Why do we love comics? Us geeks, that is.
Is it because they break everything down to such simple dichotomies? I don’t want to get all Barthes-ian on you, but comics are more than fantastical stories writ large; they are our dreams, and our nightmares. They are our best selves, and our worst.
Americans in particular love comics, because we love a good, simple battle. Oppressor versus liberator, revenge of the nerds, battle of the sexes, war of the worlds, Betty or Veronica, Superman or Batman, justice or mercy.
Comics are low culture – stick figures on paper, interjections in white circles emanating from the crudely-drawn lips of our inked dopplegangers. But they have worked themselves into high culture from ancient times to the present; Lichtenstein, Ruscha, and Warhol used them, Picasso and Braque incorporated type and sequential image in their work... they are ever-present in The New Yorker and similar high-brow journals.
Why do you love comics? Is it for the classics, such as Krazy Kat and the Katzenjammer Kids? The Golden Age of superheroes, such as the Justice Society of America? Perhaps the modern graphic novel, brought to us by Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Neil Gaiman, Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, and Daniel Clowes?
What is it that draws you in?
2 comments:
"A Reader's Guide to Graphic Novels" is one man's explanation of the lure and appeal of graphic novels. Read it here.
I disagree that comics are "low culture", puncutated by only brief glimmers of high-level literary worth. Sure, 90 percent of all comics are crud -- but 90 percent of every thing is crud. To assume that comics are nothing beyond their prevalent content is to confuse the medium with the prevalent genre (still, sadly, mostly superheros and quirky humor).
With the death of Will Eisner earlier this week, this topic is even more timely.
-CT
http://www.populationstatistic.com/
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