Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Chew the Fat: Okay, We Love Comics. Why?










Redartz:  I love comics. Spider-Man, Batman, Archie. Donald Duck, Avengers, Little Lulu. Haunt of Fear, Spirit, Walking Dead. Journey, Mad, Enemy Ace.  Mystery in Space, Bone, Simpsons Comics. Arcade Comix, Maus, Zippy the Pinhead. I love them all and more. Every genre, countless titles and characters, even more countless stories and covers. From funny animal to superhero to horror, humor to history to undergrounds: I love comics. But why is that? 

In my case, I find the comics (or, as the great Will Eisner called it, sequential art) medium to be an endless source of interest. The combination of text and visual design is gripping, and particularly effective at storytelling. Reading books and looking at artwork are both endlessly rewarding, and obviously have been integral elements of culture for thousands of years. Prose and visual design each have unique strengths and appeal. So why have comics so often suffered the mantle of 'kiddie fare', or lowbrow entertainment?  The comic medium can access the benefits of both creative fields. There is nothing (except perhaps some of the content) about the medium itself that should be considered a lesser endeavor. 

In enjoying comics, I find satisfaction in many ways. There is pure escapist entertainment. There are engrossing tales of adventure and heroism. There are creepy tales of mystery.There are brilliant works of thoughtful inspiration. There are gut-wrenching accounts of history and personal struggle. In short, all the same attractions of other media are found in comics.  The blending of story and art is the medium's great advantage, and why it can work so well. 

Then you have the 'who's who' of comic creators, over a century of creative genius. Herriman, Siegel, Kirby, Barks, Eisner, Kurtzman, Wood, Ditko, Lee, Adams, DeCarlo,  Infantino, Crumb, Spiegelman, Byrne, Moore, Chaykin, Vaughan; and that's barely touching the surface. What an array of talent. I get all tingly just to think of the wonders to be found within the pages of their works. .

And that's why I love comics. How can you not love something which can be so much fun, while also educational, provocative, humorous, outrageous and  touching? 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to gather a random stack of comics and indulge. Meanwhile, here are a few more reasons why I love comics. What brings out your love?










22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think for me it is at all complex.
I love good stories, and I like art.
Comics is the quickest and simplest way to indulge both simultaneously.

Yoyo

Edo Bosnar said...

You pretty much summed it up for me as well, and so Yoyo's succinct reply is close to my own: I love pretty pictures, and I love reading, and with comics, you get the double-whammy.

Another more personal reason why I always loved and respected comics, even in those periods in my life when I wasn't reading them, is because I grew up in a partly non-English speaking household (I spoke English with my sister and brother, but not with my parents), and initially had a lot of reading comprehension problems in school. My early fascination with comics (already in the first grade) eventually helped me overcome some of those hurdles, and thanks to comics reading, I soon began reading "real" books for pleasure as well.

In general, though, as noted in the OP, comics or sequential art or whatever you want to call it, is just as effective and legitimate storytelling medium and art-form as books, film, animation or music. And in some cases, they're absolutely the best way to tell certain stories. Specifically, I mean the superhero stories most of us here seem to love so much. As much as I'm enjoying the latest crop of live-action superhero movies (mainly the stuff from Marvel), they really can't compare to the enjoyment I get out of the comics they're based on. Some of the cartoons come closer, but even in that case I still prefer the comics.

J.A. Morris said...

I agree with everything that's been said so far, and I'll one more reason why:Nostalgia.

With so many comics, I can look at a cover or a panel and I'm taken back to the moment I bought it off the spinner racks. Just yesterday I saw the cover of Godzilla #12 on a website and I remembered buying my copy of that issue during a family trip to Casper, Wyoming. I remember rushing to read it on the ride home to Laramie before we ran out of sunlight.

But I mostly love comics for the art. If I buy a tpb or omnibus or masterworks book, it's because I love the art.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I will simply endorse the two statements above. And like Edo, when I go to France to hang with the in laws, I find enjoyment in their comics because, though not fluent, the art helps bridge the gap! (France has a huge comics culture though what we would think of as hard cover, irregular productions.)

