Publication: Conversations with Art Spiegelman

In 2002 I was invited to interview Art Spiegelman at the International Comic Arts Festival; the event was co-sponsored by the Small Press Expo. I admit to being a bit nervous at the time: It was the first time I'd interviewed anyone, let alone someone I'd written about in my dissertation. Doing so in front of a large crowd didn't help, either. But Spiegelman certainly did; he's not just a ready speaker, but very articulate about his (and others') work.

I made sure to record the interview (thanks for the help, Mark Nevins!), which was fortunate. Joseph Witek, author of Comic Books as History, later contacted me about including a transcript of the interview in his upcoming volume for the University Press of Mississippi entitled Art Spiegelman: Conversations.
The book was published earlier this year, and it's quite an impressive volume. It'll prove to be a valuable book to scholars, of course. But Spiegelman's gift for analysis (and of gab!) makes the book a great read for anyone interested in comics as an art form. It's a worthy addition to UPM's essential Conversations with Comics Artists Series. (Naturally, I'd say all of this even if I hadn't contributed to it.)

Click here for ComicsResearch.org's listing for
Art Spiegelman: Conversations.
Image: Photo from The Comics Journal's coverage of ICAF/SPX. Although I had written for TCJ for many years, the caption-writer obviously felt that given the choice between identifying me or Spiegelman's cigarette, the smoke was the more well-known participant.

Hartford Courant on Lisa's Death in "Funky Winkerbean" - with ComicsResearch.org Commentary

Regular newspaper-comics readers are likely aware that Lisa, a character in Tom Batiuk's popular and long-running strip Funky Winkerbean, died this week from a relapse of cancer - today, in fact. Unsurprisingly, the story has garnered lots of media attention. Apart from the regrettable (although expected) litanies of "This is just horrible, my funnies should be funny" reactions from many readers, the majority of these stories have wisely focused on Batiuk's decision to use the storyline - and subsequent publication - to raise money for cancer research with the establishment of Lisa's Legacy Fund. (Click here for more information on the fund.)

Today's issue of the Hartford Courant features a very good, somewhat longer-than-usual article on the event. Courant reporter (and longtime phone-pal) Bill Weir contacted me yesterday for my opinions, and I'm happy that Jesse Leavenworth, the article's writer, found some of my comments useful.

You can read the article, "A Comic Strip for a Cause," along with a PDF of today's installment of the strip, here. And in case you've missed the strip, you can always read the last 30 days of it courtesy of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

This image comes from today's Courant story.

Superman Returns... to Beijing

Last month I was interviewed by a reporter from That's Beijing, the city's English-language magazine, for an article concerning the new film Superman Returns. The reporter was particularly interested in addressing potential reasons why superheroes are primarily an American phenomenon. The article's now online at the magazine's website, as well as via CRIENGLISH.com.

It's an interesting article, in that it provides some culturally "outsider" views of the superhero genre. And apart from speaking to me and to various Beijing residents, the reporter also spoke with long-time pal Pete Coogan, co-chair of the Comic Arts Conference and author of the brand-new book Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre. I've not seen a copy of Pete's book yet, but once I do I'll review it here.

My interview for the article was conducted via email, and I'll post my off-the-cuff ruminations soon.

This illustration ran with the original That's Beijing article.

In the News: "Menace to Comic Heroes?"(LA Times)

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking to Michelle Keller, a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, on the topic of digital piracy in the comic book field. The result was published in today's (Monday, 29 May) paper: "Menace to Comic Heroes?" (you might need to register in order to read it). Wired magazine ran a simliar but less in-depth piece last month, as well.

The LA Times story covers the topic from many angles, from publishers to comics shop owners to readers both younger and, ahem, older (that would be moi). I'm quoted arguing for a possibly not-so-drastic impact: "The collector mind-set says, 'I need the paper issue.'" And while I do believe that's true, it's also true that younger readers -- heck, younger people in general -- are more accustomed to thinking in terms like instant access and transferred bits than they are mint condition and mylar bags.

Apart from select features like Marvel's "Digital Comics," most traditional US publishing companies don't offer dowloadable digital comic books. Even Marvel's offerings are strictly on-line; you can't download a comic and take it with you, you must read it while connected to the Internet. In a half-way move into the digital realm, though, Marvel has begun offering great slabs of its library on DVD-Rom: you can get 500+ issues each of Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, The Avengers, and Uncanny X-Men on shiny media for about $50 per title.

