The Problem With Comic Book Critique

Comic book and graphic novel criticism is rarely found outside of niche publications such as Wizard, or the many fan-driven sites that litter the web. Occasionally a mainstream newspaper will publish an article on the medium as a whole, or offer a retrospective on an under appreciated author, usually Alan Moore; but for the most part it is rare to come across comic reviews in any shape or form. I used to believe that this was simply down to media prejudice - and largely it probably is - but when I decided to dedicate my precious spare time to the joys of graphic novel criticism, I soon learnt that the "funny books" were far from the easiest medium to offer an objective evaluation of.

In the era of Stan Lee, comic plots rarely extended beyond an issue. The Fantastic Four would thwart Doctor Doom's plans for world domination and still be home in time to laugh at the Thing's working class idiosyncrasies. While this limited the writers somewhat, it did allow for episodic adventures that were entirely self-contained. Casual readers could pick up the occasional issue and never be far behind the soap opera antics of their favourite characters. Of course, pre-80s comics were considered an enjoyable but disposable pastime. Most were binned after being read, and forgotten soon after.

Naturally, things have changed. Sequential art is now accepted as an art form, though whether such an acceptance entails any benefits is another matter altogether. The contemporary comic book has become a far slower affair, with the sort of storyline that would have filled a single issue back in the sixties now stretched across several. While this makes for far superior graphic novel narratives, it does alienate the casual reader, and leaves the regular collector dangling on tenterhooks before the serial has had time to resume. More importantly, this approach to serial storytelling has rendered the reviewing of individuals comic issues a little pointless - who reviews the first half of a film, or a television drama only up to the first commercial break?

Of course, we could leave the reviews until our favourite series are collected in trade paperback format, but this approach is equally problematic. Many series have reached double digit number of volumes. Should each volume of The Sandman, The Walking Dead, or Y: The Last Man be reviewed individually, or should the series be critiqued as a whole? If comic book critics were to wait until a series had concluded before laying down their position, then very few new books would get the endorsement that quality appraisal offers.

Of course, there are no answers here. The comic medium will continue to suffer the prejudice of literary circles, and isolate those with only a passing interest. But I love the fact that any individual can have his say on the internet, and would rather be guided by the opinions of another comic enthusiast than the tepid, uninspired drivel from a mainstream film or videogame magazine that has temporarily jumped aboard the superhero zeitgeist. With or without mainstream attention, the comic book appears to be stuck comfortably in its niche. Is that such a bad thing?

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Carl Doherty occasionally assumes the guise of a freelance writer specialising in cultural nonsense of the pop and junk varieties. For more of his pungent diatribes on the twisted world of comic books, including a daily graphic novels review, and his weekly webcomic The Scribe, visit Shelf Abuse Graphic Novel Reviews

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Graphic Novels: An Introduction

Comic books and graphic narratives have traditionally been ignored by mainstream literary critics due to the perception that these works are primarily entertainment, intended for children or adolescents, with little or no lasting literary merit. In the mid- to late-1980s, however, a growing number of critics and scholars began to regard the graphic narrative medium as an innovative and powerful storytelling technique. The term “graphic novel”—coined by comics writer and illustrator Will Eisner in the late 1970s while in search of a publisher for one of his longer works—has come to refer to book-length comic narratives or collections of comic story arcs as opposed to the traditional, single-issue comic books which are typically shorter and published serially. Since their first inception, comic books have been aimed at a largely male audience, with superhero fantasies being the most popular recurring storyline. In contrast, modern graphic novels cover a wide variety of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, history, adventure, and humor, while presenting subject material appealing to both male and female readers.

