The Year in Comics

Welcome to the very first issue of Comic Book Guy! Make sure to bag it and keep it somewhere safe so your mom doesn’t throw it away while you’re at summer camp.

For the three of you who haven’t read a contemporary graphic novel, Kavalier and Clay, or any of the numerous articles on the subject, I’m going to say this exactly once, and never repeat it again: Comics Aren’t Just for Kids Anymore.

Comics tend to pull their influences from literature and film as well as traditional visual arts like drawing and painting (not to mention other comics), so they appeal to fans of all of the above. Whether they’re going by “comics,” “graphic novels,” or, in the words of comic legend Will Eisner, “sequential art,” the combination of visual and textual narrative allows for unique and vital storytelling that deserves the same respect as other literary and artistic modes.

Today I’m going to take a brief look back at the last year or so in the graphic novel world and then a quick peek ahead.

One of the things I love about the comic world is that it’s still growing, but still modestly sized. The relative lack of chaff means that in the graphic novel world, the best books and the bestsellers tend to be one and the same. Discounting manga, or Japanese comics, the bestselling graphic novels of 2004 were In the Shadow of No Towers, by Art Spiegelman (see also Maus) and Persepolis 2, by Marjane Satrapi (see also Persepolis), which were also the best original graphic novels published last year.

Also worth noting—particularly for the neophyte—is McSweeny’s Quarterly Concern, Issue 13, which was published last June, but should be still on shelf. It’s a stellar collection of excerpts of both contemporary and historical comics, and serves as a fine introduction for anyone new to the form and a great read for those who aren’t.

The last five years or so have seen a steady buildup in the popularity of sequential art outside of the traditional, teenage-boy audience. The average comic book consumer is older than ever before, less often white, and more often female.

Last year saw graphic novels receiving increased shelf-space in bookstores, with manga leading the charge (more on that next time). Note, for example, the recent addition of a graphic novel section to the Columbia University Bookstore (located squarely between sci-fi and mythology, of course).

It wouldn’t be fair to say that graphic novels have found a niche in the heart of Joe LitSnob, but I suspect 2005 stands a decent chance at being the year in which they do just that. As it stands, no one raises an eyebrow when a critically acclaimed graphic novel hits shelves, but Batman isn’t making rounds at English department cocktail parties, either. In the current climate, the next genuinely creative and engaging work of graphic fiction that gets serious backing from its publisher could be the one to really turn heads.

Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth) and Satrapi both have new works due out in 2005, so that makes at least two promising works. One more great work might be all it takes for the graphic novel to encroach upon the mainstream literary world heretofore dominated by plain text.