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June 20, 2006
Superman vs. Batman: Who Wins? Libraries do!
Like many people in her age group (she is 17,) my daughter wants to become an author and or illustrator of graphic novels and comics. This is a serious commitment on her part and she has done a phenomenal amount of research into the history and possible future of this art form. Over the years we have had deep conversations regarding who is the best superhero, Batman or Superman. My daughter has always been firmly in the Man of Steel’s camp while I like hanging with the Bat. We have also discussed the Marvel vs. DC Universes and American vs. Japanese Animation. To her this is just as important as any discussion about Chekov vs. Tolstoy or Confederate vs. Union Armies in the American Civil War.
Manga, anime, comics, cartoons, graphic novels, and all of the online versions of these formats are touchstones and cultural icons for my daughters generation. Libraries have been paying notice to the popularity of this genre but we need to pay even more attention. What does this mean for future reading formats? Heck, what does it mean to the entire entertainment field?
My daughter has shared with me several very funny cartoons that have been created, posted and viewed in an online format. What happens when the book and the online world collides? I think it is the graphic novel. Here is what my daughter has to say about it:
The Future of Graphic Novels
One of the oldest and often undervalued forms of story telling is undergoing a major change. The future for this art is an uncertain one, clouded by misunderstanding. The future of comics and comic books is one that no one can guess, the recent rise in popularity being counter balanced by the notion that comic books are lower forms of literature and art. With such prejudice against comic books, it is amazing that they have lasted this long. So it is that we will look at comic books in the present and try to glimpse the future that awaits them.
In the 2001 Guardian First Book Award, a lone comic book stood out among the nine contestants. Not like the usual contender whose daunting blocks of black and white type which made them formidable foes for Chris Ware’s colorful work of art, Jimmy Corrigan: the Smartest Kid on Earth. Although it won a single vote, it was a great accomplishment considering that …(more)
Ware expressed his story in such a seemingly unorthodox format. However, is a serious story told by using visual images such an unorthodox approach? No, there are many great works of literature that are told with real images instead of words. Words may weave a pretty picture but a picture is worth a thousand words.
Despite the accomplishments of a few comic book writers, there is a persistent feeling that comic books are not anything more than entertainment for children. Even some cartoonists feel that comics should not be given respect as a form of literature. Political cartoonist Martin Rowson was so opposed to comics becoming more respectable that he had this to say, “Comics aren’t and shouldn’t be respectable. The closest they should come to the adult world is as a kind of foul-mouthed, filthy-minded and grubby adolescence.” (Literature’s Mutant Sister…) The way comics are often viewed today would lead one to believe that Rowson is right about comics. He is wrong. Comic books have a potential for telling stories that can match and even sometimes surpass classic forms of literature.
For true comic book fans the recognition that comic books are getting is truly exhilarating. No longer must we hang our heads in shame when we admit that we read comic books, chances are the person we are talking to reads them as well. I enjoy comic books because they have interesting story lines but don’t require hours to read. I can get almost any genre of comic book I want.
It is surprising how many genres there are in the comic book world, normally we would just think that there is only fiction, but that is not true. Comic books come in just as many genres as normal novels. For instance there is a graphic biography of the life of Martin Luther King called King, by Ho Che Anderson. There is a story called Maus which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize, it is based on the experiences of the author’s (Art Speigleman) father in Europe during World War II and his relation ship with his father. There are even adaptations of classic books written by authors like Oscar Wilde, Upton Sinclair, Franz Kafka, and more.
Adaptations of classic books often gain something when translated into the comic book formats. Many educators are starting to realize that comic books are equal to their imageless brothers. The prejudice against comic books works in favor of the teachers bold enough to defy convention and give their students the chance to learn in a way that appeals to them. Comic books appear to require no brain power to read and are therefore not as threatening to reluctant readers. The fact that comic books don’t have long tedious descriptions of the settings and characters makes reading comics much faster than reading a novel. Thus the student can get the sense of accomplishment from finishing a book without the mind numbing process of mulling over thousands of useless words.
More conservative educators still are not convinced. They feel that the old ways of forcing children to read are still better than the more subtle approach that makes them want to read. They feel that comic books would bring down the quality of there lessons, even though books for children just learning to read can resemble comic books, with juxtaposed images telling a story. However, comic books do not mean that education is being sacrificed; after all there are just as many genres of comic books as there are novels.
We live in an age when more and more children are showing traits and skills common among those with autism. The skills used in reading a comic book such as interpreting nonverbal gestures and the emotions of characters exercises the part of the brain that is not used when children sit at home and instant message there friends. In other words when children read comic books, they are being saved from unnatural autism by using the part of the brain that picks up on human emotions.
Comic books are one of the most difficult forms of storytelling to comprehend because not only does it require that the reader take in the emotions of the characters, but the reader must also be able to tell the passage of time from one panel to the next and make conclusions about what happened in between the panels. The reader fills in the entire world; the smell, the sounds, the movements, even the elusive flow of time. Thus the reader is creating a three dimensional world out of a two dimensional image, all in the magic space between images. In this respect comics are unique, no other art form, verbal or otherwise, can ever involve the reader as much as comics do.
