NYTimes on graphic novels

Posted on | July 13, 2004 | 2 Comments

I liked the responses that Mark Singer and Jamie S. Rich posted to the article Not Funnies by Charles McGrath (July 11, 2004, New York Times). Marc and Jamie brought into focus many of the problems with the article and the way alternative comics get held up by the press as somehow more legit than other comic genres.

What drove me batty were these quotes from McGrath, first:

Comics are also enjoying a renaissance and a newfound respectability right now.
In fact, the fastest-growing section of your local bookstore these days is apt to be the one devoted to comics and so-called graphic novels.

followed by his only mention of manga:

Shelf loads of manga — those Japanese comic books that feature slender, wide-eyed teenage girls who seem to have a special fondness for sailor suits. Superheroes, of course, still churned out in installments by the busy factories at Marvel and D.C. Also, newer sci-fi and fantasy series like ”Y: The Last Man,” about literally the last man on earth (the rest died in a plague), who is now pursued by a band of killer lesbians.

You can ignore all this stuff — though it’s worth noting that manga sells like crazy, especially among women.

OK, we are experiencing a renaissance of interest in comic books, evidenced by the growing number of graphic novels in bookstores? How much of the graphic novel section in book stores is stocked with art comix and how much of it is stocked with manga? I’d guess that for every single bookshelf of graphic novels from your mainstream (Marvel, DC, etc) or arty (Fantgraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, etc) publishers your bookstore would have 2-4 shelves of manga. And manga can be ignored (and it is in this article) except for the fact that women buy it?

In the whole article, there are very few mentions of women. McGrath referrs to Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and features a few quotes from her. He says “The graphic novel is a man’s world, by and large, though there are several important female artists (not just Satrapi, but also Lynda Barry, Julie Doucet and Debbie Drechsler).”

Then he uses a female artist to illustrate the hardships of art, “As most graphic novelists themselves will gladly tell you, you have to be a bit of a weirdo to want to purse this odd and solitary art form. Julie Doucet, one of the most promising of the younger graphic novelists, found the life so hard that she flat out quit. ”It was killing me,” she said over the phone from her studio in Montreal. ”Trying to make a living from it — I could never stop, never have a break. I was doing it all the time.” So, the female artist couldn’t hack it, then in the following paragraph he goes on to describe how a graphic novelist would develop, speaking all the time in terms of what “he” goes through in his artistic development. Nice.

Maybe manga is selling like crazy to girls because there are more titles available written and drawn by women? More storylines that are appealing? I mean, if I had a choice between rereading Joe Matt’s story in McSweeney’s 13 about compulsive masturbation and an Erica Sakurazawa manga, I know which one I’d choose.

I’ve got nothing against art comics/graphic novels, but I wonder how many of the people buying them are purchasing them based on the idea that they are “OK,” but other comic books lack this indie hipster ‘credibility’ that makes it cool to display Seth/Chris Ware/Joe Sacco graphic novels on coffee tables.

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