An Introduction to the Graphic Novel

Comics: Past and Future
David Steiling
www.ringling.edu/~dsteilin
ARCHEO-COMICS
Botha’s Shelter Cave San (Bushmen) peoples of
Southern Africa 70,000 B.C.-1800s A.D.
Lascaux ca. 14,000 B.C.
Ajanta Caves, India ca. 100 B.C.
Trajan’s Column 113 A.D.
Joshua Scroll 500 A.D.
Bayeaux Tapestry ca. 1070
20” x 230’
The Early Graphic Narrative
 The Westminster
Bible
ca. 1160
Cantigas de Alfonso el Sabio ca.1250
Anon. Florentine Engraving ca. 1460
The Popish Plot ca.1682
Hogarth The Harlot’s Progress (1731)
Rodolphe Töpffer ca. 1833
The first encounter. - Monsieur Vieuxbois notices with bitterness that
one disappears. - Monsieur Vieuxbois feels that this is for life.
Dream of Monsieur Vieuxbois. - Monsieur Vieuxbois receives no reply. Monsieur Vieuxbois kills himself......fortunately the sword passes under his
arm.
Monsieur Vieuxbois believes himself to be dead for 48 hours.- Monsieur
Vieuxbois comes back to life, considerably thinner. - Change of underwear.
Dickens and his Illustrators
Charles Dickens
worked closely with
his illustrators in the
development of his
concepts and
characters. The
relationship between
image maker and
writer was synergistic.
Marie Duval
Europe’s first
professional comics
artist. She writes and
draws the adventures
of Ally Sloper for the
magazine Judy. Ca.
1871.
Max und Moritz by Wilhelm Busch
Seven Boyish Pranks 1865
The Comic Strip
Winsor McCay
1906
1907
George Herriman
Krazy Kat 1925
1938
1939
Cliff Sterrett
1927
Harold Gray
Little Orphan Annie
Chester Gould
Dick Tracy
Burne Hogarth
1933
Alex Raymond
1935
Hal Foster
Prince Valiant
1938
Frank King
1946
Milton Caniff
Tarpe Mills
1943
Dale Messick
THE COMIC BOOK
1936
Action No. 1, June, 1938
1943
1943
1944
1948
1953
EC Comics
Frederic Wertham and the Comics Code
 Environment and social background have major
effects on psychological development.
 Concern over the negative effects of mass
media.
 Seduction of the Innocent 1954.
 Wertham claimed comics were a major cause of
juvenile crime.
 In the 1970s wrote positively about comics
fanzines.
Carl Barks
John Stanley
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Spiderman 1963
The Munsters
The Monkees
Scooby Doo
Underground Comix
Wimmen’s Comix
Gay Comics
Bandes Dessinées
EUROPEAN COMICS
Herge (1907-1983)
Peyo (1928-1992)
Jean-Claude Forest
1962
Barbarella
Hugo Pratt (1927-1995)
Jean Giraud “Moebius”
Daniel Torres
Rocco Vargas 1982
THE GRAPHIC NOVEL
Will Eisner
Comics legend and
godfather of the
graphic novel, Eisner
brings together the
visual techniques of
films like Citizen Kane
with the storytelling
approach of classic
American writers like
Jack London or
O’Henry.
A Contract with God
Always a visionary of
the narrative
possibilities of the
comics as an art form,
Eisner finally devotes
himself to making a
long work of graphic
narrative he calls a
“graphic novel.”
Until his death in
January of 2005 at the
age of 87, Eisner
authors a series of
graphic novels at the
pace of at least one a
year. The novels
explore social
conditions, human
behavior and Eisner’s
life and experience.
The Emergence of the Graphic Novel
As Eisner began publishing his graphic
novels in the early 1970s, a number of
cartoonists who had been members of the
Underground Comix movements of the
1960s adapted the same experiments in
form and content to making longer work in
more “literary” formats. The magazines
Raw and Arcade were formed to feature
these new experiments.
