ALEX CANTATORE

Okay readers, time for a little quiz.

If I were to name Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” George Orwell’s “1984,” Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s “Watchmen,” what would you say these four novels have in common? Other than the obvious of being printed on paper, of course.

Believe it or not, all four books were selected among Time Magazine’s Top 100 English-language Novels written since 1923. That’s right, “Watchmen,” the groundbreaking 1986 graphic novel whose movie adaptation opened in theatres Friday, was rated among the best works of English literature in the 20th century.

Now, for question two of your quiz: Why does the idea of ranking a superhero-laden graphic novel-an admittedly fancy term for comic book-among the top 100 written works seem absolutely ridiculous to so many Americans?

Unfortunately, the much-derided medium has long labored on in poorly printed funnies pages and pulp superhero books.

But comics have been a part of the world’s media since at least the 1700s. Even before that, cavemen (and women, for the sake of political correctness) scribbled sequential art on walls to tell stories.

People have long considered editorial cartoons to be worthy of consideration. Benjamin Franklin embraced the medium to make an early point for the United States of America with the famous “JOIN, or DIE” cartoon of a snake cut to pieces, published in his Pennsylvania Gazette.

The problem with comics has never been an inherent inability to convey depth of emotion or complicated ideas-despite what you may think from reading “Garfield” or “Cathy.” No one considers “Calvin and Hobbes” to be on the level of “Crime and Punishment,” but let’s be honest: The goals of the works were entirely different.

So, question three: What would happen if a comic author and artist attempted to tell a novel-caliber, deeply layered story with the medium?

Will Eisner was among the first to try with 1978’s “A Contract with God.” When Moore threw his hat in the ring with “Watchmen,” we learned that a comic book can be just as enthralling as a novel and, almost overnight, the idea of what a comic could be evolved.

“Maus: A Survivor’s Tale,” an “Animal Farm” meets the Holocaust graphic novel by Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992. Since then, books like “Blankets,” by Craig Thompson, showed that graphic novels can do touching slice of life tales of first love, and “Persepolis,” by Marjane Satrapri, tackled the fall of the Shah in Iran.

Which brings us to question four, the final query of our little quiz: Why on earth are comics suddenly literary? What made writers who once would have flocked to novels interested in this obscure little format of pictures, speech bubbles, and panels?

Because, suddenly, a visual form of communication has become the standard for most Americans. Reading novels-and even newspapers, much to my chagrin-has become a distant second or third place activity for most citizens when compared to watching television and movies or playing video games.

It only makes sense that a generation fluent in the language of visual storytelling would try to make use of these skills when crafting entertainment for their peers. After all, why waste time on something no one will enjoy?

But movies and television shows have their flaws, leading authors elsewhere. The mediums are entirely passive. They baby the viewer by filling in blanks like character voices, spoil the wonder of visualization embraced by novels through explicit depiction of major events, and don’t ask for any interaction from the viewer in terms of flipping pages or paging back to re-examine a point you’d like to read again.

Of course, this doesn’t even begin to address the question of whether a screenplay writer’s original intent will ever make it to the screen, given problems with funding, actors, directors, and focus groups.

Comic books bridge the gap between novel and film. Through a combination of still frames and speech bubbles, readers can tax both their skills of observation and imagination, while the relative ease of production means that creators can produce works true to their vision.

Statistics from ICv2, an industry trade magazine, placed graphic novel and comic sales at $715 million in 2008. The burgeoning format still claims just a small percentage of total book sales, but unlike the rest of the book industry graphic novels are experiencing constant growth.

So, now, time for extra credit: How long do you think it will be before we see graphic novels on that New York Times Best Sellers List?

Trick question. That stodgy old New York paper already tracks the best “selling graphic books.”

And number one this week? “Watchmen,” of course.

To contact Alex Cantatore, e-mail acantatore@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2005.

Originally published in the Turlock Journal 3/7/2009.
Retrieved from the Turlock Journal Web site.