Although versions of the graphic novel format have been in existence since the 1880s—publishers of the era often released illustrated versions of classic works of literature—modern graphic novels only began to be regarded as part of the publishing mainstream during the 1980s, largely due to the release of several major works. Perhaps the most significant is Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale I: My Father Bleeds History (1986), a full-length graphic novel that relates Spiegelman's father's experiences in German concentration camps during World War II. Maus earned Spiegelman a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and became a commercial, literary, and critical success, drawing attention to graphic novels as a viable medium for serious literature. In addition to Maus, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) and Alan Moore's Watchmen (1987) are two critically acclaimed stories which deconstructed the major themes and expectations of the traditional comic book superhero fantasy. Dark Knight Returns takes Batman, a classic comic book hero, and recontextualizes his purpose within a gritty, neo-fascist future, while Watchmen presents a realistic world where the introduction of a god-like superhero creates lasting socio-political effects. The sophistication and popularity of these graphic novels, among others, opened the doors for artists and writers to use the medium to create more complex and non-traditional narratives, such as Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets series, and Harvey Pekar's Our Cancer Year (1994), in which he and his co-authors recall Pekar's struggle with cancer. In addition to these atypical narratives, the superhero milieu remained an important element within the graphic novel genre, reflected by the publication of such lauded works as Frank Miller's Daredevil: Born Again (1987), Alan Moore's Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum (1989). This diverse focus helped expand the audience base for graphic novels and led to several instances of cross-pollination with other media, most notably, film. The release and widespread success of the Batman film in 1989 led to a surge in graphic novel sales and inspired a number of similar comic-based films, including The Crow, X-Men, Spider-Man, Road to Perdition, and The Hulk. This phenomenon was so pervasive by the late 1980s and early 1990s that even mainstream literary publishers, such as Penguin, began investing in publishing and marketing graphic novels. Along with this mass-market recognition, graphic novels also began to receive attention in literary journals and became included as part of the literature curricula at several universities.

However, despite their success in the 1980s, the 1990s witnessed a downturn in the graphic novel boom in the United States. While superhero comics continued to gain popularity with readers, comic sales dipped in general, and many booksellers significantly reduced the number of graphic novels they carried. In Adult Comics: An Introduction (1993), Roger Sabin asserts that this reversal may have been caused by the return of public indifference towards comic books by many adults. This ambivalence was worsened by inappropriate pricing, the inexperience of mainstream publishers and booksellers in producing and selling graphic novels, and questions regarding the genre's subject material. However, despite these concerns, graphic novels continued to expand their presence in the literary market—largely due to their unique narrative form and appeal to adolescents—and the late 1990s witnessed another resurgence of interest in graphic novels. Several academic and public libraries have since focused on building large graphic novel collections, using these works as a way to lure younger readers into the library, and bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders have added graphic narrative sections in their stores. A new wave of graphic novels, including Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (1999), Mike Mignola's Hellboy series, Brian Michael Bendis's Torso: A True Crime Graphic Novel (2002), and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003), has attracted a degree of critical and commercial attention similar to that garnered by works of traditional fiction, thus confirming the literary legitimacy of the graphic novel form.

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Graphia: The Graphic Novel and Literary Criticism

46.2, Fall/Winter 2008
William Kuskin, editor

The comic book is currently undergoing a renaissance. Re-branded the Graphic Novel, comics now command bookstore aisles and Pulitzer Prizes alike. Much of the academic discussion surrounding this form would sequester it as belonging to an autonomous discipline and deserving of a specialized analytic. In contrast, Graphia argues that comic pamphlets and graphic novels are ill-served by the notion of rupture and so seeks to integrate them into Literary Studies. Thus its eleven full-length essays observe that literary formalism provides a rich framework for reading the complex verbal and visual troping inherent the comics page. Realizing this, however, Graphia also argues that the profound figural depth of these pages is latent in all the arts that would travel by the book. Rather than appropriating the graphic novel for Literary Studies, then, Graphia suggests that comics are unbound by any single discipline and recalls such openness for literary criticism in general.


