Books

This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature

By Andy Frisk
April 17, 2009 - 21:57

Author Rocco Versaci, PhD in English and Professor of English at Palomar College states in his work THIS BOOK CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE: COMICS AS LITERATURE, “If after reading this book, you begin to appreciate the complexity of which comics are capable and begin to reconsider what it means to be ‘literary’ then I have accomplished my goal” (29).  The next five chapters are a succession of sound arguments constructed to do just this.

 

Versaci looks at comic books in opposition to other literary genres and makes the case that comics are a sophisticated art form that can rival, and in some ways supersede, the achievements of the written memoir, photography, reportage, war films and “real” literature as art through use of, in part, sequential art’s unique characteristic, graphic language.  Graphic language is the mixture of word, image and reader participation that a graphic novel uses to tell its story.

 

Before Versaci gets into his examples of comics as literature he defines what he feels a work of literature, or art for that matter, should do or contain to be considered literary.  On page 7 he states that “non-crud,” his word for literary art "is filled with interesting and complicated  (therefore compelling) characters, which in turn leads to engaging narratives.  In addition, I see the non-crud as being that which challenges us to see the world differently by using exceptional and unique representational strategies, by subverting commonly held beliefs and assumptions, and by calling our attention to both how texts represent the world and what is at stake in those representations…"

 

Armed with this definition, and it’s a good one, of the literary, and a firm grasp of what graphic language in comics does that is unique and the fact, oft stated by Versaci, that comics are and have been a marginal art form, not taken seriously and therefore capable of being much more subversive that mainstream art, he sets out to prove that comics can be literature.

 

To begin with, Versaci looks at the comic book verses the typical written memoir.  He uses examples from Harvey Pekar’s THE QUITTER and Phoebe Gloeckner’s MINNIE’S THIRD LOVE as well as Chester Brown’s THE PLAYBOY, among others.  Versaci shows how while it is possible for a “gifted prose memoirist” to create an “immediate intimacy with the reader,” graphic novel artists like those mentioned above can create an even more powerful intimacy with their audience often because they directly appear in their works and address the reader directly (38-39).  In the case of Gloeckner, she creates an alter ego named Minnie but the tales are highly autobiographical and Minnie even looks like her, by design.

 

Versaci moves on to compare comic books to the Holocaust Memoir and Holocaust photographs.  In this chapter he delves deeply into an analysis of Art Spiegelman’s MAUS I and II.  He particularly looks at the importance of panel layout and how it constructs the story of how Vladek, the Holocaust survivor, relates his tale to Art.  Of particular interest in his analysis of MAUS is how Spiegelman manages to convey a horrible and often photographically overwhelming atrocity through his graphic novel where all characters are anthropomorphized animals.  While Versaci remarks that there is a bit of controversy to telling such an important story with talking animals, by doing so he keeps the reader from being overwhelmed and turning away from the atrocity as often happens to many when viewing the terrifically sad and graphic photos of the Holocaust:"…images depicting the physical persecution of the Jewish people

are important to Holocaust history, for we must never forget…Spiegelman’s most remarkable achievement with MAUS is his use of comic’s graphic language to transcend the limitations of Holocaust photography.  As he demonstrates, the comic book in general and the animal metaphor in both reflect the importance of these images and revise them in ways that can help recapture their initial role in historical understanding of the Holocaust. His revision suggests that images might be used creatively to emphasize the humanity and the stories of their victims rather than overwhelm these features, as realistic representations-especially of atrocity-

are wont to do." (98)

 

Versaci’s next comparison is of comic books to reportage where he draws connections between what was once considered “New Journalism,” where reporters often break from the tradition of simply presenting facts and actually take a subjective stance in their reporting.  For the most part Versaci looks at the “many comics journalists’…antiestablishment attitudes that can be traced back to the New Journalists” (125).  He examines TO AFGHANISTAN AND BACK by Ted Rall as well as Joe Sacco’s PALESTINE.  Versaci goes to lengths, quite effectively, to demonstrate that comic books, being a marginal art form, are often viewed by the mainstream with distain and the marginality inherent in graphic literature allows for the “comic reporter” to be much more subversive in their tone and direction.  This “marginal subversive-ness of comic books” argument of Versaci’s leads nicely into his next area of inquiry which comprises comic books and war films, where he demonstrates, using the anti-war messages in the stories of Harvey Kurtzman’s EC published TWO-FISTED TALES and FRONTLINE COMBAT how graphic novel representations of war differed greatly in their message and presentation of the horrors of war in opposition to the “gung-ho” war films of the time such as BATTLEGROUND, SANDS OF IWO JIMA and BATTLE CRY.

 

Finally, Versaci compares comic books to “real” literature examining the nuances of perspective and presentation that comic book’s unique graphic language brings to classic adaptations of works such as HAMLET.  He remarks that the original CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED line suffered from trying too much to not be taken as “comic books” due to the negative connotation the label creates but that the later Berkley/First Publishing’s revival of the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED line embraced the uniqueness of graphic language and produced reproductions of classics that fully engaged, like in their version of HAMLET, graphic language’s unique characteristics.  He very briefly, very too briefly, ends his look at comic books verses “real” literature with a look at Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN and Alan Moore’s LEAGE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOLUMES I and II.

 

Herein is where the book fails to complete its, up to this point, detailed and engaging argument.  Gaiman and Moore’s work are the only current “mainstream” works acknowledged.  While there is no way one can deny the demonstration of literary quality that exists in MAUS, THE QUITTER, and the other “alternative” or “independent” comics works examined, let alone the EC war books of the 1950’s, Versaci’s readers would have been well served with a further examination of Gaiman’s and Moore’s works and other works like Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, or 300, or even Marvel titles such as DAREDEVIL, (of which Frank Miller’s runs were particularly well crafted), FANTASTIC FOUR or UNCANNY X-MEN, all of which display or have displayed aspects, over time, of his definition of what literature is.  It seems that Versaci’s limited consideration of titles that have been considered literary in graphic novel form by comic readers for some time now, burdens him with the same arrogance of those who look down their nose at all comic books as throwaway kid’s stuff since he looks only at what is already accepted as literary comics.  He suffers from being in a position where he is preaching to the choir and would have broken serious ground by examining the great use of authors like Gaiman, Moore, Geoff Johns, and the like make of graphic language to weave tales that challenge their readers to think in new ways about the world around them albeit through the metaphorical use of “superhero” conflicts.  After all, would we consider Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Steve Rodgers/Captain America, Logan/Wolverine, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, Bruce Wayne/Batman, or Ben Grimm/The Thing to not be “complicated (and therefore engaging) characters?”

A literary and multilayered superhero storyline. Or not?

 

Overall though, for those who are particularly new to comic books or who haven’t thought about just what “graphic language” is as it relates to sequential art (comic books) or worse yet haven’t read any volumes of LOVE AND ROCKETS, MAUS or any of Harvey Pekar’s works, this well written and informative work does serve to act as a gateway to a new appreciation of comic books and the literary power inherent in them when manipulated artfully.  Although Versaci’s book will bring much more enlightenment to the non-comic book reader and those just discovering this great medium, the seasoned reader can still get a good deal from his work.

Rating: 8 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12