Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean

417 Pages·2007·9.58 MB·English

by  Douglas Wolk

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W $22.95 / £13.99 / $27.50 CAN

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A (cid:30)(cid:57)(cid:64)(cid:47)(cid:54)(cid:61) THE FIRST SERIOUS,
P (cid:39)(cid:0) (cid:57)(cid:60)(cid:53)
H (cid:0) READABLE, PROVOCATIVE,
I CANON-SMASHING
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N BOOK OF COMICS THEORY
O AND CRITICISM BY THE
V LEADING CRITIC IN THE FIELD
Douglas Wolk E
writes about comics and
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music for publications including the New York Times, S
Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, Salon, Pitchfork, W Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured
art form, fi lling bookshelves with brilliant, inno-
and The Believer. He is also the author of Live at the O
Apollo. He lives in Portland, Oregon. R vative work and shaping the ideas and images of the
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rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics,

A critic Douglas Wolk shows us why and how.
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Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of

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modern comics—from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel
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to Chris Ware—and explains their roots, infl uences,
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T and where they fi t into the pantheon of art.

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Reading Comics is accessible to the hardcore fan
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Y and the curious newcomer; it’s the fi rst book for

M people who want to know not just which comics are
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E (cid:69)(cid:54)(cid:47)(cid:66) worth reading, but ways to think and talk and argue
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about them.
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maanndy O
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FEATURING MORE THAN
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100 ILLUSTRATIONS
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DA CAPO PRESS A
ISBN-10: 0-306-81509-5
A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP ISBN-13: 978-0-306-81509-6 more S
WWW.DACAPOPRESS.COM . . .

