I understand that the term “graphic novel” has some difficulties, particularly in the second half. After all, the term is used to refer to pretty much anything that is comics and has a spine, whether they’re actually the comics-equivalent of nonfiction or short stories.
To call a bound anthology of short, nonfiction comics a “graphic novel” might not be technically correct, so I can understand why someone might not want to use it.
I don’t understand what’s so wrong about the word “comics” though, or why anyone might think the word “picto-essays” is somehow preferable, as Brendan Burford apparently does, as he’s titled his extremely strong collection of comics Syncopated: An Anthology of Nonfiction Picto-Essays (Villard).
What does the term “picto-essays” really accomplish that that “comics” couldn’t have? Well, it makes the book seem incredibly pretentious, and the editor and/or publishers seem somewhat unfamiliar with and ashamed of the medium.
I know that Burford is neither, and you’ll know the same after reading the book he’s edited, provided you can get by that title. After all, Burford hasn’t just chosen 15 great pieces from the likes of Nick Bertozzi, Nate Powell, Dave Kiersh and Paul Karasik, but he also contributes a sixteenth himself (and co-created another piece with artist Jim Campbell). Before Cillard’s involvement, Syncopated began as a self-published series, and Burford’s day job is comics editor for King Features Syndicate.
But man, what a lousy term—“picto-essays.”
It’s definition doesn’t even seem to be all that solid, as two pieces in this collection aren’t really comics at all, but series of sketches and drawings on the same subjects. Tricia Van den Bergh provides 32 drawings of different pieces of Washington Square Park, presented four per page, resulting in what looks like panel grids. And Victor Marchand Kerlow’s contribution is 13, full-page sketches of subway buskers. These could certainly be considered picture essays, but they’re not comics, and they’re so different from the comics the other “picto-essays” are. So is it simply an umbrella term, under which comics and Van den Bergh and Kerlow’s pieces all fall under?
And what about Greg Cook’s “What We So Quietly Saw,” which isn’t an essay at all, but merely an illustrated series of quotes from FBI reports about the treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners?
The essays part seems much more important than the picto part. According to Burford’s brief introduction to the volume, began publishing Syncopated at a time when he was immersing himself in the work of the old New Yorker essayists, and the anthologies current format is something of a comics version of those New Yorker essays.
The subject matter varies widely, even wildly, but the quality level doesn’t—even the pieces on subjects I was completely uninterested in were very well done, and in almost every case I ended up being interested in the subject by the time the artist was done telling me about it.
Bertozzi’s, entitled “How and Why to Bale Hay,” which is about hay bailing (obviously), is the first in the book, and it demonstrates quite effectively how perfect the comics medium is for an essay, as it is so incredibly easy to incorporate diagrams into the flow of the piece without breaking stride at all.
Among my favorites were Burford and Campbells “Boris Rose: Prisoner of Jazz,” a short story of the life of a man who assembled an astronomical collection of self-made jazz recordings; Alex Holden’s “West Side Improvements,” a long journalistic piece about the graffiti art scene in a particular stretch of underground Manhattan train tunnel (think a Sunday newspaper feature, only done as a comic); Alec Longstreth’s “Dvorak,” about the unhappy history of the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard; and Paul Hoppe’s “A Coney Island Rumination,” in which the creator gives both history and current color regarding Coney Island
I say favorites because I’m not even confident these are the very best stories, they’re just the ones I enjoyed reading the most; there aren’t any bad pieces in the whole book, which make this a rather exceptional anthology.
And as much as I hate that one word in the sub-title, it sure is refreshing to read a big book publisher anthology like this and find the only thing I didn’t really care for was a word in the title.
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If you’d like a second opinion, Michael C. Lorah reviewed Syncopated as part of the main site’s Best Shots column a few weeks back. Actually, Mike wrote his piece first, so I guess his would be the first opinion, and mine the second one. Depending on which order you read them. Anyway, here’s a link.