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How to Create a Graphic Novel

Here 12 steps to make a graphic novel:

1. Learn a drawing style. Manga and US Comic styles are popular, or you can draw humourous cartoons and give it a quirky edge. There are many resources available to learn how to draw. Your local library or bookstore is a great place to find "How to draw" books, but the only way to really improve your drawing skills is to practice. To accelerate the process, have a skilled artist such as a teacher or friend give you lessons, or look over your work and give you pointers. Often just watching a talented artist work is enough to open your mind to the techniques and possibilities. Most of all, don't be afraid to experiment with style. Finding your unique style is often more valuable than simply drawing like everybody else.



2. Come up with a cast of characters. When doing this, think both about their appearance, and their personality and history. If you have a plot in mind already, that will drive the creation of your characters. Develop the character's appearance by drawing them in as many ways as you can: you will improve your drawing ability and your understanding of the character. Use the character's appearance to develop their personality, and use the personality to develop the appearance.

3. Write out your ideas for the story. They will start out as rough ideas, but eventually you will want a fully developed plot. You can develop this plot in many ways: you can draw out rough pages, you can write it as a narrative story, you can write a page full of ideas, a page full of sketches, or you can write it as a script. Keep in mind, though, that graphic novels take up more space than normal novels, so the plot shouldn't be quite as long. Use the characters and settings to figure out the plot.

4. Do a rough sketch of your ideas on scrap paper. The usual way this is done is with thumbnails. Figure out the final page size, and draw small boxes in proportion to the final page. E.g. If your finished page will be 8.5" x 11" (U.S. Letter) then draw boxes that are 1.5" x 2". You will use these boxes to plan out the entire book, and while many artists feel they can skip this step, generally your design will be better if you do not skip the thumbnail phase. Thumbnails can also be an invaluable tool to organize the production of the book. Thumbnails can be changed much easier than finished pages. Consider the thumbnails your "map" to the finished product. If you have other artists helping you, or if you are dealing with printing shops yourself then handing them a photocopy of your finished thumbnails will ensure that everyone knows what you expect the book to be.

5. Create the finished pages, also known as the original art. There are many ways to work, and they will depend on many factors. If you are publishing it yourself, then you must consider how it will be printed, how it will be trimmed, how it will be bound, how it will be transported, how it will be distributed, just to name a few. If you are working with a publisher, they will tell you all the specifications. If you are creating a one-off book, then you have a lot more freedom, and can incorporate any medium you want. The basic questions are: Will there be color, or just black and white? Will the edges of the book be trimmed down (allowing bleed) or left untrimmed (no bleed). Bleed is when page contents extend past the edge of the page, and are trimmed down to the final size after binding. It allows for a more professional look, since most printers can't reliably print all the way to the paper's edge. Binding (how the pages are held together) is also an important consideration since it will affect how close your artwork can go to the center of the book. There are many types of binding available, all with benefits and drawbacks. The general rule is keep your important content about 1/2" from the edges and "gutter" (bound side) of the page. Most graphic novels will have three or four steps per page: penciling, lettering, inking, coloring.

6. Choose your paper. If you plan on painting, or erasing a lot, you may want to consider using bristol board or some other thick medium.

7. Start by penciling the entire page. Draw lightly and erase with a good eraser. Be as sketchy or precise as you want. You should pencil in the text for each panel as well.

8. Once you're happy with the penciling, begin the inking phase. Use a good black pen or marker. Have different tips for different line widths. An alternative method is brush and ink, which is more challenging, but enables a different style. Good use of inking can make your drawings seem dimensional and bold.

9. Ink the lettering. If you don't feel confident lettering yourself, you may want to get someone who is, or consider using a computer for the type.

10. Erase any stray pencil lines. Inking can be touched up with white paint (even white-out or liquid paper). Be aware that if you plan on coloring directly onto the original artwork, white touch ups might affect the color adversely. You may want to color a photocopy of the inked art. (See 'Tips' for more on using a photocopier)

11. Color your artwork. Any medium can be used for color reproduction. Watercolor paint, acrylic paint, art markers, color pencil, etc. Increasingly artists are turning to the computer for coloring their work. Get a good reference for painting, color theory, and any computer software/hardware you plan on using. And PRACTICE!

12. Print, bind, and distribute.

source: wiki how

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