Garett said...

Imagination! I like that comics are a do-it-yourself expression of the imagination. Movies are similar, but require more people. I feel like I know Jack Kirby even though I've never met him.

The story and art are like the words and music in a song. A pop song is simple and anyone can sing along, just like anyone can enjoy a cartoon or a comic. Yet the range is unlimited! We're still making new pop songs 150 years after Oh Susannah.



Redartz said...

Great comments so far folks, thanks for chiming in!

J.A.- good point regarding the nostalgia aspect. Very much like some songs will 'take us back' to a specific time and place, comics can have the same effect. That first glimpse of a striking cover can really leave a mental imprint...

Garett- love your observation about imagination! The simplicity of the combination of story and artwork helps make comics such an incredibly versatile medium.

Edo Bosnar said...

Oh, yeah. Nostalgia. That's also a factor for me, as well.

Dr. O said...

Comics are just a superior medium.

I like them better than movies every time (there is no movie I love enough that I'd give up comics for them, if such hypothetical zero sum choices actually existed), and as someone who has a doctoral degree in literature with cultural studies approach, I think that comics can not only achieve what the greatest of (non-graphic) prose literature can, in some cases it can do much more.

I just read volume one of Emil Ferris's My Favorite Thing Is Monsters and it is as good as any contemporary or even classic novel I have ever read.

Chim said...

@Garett: Great idea to compare comics to pop songs. That rings true to me. There is an excitement and joy in me when I open up certain comics or when I just look at the cover. And that enjoyment is similar to hearing music I loved. It's a warm inner feeling, a bit nostalgica for the youth and also appreciation of the great art or the accomplishment (when the art itself is rushed because of time limitations like in Kirby's FF 41-43).

Killraven said...

Like many above originally it was the art, that combined withe the fantasy aspect had me hooked. I distinctly remember taking the comics off the spinner racks and flipping thru them looking for splash pages. The art sold them.

Now it's a combination of the art and nostalgia that has caught my eye once again.

Anonymous said...

I love comics because, when I was a kid, there wasn't much mental stimulation. We had two channels on the T.V. (Donnie and Marie Show, Happy Days, great art like that), no such such thing as computers, DVD's, video games, and maybe two trips to the movie theater a year.
I grew up on a farm in Bum**** Iowa. Farming didn't grab me. Not at seven years old, it didn't. It didn't really grab my father either, which is why he said "the hell with this" after twenty years.
No, I had my older sisters' radios playing '70's music, going to the library with my Ma, and begging her to buy me comics every time we were in a drug store or a supermarket. She always did! "As long as he's reading something."
My young, tiny brain needed feeding and stimulation.
My old, dodgy brain still does.

M.P.


Graham said...

I read comics at an early age, but really got into it when I was seven or eight years old. I was a fat kid and other kids made fun of me......you know how kids are. I was not very athletic at that age because the other kids were lean and fast and I was chubby and slow, so sports were kind of embarrassing. For me, comics were an escape from all that. I could lose myself in the super-hero's world, and it was all good. I read mostly DC then, where everything was sort of idealized.

As I got older, I started slimming up and began to get into shape through working out and swimming and became a decent athlete, but I still read comics because by that time, they were not only escape, but they were entertaining escape. This was in the late 70's/early 80's and I read them until my college studies rendered it next to impossible.

I still check them out from time to time, mostly older stuff that I missed first time around or that I once had but can't find anymore. They're still entertaining for the most part, some 35 years later, but for me, comics got me through a very rough patch of growing up. Kids can be cruel to kids in whom they detect weakness or lack of confidence, which was my problem at the time, so these four-colored comic adventures provided a great escape for me.

Redartz said...

M.P.- great that your Mom was an 'enabler' for your comics habit! She obviously, in her wisdom, recognized their benefit to you.

