The mainstreaming of comics
We are at an odd point in comic-book history: At a point when the sales of mainstream comics in the format most of us grew up with have nearly reached the vanishing point, comics in new and more adult formats have seen sales spikes. Maybe you can’t find comics on a spinner rack at the market or to any great degree at 7-11, but you can find them in collected editions at Barnes & Noble, where they are selling in increasing numbers.
You can also find them deeply rooted in our mainstream culture, where they have enormous influence and growing general acceptance. Without comics, we’d have no “Heroes,” and without comic books I’m wondering what movie studios would be releasing on most of their screens any more.
In addition to their new marketplace foothold, comic books in my lifetime have become a source of worthy academic and literary investigation. Case in point: the new biography of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. Having come of age during the strip’s decline into cuteness and Hallmark merchandising, I haven’t been a fan. But I have to admit that the earlier strips show a multi-leveled psychology that underpins its later enormous success. (The same can be said with Spider-Man, and Superman, and all iconic character creations, Spider-Man being a loser unable to strike back against a bullying society, and Superman being an alien Jew determined not to lose another homeland or see his new race perish.)
I’ve decided I’m going to read that Schulz biography early next year. (Yes, it’s gotten to the point that I’m scheduling my book reading. It’s the only way to accomplish these goals.) As much as being a biography of Schulz, and one related to comics, it also sounds like a biography of our culture in a certain time and place. Similarly, I’m looking forward to Mark Evanier’s forthcoming book, “Kirby, King of the Comics,” a mini-bio of sorts of Jack Kirby in preparation for Evanier’s long-in-development biography.
For insights into these two books, as well as other thoughts about the place of comics in our culture today, I suggest this fine piece in today’s Los Angeles Times. While I bemoan its title — “Comic strips aren’t just for laughs,” which is, after all, a variation on the tired “Hey, comics aren’t just for kids!” angle — the piece itself is dead-on about something that has been signally important in my life and the lives of many, many others.
October 21st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
PEANUTS made quite an impression on me as a young reader. I remember the characters even having their own calendar, possibly the first instance of that being done. Each month had a full page picture, one of which was Lucy saying something like, “I love humanity. It’s people I can’t stand.” Pretty grown up for a comic strip.
Jack Kirby had an even greater effect. Early on I could see that his art was special. I don’t think the term ‘comic book artist’ had been coined yet. It probably would have been considered an oxymoron. I remember calling him ‘the good drawer’. (Hey, I was really young.)
I have mixed feelings about the move to elevate comics to a ‘serious’ form. It’s terrific to have all those reprint editions. The deep analysis usually leaves me cold. Sometimes a cosmic power rod is just a cosmic power rod. I appreciate the generally more adult tone in new issues, especially when it’s leavened with some humor and even a touch of self-parody. At the same time I miss the mindless fun of robot gorillas, supercolossal dinosaurs, and monthly invasions by extraterrestrials.
I wish we still had CALVIN AND HOBBS in the newspapers, but I get TOM THE DANCING BUG on-line. I visit my local comic book shop every week and keep up with The Simpsons, Futurama, Love and Rockets, Catwoman, She-Hulk, The Spirit, Countdown and whatever else catchs my fancy. Overall, not a bad situation.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Based on Rich’s third paragraph he really needs to go to the Comic Con and attend Scott Shaw’s oddball comics panel.
Paul
October 21st, 2007 at 7:38 pm
So totally tuned in is Scott Shaw! that when he says, ‘Now, here’s a wierd one…’
you can be pretty sure that it is.
My personal fave…’CHRISTMAS ON THE MOON’ and ‘Zoddy the Mod Rob’ (which Lee bought for me some years back…it’s smokin’ cool. A close third is “J. Edgar Hoover, CALLING ALL BOYS’ I understand Sen. Craig has several of these in his private collection. One slabbed, and the other two are reading copies.
J