Comics, the inferior literature?

I throw the word “comics” out there and you are all bound to get different associations. What I’m pretty sure of though is that the majority immediately have their thoughts drift towards terms like: super heroes, juvenile, villains, heavy metal, violence and super powers. Not an unexpected association but far from doing the whole medium justice. This prejudice is changing, and boy am I excited about that, but first let’s have a quick look at where it all came from.

This genre of endless heroes, bad guys, guns and sparsely dressed women had it’s major peak during the 1930-40’s, sparked by the release of “Superman” from Action Comics in 1938. Before this both China and Europe saw a big boom in the industry, the perhaps most famous example being Herge’s “Tintin”. Being the most famous of the genres of comic and having the history and spread it once did has left a big impact in what values we associate with the term comics. The industry quickly realized just how much money could be made and comic book companies could literally grow over night. Characters were copied, manuscripts reused, everything to sell as many copies as possible and keep the kids of the world hungry for more heroes. But there was still those who fought to give the medium justice.

In the late 1970’s the term “graphic novel” was popularized, though coined more than two decades before. The term was one of the many attempts artists used to try and distance their more serious, adult work from the abundance of “childish” super-hero comics, “funnies” and daily strips.

Will Eisner, infamous for popularizing the graphic novel, once defined the term “sequential art” as:

“…the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea.”

This I believe is a generalization of the medium and a step away from the, according to me, silly debate on the labeling of different levels of quality of comics. When we start to look at it as simply as this: Comics tells stories with sequences of images and words, we reach the real question of this article. Why are comics considered so inferior to “serious literature” and art?

There are graphic novels worthy of being on any top ten list of literature, cartoonists that should be exhibited and praised to the likes of the artists of “fine arts”. Some of the best stories I ever consumed has been through the medium of sequential art. So why should we let the history of comics affect how we value the quality of its storytelling abilities? It’s absurd. Do we think less of television as a medium because it still airs “Two and a Half Men”? Perhaps, but it’s not TV’s fault that Charlie Sheen is an incompetent turd.

What’s really exciting is that these things are actually starting to happen. Even here in my home country of Sweden, far away from the birthplace of the comics, am I starting to see a higher acceptance of the medium. One of my favorite illustrators Peter Bergting is currently in the making of a graphic novel together with acclaimed writer Jens Lapidus. The project got good press and front page exposure, but was it because of the actual rise of the graphic novel as a medium or Jens’ reputation as a writer? I don’t know but I don’t really care, all this attention is more than I could ask for.

Other international examples are all the comic based stories hitting the big screens. Ever since Frank Millers “Sin City” we’ve been seeing tons of characters and stories with comic origins in the cinemas and on TV: V for Vendetta, 300, Heroes, Hellboy and now recently Watchmen to name a few. Not to exclude such icons as Batman, Superman and X-men. But do the audience of today know where these stories come from? You hear people go “Nah, it wasn’t as good as the book” but have you heard someone say “It was okay, but dude, have you read the comic?!”? Maybe we are starting to.

Is it the bad reputation and the exploitation from the early 20th century that’s been holding the medium back? And are we actually starting to see an increased interest and faith in it? I sure hope so. Ask me, and I believe there shouldn’t be a label or any distinguishes from comics to graphic novels, hell, not even from comics to literature. A lot of great cartoonists, comic writers and sequential artists pour their soul and themselves into their work to the likes of any great writer or artist. Sequential art is exactly that. Art. Anyone who doubts the complexity and depths of comics should definitely read through Scott McClouds “Understanding Comics” and keeping reading my articles before making up their mind.

At the end I suppose it’s all about communicating the story in the best possible way, and I will love and praise any form of storytelling that does. And if it happens to be accompanied by some of the most beautiful visual languages known, I can just linger and enjoy myself a little extra before turning each page.

If you excuse me, I’m off to find a copy of Watchmen before watching the movie…

Featured: Gängkrig 145

An excellent example of how to push sequential storytelling towards the exposure the medium deserves.

“Gängkrig 145″ is the result of a collaboration between illustrator Peter Bergting, creator of “The Portent”, and writer Jens Lapidus, author of “Snabba Cash” and “Aldrig Fucka Upp”. “Gängkrig” is a graphic novel depicting the gang wars of the Stockholm suburbs. I for one is anxiously awaiting the release, both to see how people will react to a graphic novel in the Top Tens of the bookstores but also to see Peter’s lovely craftsmanship put to good use.

Related links

Gängkrig – The official site
Follow the progress on Peter Bergting’s blog (only available in swedish)
Jens Lapidus