In Defense of Comic Books
Drawing on old material...
A while ago, a friend at Daily Events wrote a post called Gagging on Deep Throat, where he spuriously compared pornography to comic books to make the point that pornography doesn't deserve consideration for artistic merit.
There are a few objections one could make here (or not, if you agree), but I (being me) didn't appreciate that he maligned comics to make a point. It lead to a interesting, involved discussion of medium, value, genre, etc., which I'll completely ignore here. I thought my initial response might be worth posting.
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Let's draw a distinction between genre and medium.
Genre to a large extent dictates content. The western is a genre that consists of cowboys, Indians, and gunfights. Sci-fi is a genre that consists of space exploration and futuristic science. The superhero story is a genre that consists of, well, superheroes. Porn is a genre that consists of sex, lots of sex, often explicit. And so forth.
I'm oversimplifying, of course, but you get the idea.
Medium, on the other hand, is a means of transmitting content. It's a wrapper. It does not dictate content. Television is a medium. The novel is a medium. The CD is a medium. Comic books are a medium. Radio, film, theater, DVD, etc. To a medium, content is largely irrelevant. The medium is only the mechanism by which one transmits information.
Porn is a genre. Comic books are a medium.
Please don't compare apples to apple carts.
A while ago, a friend at Daily Events wrote a post called Gagging on Deep Throat, where he spuriously compared pornography to comic books to make the point that pornography doesn't deserve consideration for artistic merit.
There are a few objections one could make here (or not, if you agree), but I (being me) didn't appreciate that he maligned comics to make a point. It lead to a interesting, involved discussion of medium, value, genre, etc., which I'll completely ignore here. I thought my initial response might be worth posting.
---
Let's draw a distinction between genre and medium.
Genre to a large extent dictates content. The western is a genre that consists of cowboys, Indians, and gunfights. Sci-fi is a genre that consists of space exploration and futuristic science. The superhero story is a genre that consists of, well, superheroes. Porn is a genre that consists of sex, lots of sex, often explicit. And so forth.
I'm oversimplifying, of course, but you get the idea.
Medium, on the other hand, is a means of transmitting content. It's a wrapper. It does not dictate content. Television is a medium. The novel is a medium. The CD is a medium. Comic books are a medium. Radio, film, theater, DVD, etc. To a medium, content is largely irrelevant. The medium is only the mechanism by which one transmits information.
Porn is a genre. Comic books are a medium.
Please don't compare apples to apple carts.
posted by blerg3000 at 4:27 PM
2 Comments:
I just can't leave this post hanging out there with 0 comments. :)
I agree that comic books are a medium, but I think the majority of people would consider it a genre as well. The stereotype is pretty well established that they are kid's fare, and while changing and becoming more accepted as a mainstream storytelling medium, it will take time.
Another good example of what you are talking about is cartoons. Just because somebody drew it and animated it doesn't mean it is for kids.
But what makes a stereotype "pretty well established," and why would anybody want to accept one?
My whole point was that of course there's a bias and perception there, but there's also a clear, factual delineation between content and medium. To assume the content of comics is to erroneously conflate the two.
As for waiting for general opinions to change... Just off the top of my head there's Craig Thompson's very well received (New York Times Book Review, Time Magazine, etc.) Blankets, Marjane Satrapi publishing comics as a guest Op-Ed columnist in the New York Times (Times Select link here), and somebody was nominated just today for a best adapted screenplay Oscar for A History of Violence (from the graphic novel of the same name). Plus there's always Art Spiegelman's Maus, which won the Pulitzer in 1992 (more than a decade ago?), to point at.
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