Paul Pope guest blogs on the First Second site and asks why we don’t see more “literary quality” in today’s comics:
I often wonder why we don’t see more literary quality in the comics being published today, why we don’t have a John Steinbeck or Robert Penn-Warren in our medium, authors who can unfold a filagreed theme across an extended storyline and touch on that ineffable shade we call “the human condition.” Where are our Sam Hamiltons, our Willie Starks, our Jack Burdens, our Cal Trasks? It may simply be that good writing is rare. It is also entirely possible that most comics creators are simply unconcerned with developing literary themes in their work, favoring instead sweeping epics of good versus evil, populating their paper worlds with colorfully costumed heroes and villans invested with very little psychological complexity or self-awareness. It may be that most people who are attracted to the medium want very little more out of life than to draw pretty pictures, tell exciting, splashy stories, and get paid for it. There is certainly nothing wrong with those interests (I wholeheartedly share them myself), but every time I finish what Hemingway might have called “a damn good book,” I can’t help feeling there is always a need for more and better writing in the comics. When it comes to comics, the equivalent of a fine literary writer would have to be someone (or someones) with the implicit vision of a poet, who sees and feels life and knows how to code it into visual storytelling through comics’ special melange of prose/dialogue and persuasive drawing. It seems to me a poorly drawn but well written story is far better than a well drawn, poorly written one. When we’re lucky, as in the case of Gipi’s Notes For A War Story, we have both together, at once. That should be our ideal, then. More stories with better art and better writing, always and forever more. Whether it’s a serious meditation on the private life of a family or a madcap ruckus with kooky talking animals, all I care is that it’s a comic story which is done well and it has lasting impact — that’s the literary quality I want to see in a comic.
December 13th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Here’s the funny part–Pope’s the closest thing in a lot of ways… his “100%” is something wonderful. And his example of Gipi is ludicrous.
December 13th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
“…authors who can unfold a filagreed theme across an extended storyline and touch on that ineffable shade we call ‘the human condition.’”
Jaime Hernandez, Gilbert Hernandez and John Porcellino all blow holes in that idea, and that’s just for starters.
December 13th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Eddie Campbell’s series of Alec stories are quite literary, and the drawing and prose are seamless (except when intended to be otherwise).
December 14th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Steinbeck was always better when somebody else inked his pencils.