Blogger: Etta Wilson
Location: Books & Such, Nashville office
Weather: More rain, low 80s
This exploration of the comic world has been an eye-opener for me. Like everything else in publishing these days, the world of comics is changing. Those of us who remember reading comics seem to want to revisit the genre–who hasn’t picked up a Peanuts book once or twice? Meanwhile new collections are being published such as The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, which has its eye strictly on “children as their core readers.” Their criteria for judging good from bad: Do you remember it after reading it?
Four things I’m noticing among the surge in comic book publication (now available almost everywhere books are sold):
1) Many more heroines are featured as main characters on the covers;
(2) New comic publishing companies are emerging, as well as the growing prominence of longtime comic publishers like Capstone;
(3) The wide variety of content–nonfiction as well as fiction, and retelling classic stories like Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes;
(4) Great variety in page length–one review features a 20-page comic book. A comic book that long is really a graphic novel.
So how are we to know a comic from a real book? The content or the length isn’t the litmus test. Is it the design and format–the cheaper paper stock and cover? the full-bleed, full-color art? the frames that move the story action across the page? the balloons holding the dialog? I see most of those features in picture books. Maybe it’s not important to draw the line if a child is reading and good literature just happens to be in comic format.
It’s been interesting to hear this week about the comics you remember reading as kids. Did anybody love Dick Tracy as much as I did?
This has been an interesting topic. I wonder what constitutes a comic book these days too, given graphic novels that have plots moving through framed artwork and characters speaking in bubbles.
My hubby has gotten into graphic novels lately, and so I’ve been reading them too. We devoured the Bone series and he picked a Dick Tracy book second-hand. As a kid, I read Tintin and Asterix & Obelix with my brothers. But as has been discussed here, I rarely considered that “serious” reading. Now, as you say, comics or graphic novels seem to be coming into their own. One plus is that they attract a new set of readers–people who struggle with reading can still get into the books through the pictures and perhaps improve their reading skills as well. 🙂
My favorite was the Peanuts. In fact, I recently ordered several old copies from Amazon for my kids. They love them (and so do I)!
Bonnie, I’m on my way to buy a couple of graphic novels–and to number myself among “a new set of readers.” Etta
Great questions – I suppose I always assumed it was a comic book if it was stapled instead of bound. But the same could be said of some paperback picture books. Maybe the thickness of the cover? And the newsprint pages?
Then there’s Elmer Blunt’s Open House – definitely done in a comic format with the story moving through frames but I never questioned it as a picture book. Of course, there’s no text so no bubbles. Hmmm.
I remember reading what was, in effect, a graphic novel series as a pre-teen. They were comics of the Bible bound as novel-sized paperbacks. The one I remember best was called Kings & Prophets. I’ve been trying to track them down for my kids but no luck yet. But remembering them from decades ago makes me smile as I watch younger people get all excited about the “new” format.
Valerie, the birth of the graphic novel is usually dated in the mid-1980s, and it certainly has come a long way. I’ve just seen a review of a new comic book treatment of the Book of Genesis, and as you remember, that’s not the first one out.