Two Sundays in a row with different-than-usual Sunday Comics posts? Including one that is being written on what is technically no longer Sunday? And is written in a different format than usual?
Why yes.
A bit about today's entry, first. Yes, there really is such a thing as Comics Theory. While not frequently regarded as such (often, debatably, for very good reasons), comics are--or at least have the definite potential to be--a legit art form. It's a vehicle of expression that has certain properties unique to it. Nowhere else except in film is there such a seamless blend of the verbal and the visual, ideally both working to support the other (except in wordless comics, though those have language in their own right). And even then, despite the parallels, comics can be very much set apart from film with more of their own conventions--how they handle and manipulate time or the effects of panel shape, size, and placement, just to name a couple. There's a whole science, process, and language that can be diseccted from them. And there have been books written. Books that I myself have studied, and now hold up here as good examples. Okay, technically a couple of them aren't comics theory books, they're comics history books, but I figured I'd lump them in too. Off we go! (Trigger comics-esque "Woooosh!" noise)
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
I'll start off with the most well-known one. Many community colleges and universities are starting to offer comics or graphic novel courses as the medium gains acceptance within literary discourse, and if you take one, it's practically guaranteed that this will be the primary textbook. It's a very easy-to-access book, very friendly. To brilliantly help display his points, the book itself is also done in the format of a comic book, McCloud narrating mostly through the word balloons of a little cartoon representation of himself. This is an excellent starting book for the basics of comics theory. It also provides a few tidbits of history where relevant.
McCloud has put out two other books, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics, which I'll also highlight here, but only very briefly, as they are not quite as strong of works as the first and also aren't fully theory books as Understanding is. Reinventing dives deeper into comics history and takes a look at the sort of shape the industry was in at the time it was written (it's in a little better shape now, though much of what he says still holds true). Unfortunately, that's only half the book, the other half goes a completely different direction and is mostly a lot of excited what-ifs about the possibilities for webcomics that feel a little dated now (though again, some of what is said still holds true, and it could be considered the start of some basic discourse on specifically webcomic theory). Making, as the title would imply, is for those interested in the creation aspect of comics, and is actually fairly interesting and handy, applying some light comics theory (it does have references back to Understanding) to the comic-making process (primarily the art, it has a bit less to say on the writing front).
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner
The oldest book in this list. You don't know about Will Eisner? Lemme tell you about Will Eisner. Will Eisner was the man. He created, while not necessarily the first graphic novel, the first one that was labeled as such ("A Contract With God, and Other Tenement Stories," for those interested). His experiments with some of the things comics could do are still being studied today. He was someone who knew the form intimately, really had a grasp of the mechanics. This is one of three other books on comics he wrote (another theory book called "Comics and Sequential Art," and an anatomy book, both of which I have yet to read but would like to). Graphic Storytelling is short but sweet; it wastes no words, and many of the ideas it touches on are restated or expounded on by McCloud in his own theory book (I have no doubts McCloud is a very big Eisner fan and that this book was a foundational block for him). Like Understanding, Graphic Storytelling is also very friendly and approachable to average Joe or Jane, though with the rise of Understanding, its popularity has sloped off (if it could ever have been considered to be "popular..." Understanding Comics was also the book that really brought Comics Theory more into a public spotlight).
The System of Comics by Thierry Groensteen
I'm only partway through reading this one, but I'm including it on the list anyway. The whole "friendly and approachable" thing does not apply to this book, and, not to sound like some academic snob, I don't recommend it unless you've also had some grounding in basic literary theory first. Because that is exactly where Mr. Groensteen comes from and approaches his own analysis of comics--literary theory. It is through and through a serious and academic book, but is fascinating in its own right, and Groensteen brings up some good points--for example, he decries the comparison between comics and film in the introduction and argues for comics being examined as wholly their own form, rather than comparing it to others (apart from what he draws from existing theoretical writings on literature). He also makes reference to a lot of French comics, which is a little frustrating to someone who has very little grounding in famous French comickers, though he fortunately provides reproduced pages for some of his examples. A good sort of "graduating" book from Understanding, adding complexity and more theoretical depth to McCloud's basics.
The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu
Not a theory book, but a history book, and a good one as far as I've seen. It starts at the birth of the American comic book (comics have been around in other countries for far longer than they have in the US) and from there builds up to and primarily covers the controversy surrounding comics in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In that time period, comics came under a lot of heavy legal fire and media attention for "poisoning the youth of America" due to their until-then unrestricted content. I think it's an interesting facet of that time period, especially given that the 50s are usually so synonymous with a happy cheery sense of nothing going wrong. I'd also like to mention that the cover is illustrated by one Charles Burns, a comics illustrator whose clean, sharp, not-quite-cartoony-not-quite-realistic style I greatly admire.
Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon
The least-highly recommended book here but not without some interest and some entertainment value, Rise and Fall is also a book on comics history, but unlike the more broad-scoped Ten-Cent Plague, focuses on the history specifically of Marvel comics and their big cheese, Stan Lee. Despite its subtitle, I was disappointed to find out it actually says very little about the early-90s market crash that nearly killed the American comics industry entirely (which now, nearly 20 years later, it is just starting to truly recover from). It's definitely intesting if you want to know a little more about Marvel in particular's history, given its massive presence in the industry.
Happy Reading!
Holden Out.
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