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NYT Magazine: Are Comics The New Mainstream Novels?
securitas writes "The New York Times Magazine cover story this week is a (typically) long feature about the rise of comic books and graphic novels into mainstream culture, with writer Charles McGrath (former editor of the Book Review) stating: 'Comic books are what novels used to be -- an accessible, vernacular form with mass appeal ... perfectly suited to our dumbed-down culture and collective attention deficit.' McGrath cites the mid-1980s birth of a movement that began and fizzled with Maus (Art Spiegelman), Love & Rockets (Hernandez Bros.) Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller). The current renaissance in graphic novels include non-fiction Palestine (Sacco), non-fiction Persepolis (Satrapi) which has sold 450,000 copies, Ghost World (Clowes), American Splendor (Pekar), Road to Perdition (Collins) and Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, which won the 2001 Guardian Prize for best first book and has sold 100,000 in hardcover. McGrath interviews Marjane Satrapi, Julie Doucet, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, and Alan Moore, among others. The article also has a multimedia interactive feature with many of the graphic novelists (registration required) in the magazine article."
We can't read Shakespeare, Cervantes, Homer, Dostoivesky or Garcia Marquez.
So lets read the adventures of Batman and Robin and proclaim them an equivalent.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Sorry dood.
I coodn't reed the artickle.
Know pictures.
Cept for tizements.
hey, cool verizon swoosh.
picture some gnarly doods.
Whadda ya meen dumbedown?
By the way, wassup with that duck comic?
Mod parent down
Sheesh, can't ever bring up anything with these idiots who just KNOW they're cooler than everyone else bringing up Anime/Manga.
Allow me to let you in on a secret there CommanderData...it's crap.
It's crap, it's all the same, it's not creative in any way. Anime/Manga is basically derived from about 10 stories...and then played over and over and over and over and over and over with things switched around. Not to mention all the artwork looks the same.
I know all about this crap because I'm a FUCKING DEALER in this crap and the only reason I'm going Anonymous with this post is because I don't want to fuck up my gig. Because I get all kinds of little idiots who think they're trendy, different and cool because they read this crap. Well let me tell ya something there sparky...you ain't cool...you ain't even chilly.
How fucking dare you mention untalanted manga bullshit in the same breath as Crumb, Ghost World, American Splendor, Maus and countless other real art and storyworks.
Also, you want something thats good and honest? Or something, as you said, read by children and housewives?
Not mainstream in America, no matter how much a bunch of socially-retarded, pasty-faced little losers might wish. Call them 'graphic novels' all you like, but at the end of the day they're still comic books, made for little kids and a fringe element that refuses to grow up.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
I would have taken that graphic novel a bit more seriously, if it had been based on historical facts and not hyped-up sensationalistic hysteria. I wonder if the author would consider a proper release with Palestinians (as rabbits) and Israelis (as wolves), that would be a lot more realistic.
I'm sure that the people who awarded this gv a Pulitzer had their own agenda to further their own cause.
Sad.
Hell, I'll never grow up -- which is good, as my kids and I can share all this cool stuff.
I don't think that you:
Enjoy your comics!