Graphica. Sounds like "erotica!" Maybe it's best that one didn't work out; there's enough of an uphill battle to fight without that term working some sort of subliminal voodoo on more suggestible minds.
I don't know if it's the sort of creators comics draws in, or some inherent power of the medium (text + image--this is probably partially the case), or what, but various comics are consistently among the most visceral pieces of art I find myself in contact with. You don't have to have enormous amounts of money to create or even publish them, so there's actually space for intellectual product, original voices, marginal voices, etc., and I suppose that's part of it.
Anyway, when you were talking about war comics, I thought about Barefoot Gen. I can bring up manga, right? Anyway, I was having a conversation about Hiroshima/Nagasaki with some family members this summer, and they had this horrible, skewed view of the Japanese during WWII that then cascaded into their opinion on whether the bombings were justified or not (they thought they were!), etc. It made me think. As strange as I suppose it sounds at first blush (often humorous comic book on the bombing of Hiroshima), that really is such a sensitive and complex book, with all the different points of view on the war, and not to mention the ways those points of view are shaped/enforced. I'm almost rambling now. All I mean to say is that this really is a powerful, life-changing medium. Yes it should be well represented in libraries!
Day-um, Karen! There's so much to comment on here! The girl was clearly cooking with gas when she wrote this one. I wish I could have heard your talk--and not ONLY to find out what you said about my book. (But yeah, that too.) And I'm glad you liked Natchez. I haven't been in that particular city since August 8, 1974 (how do I remember so precisely? Hmm, maybe it was what was on the TV set in that diner that everyone stopped to stare at...) but I've been to Mississippi many a time and it does weave a spell. I even find myself forgiving it its dominant politics when I'm down there among the people and the magnolias. You were smart to see it in the fall, too, as the kudzu vines were probably dying off.
So let me choose a thing or two to comment on here. Hmm. Eisner's coinage of "graphic novel." Well, he wasn't the FIRST to coin the phrase, even if he arrived at it independently. It had emerged in comics fandom by the late '60s, before Will was back in the business. (I can look up the fan-critic it's generally attributed to, if you're curious.) Will always seemed to feel sincerely that he'd arrived at the phrase on his own, and maybe he did. But I keep thinking, those years talking to Denis Kitchen and other undergrounders, scouring the current comics scene to get back to speed? I find it unlikely that he completely missed seeing a use of "graphic novel." Will was a thorough student, whatever he undertook. I think he may sincerely have forgotten that he'd read it somewhere and thought it was his own, but I think the credit belongs elsewhere. No question he popularized it, though. It might not even have become the accepted label had it not been for him.
And the big three of the '80s. No question that Maus was THE turning point in the broad acceptance of graphic novels. And Dark Knight Returns, though it started as a "comic book" and not a "graphic novel," was in g.n. form early enough and sold well enough that it's certainly the next milestone. But Watchmen is interesting in that I think subsequent events have colored the perception of what it seemed to be at the time. It was a HUGE event in hard-core comics fandom, no question. But it was a 12-issue monthly that dragged way behind schedule. Started in late '86, I think, and it had to be well into '88 before the last issue came out. (Someone correct me if my chronology's wrong.) Then the graphic-novel version came out...and promptly bombed. Big print run, but remainders showing up everywhere. The hopes of serious fans that Watchmen would become another big event in the broader acceptance of the medium seemed dashed.
But then, during the '90s, came a slow build. Sandman became a big thing and drew attention to its ancestors, Alan Moore in particular. From Hell had a certain break-through quality that brought people looping back to Alan's other stuff. And every serious comics geek was telling everyone he knew to read Watchmen. By the turn of the century it was definitely doing a lot to get graphic novels and superheroes taken more seriously. But in the moment, in the '80s, it felt more like an insider thing. Our big secret treasure.
I'm fumbling for a non-comics analogy. Henry James? Sherwood Anderson?
Jason, of course you can bring up manga! Although I confess it's far from my area of strength.
I think it's true that comics can inspire a profoundly visceral reaction. Maybe the combination of verbal and visual engagement? Your comments about the power of art made me think of St Augustine's embarrassed confession that, as a young man, the theatre could move him emotionally in ways that real life never could.
Gerard, I had to look up Nixon in Wikipedia to make sure 8/8/74 was the date I thought it was! Yeah, I can see how that would be memorable. Thanks SO MUCH for your comments about the contemporary context of WATCHMEN. Since I didn't read it until so many years after it came out, I wasn't aware of how it was received commercially or critically. That does explain, though, that while I remember vividly the '80s releases of MAUS and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, I wasn't even aware of WATCHMEN until so long afterwards. But it was influential within the confines of creators' development, was it not? Would it be correct to say that, although it wasn't a commercial success in terms of being a "big graphic novel" it was still a milestone in the development of what we see in graphic novels today?
Glad I could be of service. And yes, Watchmen influenced a lot of people's approach to writing and drawing comics, especially superhero comics. Although Alan had already had a huge impact through Swamp Thing, Marvel Man/Miracle Man and other projects, so it wasn't as if Watchmen came out of the blue. Among many other things, though, it pointed to new ways of structuring and layering comics in "novel" form. The 12-issue superhero "maxi-series" already existed at that point, so the form had been laid out, but Alan and Dave showed everyone how to use that form to tell a story with the coherence of a novel.
Oh, and it was interesting watching Nixon resign through a TV in Natchez. My parents were both Nixon-hating liberals, and everyone around us was an older, white, Mississippi conservative, the very people Nixon's "Southern strategy" was built upon. They were all quite glum--and I could sense my mom holding herself back from cheering.
