Sunday, May 27, 2007

Quills and Ink Spills: Graphic Novels 101


Okay, you parents out there. Do you really get the graphic novel thing? I didn't, so I decided to educate myself before I passed judgment. I did a little research at Indigo. I got some surprises.
Towit: there are graphic novels out there that are not anime or manga (I'm not even going there), and some were even intelligent. There were the more entertainment oriented ones such as The Hobbit, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, etc. I even own a Shakespeare one, come to think of it (Macbeth). What surprised me were the historical ones: yes, there was one called The 911 Report, but there was also Louis Riel by Chester Brown (see excerpt above), one about Malcolm X, and a compendium of historical and modern examples in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13, which is worth the $36 for the cover alone. Then I recalled shoving tomes of Tintin and Asterix at my children to expose them to a favourite of childhood. I learned two things. As in all things, there are good 'uns and bad 'uns, and I shouldn't lump them all into one write-off category. But, while I am still not prepared to consider them literature or even bona fide reading material, I am willing to slot them into the category of art, and that is an area in which time is always well spent. Quills to the medium of graphic novels, but ink spills to the manga.

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