Graham- you weren't alone; comics helped many of us through challenging childhoods. Like you, I got grief from other kids (although I was the scrawny,unathletic kid with glasses). The comics were a perfect respite from all that ( and still make a nice break from life's concerns).

Rip Jagger said...

I lived in the back country of Appalachian Kentucky, isolated from much of what we dub pop culture. In a time when we got only two of three TV stations, a few AM radio stations, and got to see movies once in a while at the single local theater, comics and novels and such were key elements of the entertainment. But mostly it was the sense I was part of a larger community of in-the-know fans who grokked the essential cool of comics. That sense of belonging was critical and finds its modern expression here at blogs and message boards like this very one which connect fans of delightful yarns of wonder.

Rip Off

Anonymous said...

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Rip for his wonderful blog. I don't miss a day without checking it out. His current Kirby retrospective should not, nay I say, cannot be missed.
I don't comment on that blog, because my archaic computer doesn't want me to have a Google Account. Consider yourself lucky, Rip! Imagine the headaches you've avoided!
Anyway, it's a great website, and it just keeps getting better and better.

M.P. Off

Edo Bosnar said...

Graham, Redartz, re: childhood woes. This is kind of a tangent, but I always scratch my head when people wax nostalgic about their own childhood or idealize childhood in general as, apparently, a period of non-stop, carefree wonder. My first thought is that they're either forgetting what it was actually like to be a child, or they were, perhaps, the bullies. I'm not saying my childhood was some kind of horror-fest filled with traumas; I have many pleasant memories from that time, but I also vividly recall a lot of the bad stuff as well, and the fact that as a child I could not wait to grow up. (And, yes, to bring it back to the topic at hand, comics and later fantasy and SF books, were my go-to escape from the bad stuff I mentioned.)

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Rip's review of the FF and Frightful Four, this week, is a nostalgic delight! Paste Pot Pete indeed! Look out Ben Grimm, you've been handcuffed by construction caulk! LOL!

Redartz said...

Charlie- quite right; Rip has a very nice retrospective going. Well worth a look, everyone!

William said...

Comics are probably my favorite storytelling medium, even over movies. I have been reading comics pretty much since I can remember remembering things. I guess I was first attracted to them by the cartoon art and bright colors, and I stuck around for the awesome stories that you couldn't get in any other medium.

I think more types could be done in the comics medium. Will Eisner realized this when he was in the 1940's. He went to his superiors and told them that the troops would be more likely to read and understand the training manuals if they were in comic book form. They agreed to let him try it, and it worked spectacularly.

I know there are some comic style history books and such, but they should have more school books done in comic format. If so, I bet kids would probably read (and learn) more. I know I would have.

Edo Bosnar said...

William, I totally agree with your suggestion about textbooks done as comic books.

As for Eisner, yes: those maintenance manuals he did for the army were an interesting use of the comic format for practical purposes (I actually have a book that reprints a bunch of those). However, his preoccupation with that project meant that he was effectively not doing any other comics-related stuff for over 20 years, which was, I think, a bit unfortunate for his non-army public...

Redartz said...

William and Edo- glad you mentioned Eisner and his foray into educational materials. Will pushed the boundaries of the comic form into several new areas, not least the graphic novel. I agree, Edo, that it was unfortunate to lose his work in comics for so long. Yet he did a good job making up for lost time in the 70's and beyond. And Edo, where did you find that collection of PM articles? Never knew those had been collected. I do have one of the old PM issues; classic Eisner inside.

Edo Bosnar said...

Redartz, it's a little hardcover book called "PS Magazine: The Best of Preventive Maintenance Monthly" - here's the description at Amazon, apparently it's still available at a pretty low cost. I bought my copy for the equivalent of a little less than $10 a few years ago at a comics show here in Zagreb. Despite it's small size, it's more like a coffee table book than anything else (unless you're really interested in reading about the upkeep of military gear and vehicles in the mid-20th century). But it naturally contains tons of nice reproductions of Eisner's art that most people outside of the US Army have never seen.

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