Because I had a bit of spare cash when I hit the comic shop this week, I picked up Phonogram: Rue Britannia in addition to my new books. One of the new books was The Vinyl Underground: Pretty Dead Things. Two books with sleekly pretty characters and British flags on the covers, oh my!
I polished off both books over the course of a day and a half, and then I caught myself thinking: oh god, are these comics for HIPSTERS?
And then I started to ask myself: is that really so bad?
I mean, comics have long been considered something for nerds. I wear the words “nerd” and “geek” like badges of pride, even though we all know that the rep is something we don’t necessarily deserve. And with the success of movies like Sin City, Iron Man and The Dark Knight and the swirling hype around Watchmen, we know that the general population isn’t averse to superheroes and other things commonly found in comics.
But beyond that, some comics are unavoidably hip. The Vinyl Underground is full of pretty people, its main character is a London DJ and tabloid celeb, and it deals as much with the nature of celebrity as it does with the occult crimes its characters solve. Still, it was canceled after 12 issues.
Phonogram has even more indie cred. It’s a story of the magic inside pop music, and its main character knows he’s losing it when he finds himself singing along with bands that are decidedly not cool enough for him.
These comics might seem to have more in common with music magazines than with superhero books, but if you think about it, you can see the similarities. Comics work well for things that are larger than life, for worlds that the creators have to define for us because they’re different from our own. Like movies, they can create a new landscape for us, but they aren’t limited by budget concerns or worries over bad CG.
I’ve labeled many books “comics for non-comics fans” in my time, often books set mostly in the real world with a bit of an indie-film sensibility. Certain writers to me seem to bridge the gap quite well between superheroes and stuff that would make a good HBO show (Jason Aaron comes to mind) while others are all about the line where superheroes blend into real life (Demo, perhaps?).
But The Vinyl Underground and Phonogram seem to play in the space where uber-hip comes full circle to meet our own beloved comic geek-world. And I kind of love them for it.
Thoughts?
January 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I have a decidedly negative stance toward the phrase “graphic novel” in that it overly legitimizes something that doesn’t need to be legitimized. The problem with work dubbed a “graphic novel” is that, while reaching out to people who normally won’t read comics, it creates this strange dichotomy where people will only read so-called “high-brow”graphic novels and stray away from anything remotely too “comic book-y’. It almost perpetuates the fetishism and niching of comics culture rather than help do away with it.
These books and books like it, on the other hand, can do a great deal toward eliminating that stigma. They’re incredibly fun, if not a bit cheeky, and can relate to a larger audience. It doesn’t all have to be heavy-handed analogies and dark, brooding mature-reader oriented work. It can still be a good time, it can still be a serial, and it can reach an audience that comics have traditionally had a pretty hard time reaching: the general public.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I’m really sick of this “comics for non-comics fans” bullshit. Comics had a wider variety of genres up until the Senate Subcommittee Hearings and the Comics Code. Marvel and DC both pushed their superheros and used the CCA to push everything else off the racks and now all of a sudden, if it doesn’t have superheros its not a comic. Crumb, Hernandez, and Ware are all just as much comics artists as Romita or Millar. I don’t buy that you need spandex or even fantasy elements to be considered comics.
To the issues at hand, I haven’t read Vinyl Underground yet, and I’m not sure that I will anytime soon; but I did pick up the first issue of Phonogram: The Singles Club. I liked it. It was a little too self conscious for my tastes, but I liked the whole “music is magic” angle and the track lists were pretty solid. The emosogynist strip was spot on in message, though I thought the execution was a bit of a retread over early 90s Vertigo ground. I’m not sure how it stacks up against something like Kick Drum Comix or Young Liars though.
January 13th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
No. You’re trying to create a dilemma that doesn’t exist. These guys are writing and drawing comics about music because they love both of these art forms. At least in the case of Gillen and McKelvie. If hipsters like them, who cares, it’s a good comic written and drawn by people who love comics.
As far as Vinyl Underground, well it’s more a mystery series than anything and I think it’s gotten weaker as the the issues have progressed. I dropped it off my pull list a while back, actually.