So, if you haven’t read it already, here’s it is.
So… *sigh* where to start?
I don’t know Ben Bova or his work (nor I want to know him/it now), so I won’t get into criticizing whatever he has done.
I’m guessing Mr. Bova here comes from the background many people come from: Not REALLY knowing what the hell a graphic novel REALLY is.
Lately, for some reason, everybody is calling comics books that have more than like 80 pages a graphic novel. So they see this collections of Spider-Man or Batman and call them a graphic novel because hey, they are there with all the other graphic novels (I even heard once on a TV show that “they are not called comic books anymore, they are called graphic novels“, needless to say, I wanted to kill myself right there).
Let’s get something clear first. Graphic novels are (in their majority) stand alone stories (but sometimes can come in chapters), mostly aimed for an adult audience and more dense subjects. Those Batman, or Spidey or Wyliman (hey, gotta put me in there somehow) are Trade Paper Backs. Books that collect, in one edition, chapters that originally appeared as single issues in a periodical basis (or in this day an age, whenever the heck creators get off their asses and start working).
And you might say “Well, duh! That’s obvious“. Yeah, well, you’d be surprised.
So, back to Mr. Bova’s statement.
Establishing that this guy might have confused everything comics as graphic novels, what bothered me the most was this quote:
“But War and Peace they’re not. They’re not even Valley of the Dolls.”
Well, a bit of news for you, sir: WE’RE NOT TRYING TO! Why shall we try to be “War and Peace” if there’s already a “War and Peace“? Or ANY mayor novel published to date?
I can’t speak for everyone in the medium, but at least for the ones that try to do something different and relevant, that’s not our aim. At. All. We’re not trying to be the next “War and Peace“, we want to be our OWN thing.
If comic books and graphic novels are taking spaces at book stores, I think that’s GREAT! I don’t see the problem of some variety. And (even pointed out there in the article, him not presenting any evidence of what he’s saying), audio books and comics are NOT reducing the space for novels at the book stores. We are lucky enough we are given the chance now to be there and to prove to everybody we deserve to be there.
Other bit that made my skin crawl was:
“It’s impossible to reproduce a novel’s deep characterizations and nuances of plot development in a comic book format.”
Really? I mean, really?
We work with words too. Not everybody does, but we can use EVERY word in the dictionary to tell a story. Just like you, sir.
But here’s the catch, we use pictures too! And guess what? It ain’t easier that way. Novelists can use as many words they want to describe how a morning felt like, how beautiful a scenery is, how complex a character is. They can go their happy way as long as they want to convey this “deepness and plot development” Mr. Bova says we “toss away“. Not even getting into the ignorant commentary that implies that comics have no plot development, here’s a challenge for you, Mr. Bova: try describing a morning set up with JUST pictures. How about a feeling in ONE picture. One picture, powerful enough that to describe it with words, you would use a full page of text. Go on, give it a try, and get back to me when you do.
See, the big debate for a while now has been that if comic books is a valid form of literature. It’s inclining more to “yes“, but that shouldn’t even be a debate. They are.
But I don’t even see it that way. Why we must keep comparing comics books to regular books? Why we keep perpetuating this sense that we are the bastard child of literature and painting? Why we keep considering comics as a genre and not a medium?
We are our own thing. We are our own medium. We are AS important as any other art form. There is no more debate. We just are. And now stop just thinking about it, and start proving it.
Mario A.~
PS: If you ever come across this kind of people that put down comic books and glorify regular books, remind them ANY argument they have against comics can be perfectly applied as well against books. Any argument.
Se entiende tu frustración (y la de muchos de los artistas profesionales, aristas principiantes como un servidor y de muchos seguidores de las historietas y las novelas gráficas en general). Concuerdo contigo en todos los puntos: Sabemos que los trabajos producidos como novela gráfica no son “War & Peace”, y tampoco pretenden serlo. Eso es cierto, ¿a quién se le ocurrió la idea de comparar? (Oh, al Sr. Bova, cierto). El punto es: ¡Claro! Ni la historieta ni la novela gráfica son los hijos bastardos de la pintura y la literatura, es algo casi completamente aparte. Es la mezcla de ambas cosas, un hÃbrido magnÃfico que da más vida a las palabras y que al mismo tiempo puede decir centenares de cosas sin necesidad de usar las mismas palabras.
En cuanto a la “profundidad” de las novelas gráficas, creo que al Sr. Bova hay que darle un ejemplar de Watchmen, V for Vendetta (ambos de Moore), Maus (de Art Spiegelman) o Church & State i&II (de Dave Sim) para que entienda a qué magnitud puede llegar la profundidad de una novela gráfica.
Pero bueno, las crÃticas no van a dejar de existir, sobre todo crÃticas tan idiotas como la de Bova. Buena respuesta, y saludos.
¿Que mas te puedo ya decir mi buen? Perfectamente complementaod a lo que dije arribe. Muchisimas gracias por tu comentario 😀
Oh wow. Has this guy even read a graphic novel? They may not be War and Peace, but are masterpieces that really work your mind. I have a graphic novel that’s right there with my beloved Sherlock Holmes books. It’s just as clever and ingenius.
I dunno what goes through this guy’s head (and a lot of authors at some point), like I bet there was a time he was struggling as well, and getting pissed everytime anyone dissed science fiction novels. But now that he’s so high and mighty, can go and piss on other mediums. Oh well.
Thanks for your comment!
Bueno mano, personas como esa y argumentos como ese, han existido y existiran en todos lados y en todas las epocas… por más que ya se ha demostrado su futilidad, gracias a grandes exponentes del medio como creo que ya lo estas siendo tu. Y los lectores lo saben asà que me parece que no hay porque darles importancia, que al final es lo que quieren, como bien señalas hay bastantes argumanetos con que darles la vuelta…
Saludos… buen post!
Definitivamente, no nos vamos a librar de ellos creo que nunca. Ni nosotros ni ningun medio, creo. Pero hay cosas que creo que ya dentro de este mar de gente que se las da de “que sabe”, hay que bajarlos un poquito a la relaidad.
Gracias 😀
At the end it is just a frustrated artists who discovered that you can earn popularity on the net by provocing controversal positions about stuff a lot people love, but also cannot accept a weird different opinion 😀
What suprises (and not that much at the same time) is how easely creators forget where they come from. the only people who can go ahead and say that are poeple that were an overnight (literal) success, just woke up and everybody loved them. And since no one is one, I don’t get why they get in their high horses and piss on everybody.
But well, like they say, it’s better to shut up and look like an idiot that to speak up and prove youa re one.
Thanks for your comment, man!