The New York Review of Ideas » Breakthrough Books | May 2009
The Study of Graphic Novels
By Frances Pollitzer
Donald Ault, professor of English at the University of Florida and general editor of ImageTexT, a peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of comics
I would place Joseph Witek’s breakthrough study Comic Books as History: The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar (University Press of Mississipi, 1990) at the top of the list as a text that shows how graphic novels can be analyzed formally and ideologically with style and precision. Thierry Groensteen’s recently translated theoretical work System of Comics (University Press of Mississippi, 2007) establishes the most comprehensive set of semiotic protocols that currently exists for confronting the complex dimensions of comic book and graphic novel ontology. The crucial essay collection Comics & Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000) edited by Magnussen and Christiansen is one of the most important and wide-ranging collections of essays by international comics scholars that has yet been published.
Matthew Gregory, joint author of Graphic Novels in Academic Libraries: From Maus to Manga and Beyond (Journal of Academic Librarianship, 2006)
Stating which titles have defined the study of graphic novels is a risky proposition. People who read graphic novels are usually passionate about what kinds of works deserve the label and which titles are essential. Nevertheless, Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art (Norton, 2009) remains the classic introduction to the field and continues to inform most critical work on graphic novels. Anyone interested in reading graphic novels that are simply great stories, on the other hand, might take a look at Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (Pantheon, 2000) and Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat (Pantheon, 2005-2008). Ware’s book is a beautifully-rendered, sober meditation on the title character’s seemingly humdrum and possibly damaged life that ultimately raises questions about who we are and the forces that shape an identity over the course of a lifetime. Published in two volumes, Sfar’s extraordinary work celebrates the expatriate experiences of his Jewish Algerian forebears in France in the 1930’s. Narrated by a speaking cat that studies Kabbalah and consorts with prostitutes, The Rabbi’s Cat is a magical exploration of the transformative and sometimes divine effects of love and creativity.
Dr Rocco Versaci, Palomar College, author of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics As Literature (Continuum, 2007)
Comics scholarship has come in a variety of forms but tend to fall predominantly into one of three categories: history, formal analysis, and critical study. For me, three books stand out as outstanding representatives from each category. In terms of history, Roger Sabin’s Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art (Phaidon, 1996) provides a useful (and richly-illustrated) survey of the development of this medium across its various genres. For formal analysis, one of the most influential books has been Will Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art (reprinted by Norton, 2008). In this book, Eisner dissects the intricate relationship between words and images in order to demonstrate how they combine to create a unique medium. My own research interests lie in the field of literary analysis, and there is none more illuminating than Joseph Witek’s Comic Books as History (University of Mississippi, 1989), where the author examines how various cultural and ideological tensions are embedded and negotiated within comics that seek to represent the “real.”
Of course, it’s the medium itself that inspires all such studies, and I’ve been inspired by several. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman (DC, 1989-1996) is a rich celebration of story-telling that was my first encounter with how literate and complex comics could be; on the independent side of things, two memoirs by Chester Brown—The Playboy (Drawn and Quarterly, 1992) and I Never Liked You (Drawn and Quarterly, 1994)—were bracing examples of how the lonely angst of adolescence could be transformed into art.
Roger Sabin, Lecturer in Cultural Studies at Central St Martin’s College, London and author of Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels (Phaidon, 2001)
From an educator’s point of view, Martin Barker’s Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics (Manchester University Press, 1989) was a landmark volume. It tested some of the then-prevalent ideas about comics and their effects, using a cultural studies methodology – and came up with some startling new conclusions. Before then, David Kunzle’s magisterial two-volume The History of the Comic Strip (University of California Press, 1973, 1989) brought the form into the orbit of art history. ‘Comics scholarship’ as we now know it didn’t really exist until the late 1990s, Barker, Kunzle and Witek laid the foundations. I ought also to mention Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (HarperCollins, 1994), a lively and entertaining explanation of how comics work – from panel transitions to page layouts, etc. It was produced in the form of a graphic novel (which seemed very daring at the time) and has been criticised for some of its theoretical assumptions, but it has also been an inspiration – no other way of putting it—to successive generations of my students.
My favourite graphic novels? Off the top of my head, I remember laughing a lot at Ed the Happy Clown (Vortex, 1989) by Chester Brown: black humour and ultraviolence conveyed with the logic of nightmares. I also enjoyed the collections of Robert Crumb strips (Fantagraphics Books), arguably the only true genius the comics form has produced. As for today, I’m enjoying anything by Anders Nilsen and Rutu Modan.
Johanna Draper Carlson, graphic novel reviewer and author of Comics Worth Reading
One of my inspirations is Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder series (Kogan Page, six volumes), which uses anthropological science fiction to explore concepts ranging from the love of reading and the nature of creativity to the danger of cultural appropriation by corporations. She’s also a genius artist. Hope Larson’s flowing line anchors poetic meditations in Salamander Dream (Adhouse Books, 2005) and Gray Horses (Oni Press, 2006). Lucy Knisley uses a clear-line style to convey a trip to Paris and relationship-building with her mother in the gorgeous French Milk (Toushcstone, 2008); she also tackles what it means to be an artist in her journal comic collection Radiator Days (Epigraph Publishing, 2008). And then there’s Jen Sorensen’s editorial cartooning. In her Slowpoke series (Ig Publishing, 2008), she’s unafraid to call for ethical journalism, sensible economic decision-making, and sexual freedom. ♦