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JACKET DESIGN BY ALEX CAMLIN O
AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY LISA GIDLEY L
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Praise for Reading Comics
“Douglas Wolk has delivered what will surely be a cornerstone of
comics criticism for years to come. . . . thoughtful and entertaining
throughout.” —The Onion
“Wolk’s informed, readable assessment is lucid enough to serve as a
primer for neophytes wondering what these ‘graphic novels’ are all
about, yet even the most hardcore comics fans will garner considerable
insight from it.” —Booklist
“Wolk has established his credentials as a walking encyclopedia of
comics and their most articulate watchdog.... Everything is here.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Wolk has found a niche for himself as a knowledgeable insider who
knows how to talk to outsiders, a devotee who can communicate his
passion to novices.... If comics are, as he says, in a golden age, Wolk is
the right critic to memorialize the moment. ”
—Toronto Globe and Mail
“Wolk doesn’t float in on word balloons with qualms about your
intelligence. . . . He doesn’t pull punches or apologize for his passion
for comics books; he is, instead, inspired by their ambition and pro-
tective of their dignity.” —The Oregonian
“For a relaxed overview that concentrates on reviews of specific works,
you can’t do better. . . . One of Wolk’s great strengths is that he is as
comfortable with mainstream commercial comics (including super-
heroes) as he is with ‘art comics.’” —Raleigh News & Observer
“A perceptive and enlightening examination of the sudden rise of
graphic novels and what they say about society.”
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“While most people have now warmed up to the idea of graphic novels
as unique fusions of literature and art, nobody has so smartly written
about them before.” —Portland Mercury
“Critics in any artistic field could learn from Wolk’s willingness to
express not just appreciation but joy. . . . Intelligent, discerning, inci-
sive, and terrifically engaging.” —The Irish Times
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“Authoritative, passionately argued. . . . He draws our attention to a
spectrum of creations that promise a sophistication and complexity at
least the equal of that of much contemporary literature.”
—Times Literary Supplement
“If you’ve been feeling behind the curve on the whole graphic novel
phenomenon, Wolk’s book provides a turbo-thrust.” —Boston Globe
“This book has the wide-ranging virtues of its subject: it’s fun and feisty,
smart and subjective, able to guide readers into the most absurd cosmic
hugger-mugger and into shadowy recesses of the human heart—
remaining breezily entertaining all the while.” —Reason
“Infectiously impassioned.” —Boston Phoenix
“A sassy exposition that is as exuberant as the artform it passionately
describes ... Interesting and edifying for novice and expert alike.”
—Utne Reader
“A smart and funny observer ... Wolk is a fountain of knowledge about
comics of all sorts.” —Time Out New York
“Now comes a full book of comic criticism by one of its leading
voices...Wolk’s book works well both as an introduction to comics and
a helpful approach to thinking critically about them.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“The book is like a magnifying glass for looking carefully at comics. It taps
into the metaphorical associations, the spectacle, the design, the flow,
the psychology—not to mention the cheap and vulgar and exciting.”
—Kirkus
“[Wolk] is an fluent tour guide. . . the ideal primer for the literate
reader who has noticed the recent surge of media attention to comics
and graphic novels.” —Newsday
“A valuable book, an important and fascinating addition to comics
discourse, and a long-overdue leap beyond the obligatory critical nods.”
—BookForum
“Deeply engaging. . . . his warts-’n’-all analysis of Will Eisner is alone
worth the price of admission.” —Village Voice
0306815095-01 5/3/07 1:48 PM Page iii
DOUG LAS WOLK
READING
COMICS
How Graphic Novels Work
and What They Mean
DA CAPO PRESS
A MEMBER OF THE PERSEUS BOOKS GROUP
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Copyright © 2007 by Douglas Wolk
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wolk, Douglas.
Reading comics : how graphic novels work and what they mean / Douglas Wolk.—1st
Da Capo Press ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-306-81509-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-306-81509-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Comic books, strips, etc.—United States—History and criticism. I. Title.
PN6725.W65 2007
741.53—dc22
2007005232
HC: ISBN: 978-0-306-81509-6
PB: ISBN: 978-0-306-81616-1
Published by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
http://www.dacapopress.com
Parts of some chapters of this book have appeared in slightly or substantially different
form in The Believer, Salon, Comic Art, Ruminator,The Boston Phoenix, and The Village
Voice.
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S.
by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please
contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut
Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call [phone], ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].
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For Sterling
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
PART ONE • THEORY AND HISTORY 1
{1} What Comics Are and What They Aren’t 3
{2} Auteurs, the History of Art Comics,
and How to Look at Ugly Drawings 29
{3} What’s Good About Bad Comics
and What’s Bad About Good Comics 60
{4} Superheroes and Superreaders 89
{5} Pictures, Words, and the Space Between Them 118
PART TWO • REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY 135
A Small Disclaimer 137
{6} David B.: The Battle Against the Real World 139
{7} Chester Brown: The Outsider 147
{8} Steve Ditko: A Is A 156
{9} Will Eisner and Frank Miller: The Raconteurs 166
{10} Gilbert Hernandez: Spiraling into the System 181
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viii Contents
{11} Jaime Hernandez: Mad Love 193
{12} Craig Thompson and James Kochalka:
Craft Versus Cuteness 203
{13} Hope Larson: The Cartography of Joy 214
{14} Carla Speed McNeil: Shape-Changing Demons,
Birth-Yurts, and Robot Secretaries 220
{15} Alan Moore: The House of the Magus 228
{16} Grant Morrison: The Invisible King 258
{17} Dave Sim: Aardvark Politick 289
{18} The Dark Mirrors of Jim Starlin’s Warlock 304
{19} Tomb of Dracula: The Cheap, Strong Stuff 317
{20} Kevin Huizenga: Visions from the
Enchanted Gas Station 329
{21} Charles Burns and Art Spiegelman:
Draw Yourself Raw 336
{22} Why Does Chris Ware Hate Fun? 347
{23} Alison Bechdel: Reframing Memory 359
Afterword: The Rough Wave and the Smooth Wave 365
Notes 373
Index 391
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Lisa Gidley, Jessica Bruder, Hillary Frey, Ed Park, James
Schamus, Andras Szanto, Sarah Fan, Joe Gross, Calvin Reid, Heidi
MacDonald, Todd Hignite, Sarah Lazin, and Ben Schafer for all their
assistance and encouragement.