By: centraljersey.com
They’re also art, as illustrated (so to speak) by LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pa., through Jan. 30. The touring exhibit was organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.
Comic books have come a long way in terms of the respect they’re given. Scott Hanna is an inker who works for Marvel and D.C. Comics, and has collaborated on various graphic novels. The Bucks County artist is hosting educational programs for teachers, and a Dec. 5 lecture at the Michener. He says that while the comic form has always been highly thought of in Europe and Asia, that wasn’t always the case in the U.S. "It was for the under-educated, delinquents and criminals," he says with a laugh. "It was thought of as stuff for kids."
The exhibit features nearly 200 original illustrations, some dating to the 1920s, that share the breadth of range within the world of comic books, both in terms of art and story. They can be funny and thoughtful, like Robert Crumb’s Cave Wimp character, who is a bit more advanced on Darwin’s scale – and a lot more neurotic – than his fellow cavemen. Cave Wimp prefers not to associate with a "bunch of murderous savages" as his tribesmen grab meat off a dead beast. But his "acute pangs of hunger" force him to grab some food before heading off to be alone in peace.
The art in Niko Henrichon’s Pride of Baghdad (2006) is more realistic. It’s a fictionalized version of the true story of lions that escaped the Baghdad Zoo after the U.S. invaded the city during the Iraq War in 2003. Scenes of animals living in peace are followed by a lion roaming the streets of the war-damaged city. A close-up of the lion’s eyes is stunning, the expression as thoughtful as a human’s.
Artists like Brian Fies tell personal but powerful stories. Mr. Fies’ work is rooted in the comic tradition, but its subject is painfully true, a telling of his mother’s bout with cancer. One of his sleek drawings from Mom’s Cancer shows him sitting on a chair, a remote in his hand. He and the furniture are white, with black used to form shapes. The panel addresses a conversation he had with his sister – "Nurse Sis" – about whether their mother should go to the emergency room. He hangs up, it’s under control and he won’t lose any sleep over it.
Another panel shows a series of images of Mr. Fies’ mother. As a young woman, she’s defiant about her smoking. In the last, she’s frail and hairless, and says she’d still smoke if she could. Mr. Fies’ reaction? "Somehow, saying I told you so turned out to be a lot less satisfying than I imagined."
"A lot of graphic novels are very personal, they’re like personal diaries," Mr. Hanna says. "Usually the people who have the inclination to write and create this stuff are struggling artists or misunderstood. The form of the visual and the written storytelling allows you to get so much depth and dimension to a character that you don’t just get a surface glossiness of a happy story."
Of course, super heroes and tales of adventure are part of the exhibit. Will Eisner’s comic strip The Spirit features a Disney-esque signature, but the work is way too dark for the Mouse House. The first scene of one strip on view is a close-up of a barrel of a gun, you can see the spirals within the barrel. In the next panel, the gun goes off. The story is noir-like, covering murder, betrayal and a hint of sex. To think these ran in the Sunday papers in the 1940s, a supposed more innocent time.
As varied as the subjects are, Mr. Hanna says the exhibit offers a glimpse of the history of comics and graphic novels.
"It’s a good sampling, but the range and the volume of graphic novels out there is tremendous and very few people realize how diverse and how gigantic the field really is. It’s kind of like saying, ‘I’ll do an exhibit about novels.’ It’s hard to capture the whole scope of the thing… and graphic novels are similar in that, as a recognized form, they’re relatively new but in the last 25 years that’s grown gigantically and more and more and more people want to embrace it and utilize it. The range is just tremendous."
The Michener exhibit underscores the permanence of some graphic novels. Comic books used to be like magazines, something to read and toss away. And if you kept them, you’re mother likely tossed them when you weren’t looking one day. Today, bookstores have sections devoted to graphic novels. Some, like Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and are more than 20 years old and easily available.