To me, this is a real bargain; and I'd bet if publishers offered legal downloads of back-issues like these at a comparable price to the physical-media digital versions -- that's 10 cents per issue, kids! -- lots of folks would jump at the opportunity. I know I would.

In the News: "Comic Wars"

Almost missed this one: Last Monday's Hartford Courant ran an article entitled "Comic Wars: Cartoonists Take Potshots at Each Other, But it's All in Fun" (22 May 2006). The article discusses the habit some cartoonists have of mentioning or featuring other cartoonists in their work; in this case, the catalysts were Stephan Pastis ("Pearls Before Swine"), Darby Conley ("Get Fuzzy"), and Rick Stromski ("Soup to Nuts").

The author of the article, Bill Weir, has written a number of comics-related articles for the Courant, and I've been honored to be quoted in a couple of them. This time he e-mailed me about the topic, and I mentioned a few other such cross-over "feuds." Perhaps that's where Bill got the idea to speak with Bill Griffith ("Zippy the Pinhead") concerning Griffith's mutual love-fest with Bil & Jeff Keane's "The Family Circus." In any event, in the illo above I've highighted one instance where the Keanes have slipped a Zippy cameo into (in Weir's wonderful words) their "preternaturally wholesome world." (Hey, Zippy and circuses are a perfect fit - why'd I never think of that before?)

Comics Studies at the University of Florida

In the last few years, the University of Florida has become a magnet for graduate studies in comic art. When you know that pioneering scholar Dr. Don Ault teaches there, this information isn't terribly surprising. Don's scholarly interests range from William Blake to Carl Barks, the "Good Duck Artist" who is best known for bringing life to Scrooge McDuck in Disney comic books. (Here's one of Don's articles, encompassing both Blake and Barks!) Florida also hosts a yearly conference on comics and now hosts the Comics Scholars' Discussion List.

Don is quoted today in an article on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln library's new comics collection, where he briefly discusses the growth of comics scholarship. He also drops this tidbit about comics studies in his own backyard:

[T]he University of Florida has more students applying for post-graduate work in comic books than any other field this year.

This statistic is great news for the field, and is a tribute to all of the hard work and dedication put forth by Don and his host of graduate students.

Alternative Comics: An Emerging Conversation

Getting in on the Ground Floor Dep't:Tom Spurgeon's excellent ComicsReporter.com today begins a week-long, ongoing interrogation apologia conversation over the new book Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. The combatants participants are Charles Hatfield, the book's author, and Bart Beaty, who writes CR's regular Conversational Euro-Comics column. Both are university professors whose primary field of research involves comics. (Full disclosure: They're also friends of mine - Bart from years of on-line discussion-list banter, academic conferences, and comics-related activities, including one lunch in which we and a few others planned an ill-fated hostile take-over of the Comics Journal; and Charles from our [many] years as graduate students and bad influences over each other at the University of Connecticut.)

The conversation should prove insightful, enlightening, and full o' meaty, intellectual goodness: Neither of these gentlemen, to my recollection, has ever suffered from a loss of words. The conversation begins with a bang, as Bart begins with "simple" questions, such as pretty much challenging the very foundations of Charles' book: "I'm skeptical of claims that comics are "primarily a 'literary form.'" In his response, Charles asserts, "I suppose what I want the book to do is, not simply elevate comics, but poke and prod at the whole traditional, hidebound notion of what 'Literature' is." Wow, these kids take this stuff seriously.

There's lots more to both sides than I've indicated here, natch; but I think I have to give this round to Bart. Charles ol' pal, why not take the direct route and make Bart read the entire title? I was under the impression that the book's overall argument was that "alternative comics" [this specific subset of all-that-might-be-labeled-comics] can and should be seen as "a literature" - that is, a distinct, and in some respects cohesive, body of texts, with its own tropes, tics, and ties. Anyway, that's what I might have said - but hey, it's Charles' book; and besides, I still, um, need to read it...

But don't let me stop you - head over right now to Let's You and Him Fight. Next month it's Bart's turn to roast over the coals of Craig Fischer's probing intellect; in fact, I think I can hear Craig sharpening his critical claws already.

Above: the cover to Charles' book. Go buy it, already!