October is almost at the end and
my month-long effort to write a blog post for Blogchatter’s monthly #TBR
activity was somewhat fruitful. Read along to know more about it.
Graphic novels were the prompt for
the month of October, I’m a bit away from the genre. The day before yesterday read
a blog post about – PERSEPOLIS, about which I know only the thing that the title
refers to the ancient capital of Persian Empire and nothing more.
Being like this, it was a herculean
task for me to write a blog post on such a subject with which I was not familiar.
So I thought to start from the origin/beginning and went out to fetch a book
that deals with graphic novels and their development.
At this juncture, THE POWER OF COMICS – HISTORY, FORM, AND CULTURE by Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith & Paul Levitz caught my eye in the library. This I felt like a boon and started reading it slowly. Actually very slowly trying to understand the information clearly. Here I will be sharing the particulars of graphic novels from the book.
The book has a preface by Mark Waid. In which he takes the readers on a trip down memory lane and explains how the indisputable fact “Comics were no longer just for kids” came into being.
What are those three works that created
this impact was also shared in detail for the readers.
Moving then, to the Pulitzer Prize
of 1992 for Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus”
From the introduction of the book,
I quote In recent times several people have attempted
to rehabilitate the image of comic books by using a different term, Graphic
novel, to describe the more ambitious works in the art form. For creators, labeling
their work a graphic novel allows them to distance themselves from the commercial
and periodical connotations associated with comic books.
For publishers, the graphic novel
is a term that helps elevate the status of their product and has allowed them entree
into bookstores, libraries, and academy. In practice, graphic novels may be
longer than the typical comic book and most often feature self–contained,
rather than continuing, stories.
While we too use that term in this
book, you may well note that the graphic novel needs the definition of the comic
book form. While they might be considered manifestations of the same art form, a
case could be made that graphic novels exist in a different cultural space and
are thus becoming their medium distinct from comic books.
IN the 21st century,
graphic novels are often published by major publishing houses such as Random
House and brought into traditional or online bookstores by people who do not read
comic books. A number of them are even created by cartoonists who are not comic
book fans.”
Appreciating the originality of the
art form; understanding historical significance; and visualizing the medium's
potential are the gains of studying comics assures this book.
The book provides vast information
on the era of the invention of comics and RODOLPHE TOPFFER – the father of the comic
book.
Next, it talks about the modern
comic book, super imitators, EC comics, ‘NewTrend”, Schwartz, and the fans.
Crossing all these the book lands at the rise
of the graphic novel. I quote from page 64 :
In 1978, Will Eisner’s A CONTRACT
WITH GOD, distributed in both bookstore chains and direct market comic book
shops in traditional hardcover and trade paperback formats, garnered wide
attention and firmly established graphic novel as the term for a longer comics
work with literary intent.
In the same chapter, the authors
discuss the Era of the graphic novel? Replying
to this, I quote ‘By the beginning of the 21st century, it was likely
that more readers were purchasing comics in graphic novel form than in
periodicals although the intense purchase patterns of the fans still generated disproportionate
revenues.”
Then the book throws light on analyzing
graphic novels in the mainstream market. Moving ahead, the authors make the readers
understand the effect of the graphic novel.
I quote “Miller’s Groundbreaking work on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
and the commercial and critical success in graphic novel form in turn inspired
others. By the late 1980’s a small number of graphic novels were being
published with ever-increasing creative ambition.”
Beyond the Graphic novel Via the Web
was the next topic of discussion in the book. Later the explanation is given for Graphic “Novels”-
The quotation marks around the term novels is an acknowledgment that the term
novel has traditionally referred to works of fiction, but it is being applied
to memoir, a form of non-fiction.
Finally, the book covers- The Evolution
of Comics in India by Gotham Chopra and Sharad Devarajan.
The book is as engaging as any other fiction book. Not only fans but also new entrants to the world of graphic novels should go through this book to gain a stand over the lost time.
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