It's a bird; it's a plane; it's graphica!

By Trevor K. McNeil and The Martlet (University of Victoria)

VICTORIA (CUP) – From their beginnings in the late 1930s, comic books have faced many challenges – at times to their very existence. Accusations of artistic bankruptcy and moral inequity abounded and, at times, they were nearly legislated out of business. While the fervour has died down to a degree, there remains an attitude about comic books and graphic novels, collectively known as “graphica,” that keeps them from becoming a viable medium. They are not quite art, not quite novels, and not quite film – but the real roadblock stands in the public perception that graphic novels and comic books are merely juvenile – a misconception based on a sad history of moralistic frenzy.

SUB: And so it begins

Many know about the anti-comics crusade of the early 1950s, led by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and spurred by his book “Seduction of the Innocent,” in which he made allegations that comic books were leading to juvenile delinquency and the decay of American society. Wertham’s conclusions were based on the notion that comic books were only for kids and that if kids were becoming less moral, it was due to the influence of morally-degrading comics. This resulted in a U.S. Senate sub-committee hearing, but the only company targeted was Entertaining Comics (EC), who specialized in horror and crime titles. However, many horror and crime comics published by E.C. were intended for an adult audience. This is not to say that kids did not get their hands on those “morally-degrading” works, but the response from the government and the resulting Comics Code in 1954 had a similar effect to what would happen if there were a Federal Law requiring all films to be rated G. For over a decade, until the underground comics of the 1960s, comics really were for kids – but this was a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than a reflection of any existing reality.

SUB: Silly kids, graphica is for adults

Widening the perception of graphica seems to be a zero-sum game. Comics are either just for kids or just for adults, with nothing in between. Unfortunately, the term “adult comic” is usually associated with raw sex and gritty violence, as found in titles such as Stray Bullets or Preacher. While such books exist in the mature readers market, they do not define adult-geared graphica. There are plenty of other subjects that are addressed by the medium that might not be the best thing for kids. These include everything from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, described by writer Norman Mailer as “a comic book for intellectuals,” to Dave Gibbons’ semi-autobiographical account of a youth in a “Mod” gang in The Originals, to more confessional autobiographical works like those of comics journalist Joe Sacco and cartoonist Joe Matt. We do not equate films like Spy Kids to those like Smokin’ Aces by virtue of their medium alone, nor would we say that prose novels can only be something like The Hardy Boys or American Psycho. Yet there still seems to be a need to either equate Stray Bullets with Tintin or to say that graphica can only be one of these two extremes. This has led to a limited ability for creators who do not want to do books about cute furry animals, virtuous men in tights, or gun toting maniacs (all big sellers) to get published in the mainstream market.

SUB: Big breakthroughs in big business

There is hope. Despite the mule-like stubbornness of the two major publishers, Detective Comics Entertainment (DC) and Marvel, sticking to safe comics – as approved by the Comics Code on their main line – a few creators managed to sneak their message through. One of the more famous cases is Alan Moore, first with Watchmen (DC), a philosophical deconstruction of the contemporary superhero, and then with “Miracleman” (Marvel), which showed the state of devastation that would surely result from even the most minor scuffle between superheroes, as shown in traditional comics. He also single-handedly reinvented the character of Swamp-Thing, which had been based, according to Moore, on a false premise of a scientist who gets turned into a plant creature and tries to regain his humanity. The problem is, as soon as he achieves humanity the series comes to an ends. Moore did away with this and created a whole new context for the character, in which it was essentially a plant with consciousness – a swamp god removed from humanity and exploring the implications of this. Moore also used the book to introduce some fairly heavy subjects including gun control and environmental issues. This was the source from which DC launched the character of rogue blue-collar magician John Constantine. He is regarded by many as one of the best anti-heroes in English fiction, and made his first appearances as a supporting character.

