We were talking about another series of theme posts and I suggested “Are Comics Respected Yet?” It seemed like an obvious choice since, as I read the world, comics are now just starting to be respected and therefore find themselves in a touchy in-between state like that of blacks in 1965. A lot of ignorant goodwill is directed their way in a fashion that can be a bit galling. And for every ounce of ignorant goodwill they also encounter at least an ounce of open hostility.
Or so I thought. But, going by my co-bloggers’ response, I might be behind the times. Beacuse they were indifferent to the idea, which suggests that the status of comics is way more secure than I thought.
So is that the case?
And why did comics have such a tough time getting this far? My theory is that public literacy has been a hard-won battle pushed along by shaming techniques similar to toilet training. Not that I have any data on the question.
If anyone wants to comment, I’ll note here that I realize comics have always had better status in Japan and France than they do in the US.
One of the reasons American comics held such a low status as a medium was the lack of genre diversity, and the dominance of a single genre geared towards kids and adolescents.
Two things changed over the past two decades. The comic industry grew up and got more diverse, and the mainstream media slowly became aware of that fact. Also, superheroes became somewhat respectable thanks to a few hugely successful movies.
I think there’s still some nervousness about validity in most parts of comics community — mainstream, art comics, manga. But I think for better or worse, the war is in fact probably over.
I think there was for years a feeling that comics weren’t serious because they were for kids…and then the comics code I think stunted development in various ways….
I keep going back & forth. They've carved out good market niches, and fit in galleries and New York Magazine and classrooms.
Then again, I don't have comics as a part of any of my day-to-day relationships. Everyone knows I write, but it's a bore to explain. One of my oldest friends called me to say, "I just read a 'graphic novel.'" (It was Good-Bye, yuck.) It was like he'd had fois gras for the first time and didn't know what to think.
So I'll really buy it when it's not at all unusual for casual chat. Or when I replace all my friends.
Purely anecdotal, but I was just at the New York Comic Con and was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the attendees in terms of age, gender, and race. I went on Sunday, which was Family Day.
Other than a small percentage of people dressed in costume, it was a crowd that looked and behaved like a crowd transplanted out of a major metropolitan shopping mall on a busy day.
Any remaining doubts I had about comic books not being respected and accepted by mainstream America were dispelled that weekend.
Comics are not respected because Marvel and DC are doing such a good fu**ing job of making them trashy and for idiots only.
Sadly, Marvel and DC kind of run the industry right now.
When talking about comics, do you mean comic books in general or are you willing to include all forms of it? If you include political cartoons and newspaper strips, then comics have never lacked status.
But yeah, I think it’s correct that the CCA stunted the mainstream for at least three decades. Besides that, like Richard said, the failure to actively tell stories that the average non comics reader would like to read. Which kind of relates to the problem with the direct market, if the idea is to attract new readers and not be insular.
Besides that, I would say that the prolonged attachment to the 32 pg. comic format has also been a detriment. Not just creatively, but economically speaking that format is not profitable enough to attract quality artists.
Forgive me if you’ve heard this before(ahem), but comics at its best is a personal medium where the artist can express himself in the most direct manner possible. Anything that gets in the way of this is not desirable. So what do I think is the biggest culprit for the stunting of it’s development? WORK-FOR-HIRE.
“My theory is that public literacy has been a hard-won battle pushed along by shaming techniques similar to toilet training. Not that I have any data on the question.
If anyone wants to comment, I’ll note here that I realize comics have always had better status in Japan and France than they do in the US.”
Well, Japan and France have several centuries on us, culturally speaking. But given how omnipresent manga is in Japan, it’s arguably not a fair question. There are specific cultural reasons why Japan’s comic culture is so rich. While I’m not going to pretend to even know a handful of them, I do know that their movie industry is not that developed. Maybe if they had a Hollywood over there the manga industry wouldn’t be so advanced. I do believe Frederik Schodt made that point in one of his manga books.
It also might just be that this country has a lot of growing up to do. One could argue that even if the CCA or work-for-hire never existed this country would still favor super hero comics over anything else. We’re dumb, you know?
Comic strips have long been seen as a children’s medium; I don’t think they’ve been seen as high art by the general public. Political cartoons aren’t especially high status either. Certainly neither has traditionally had the cache of film or novels, say.
Japan has a lot of very highly respected directors, and their film culture is distinctive and widely admired.
“But given how omnipresent manga is in Japan, it’s arguably not a fair question.”
What question? I wasn’t asking anything about US vs Japan.
I agree with Noah on comic strips, political cartoons and Japanese films. I mean, it’s possible that Japan has put out many great art films while being somehow underdeveloped when it comes to making commercial films. But the combination seems unlikely, and I notice they’ve done a lot of successful horror movies.
Interesting question, though, and if you want to expand on what Frederik Schodt said, please go ahead.
“We’re dumb, you know?”
Hey now, come on.