense of fun out of the enterprise.

So yeah, I still use "comics" more often than not, but every now and then it makes me cringe a little.

attn_ho

attn_ho

Brooklyn, NY
February 2004

OCT 15, 2005 01:58 AM

hmm. seems like ive read this article before. yeah, 5 years ago, and ten years ago. maye even 15 years ago. in 5 years, i expect another 'omg! comics are like mature and stuff!'

Vaux

Vaux

I'm lost
January 2008

OCT 15, 2005 02:20 AM

jonasgrumby said:
"Graphic novels" might be better if the term actually described fictional stuff. But even Harvey Pekar's collections are called "graphic novels" -- even though they're autobiographical nonfiction.


Graphic novels works for me. What bugs me is that all graphic novels get lumped together instead of being seperated into different categories: like, "Graphic novel: Autobiographies" or "Graphic Novel: Science Fiction". I recognize that there aren't enough books made in North America alone to support different subsections like that, but at least it would make things a lot more reasonable to me. After all, it's not like you walk into B&N and grab a random book under "Novel" and start expecting to enjoy it, right?

I can dream...

(edited to fix a [/ mistake thingie)

[Edited on Oct 15, 2005 by Vauxhall]

SomethingStupid

SomethingStupid

North Hollywood, CA
March 2004

OCT 16, 2005 02:40 AM

Keith said:
Neil Gaiman calls them "comics", and that's good enough for me. "Graphic novels" always struck me as a euphemism for people in denial. "Comics" is a perfectly honorable word with a wonderful traditiom, and, as far as I'm concerned, the phrase "graphic novel" was coined for people who A) would never read comics anyway or B) have an overinflated ego. It was coined to differentiate between "art" and Batman and Superman. Well, Batman and Superman are art, too. Some kind of person would say "Well, I've read some 'graphic novels', but I don't read comics." Probably the same kind of person who might read the New Yorker. So... yeah.

Comics.


P.S. No offense to you, Susannah. I'm addressing the source article.

[Edited on Oct 14, 2005 by Keith]



I was with you right up until the end. The New Yorker is easily my favorite magazine. But yes, the term "graphic novels" makes me cringe.

toothpickmoe

toothpickmoe

Los Angeles, CA
May 2004

OCT 16, 2005 03:14 AM

Vauxhall said:

jonasgrumby said:
"Graphic novels" might be better if the term actually described fictional stuff. But even Harvey Pekar's collections are called "graphic novels" -- even though they're autobiographical nonfiction.


Graphic novels works for me. What bugs me is that all graphic novels get lumped together instead of being seperated into different categories: like, "Graphic novel: Autobiographies" or "Graphic Novel: Science Fiction". I recognize that there aren't enough books made in North America alone to support different subsections like that, but at least it would make things a lot more reasonable to me. After all, it's not like you walk into B&N and grab a random book under "Novel" and start expecting to enjoy it, right?

I can dream...



This is a good point and need to be reposted, dammit.

blackwell

blackwell

United Kingdom
October 2004

OCT 16, 2005 09:03 AM

The difficulty of graphic novels limits their potential audience, in contrast to the blissfully easeful, still all-conquering movies, but that is not a debility; rather, it gives them the opalescent sheen of avant-gardism.



Obviously he hasn't read Scott McCloud's informative book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.


Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2 | 3

Next

featured interviews