SUB: Mavericks move up in the world

Despite the fact that comics were still largely dismissed as four-colour trash by society, and alternative comics had limited ability for distribution unless it was with a particularly successful independent publisher, some advances were made in the promotion of comics’ potential to be legitimate literature. One of the greatest examples of this was the mainstream acceptance of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. Combining history, mythology, thick mystery, and some fairly heavy existential issues, Hellboy’s very name is poking fun at campy superhero monikers. Originally published by legendary renegades DarkHorse Comics in 1993, it’s not what most would consider average comic book fare. And it marked a new level of complexity in storytelling and the medium. Another maverick is Warren Ellis. He is widely regarded as among the most creative and innovative graphic novelists working today. Ellis started out in his late teens and early 20s, doing series work on superhero titles, and infusing them with his own unique brand of mad genius. He was looking to break free of the drudgery of the superhero factory. He did this in grand fashion in 1997, with the publication of the first issue of his landmark series Transmetropolitan. The series is based in a futuristic mega-city that has more in common with Babylon than New York. Here, people can be genetically altered to take on any biological trait; people cryogenically frozen in the 20th century are brought back as brain-damaged clones known as “revivals” and a new religion is invented every hour. The series focuses on Spider Jerusalem, a battle-hardened outlaw journalist who is an obvious homage to Hunter S. Thompson, and is beautifully illustrated by famed illustrator Darick Robertson. Spanning 11 volumes, the collected series is one of the longest alternative titles ever published and carries a rich, deep, nuanced narrative, similar to that of a traditional prose novel. While starting out its life with the now defunct Double-Helix Comics Company, the series was picked up and completed by DC’s Vertigo imprint, the alternative wing of the company. It was reputedly created to offset any imposing threat from independents such as Fantagraphics and DarkHorse.

There have also been many crossovers and adaptations between graphica and what would be considered serious or classical literature. One of the best known of these is the “Fables” series, which has various fairy-tale characters living in the real world as a sort of semi-secret sub-culture. A more ambitious endeavor has been taken by Ellis in his graphic novellas, “Aetheric Mechanics” and “Frankenstein’s Womb.” The former is a revisionist steampunk re-imagining of the Sherlock Holmes and John Watson characters, with bits of “1984” and anime thrown in the mix. The latter is a brilliant re-imagining of how Mary Shelley was inspired to write “Frankenstein.” Other examples of this are “God Save the Queen” by respected author Mike Carey, and the celebrated English painter John Bolton taking another look at “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

SUB: The little hybrid medium that could

A more direct approach has been undertaken by Neil Gaiman allowing his short-story “The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch” (from the collection Smoke & Mirrors) to be adapted into a short hard-cover graphic novella. Similar adaptations have been done of his prose novels Coraline and Neverwhere. If awards count for anything, note that Maus author Art Spiegelman is infamous for having won the Pulitzer Prize, and that the Dream Hunters section of Gaiman’s Sandman series was the only comic book ever to win the World Fantasy Award. There’ve been many other awards handed out that comic books aren’t traditionally supposed to win. It is also worth noting that Moore, Gaiman, Ellis, Carey and Tank Girl author Alan C. Martin write traditional prose works as well as graphica – though they tend to focus their efforts on their visually-accompanied medium. There are things that can be done in graphic novels that simply cannot be done or duplicated in any other artistic medium. According to Lloyd Chesley, founder and co-owner of the Victoria-based Legends Comics, “comics are a unique medium unto themselves.” He also dislikes it when comics are compared to movies, because the similarity is scant at best. Some comic-to-film adaptations have been successful in the eyes of the comic book community, such as Ghost World, The Crow, and 300. However, many fall sadly short, like Constantine, From Hell, V For Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Tank Girl. Comics are a hybrid art form that is composed of more than the sum of its component parts. They combine the visual and the narrative, and they retain driven dialogue. If one really needs a medium to compare graphic novels to, it may well be that they fit somewhere within the print tradition. Stunning visuals not withstanding, they are still books and the emphasis is still put on the narrative. According to Chesley, the key difference between what are called “comic books” and what are called “graphic novels” is that “graphic novels follow the rules of literature.” Graphica still faces a discomfort or outright suspicion from the culture at large. In addition to being a viable medium, it specifically utilizes the best elements of the major forms of communication, resulting in a unique form that no other medium can match. The result is untapped innovation potential.

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