Tuesday, December 16, 2003
I'm a really good reader. Seriously, in some ways you might say sophisticated. So when people in the team comics sphere tell me "this is great!" I give it a try with as open a mind as I can muster.
But it's difficult to discuss why you don't like something when the tide is so huge against you. "Bridges of Madison County" on the best-sellers list? It was a story of a woman cheating on her husband and family. A woman who'd been in the rural U.S. for decades, yet still had a heavy French accent. Thanks pop culture, but no thanks.
Which brings me around to manga, a subject about which I will continually get in trouble. I am suspicious about the conformity of art style, especially the growth of animanga - art heavily influenced by cartoon movies (anime). I do not buy the "windows to the soul" thing, I think it's a rationalization for not drawing asian characters in leading roles. There seems to be a lot of reasons for that cultural anomaly - stretching back to the cultural shock from WWII. I can understand that, but it ought to change.
And don't get me started on the commercial explotation thing of marketing a comic, animated TV show, Movie, card game, video game ... seriously do not get me started. That's not literature, that's a marketing strategy.
It's been difficult to put into worlds the misgivings I've had for a long time, that haven't gone away. My best, latest effort is that it is opposite my perception of the European tradition of the individual artist. Certainly there are art movements, but those are usually ways for individuals to explore something new, something unique (I know, there's a lot more to art movements, but I'm keeping it simple). Animanga seems to me more about cultural expectations for art. That those expectations encourage art that is very accessable to mass production is a side point, but does provide an additional commercial inducement for artists not to be individuals. (you can flip this and say using the argument of being an individual is no excuse for not becoming more technically proficient in your art)
There's also a lot of resistance based on things other than being a good reader - from simply being a superhero fan all the way to being a racist. But I'm talking about being a good reader, and one involved in that individual tradition of art.
I'm also someone who will walk into a bookstore and not be invested in any genre to the point where I HAVE to buy a particular thing - whether it be graphic novel, mystery, history or whatever. If it doesn't appeal to me for any honest reason, I'm not going to buy it.
Now I'm willing to put aside a lot of my concerns if I come across a story that seems to me to be genuinely from an individual - Barefoot Gen comes to mind. Seriously, a story like this it's easy to excuse the misgivings about the art because it's apparent there's an individual breaking out and telling a very personal story.
You know, you need something to even the balance. Superhero stories can be really awful, but the art can be fantastic. Barefoot Gen is an example of art with problems, but the story demands your attention. In any case - manga, animanga, superhero or any other comic-thingy you can think of - if the art has problems and the story is pedestrian there's not a lot of reason for someone to pick up that comic.
Unless there's some other reason aside from the reading experience for a purchase like collecting or that team-comix feeling of responsibility (if I don't buy it, who will?)
So it's difficult with all those motivations, reasons aside from reading, to find good reading stories when everything is great! It is not helpful to a reader when people acknowledge that 99 percent of everything is crap, but then start listing 99 percent of the stuff that's crap as being great! This is a very simplistic, possibly offensive way of describing things. I don't mean to be offensive, but then again, I thought the Bridges of Madison County was stupid.
But I knew if I was patient (and I'm not always patient) I would begin to see individuals coming forward with more honest opinions - people not afraid to be negative in reviews. People who would have more perceived credibility than I do.
Here and here are two bloggers who take some of the trash out to the trash.
I know I don't agree with all their choices, but based on why they didn't like what I didn't like, I'm far more likely to listen to their opinions. And it makes me feel better that there seems to be the beginnings of a filter system developing. Not everything is great! and I'm not engaged enough - don't have enough time - to sift through everything. Good, reliable critics are need to cut through the hype.
BTW, along with Gen, the next books I want to purchase: Golems Might Swing and Same Difference and Other Stories.
Tell me what you think!
But it's difficult to discuss why you don't like something when the tide is so huge against you. "Bridges of Madison County" on the best-sellers list? It was a story of a woman cheating on her husband and family. A woman who'd been in the rural U.S. for decades, yet still had a heavy French accent. Thanks pop culture, but no thanks.
Which brings me around to manga, a subject about which I will continually get in trouble. I am suspicious about the conformity of art style, especially the growth of animanga - art heavily influenced by cartoon movies (anime). I do not buy the "windows to the soul" thing, I think it's a rationalization for not drawing asian characters in leading roles. There seems to be a lot of reasons for that cultural anomaly - stretching back to the cultural shock from WWII. I can understand that, but it ought to change.
And don't get me started on the commercial explotation thing of marketing a comic, animated TV show, Movie, card game, video game ... seriously do not get me started. That's not literature, that's a marketing strategy.
It's been difficult to put into worlds the misgivings I've had for a long time, that haven't gone away. My best, latest effort is that it is opposite my perception of the European tradition of the individual artist. Certainly there are art movements, but those are usually ways for individuals to explore something new, something unique (I know, there's a lot more to art movements, but I'm keeping it simple). Animanga seems to me more about cultural expectations for art. That those expectations encourage art that is very accessable to mass production is a side point, but does provide an additional commercial inducement for artists not to be individuals. (you can flip this and say using the argument of being an individual is no excuse for not becoming more technically proficient in your art)
There's also a lot of resistance based on things other than being a good reader - from simply being a superhero fan all the way to being a racist. But I'm talking about being a good reader, and one involved in that individual tradition of art.
I'm also someone who will walk into a bookstore and not be invested in any genre to the point where I HAVE to buy a particular thing - whether it be graphic novel, mystery, history or whatever. If it doesn't appeal to me for any honest reason, I'm not going to buy it.
Now I'm willing to put aside a lot of my concerns if I come across a story that seems to me to be genuinely from an individual - Barefoot Gen comes to mind. Seriously, a story like this it's easy to excuse the misgivings about the art because it's apparent there's an individual breaking out and telling a very personal story.
You know, you need something to even the balance. Superhero stories can be really awful, but the art can be fantastic. Barefoot Gen is an example of art with problems, but the story demands your attention. In any case - manga, animanga, superhero or any other comic-thingy you can think of - if the art has problems and the story is pedestrian there's not a lot of reason for someone to pick up that comic.
Unless there's some other reason aside from the reading experience for a purchase like collecting or that team-comix feeling of responsibility (if I don't buy it, who will?)
So it's difficult with all those motivations, reasons aside from reading, to find good reading stories when everything is great! It is not helpful to a reader when people acknowledge that 99 percent of everything is crap, but then start listing 99 percent of the stuff that's crap as being great! This is a very simplistic, possibly offensive way of describing things. I don't mean to be offensive, but then again, I thought the Bridges of Madison County was stupid.
But I knew if I was patient (and I'm not always patient) I would begin to see individuals coming forward with more honest opinions - people not afraid to be negative in reviews. People who would have more perceived credibility than I do.
Here and here are two bloggers who take some of the trash out to the trash.
I know I don't agree with all their choices, but based on why they didn't like what I didn't like, I'm far more likely to listen to their opinions. And it makes me feel better that there seems to be the beginnings of a filter system developing. Not everything is great! and I'm not engaged enough - don't have enough time - to sift through everything. Good, reliable critics are need to cut through the hype.
BTW, along with Gen, the next books I want to purchase: Golems Might Swing and Same Difference and Other Stories.
Tell me what you think!
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