It's a huge universe out there (maybe more than one!). There's an equally expansive one inside. Graphic novels travel both. The genre seems limited only by our limitless imaginations and the ability of great artists to illustrate them. They can be as real as your own life or as fantastic as a surrealist's dreams. Graphic novels, like literature or any non-fiction, can be about anything. Picture it...
The ILLUSTRATED IMAGINATION is here to open a small window on the wide world of graphic novels. The series intends to be a starting point for discussion and a chance to widen our experience with all forms of comics and illustrated story-telling. There's no way your humble diarist can come close to covering all that's going on in the expanding universe of graphic novels. Indeed, not only do I miss, because of sheer volume, large swaths of the type of illustrated works I'm most interested in, I miss entire genres for various reasons of taste, time and availability (of cash!). My hope is that you, the eye-strained readers of comics of all kinds, will inform, critique and recommend to us what is worthy, what is fantastic, what is informative in the world of graphic novels. Interested? Read on...
Just as comics aren't all funny, graphic novels can be neither "graphic" (you know what I mean) or "novels." Or they can be. Arguing over definitions will get you no where in a genre that includes tales of superheroes and the fantastic as well as straight (and gay) fiction and the entire universe of non-fiction -- history, biography, memoir and political tracts.
There are graphic biographies of Ann Frank, Nat Turner, J. Edgar Hoover, Emma Goldman and Johnny Cash, graphic renderings of classics including Pride and Prejudice and Walden Pond, even On the Origin of Species, graphic histories on the travels of Lewis and Clark, the battle of Midway and the struggles of the Students For a Democratic Society. Howard Zinn's A People's History of American Empire is a graphic adaption of the Imperialism-smashing classic. And, yes, they're are stories featuring caped men and women who fly and science fiction fantasies of all types as well as detective fiction and stories of everyday life. Limit notions of graphic novels at your own risk.
The sort I'm most interested in are those closest to literature. Even at that, they tend to be different than the fiction I read. There's much soul searching and self-analysis currently in graphic novels and it's resulted in some great work beginning with the late Harvey Pekar and including that from Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel and Craig Thompson. Personality described is one thing. Personality depicted is another.
The reality held in a genre known for fantasy is overwhelming. I've just finished Chester Brown's Paying For It, a serial history of his relationship with prostitutes (the book ends up being more a discussion of romantic love and its alternatives). Talk about personal honesty! Brown's previous book was a well-researched history of the 19th century Canadian revolutionary Louis Riel (more on Brown in a future diary).
Our themes? What is the reader's relationship to comics? How does text inside illustration change the reading experience (and how does it look on Kindle)? Is it possible to come to comics as an adult? Or does one need to have started reading them in their youth? Considering that the genre is so connected to the young, is there a low-brow embarrassment factor for adults who read graphic novels? How is the imagination engaged when reading graphic novels, as opposed to straight reading or movie viewing? How does symbolic representation work in graphic illustration? Who are your favorite graphic novelists/ cartoonists (the words graphic novel, comics and cartoons will most likely be interchangeable in this series...agreed)?
My favorites? Brown, of course, Chris Ware, the great Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch and Joe Sacco. But then maybe someone will suggest something I've never seen before and the universe will change. Let's start sketching now....
[End Note: You'd think a diary on graphic novels would contain some images. Rest assured, I'm working on it. Until then, please pardon my lack of savvy and technological klutziness. A related note...those who recognize this column will forgive its republish. I now know how to schedule a diary to a group queue...thanks to Limelite for much direction and patience. ]
Cabbage Rabbit Review of Books and Music: Comics