Maus Legitimizes the Graphic Novel
Art Spiegelman, co-publisher of Raw, uses
the magazine to serially publish his
autobiographical graphic novel telling the
story of his father’s experience during the
nazi holocaust. The critical and
commercial success of this graphic novel,
eventually awarded the Pulitzer prize
(cartooning), moves the graphic novel onto
the shelves of bookstores and into the
book market.
Maus
Meanwhile in Japan….
Just as the graphic novel was finding a
place in American bookstores and among
the literary public, American audiences
were discovering the rich and varied
tradition of “manga” or “playful pictures”
the Japanese form of the comics. Manga
had expanded rapidly after WWII and as
the initial audience for manga got older,
manga stories became more adult and
more serious.
Manga factoids
 By the year 2000 just
under 50 percent of
everything published in
Japan was a comic.
 In Japan comics account
for about 30 percent of all
money made from the
sale of printed matter.
 102,411 manga pages a
month are published
(2007).
Osamu Tezuka, God of Manga
Out of the ashes of
Japan just after WWII
the Japanese picture
story is reinvented by
Osamu Tezuka who
goes on to found both
the industries of
manga and anime. He
originates virtually
every genre of manga
currently published.
Shojo Manga
 Using
representational
schema derived from
his hometown theatre
company, the
Takarazuka Revue,
an all female troupe,
Tezuka founds a type
of manga especially
directed towards girls
and women.
About 40 percent of
what is sold in
bookstores today as a
graphic novel is a
translation of shojo
manga. The audience
for these is primarily
teen-age girls and
young women.
Rumiko Takahashi
The richest manga artist in
the world is Rumiko
Takahashi the author of
highly successful
manga/anime series
including Ranma ½,
Maison Ikkoku, and
InuYasha. Her income
varies between 4 to 6
million dollars a year. Her
book sales run in the
hundreds of millions.
Rumiko Takahashi
A Quick Survey of Some
Recent Graphic Novelists
Alan Moore
Watchmen 1986-87
Frank Miller
The Dark Knight
Returns 1986
Neil Gaiman
Sandman
1989-96
Raymond Briggs
Ethel and Ernest
Posy Simmonds
Gemma Bovery
James Sturm
The Golem’s Mighty Swing
Ben Katchor
The Jew of New York
Seth
Palookaville and
It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken
Chester Brown
Louis Riel
In a style derived from Harold Gray‘s
Little Orphan Annie
Julie Doucet
Ho Che Anderson
King
Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis
David B.
Epileptic
Joe Sacco
Palestine, Safe Area Gorazde, The Fixer
Phoebe Gloeckner
Diary of a Teenage Girl
Craig Thompson
Blankets 2003, Carnet de Voyage
Daniel Clowes
Ghostworld, 1993-97
David Boring 1997-2000
Jaime Hernandez
Locas
Gilbert Hernandez
Palomar
Chris Ware
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on
Earth 2000
Alison Bechdel Fun Home 2006
Shaun Tan The Arrival (2006)
David Mazzucchelli Asterios Polyp
(2009)
WEB COMICS
Kate Beaton Hark! a Vagrant
(2007-Present Web Comic)
Brian Clevinger
Eight-bit Theater (2001-2010)
Meredith Gran Octopus Pie
Demian 5
When I Am King
Nicholas Gurewitch
Perry Bible Fellowship
Der-Shing Helmer
The Meek
Warren Ellis Freak Angels (2007-)
COMICS AS FILM
The Avengers (2012)
Bryan Lee O’Malley
Scott Pilgrim
Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts (2001)
Tablet Comics
The Future of Comics
Works on paper are situated as literature
or fine art.
All mass media is now digital. Comics in
mass media are digital.
Digital Comics are natively Multi-Media.
Comics and Animation are moving closer
together.
Comics are still words and pictures acting
together in order to be read.
www.rsad.edu/~dsteilin
dsteilin@ringling.edu