This level of involvement is what children love the most about comics. Comics appeal to students who learn visually, and may have a hard time reading books. The sooner teachers realize what a gold mine they have in comic books the sooner children will realize that reading doesn’t have to be the humiliating and boring process that many think it is.
Libraries have long used comic books to hook readers. Libraries use campaigns like “Manga Mania” to attract teens, especially male patrons. In fact many librarians have gained knowledge about comic books superior to most book stores. In fact, many publishers use the library to build fan bases. Libraries often have a collection of comic books that can rival many book stores with the possible exception of a comic book store. One librarian I interviewed about comic books told me “I think they’re (comic books) a fresh approach to genres, a natural extension to the computer age. We have a generation that grew up playing computer games and this is a more mature expression of that.”
As almost any librarian will tell you the teen years are the years when children stop going to the library. The library is no longer the cool place to go; I think that’s mostly due to the fact that in your teen years you’re a little too old to play in the children’s section. Having a graphic novel section is one way of keeping teens hooked on the library. Comic books are typically the most checked out books in the library. I myself often check out more comic books than I can hold.
Reading comic books give teens a place to escape to and make them feel like an individual. Manga are particularly good for this. Manga are Japanese comic books that read from right to left. This is a pleasant break from the left to right world we live in.
Comic books have other siblings besides literature. Television and movies are also closely related to comic books. Most of the time we think of cartoons as being related to comic books, and they are very closely related.
These fraternal twins often cross over into each others formats, with TV shows being made into cine-Manga (comic books that use actual film shots in the panels) and comic books being made into TV shows. It’s not such a far leap from watching shows based on comic books to really reading comic books, and many teens, like me, are making the leap.
And cartoons are not the only genre of television that is related to comic books; slowly comic books have crept into live action TV. First, with shows that were based on comic books like the Superman series of the 1950’s. Then slowly comics started to influence other TV shows, ones not based on comic books. Slowly the influence of comic books spread till now it seems like every show that’s not so called “reality TV” is in some way influenced by comic books.
Hollywood is also being influenced by comic books. Originally, cartoons were just “shorts” shown before movies, now there are movies based on comic books. Thus Hollywood is taking comic books out of the closet, polishing them up and thrusting them back into the spotlight of American pop culture hoping that they will shine. Even movies not based on comic books are feeling the effects. Fight scenes featuring hyper-reality, slow motion effects are the place where the hand of comic books can be seen most clearly.
Movies and TV shows are not the only thing that comic books are branching into, there are many comic books based on games. People who love a certain video game will often buy the comic books based on the game. The comic books often expand on the world of the game and make the person who reads them feel more involved in the game. One of the biggest disappointments in my life is that they do not print the Manga based on my favorite game in English.
One of my favorite pastimes is going online and reading the comics based on my favorite game, and thanking the fans who translate it into English. I’m not the only one who reads online comics either; there are hundreds of online comics. The internet is so graphically driven that comic books are a natural extension of the Internet.
There is nothing more boring than reading a book online, when there’s a whole wide world for you to explore online it can be hard to stay put and just read paragraph after paragraph of text, so the images give the reader a nice break from the hard work of concentrating on taking in and deciphering words. With my generation and their shortened attention spans, the Internet seems likely to soon choke off the popularity of the classic novel format as it is now killing the newspaper industry.
It is almost impossible to make a book seem interesting to my generation as we expect things to come instantly and do not have attention spans long enough for online novels. Comic books give you information immediately, you can see who, what, and where all at once. That is why I suspect that comic books will be able to survive the Internet but, I am not certain that the novels will.
So in view of the startling possibility of the death of novels as we know them, I think it is time for the heir of the modern novel to shed the name of its youth “comic book” and assume its adult name “graphic novel.” Graphic novels may yet be the salvation of storytelling in a two dimensional sense being perfectly adaptable to the changing world we live in. So it is now time to put aside the prejudice we hold against these works of art and embrace them, They are the equals to classic novels and a valid form of art and literature.
Bibliography
Paul Gravett “Literature’s Mutant Sister: Graphic Literature Is Achieving Critical Mass and Acclaim” The Bookseller, Nov 11, 2005 i5204 ps8(1)
Jacquie McTaggart “Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Encourage Reluctant Readers” Reading Today, Oct-Nov 2005 v23I2p46(1)
Tom Holman “Libraries Love Pace and Intensity: Manga and Other Graphic Novels Have Found a Hugely Receptive Audience” The Bookseller, Nov 11, 2005 i5204 pS20(2)
Allyson A.W. Lyga “Graphic Novels for (Really) Young Readers: Owly, Buzzboy, Pinky and Stinky. Who Are These Guys? And Why Aren’t They Ever on the Shelf?” School Library Journal, March 2006 v52 i3 p56(6)
Randy Myers “The Graphic Novel: Evolution of a Literary Genre” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA), March 27, 2006 pNA
Ian Gordon “Mainstream Comic Books” New Internationalist, March 2006 i387
p15(1)
Steve Raiteri “Graphic novels” Library Journal, March 15, 2006 v131 i5
p58(3)
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (Kitchen Sink Press, 1993)
Lynne Truss, Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or, Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door (New York: Gotham Books,
2005)
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